Cricket 1905

218 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. J u n e 22, 1905. so doing. 'Whether such tactics by bowlers are politic or not is entirely a question for the fielding side. T h e genius who first adopts the method, which was long ago patented by Cricket, of bowling nothing but full pitches, judiciously calculated to drop on the top of the stumps or thereabouts, will arouse complaints from batsmen that it is impossible to score from such stuff. But he will reap his reward in a rich harvest of wickets until some equally ingenious batsman invents an effective mode of retaliation. The full - pitch bowler is a long time in coming, but he will put iu an appearance one of these days. It is amazing that no captain has ever suggested to one of his bowlers to try full pitches when the opposing team is piling up hundreds with the greatest ease. A man like Quaife would probably make a fine full-pitch bowler, and would soon learn how to arrange his field. But accuracy is, of course, essential. In the Daily Express C. B. Fry gives eight reasons why the scoring of the England team on the first day of the test match at Lord’s was so slow :— 1. The wicket, although never difficult, ■was rather dead and lifeless..............defence was not difficult, but forcing Btrokes were neither eaBy nor safe. 2. The howling was, for the most part, of excellent length. 3. Armstrong was bowling nearly all day from the nursery end, and he howls with great skill on the leg and outside the leg stump in a manner which practically pre­ vents scoring, unless the batsman accepts the invitation to throw his wicket away. 4. The light was not good in the afternoon ..............inability to judge the length of the howling thus forced the batsmen to play carefully. 5. The bowlers, other than Armstrong, bowled chiefly at the leg stump, with five, or sometimes six men, on the on side, thus making it very difficult to score. 6 . The excellence of the fielding. 7. The consummate judgment with which the field was arranged. 8 . The fine bowling which was maintained from start to finish. A lo n g time ago it was stated in Cricket that arrangements had been practically completel for the visit of an M.C.C. team to America in July, and that Mr. E. W. Mann, the Cambridge captain, would lead the side with several Cambridge men in the team. It is now announced that the team will include C. H. Eyre, M. W. Payne, G. G. Napier, H. C. M'Donell, E. W. Mann and F. J. V. Hopley—all members of the Cam­ bridge eleven—B. T. Godsell (Gloucester­ shire), R. C. W. Burn (Oxford Univer­ sity), K. O. Hunter, F. A. H. Henley, and V. A. 8. Stow. In Monday’s lists of averages C. B. Fry with 92’64 replaced Hirst, who had fallen to So'oO. These two men were followed by W. G. Quaife 67'25, E. W. Mann 63 88, W. W. Armstrong 60-92, C. M'Gahey 54’08 and E. M. Sprot 52-90. Noble, second among the Australians, was ninth in the list with 46'55, and Hill, the third of the Australians, with 33'41, was twenty-sixth. Fry’s total was 1,297, but no one else had scored a thousand runs, the newest approaches being Hirst 855, Denton 916, Iremonger 811, Hayward 805, W. G. Quaife 807, Armstrong 853 and Noble 838. In the bowling averages Laver, on Monday, had fallen a little behind iu the race in which he had been leading for so long. The first place was taken by the Australian of Middlesex, Tarrant, with 1384 per wicket. He was followed by H. Hesketh-Prichard 14'14, E. G. Martin 14‘96, Sharp, 15'14, Laver 15‘49, Ker­ mode 15‘56, Haigh 15'72, and Killick 15 78. Howell, who was second among the Australians, was 28th on the list, and the bowling averages of the Australian team do not compare at all favourably with those of Englishmen and Anglo- Australians. But if one may judge by past experience, it would be quite safe to bet that the next time an Anglo- Australian bowls against the Australian team his average, as usual, will suffer. T h e fears which were expressed in so many of Saturday’s papers that England was in danger of defeat suggest a simple question : “ If, in any part of the world, any side (except England), on any sort of pitch whatever, ended the second day of a match with five wickets in hand, and a lead of 252 runs (with the best batsman in the team still undefeated), would any cricketer, however timid he might be, consider that it had not very