Cricket 1905

58 CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p r il 13, 1905. F rom the Sydney Mail It is a matter of doubt whether the players feel the excitement as much as the spectators. I do not think they do. The fieldsman has his attack of nerves after he has performed a great feat. While it is being performed he is oblivious of the presence of the crowd ; it is after the feat is passed that the nerves make their presence felt. I saw a remark­ able instance of this in the match against South Australia a fortnight or so ago. Pellew, the last man, made a terrific square cut off a full toss. There were probably not half a dozen amongst the spectators who saw the ball in its flight. It went straight to Waddy, who held the catch. As the players walked to the pavilion it could be seen that the fieldsman was awakening to the responsi­ bilities of his brilliant act. He looked at the ball, at his hands, and then at his comrades, and as he finally turned to the pavilion he seemed to be walking on air. No doubt many colts early in their career have had the feeling I have described after making a great effort. T h e Herefordshire County C.C. held its annual meeting on April 4th at Hereford, and it was announced that there was a balance due to the bankers of £78, which leaves the club in a better position than at the end of 1903. A t a meeting of the Grange C.C., Edinburgh, it was stated that there was a loss on last year’s matches of £24 11s. 3d. The match between Scotland and the S^uth Africans produced a profit of £16 8s. 33. The professionals this year are Pepall, aud Randall, a Notts player. Canon the Hon. and Rev. Edward Lyttelton, M .A., who has just been appointed Headmaster of Eton College, is much better known to cric'ieters as the Hon. Edward Lyttelton. Since 1890 he has been Headmaster of Haileybury. For four years, from 1875 to 1878, he was in the Cambridge University eleven, and was captain of the famous 1878 team. His best innings was 113 for Middlesex against the Australians at Lord’s in 1878, the only hundred made against them during the tour. He played football for England against Scotland (Association) in 1878. L’.ke so many^other fine cricketers he was unable to play regularly in first- class cricket after he left the University, or his name would assuredly be very high on the roll of fame. W r itin g in the Sydney Mail, “ Short- slip says: — What an extraordinary influence these three men, Spofforth, Blackham, and Mur­ doch, had upon Australian and English cricket. Perhaps in all the chronicles of the game, no other three could be found in the many who have taken part in Anglo-Aus- tralian cricket who, for value of services, could compare with them ; indeed, each in his own department is incomparable. Some of my readers will, perhaps, differ from this statement as regards the bowling, they placing Turner in front of the Demon, a question I am not prepared to dive into at the present moment. A t a meeting of the shareholders of the Nevill Cricket Ground Company, which manages the ground at Tunbridge Wells, it was shown that there was a profit of £131 on last year’s matches. The chairman stated that the Marquis of Abergavenny had agreed to accept rent for two and a half years instead of for the five years which was owed to him. F r o m the Adelaide Observer :— F. T. Hack is the only batsman who has twice scored two centuries in succession In the local electorate matches, and he now stands with J. Darling, C. Hill, and A. E. H. Evans as the compiler of three hundreds in a season. In 1899-1900 Darling made 259 not out, 150 not out, and 103, and Hill 102 not out, 210, and 118; in 1902-3 Evans made 100 not out, 110, and 107 ; and in 1904-5 Hack made 131, 115, and 111 not out. Evans, Hack, and J. Lyons are the trio who have scored the three figures in consecutive matches. Lyons did it in 1899-1900 with 102 and 117, E?ans in 1902-3 with 100 not out and 110, and Hack in 1901-2 with 119 not out and 115 not out, and in 1904-5 with 115 and 111 not out. In Darling’s last innings in 1898-9 he made 158, and in his first in 1899-1900 he hit up 2o9 not out, but the club played several premiership matches in the interval. T h e small London boys, weary of breaking windows with their footballs, have begun practice for the summer season in their own private streets. As far as one can judge from cursory inspec­ tions, their winter’s rest does not seem to have affected their ability to make strokes which are not in