Cricket 1905

410 CftlOKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S ept . 14, 1905. while diving from the pier at Betterton, near Baltimore, on August 4th, his head striking against a sunken rock, and he died on August 8th. R e fe r rin g to the Hastings Festival, Mr. A. J. Gaston says in the Brighton Argus : — “ As far back as 1888 Mr. W. G. Grace participated in these annual gatherings at the Cinque Port Town, the fixture, if I remember rightly, being North v. South. How time flies, and how all too rapidly the cricket artistes of the past cease to participate in first-class cricket. Just glance at the names of those who played at Hastings seven­ teen years ago. The North of England was represented by Mr. J. A. Dixon, Louis Hall, W. Gunn, W. Barnes, Frank Sugg, H. B. Daft, R. G. Barlow, W . Attewell, W. Flowers, R. Peel, and Mordecai Sherwin, while the representatives of the South com­ prised Mr. W. G. Grace, Mr. W. W. Read, Mr. K. J. Key, Mr. E. J. McCormick, Mr. A. M. Sutthery, Mr. Herbert Pigg, .Robert Abel, Walter Wright, Alec. Heame, Harry Phillips and Jack Beaumont. Of the twenty- two players only one has participated at all regularly in county championship contests this season, viz., Alec. Hearne.” UNDER the heading o f “ Some lessons of the 1905 International matches ” a correspondent of the American Cricketer says, in connection with the recent visit of the M.C.C. Team to America: — The batting of the home team at Manheim was disappointing, and in fact was singularly uneven throughout. An analysis of the figures shows that out of 660 runs made from the bat in the two matches, 440, or exactly two-thirds, were made by Lester, King and C. C. Morris ; and curiously enough this proportion was almost exactly maintained in every innings. Whether this result indicates a want of careful practice on the part of the other eight meu or a decided superiority on the part of the three men named, I do not pretend to say ; at any rate it indicates a “ condition” and not a “ theory,” which must be improved in future if we are to meet first-class teams on equal terms. T h e same correspondent also says :— McDonell bowled up to his reputation throughout and gave another object lesson that the Philadelphians should take to heart. . . . . I fear that the development of a McDonell among our young bowlers would shatter some local batting averages. The great success of this sort of bowling recalls to me the comment of P. J. Warner in Cricket a few years ago, where he speaks of Cobb, of New York, as a very good slow-to-medium bowler ‘ ‘ of the type that one would wish to see more of in America, American howlers being, as a rule, of the tear-away, erratic type.” The whole question of bowling for the Philadelphia team in the future is one that must be seriously considered at once, for as King and Clark have both passed thirty, there will soon be a crying need for really good bowlers; as fast bowlers, however good, do not last for ever, and in any event a greater variety of attack must be provided for if we are to hold our own in first-clasB qricket in the near future. O n Monday, Victor Trumper left London with has wife for a short tour on the Continent. He will sail for Australia from Genoa. Pour other members of the Australian team leave England to­ morrow (Friday), viz., Darling, Howell, Kelly, aDd Gregory. The remainder of the team follow shortly. A. E. K night , the Leicestershire cricketer, was married on Monday to Miss Edith Bethel, at Ctiurch Langdon in Leicestershire. A fter some unavoidable delay the South African Cricket Association has accepted the terms offered by the M.C.C. in connection with the proposed tour of English cricketers to South Africa this winter. The M.C.C. will therefore send out a team at the end of October or the beginning of November. F rom the American Cricketer : — A. A. Hirst, jun., who is just thirteen years old, is a member of the Merion Cricket Club, and is one of the most promising juniors in Philadelphia. He displays won­ derful judgment in his hatting, and his patience, for one so young, is remarkable. He nearly always selects the right ball to score from and, unlike most young cricketers, rarely throws his wicket away. Appended are the scores he has made this season in second junior games. They speak for them­ selves :— JULY. AUGUST. 11. v. Radnor .........17 | 4. v. Radnor ... ... 0 14. x. Radnor ... ...100* 14. v. Radnor......... 0 19. v. Germantown ... 1 ! 15. v. Germantown... 32* 20. v. Belmont .........37* 17. v. Radnor...........52 I 22. v. Germantown... 25 No. Times Most _of not in an Total inns. out. inns. runs. Average. 9 ... 3 ... 100* ... 254 ... 42-33 * Signifies not out. I suppose that nine people out ten who wish to find the percentage of points (or whatever it is called) gained by a county (Yorkshire for example), substract the losses (3) from the wins (18), and divide the remainder (15) by the total (21). Then they flatter themselves that they get 71.42 as an answer. But they don’t. They get .7142. T he Hastings Week this year has been almost ruined by the weather. On the first day—Thursday last—cricket could he played for forty minutes on ly ; on Friday for three hours ; on Saturday for an hour and a half ; on the Monday there was no play. T he following comparisons between Yorkshire, the champion county, and the Australians, in their matches against the counties, may be of interest:— Y o r k s h ir e p l a y e d 28 m a t c h e s . They batted first in 17 matches, of which they won 12, lost 2, and drew 3. They batted second in 11, of which they won 6, lost 1, and drew 4. T h e A u s t r a l ia n s p l a y e d 21 m a t c h e s . They batted first in 15, of which they won 9, and drew 6. They batted second in 6, of which they won 2, lost 1, and drew 3. It will thus be seen that Yorkshire did not rely as much as the Australians on winning the toss. Yorkshire batted first in 60 per cent, and the Australians in 71 per cent, of their matches. York­ shire batted second in 40 per cent, and the Australians only in 29 per cent. Also Yorkshire won 54 per cent, of their matches in which they lost the toss, and the Australians 33 per cent. T r in id a d cricket seems to be of a considerably better all-round quality than anything Jamaica can produce at the moment, to judge by the score of the three matches which are given in another part of the paper. G. C. Learmond and P. Cox, who were over here with the West Indian Team in 1900, have evidently lost little or none of their batting skill. Cumberbatch’s bowling had even more to do with Trinidad’s success. The fourth match was in progress as the Jamaica papers, to hand by the last mail, were going to press. T h e annual match between the Cham­ pion County and England, which winds up first-class cricket for the year, will occupy the Oval the latter part of this week. As the entire proceedings go in equal shares to the Cricketers’ Fund and the London Playing Fields Committee, the cricketal public will have an additional reason for visiting the Surrey ground. The Yorkshiremen will be opposed by L. G. Wright, J. N. Craw­ ford, Tyldesley, Hayward, Arnold, Lil­ ley, Lees, Thompson, Quaife (W.G.), Blythe and Hayes. D. W. G re g o r y , the captain of the first Australian team to visit England, that of 1878, having completed his third score, has just retired from the Public Service of New South Wales. His retire­ ment was the occasion for the presenta­ tion of a handsome silver tea and coffee service. His career in the Public Service has extended over forty-four years, his last office being that of Paymaster of the Treasury. To write the career of Mr. David William Gregory in cricket is, the Sydney Mail rightly says, to furnish a history of the game from its infancy of twenty- two in the field down to the time when a challenge was issued from the kangaroo to meet the British lion on even terms on the historic Albert and Melbourne Cricket Grounds. O f his many cricket performances, one of the most notable contests in which he figured was the famous single wicket match on the Albert Ground, when he and his brothers, Ned and Charlie, defeated the Victorian trio, Cosstick, Wills, and Conway. He was captain of the New South Wales teams, many a time, and he led the first Australian Eleven which visited England. As a pioneer of the game, it will be a long time before the name of “ Dave ” Gregory will be forgotten in cricket chronicles.