Cricket 1905

A ug . 24, 1905. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME 361 Malvern College, and, like the Days of Kent, and the Fosters of Worcestershire, he has already made a name in the annals of the Malvernians. Last year, for Malvern College, he secured a batting average of 28 for twelve completed innings and was credited with forty-four wickets. —Brighton Argus. O n Friday last Denton and Hayward brought their total runs for the season to more than two thousand. C. B. Fry preceded them some time ago. Denton was one of the men who scored two thousand last season, while Hayward passed the third thousand. D enton ’ s score of 134 for Yorkshire against Essex brought his number of hundreds for the season to eight. They are as follows:— Somerset, Taunton........107 Warwickshire, Edgbaston 132 Middlesex, Lord's .........102 Australians, Bradford ... 153* Hampshire, Bournemouth 165 Gloucestershire,Bradford 172 Hampshire, Hull .........133* Essex, Huddersfield ... 134 May 4 Yorkshire v. May 26 Yorkshire v. June 1 Yorkshire v. „ 6, 7 Yorkshire v. July 17 Yorkshire v. Aug. 1 Yorkshire v. „ 4 Yorkshire v. „ 17 Yorkshire v. C. B. F hy has now made ten hundreds this year as follows:— May 8 Sussex v. H.0.0 & Ground, Lord’s... 156 „ 10 Sussex v. M.C.0 & Ground, Lord’s... 106 „ 13 Sussex v. Notts, Brighton.................201* June 5, 6 Sussex v. Notts, Trent Bridge......... 233 „ 22 Sussex v. Kent, Tonbridge ... ... 175 „ 27 Sussex v. Yorkshire, Leeds ... ... Ill July 8 Sussex v. Warwickshire, Brighton... 100 Aug. 14 England v. Australia, Oval....................144 „ 17 Sussex v. Hampshire, Hastings ...127 „ 21 Sussex v. Kent, Hastings ............... 155 I t might be thought that the last place in which to find any reference to the game of cricket was the column in the Daily Telegraph devoted to “ Are English Wives Thrifty ? ” But a lady has managed to introduce £ it there as follows :— Then surely a man should know some­ thing of figures. I asked a short time ago what would he the circumference of an article that was 5 y2 in. across. Out of three only one attempted an answer, and he said it would be about 35in., which was certainly brilliant, considering he had spent two years at Cambridge acquiring knowledge. Had I asked the latest cricket news or the history of the Derby winners for the last five years, I should have received a correct answer. O n the first day of their match against Lancashire Derbyshire appealed against the bad light twenty minutes before time. It is not very easy to see why they did this. For in the first place the light was not particularly bad, and in the second place two men were fairly well set while the Lancashire bowlers were tired after a score of 379 for seven wickets had been made against them. It would have seemed better policy to make as many runs as possible before the bowlers had had a night’s rest, more especially as there was a strong probability that the night would bring heavy rain. W ith a pluck which is nothing short of remarkable the statisticians have again plunged boldly into the mysteries of the county championship table, and have shown that all sorts of things may happen before the championship is won. Thus on Monday the Daily Chronicle said :— With a percentage of 71.42 to the 60.00 of Lancashire, the leaders can afford to draw the remaining threematches—with Middlesex, Essex and Sussex, for the highest that Lan­ cashire can reach is 64.70. Thus Yorkshire can afford to lose one provided they win one; and not even as much as that may be required of them, for if Lancashire win only one of the two remaining fixtures—with Middlesex and Leicestershire—drawing the other, then Yorkshire would require no more wins, and could afford to draw twice and lose once. The only reasonable possibility of Yorkshire being deposed from the position they now hold is by losing two of the three games to be played, in which case, even if they won the third, their percentage would be reduced to 58.33. S ince the middle of June the follow ing scores have been made against Somerset­ shire:— June 19,20,21—by Lancashire ... 401 „ 26,27,28—by Gloucestershire 521 July ^l’ ;i°’ & |by Worcestershire 534 „ 3 and 4—by Lancashire ... 442 „ 6 and 7—by Yorkshire ... 474 „ 13,14,15—by Australians ... 609 for four „ 24,25,26-by Hampshire - | w tk e V " „ 27 & 28—by Kent.............. 457 Aug. 3, 4, 5—by Sussex ........ 