Cricket 1905

C R IC K E T , W B E KLY REOORD OP T H E GAM E. JU L Y 6, 1905. i = £ i ©53 f t J ft f «za» J — - “ Together Joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. N o . 6 9 5 . V O L . X X X V . CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR. E. R. WILSON. It is a very great pity that Mr. Wilson has been practically lost to first-class cricket since he was captain of the Cambridge University team in 1902, for he was unquestionably one of the best amateur bowlers of the day, aswellasafirst-classbatsman. Unfortunately, several things have prevented him from playing in first-class cricket, one of them being that his health has not been good enough to allow of his taking part in cricket which is now- a-days so strenuous. Occa­ sionally he played for Yorkshire, generally with success, and the last time that he represented the county in a championship match he made a score of 63. As a batsman he was nearly always to be counted on for a good score on good or bad wickets, and many times his sturdy resistance to the bowling has done much to win a match for his side. But it is as a bowler that he was perhaps best known. He was almost universally damned with the very faintest praise when he first began to bowl for Cambridge, but gradually it began to dawn on critics and players alike that his simple-looking stuff had a good deal of the guileless­ ness of Alfred Shaw’sbowling about it. Even the best and most enterprising of batsmen could not get it away, and no man since the days of Alfred Shaw has ever kept them so quiet. Many of his analyses were quite remarkable in the way of keeping runs down, and long before his oareer ended at Cambridge those who had scoffed at his bowling gladly admitted that they had made a mistake. Mr. Wilson’s reputation was made at the very beginning of his first season at Cambridge. He was known as a good THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1905. cricketer at Rugby School, having in 1897 a batting average of 51, but was not thought to be anything out of the ordinary. But in the first match of the term he played for Mr. A. J. Webbe’s X I. against the University, and scored 117 not out (the next highest score being 18) and 70. Ranjitsinhji was playing on the same side, but only 'made 17 and 0. MR. E. R. WILSON. (From a Photo by H. W. Salmon, Winchester .) From this time Mr. Wilson never looked back, and during his four years’ residence at Cambridge he was always one of the best players in the eleven. He had the distinction of making a hundred against Oxford in 1901, and thus while in resi­ dence at Cambridge he made a hundred against each of the ' Universities, an unusual and, perhaps,Junique experience. P R I C E 2d. His highest score is 206 not out for Rugby School v. New College, Oxford in 1897, when he was captain. For the last two or three years he has been a master at Winchester College, and it is hardly necessary to say that he is most popular with the boys. Cricketers who saw the conclusion of the Oxford and Cambridge match of 1901 will remember that when Oxford, who were playing for a draw, had lost seven wickets, there was a question whether Mr. F. H. Hollins was caught at slip by Mr. E. R. Wilson, and the for­ tunes of the match largely depended on the umpire’s decision. The incident as it occurred is quite accurately described in “ Wisden ” as follows : — “ With a little luck Cambridge would cer­ tainly have won, Oxford at the finish being 149 runs behind with only three wickets to go down. Ox­ ford’s seventh wicket fell at 145, forty minutes being then left for play. At this point a curious, and from Cam­ bridge’s point of view, unsatisfactory incident oc­ curred. Marsham, well set and batting finely, was joined by Hollins, and the latter, before he had scored, played a ball from Johnson to the slips. Wilson took the ball close to the ground and, clearly under the impression that he had made a catch, threw it up. On appeal to the bowler’s umpire, how­ ever, W. Hearn could not give Hollins out owing to Johnson having obstructed his view, and Phillips, on being appealed to, was also unable to give a decision, the wicket­ keeper, standing back, having exactly covered Wilson when he secured the ball. Whether or not a catch was really made it is impossible to say, but the Cambridge men certainly had reason to consider themselves unlucky in the fact of both umpires having had their sight of the ball