Cricket 1905

442 CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. O c t . 28, 1905. AT a complimentary dinner given in his honour on October 6th, a presenta­ tion was made to Mr. E. G. Buxton, the honorary secretary of the Norfolk County C.C., in recognition of his services to the county for the past fourteen years. The presentation took the form of a silver salver and an Irish jug. It 'will be remembered that Norfolk won the Minor Counties Championship this year. I n the course of the evening, after the above presentation, a letter was read from Lord Hawke, who said :— I do not think the day is far distant when a second-class county will have a chance of promotion by real merit and good play on the field, and not as now, only by the generosity of the First Division arranging six or eight out and home matches with the aspiring county. Then strive to maintain your positionby a keen esprit de corps—home- born talent will help to do that as much as anything—and await the future with a quiet complacency, knowing well, with such an excellent team at your command, final success in the front rank is assured. A pleasant evening and good luck to you all. As will be seen from the obituary notices which appear elsewhere, several cricketers have died during the past few weeks. Chief among them are Mr. W. P. Pickering and W. Oscroffc. The former was one of the most famous of the old school of cricketers, and the latter dis­ tinguished himself in the Notts team in the seventies. For notes about Captain R. A. Clement, W. F. Frail and the Rev. G. S. Marriott, I am indebted to Mr. J. D. Betham. T he end of the match between the United States and Eastern Canada at Ottawa was most exciting, and the finish is thus described in a Canadian paper :— The result was looked upon as a foregone conclusion when the game was resumed at 11.30 this morning. The United States required only twenty-eight runs to assure a victory, and still had seven wickets to go down. Two elements had to be reckoned with however—the state of the wicket and the bowling of Bristow. The former was of the worst description and the latter of the best, »s the batsmen soon discovered to their cost. Morris and Cregar resumed their innings, the last-named added one, and then Bristow found the way to his wickets. O’Neill, although he helped Morris a little, did not survive long. Morris battedpluckily, but lost the partnership of Le Roy. Bristow was bowling as if for dear life, and at this stage of the game it looked as if the home contingent might pull the game out of the fire, and especially so as the next two wickets fell in rapid succession. Morris was out for an invaluable, and, for him, steady innings of 23, and Cartwright had -his timbers dis­ turbed before he had notched a run. At this point the excitement was intense. In no way perturbed by the gravity of the situation, these two batsmen stuck to their guns until the winning hit had been made, the United States winning a great contest by two wickets only. I t was stated at a meeting of the Yorkshire County Committee on October 2nd that the gross receipts for the past season amounted to £10,061, and that the balance in favour of the county was about £1,000. This will be increased by the share which Yorkshire receives from the proceeds of the test matches. At the meeting it was decided to recognise in a tangible form the success of the county team in winning the Championship. In the Adelaide Observer “ Point ” says, with reference to the doings of the Aus­ tralian team in England : — I yield to no one in appreciation for bril­ liant batting, but possibly one lesson taught by the latest series of Test matches is that an eleven should havemore ballast than the 1905 tourists possess. The ashes were taken from England in the nineties and held until War­ ner’s team recovered them by elevens whose batting, if less brilliant, was more reliable than that of the men now in England. In the circumstances the value of young Rains- ford, of Melbourne, presuming that he main­ tains the promise he gave last season, and Waddy, of Sydney, is likely in the next year or two to be assessed higher than when selectors looked askance at them because they were painstaking and defensive rather than brilliant. T h e same writer continues :— “ Making all allowances for the advantage England gained by having first use of the wicket in every one of the five matches, no one can deny that the weaker team lost the rubber. The batting did not accomplish all that had been expected, the bowling justified the prediction of all the Australian critics that it would be found wanting, and the fielding, which the selectors said would compensate by its brilliance and safety for the weakness of the bowling, has left something to be desired, chiefly owing to the failure to find a man in the team who could consistently hold chances at slip. T h e committee of the Melbourne C.C. have been authorised to borrow £ 10,000 for the purpose of building a new pavilion which will provide seating accommoda­ tion for about 4,000 people. In a rackets tournament at Poona at the end of September the Regimental Doubles were won by Major E. Crawley (the old Harrowand Cambridge cricketer) and Mr. C. E. Reynard. The same pair represented Harrow in the Public Schools’ Old Boys’ Doubles, and again were vic­ torious. Major Crawley had the dis­ tinction of scoring a hundred for Harrow against Eton in 1885, and for Cambridge against Oxford in 1887. W illiam Swain, an old Yorkshire cricketer, has recently played in his own benefit match at Brisbane at the age of seventy-eight. What is more, he went on to bowl first, and took a wicket for 18 runs in three overs. A.s the score of the match is, under the circumstances, almost a curiosity, it is inserted on another page. Some notes about Swain’s career also appear elsewhere. T h e winter cricket practice at the Camberwell baths will begin on Monday next, and some well-known [cricketers have promised to be present at the open­ ing ceremony. Among them are Robert Abel, George Burton, Laes, and H*ye3. A t a meetiDg on Monday of the committee which is organising the testi­ monial to A. C. Maclaren it was stated that over £800 had already been promised, and that at Maclaren’s request it was decided to purchase with part of the proceeds a memento of his long connec­ tion with amateur cricket. M r . A. J. G a ston has begun a series of lectures on “ Cricket and Cricketers.” So far he has lectured, with great success, at Portslade and Chichester (in aid of the Bosham C.C ) L o r d H aw k e intends to visit India again during the winter, chitfly with the object of shooting big game, but he will also play some cricket. A sp e cia lly -b o u n d copy of a book containing a record of the doings of the Norfolk County C.C. during the past season in the Minor Counties’ Champion­ ship was sent to the King, and the hon. secretary, Mr. E. G. Buxton, has received the following letter :— Buckingham Palace. October 14 th. Dear Mr. Buxton,—In reply to your letter of the 11th inst., I have much pleasure in enclosing you a cheque for £5 5s.,, as the King’s subscription to the Norfolk County C.C. for 1905. I have submitted to the King the souvenir of last season’s cricket, which you kindly forwarded, and His Majesty commands me to thank you for the same and to congratulate you and the club on having this year attained the proud position of head of the Minor Counties. Yours truly, D. M. P r o b y n . T h e proceeds of the eighth annua* match at Twickenham arranged by Mr. W. Strutt-Cavell in aid of St. John’s Hospital amount to £80. Altogether, these matches have realised over £500 on behalf of the hospital. A t the annual meeting of the Mel­ bourne C.C. on September 8th Mr. R, Murchison, the president, Mr. H. C. A. Harrison and Mr. J. M ’Laugblin, vice- presidents, and Mr. C. Forrester, hon. treasurer, were re-elected. It was stated that the aggregate receipts for the season 1904-5 amounted to£8,47319s. 3i., of which £6,699 13j. came from entrance- fees and subscriptions. The total number of members is 3,519, composed of 2,498 at two guineas, 657 (country) at one guinea, and 361 juniors at one guinea. The statement cf accounts shows that the grand-stand debenture sinking fund is £6,815 5s. lid . A member called attention at the aboye meeting to the fact that nothing was mentioned in the annual report as to the trouble between the club and the Cricket Association respecting the Board of Control. The president explained that the matter was at present in the diplo­ matic stage, which renders publication