Cricket 1905

A ug . 31, 1905. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME 377 took six wickets for Cambridgeshire in the first innings for 30, and eight in the second for 103. T he record made by Kent against Australian teams is far better than that of any other county. Eight matches were played at Canterbury by former Austra­ lian teams, Kent winning five (1884, 1886, 1890, 1893, and 1899), and their opponents three. In 1890 the Austra­ lians were victorious at Maidstone, and in 1893 at Gravesend, two matches against Kent being played in that year. The record to date is : Matches played, eleven ; Australia won six, and Kent five. O n the other hand, Lancashire can claim only a single victory over an Aus­ tralian team. This was in 1888, when the Australians were beaten by 25 runs, thanks largely to the fast bowling of the Rev. J. R. Napier. T h e waste of time in first-class matches is as nothing to that which takes place in matches between the weakest of “ weak medium ” clubs in the Parks. A wicket falls. The sorrowful batsman goes slowly to a spot afar off where his companions are congregated. He receives their sym­ pathy and explains to the incoming batsman what a frightful wicket it is, and how deadly is the bowling. In course of time the next batsman moves towards the wicket as slowly as his pre­ decessor went away from it. He arrives, takes the most careful guard imaginable, looks all round the ground to see the exact position of each fieldsman, and pre- ares to receive the ball. Then the owler rearranges his field. Tbis sort of thing goes on sixteen times in the course of two innings unless there is a declara­ tion. It very often happens that the total time spentatthewickets bythetwenty-two batsmen is far exceeded by the time taken up between the fall of each wicket and the continuation of the game. Happily there are few drawn games, because very few of the batsmen ever succeed in making a record of double figures. F or many years Middlesex has had the reputation of playing an exceedingly attractive game as a team, for its one or two cautious players often gave oppor­ tunities to the other men to hit, but of late something seems to have gone wrong with the batting. Here are a few notes of the time taken by some of the team on Thursday last in the Erst innings against Lancashire:— Time in Score. mins. O. M. Wells ......... 18 ........................ 80 Tarrant ................ 10 ........................ 80 G. Macgregor......... 22 ........................ 60 A. E. Littlejohn ... 13 ........................ 45 Both MacGregorand J. Douglas were 20 minutes before they scored their first run. The Middlesex innings of 159 lasted for about three hours and three- quarters. A lt h o u g h the Australians lost the toss in all the test matches, they have not been so unfortunate in their matches against the counties. It will be seen from the following table that they have won the toss thirteen times and lost it seven, while, much to their advantage, they were put in first by Derbyshire. It will also be noticed that they have only once been victorious in a county match when they did not bat first. Since June 29th they have played twelve county matches, and lost the toss twice only, a record which cannot often have been beaten. TOSS WON. May 8, 9,10 ... Notts, Trent Bridge .........Drawn. „ 22, 23, 24... Yorkshire, Sheffield .........Won. „ 25, 26, 27 ... Lancashire, Manchester ... Won. ^UI1July 1^ ^ | Gloucestershire, Bristol ... Drawn. July 6, 7, 8 ... Hampshire, Southampton... Won. „ 13,14,15 ... Somerset, Bath ............... Drawn. „ 27, 28,29 ... Surrey, Oval......................Won. ” 1 & 2AUg | Sussex, Brighton................Won. Aug. 3, 4, 5 ... Worcestershire, Worcester. Drawn. „ 10,11,12 ... Middlesex, Lord’s .........Won. „ 21 & 22 ... Lancashire, Aigburth ... Won. „ 24,25,26... Kent, Canterbury .........Won. „ 28,29,30... Glo’stershire,Cheltenham... Drawn. TOSS LOST. May 11,12,13 ... Surrey, Oval......................Drawn. June 5, 6, 7 ... Yorkshire, Bradford.........Drawn. „ 12,13,14... Leicestershire, Leicester ... Drawn. „ 22,23,24... Essex, Leyton ............... Lost. „ 26,27,28... Warwickshire,Edgbaston.. Won. July 10,11,12 ... Derbyshire, Derby .........Won.