W. G.’s repertoire, or to bowl in a style of which Mr. Spofforth never was capable. The street season may be said to have begun in earnest. A c o r r e spo n d e n t of the Daily Mail pertinentlyasks “ whetherWalter Wright, of Kent, Shacklock and Jack R&wlin, besides scores of lesser lights, did not bowl with a swerve twenty years ago before Hirst, Trott, Noble, Cranfield, Arnold, etc., were heard of in the cricket world as swervers ? ” To this it may be replied that not only these men, but dozens of others—Attewell, Alfred Shaw, W. G., Morley, to mention a few names which occur to one at a moment’s notice—used to bowl with a swerve. It was not always noticeable, any more than is Hirst’s swerve or Noble’s. B u t there always were bowlers who could get a man leg-before-wicket with a full pitch when the ball, if it had con­ tinued in a straight line from their hand, would have missed the wicket by 6 inches. One might say with absolute confidence that never, since cricket was first played, was there a bowler who did not swerve sometimes. But in the old days the subject was not discussed in a scientific manner, for the reason that no very pronounced swerver like Hirst took part regularly in first-class cricket; swervers in those days were generally erratic. I n connection with this subject I may mention that nearly twenty-five years ago a professional named Albert, who played for the Phceaix Park C.C. at Dublin, had a swerve which at times was extraordinary. Fortunately for batsmen who were opposed to him, he was so in­ accurate that his victims made light of his swerve, but occasionally he would bowl a full pitch which would work right round a man’s leg. There was a boy in Cheshire twenty years ago, generally too nervous to meet with success in a match, who swerved invariably in such a pro­ nounced way that even unbelievers were convinced that there was such a thing as swerve. It matterel nothing to him whether it was wet or fine, whether there was wind or cilm, whether the ball was new or old. He bowled, and the ball swerved. Some of the fast underhand bowlers of the old days were hardened swervers. In the Queen “ Elis ” has some inter- teresting remarks about cricket: — Some day the centre of gravity of the cricket world may be found neither in Eng­ land nor in Australia, but in some Pacific island. Cricket was once so popular in Tonga that it had to be limited by law in order that it might not render all the serious business of life impossible. In Fiji the indigenous population, as well as colonists, officials, and European visitors, enjoy the game with enthusiasm, and it will probably not be long before a Fijian native eleven fulfils a standing promise of visiting Eng­ land. The latest development was a ladies’ match, played at Suva, on the spacious ground at Albert Park, which would be an ornament to any English city, between the Pleasure Club and a Viti eleven. The heroines of the day were the Misses C. and G. Milne, who bowled out the Pleasure eleven for 15 runs, after which the former proceeded to make 124 not out. The spec­ tators were so much moved by this feat that they subscribed the sum of £3 in order to present Miss 0. Milne with a memento of the occasion — a proceeding which would show that such scores are even rarer than they are with us. St. V in ce n t cricketers are naturally jubilant over the results of their two matches against L .rd Brackley’s team, for although both were drawn, the first was greatly in favour of St. Vincent, who also led by 20 on the first innings in the return. The St. Vincent Rambler has let itsilf go on the subject. Thus.:— “ Lord Brackley’s English cricket team have come aud gone, carrying from St. Yincent memories of a bitter castigation. Going to other places and meeting teams half vanquished by the fear of what the islanders over estimated as an invincible combination, Lord Brackley’s eleven had no difficulty in securing victory, but Vincelonians are made of stem stuff....................The Englishmen have received a rude awakening to the truth­ fulness of the adage ‘ things are not always what they seem.’ The local team, after allowing them every concession asked for by Lord Braekley, have defeated the Englishmen in every point of the game, and the visitors have gone on to Trinidad we hope stronger and wiser cricketers; conscious of the fact that, although an undoubtedly strong lot, they have been knocked out in St. Vincent, and may possibly be similarly treated in Trinidad.”