141 „ 7, 8, 9—by Middlesex ...134&22for four „ 10 & 11—by Worcestershire214 aj(^ 92 for „ 17,18,19—by Kent.............. 539 This gives a total of5,180 for 122 wickets, and an average of 42 per wicket. Happily for the Somerset bowlers they have an occasional rest, or their task would have been almost unbearable this season. H ampshire has also been in the wars, and its record for the same time is as follow s:— June 19,20,21— by Leicestershire... 467 for seven „ 26,27,28-b y Kent............... j 269 a" ^ 0169 for July & f Warwickshire... 357 „ 6, 7, 8— b y Australians ... 620 „ 10,1 1 ,1 2 — b y N’rth’mptnshre 188 and 303 „ 17,18 — b y Yorkshire ... 491 20,21,22—by Worcestershire J434 and 280 for { five „ 24,25,26-by Somersetshire j 374 “ gjf 97 for „ 27, 28, 29—by Sussex ............ j 262 “ to!231lor Aug. 3, 4, 5—by Yorkshire ... 303 for four „ 7, 8, 9 -by Derbyshire ... j 268 and^l51 for 10,11 —byLeicestershire... 507 .. ,- . , .... (313 and 273 for „ 14,15,16—by Kent............... j seven „ 17,18,19—by Sussex ......... 498 This gives a total of 7,055 for 176 wickets, and an average of 40 per wicket. T he Surrey team went in largely for symmetrical double figure innings in the Warwickshire match. Thus Hayward made 66 and 66 not out, Hayes 33 and 55 not out, Hobbs 11, and Lord Dalmeny 11. The figure 1 appears frequently in the scores, for, in addition to the four l ’s required by Lord Dalmeny and Hobbs, Smith made 1, Raphael 15, there was 1 wide and 1 no-ball, the total of the first innings was 217, and of the second 131 for one wioket. L ast Friday F. J. Wyatt took all ten wickets for 77 runs in the first innings of the Free Foresters for the Royal Engineers at Chatham. The score of this innings is as follows :— G. W. Ricketts, c Boo- quet, b Wyatt......... E. D Compton, c Col­ beck, b Wyatt K. O. Goldie, c Collins, b Wyatt ............... Capt. C. Wigram, b Wyatt ............... A. J. Webbe, c sub , b Wyatt M. C. Kemp, b Wyatt F oresters . Major C. McNab, b 33 Wyatt ................ 7 A.H. Bridges, b Wyatt 18 MajorH.C.Moorhouse, b Wyatt ............... 8 0 Major P. M. Dorehill, not out ................ 8 0 D. Maclachan, c Col­ beck, b Wyatt ... 2 Extras............... 16 Total ...177 The strength of the Yorkshire bowling this year is well shown by the position of Haigh, Rhodes, Ringrose, Myers and Hirst in the list of averages which appeared on Monday. It will be seen from the following that all five men were in the first eleven in the averages :— Posi- Aver- tion. O. M. R. W. age. 1 Haigh 680.3 ... 187 ... 1,610 ... 110 ... 14.63 3 Rhodes ... 987 ... 273 ... 2,328 ... 143 ... 16.27 6 Kingrose... 424.4 ... 81 ... 1,300 ... 72 ... 18-05 8 Myers ... 426.2 ... 82 ... 1,289 ... 63 ... 18.95 11 Hirst ... 573.3 ... 120 ... 1,664 ... 84 ... 19.80 I t is impossible to understand the pre­ valence of the idea that the attendance of the public is largely influenced by the number of drawn matches. A. C. Mac­ laren only expresses the opinions of many other critics when he says in the Daily Chronicle :— The wonder to me is that the public con­ tinue to come in such force to these Tests, two out of five only having been finished, and those two finished in what had to be the last over of the match, as rain on both occa­ sions fell for the rest of the day the moment we had got to the pavilion. But, as I have often pointed out in “ Gossip,” the crowd at any match which takes place in fine weather is almost invariably much larger on the first day than on the second, and almost invariably it falls off very con­ siderably on the third day, no matter what may be the state of the game. Now it is quite clear that in fine weather there will be no finish on the first day, and very little chance of a finish on the second. It must, therefore, surely be obvious that the size of the crowd does not depend on the prospect of a finish. I f a statistician were to set to work on, siy the Sportsman, Sporting Life and Daily Telegraph, on the Mondays and Thursdays during a season, he would be surprised to find how often he would read that although there was a prospect of an interesting finish very few people were present on the Saturday or Wednes­ day. The fact of the whole matter is that unless there is a prospect of nearly a full day’s oricket, whether on the second or third day your average spectator does not, and never did, go to see the game. T his reminds me of the third day of the match between England and Australia at Lord’s, on June 24th, 1896 — the match in which Australia made 63 on a perfect wicket in