* Aug. 17,18,19... Northants, Northampton ... Won. * Derbyshire put the Australians in. T he learned efforts of some of the statisticians last week to show exactly what percentage Yorkshire would obtain if they did this or that, or if Lancashire failed to do the other thing, must have reminded cricketers of the puzzle which required you to find the relationship between your aunt’s nephew’s uncle’s brother and your niece’s grand-daughter. But the main point worked out all right— Yorkshire would have a higher percent­ age than Lancashire if Lancashire did not come out on top. L ast week, not by any means for the first time, Cricket endeavoured to show that the reason why the crowd on the third day of a match is almost invariably much smaller than on the first or second day is that the average spectator who pays wants value for his money. It is cricket which attracts him, not the pros­ pect of a finish, for he realises that if the game is soon ended his day will be spoiled. These remarks were amply borne out by what occurred in two matches which took place last week— Derbyshire v. Notts at Trent Bridge, and Essex v. Yorkshire at Leyton. O n the third day of the former match, when a finish was as certain as anything could be in this world, not a single person paid for admission to the Trent Bridge ground. But here are two extracts referring to Saturday’s play at Leyton. The first concerns the crowd in the morn­ ing when there was a prospect that the match would be finished before lunch; the second gives an estimate of the num­ ber of people who were induced to watch the game when it was discovered that Yorkshire were likely to give them value for their money:— The attendance was a wretched one when the game was resumed and it might have been the Hants, Derby, or Warwickshire match at Leyton, with the game practically over, to judge only by the empty benches. Evening Standard (Saturday evening). The weather was fine and the attendance again numbered about 7,000. Sportsman (Monday morning). E v e r y man who paid his sixpence for admission to the Leyton ground on Satur­ day afternoon knew well enough what he was about. He knew that if the York­ shiremen were to make a draw he would see what is sometimes known as “ insuffer­ ably tedious ” cricket, and, therefore, he cheered Hirst with enthusiasm at the end of an innings which lasted for nearly five hours, although it was chiefly because of this innings that Essex saw victory snatched from their grasp. E rn est S m it h ’ s patient and extremely useful innings, which lasted for an hour at Leyton on Saturday afternoon, and did not produce a single run, has deservedly received high praise in the Press. But it is not a record for slow scoring, or rather for no scoring. I believe that the record is held by R. G. Barlow, the old Lancashire cricketer, who is now one of the first-class county umpires. He once batted for an hour and twenty minutes without scoring. Walter Humphreys, the old Sussex lob bowler, made 0 not out for Sussex v. Kent at Brighton in 1892, after resisting the bowling for an hour and ten minutes. I n Monday’s list of averages, C. B. Fry was still leading with 72'31, and it does not seem at all likely that he will again be deposed. Hirst was second with 61*21, Quaife third with 57*12, Armstrong fourth with 55*06, E. W. Dil­ lon fifth with 51*41, and Captain Greig sixth with 50*25. Noble, whose average was 46*45, had now scored 1,952. I n bowling, Lees brought his record of wickets to 176, and was two ahead of W. Brearley, who had headed him on the previous Monday. Killick still re­ quired three wickets to make his hundred, having already scored over a thousand runs, and on Monday he attained his object. H ir st and Armstrong have both a g o o d chance of having a record for the season o f tw o thousand runs and a hun­ dred wickets. Armstrong, who has not played this week, only requires 128 runs, and H irst on Monday only required twelve wickets, six of which he has now obtained. The feat of scoring two thousand runs and taking a hundred wickets in a season has only been per­ formed four times: by D r. Grace in 1876, C. L. Townsend in 1899, G. L. Jessop in 1900, and Hirst in 1904. A lb e r t T ro tt is still the only man who has taken two hundred wickets and