much the best of the game ? ” O n Friday last, 624 runs were made for fourteen wickets at the Oval in the match between the Wanderers and the Surrey Club and Ground. The Wan­ derers made 279, and although the Club and Ground had a little less than three hours to bat they scored 345 for four wickets, after losing three men for 40. Goatly (175 not out) and the Hon. S. R. Beresford (90), scored 222 for the fourth wicket. So much has been said about the state of the wicket at Lord’s when England was batting last Thursday, that the remarks made about it by the three journalists who faced the Australian bowling on it will be of interest. It will be seen that Maclaren and Fry, who had ample opportunities of studying the wicket, differ considerably from Bosan­ quet, whose innings did not last very long: — On seeiog the wicket of the first day we were not anxious to win the toss, since there were soft and hard patches on it which were bound to cause the ball to take two paces. . . . . If we had made 400 on the ordinary fast Lord’s wicket, I presume most people would have been satisfied; but because we scored 282 on a wicket upon which the ball never would come on to the bat, and with the bowlers also asking for sawdust, the per­ formance was not deemed good enough. A. C. Maclaren in the Daily Chronicle. In the first place the wicket, though never difficult, was rather dead and lifeless, and occasionally it gave the bowler a chance of making the hall bite so that it was unsafe to play free forcing strokes. It was a wicket, in fact, on which defence was not difficult, but forcing strokes were neither easy nor safe..................... C. B. Fry in the Daily Express. The wicket yesterday morning had practi­ cally recovered from the rain, and was a very easy one, though the ball was apt to come at different paces. Some parts were drier than others, and the ball before lunch was a little difficult to time, but it improved afterwards, and towards the end was extremely easy. ......................I see that many people still imagine that it was a difficult wicket (or, at any rate, a soft one) on Thursday, but, as I have tried to point out, this was far from being the case. The wicket in the morning had practically recovered from the rain which fell in the earlier part of the week, and by evening was as good as anyone could wish. B. J. T. Bosanquet in the Morning Leader. Among well-known men who have distinguished themselves during the past week in minor matches are Llewellyn (100) and Bowell (90) for Hants v. Eighteen of Portsmouth; E. E. Steel, 132 for Liverpool v. Cheltenham College; Goatly, 175 not out for Surrey Club and Grouud v. Wanderers; D. H. Butcher, the Surrey player, 113 for Upper Tooting v. Chiswick Park; Y. T. Hill, 75 for Old Wykehamists v. Green Jackets. A f a t a l accident of an unprecedented nature occurred in a recent cricket match at Brockenhurst, Hants. A boy named Lunn was struck in the face by a cricket ball and fell down. In the fall his chin met the ground with such force that his neck was broken. T h e r e is a gentle irony which will not hurt anybody’s feelings in the following remarks in the Evening News of Monday with reference to the commencement of the Surrey innings :— The first five overs recalled some periods of the Test match. Not a run was scored. The Middlesex captain evidently found the stationary state of the game irksome, and he resorted to Rawiin, Tarrant taking a rest. This change resulted in Hobbs scoring a run, and the spectators cheered encouragingly. Hayward, who had been displaying his customary masterly restraint, then indulged in a vigorous off-drive, which went for 4. This made the score 6 , and MacGregor tried Tarrant again. The batsmen were evidently settling down, and though their discretion was still very marked, the hall was being hit with more confidence than in the beginning. So many curious things happen at cricket that in making a change in his bowling before a run had been scored by Surrey against Middlesex on Monday, Mr. Macgregor may not have made a record. But such an event is certainly most unusual. Tarrant and Hearne began the bowling for Middlesex, and when five maiden overs had been sent down Tarrant was given a rest, his place being taken by Rawlin. Nor did Mac- gregor’s enterprise end here, for when six runs had been scored, Tarrant replaced