Cricket 1905

C R IC K E T , A W E E KLY RECO RD OF TH E GAM E. JU N E 1, 1905. jwj— ■O M C— > - -J©l— € z r >Mc ... ’* h »9— +• ©1 i l l j -$ C D * 1i © 1 / I “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. No. 690. VOL. XX IV . T H U E S D A Y , J U N E 1 , 1 9 0 5 . PRICE 2 d. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. C. MILLS. Last year Mills, who occasionally playedjfor Surrey iu 1887 and 1888, was appointed as one of the umpires for the Minor Counties Championship, and this year the appointment has been renewed. Mills has had a wide experi­ ence of cricket, and has acted as coach in South Africa, America, and Scot­ land, as well as in England. When the first South African team came over to England in 1894 he played all through the tour as one of its mem­ bers, for he had identified himself with South African cricket for some years. One of his best performances in South Africa was for the Cape Town C.C. against Western Province in 1894 ; he took twelve wickets for 128 runs, and made a score of 136. For some lime he heldtherecord forthe highest Bcore in South Africa, viz 297. He is amedium paced bowitr, with a good break on a wicket which helps him, and a steady bat. Mills made his first visit to South Africa at the end of the season 1889. “ Brock- well and I decided to go to South Afiica as a specula­ tion,” he said. “ Wethought we should most likely manage to get an engage­ ment out there. When we reached Cape Town we found that we could not get an engagement, and so we went on to Kimberley, where we both got an offer promptly. Brockwell was at once engaged by the Eclectic Club, and I went to the Kimberley Club.” “ Was it long before you made any runs in South Africa ? ” “ In my first match, Kimberley against the Arabs, I was fortunate enough to score 297. I had never made a hundred in my life before, and when I was approaching the third hundred I became too anxious to reach this total, and was caught at cover-point off a very loose ball. I knew that there was much betting on whether I should make the runs or not, and I also knew that it would have meant something to me from those who won, so that I wanted the three runs badly, and had not sufficient exparience to be able to keep cool. The C. MILLS. (From a photo by Messrs. Hawkins & Co., Brighton). match took place on three successive Saturdays, and I was batting for part of each day.” “ Did you go to Kimberley in the following year ? ” “ No. Mr. Alcock got me an engage­ ment at Cape Town, and I went there for the next four years. While I was at Cape Town I saw a match in which George Lohmann was bowling to Rout- ledge, the South African cricketer who came to England with one of the teams. Routledge was beaten by Lohmann six times in succession, and then in the next over he hit him for three sixes and three fours. In the following over Lohmann got him out. You see, Routledge was a very good player, and when he found that he could make nothing at all of the bowling, he made up his mind to have a go at it. I remember Loh­ mann telling me about a match which he played in the North. One of the Surrey matches was over at Manchester in one day, and he received very pressing invitations to play for a local club—Dunkenfield or souie such name. George didn’t much want to play, and so he asked very high terms. But his terms were accepted and he went. His first ball was hit out of the ground for six, and he was hit all over the field. The captain said he dared not take him off because the crowd who kept coming in to see him would want their money back. In the end he took a couple of wickets for about a hundred runs, and then went in and was bowled first or second ball. When the secre­ tary paid him he asked: ‘ Are you really Lohmann or somebody else F Several thousand people turned up specially to see George, for in thematch against Lan­ cashire he had taken eight wickets for 13 in the first innings and five for 38 in the second, and of course, in addition to this, he was famous as a cricketer. But he always said it was a horrid experience, although he enjoyed telling the tale. The last time I played with him was when we went to Durbin to play the Transvaal for the Currie Cup.” “ You went to act ts coachat Phila­ delphia ? ” “ Yes, with the Philadelphia Club. I