Cricket 1906

13s C r ic k e t : a w e e k l y re co rd of th e g a m e . M ay 17, 1906. •___________ M r . C huckerup writes: “ My little boy, him with the curly hair, is a bit of a poet, and he showed me a “ Cricket Nocturne” in the Morning Leader a few days ago. It struck me as beiDg mighty fine. Here is a bit of i t : — “ It is May. Not because of the bursting of the green buds do we know this. Not because the birds have hatched their young, nor because the kiss of the wind is warm. There is a fragrance in the air that vies with the essence of the primrose, a thick, strong odor of steaming wood and straining leather rosy from machines, a lusty aroma from the cruse of bat-oil. Leather, grease, and wood, with all their sensuous smells, proclaim the coronation of King Willow.” Now, him and me put our heads together, and between us we turned out a little bi •. in the same style. We could, of course, do a good deal more, and if you happen to know of any paper or mag. what would be likely to accept it, perhaps you will let me know. Here it is :— “ It is May. Not but what it mightn’t he July if it wasn’t for the lilies and toolips. Nor we don’t know it because the ground men are watering the turf, because they do that in July and April. There is a fragrance in the air that vies with the smell of parafin which is a bit stale, a thick, strong odor of foul steam and stinking petrol risiDg from the motor busses, a lusty aroma from the crude oil. A manwith a cricket hag, knocked over on the wood pavement by all these beastly smells, proclaims the coronation of King Willow. And don’t you forget it.” T he following amusing remarks appeared recently in the Sussex Evening Times :— The most hopelessly incomprehensible prob­ lem in cricket is what I call the “ door ques­ tion.” I may be hail-fellow-well-met with a professional cricketer on the field, I may take a voyage to Australia with him and meet him on terms of intimacy for years. The authori­ ties see nothing derogatory to my amateur status in all that. What I must never do under any circumstances is to go into the Pavilion with him by the same door. There is the amateur door and the professional door. The why and wherefore of this I do not pro­ fess to understand. All I know is that, as far as first-class cricket is concerned, at any rate, the professional must have a door to himself. Possibly, of course, as it is the “ pro’s ” skill which mainly draws the crowd, whose sixpences pay for the Pavilion, the door may be meant as a special mark of dis­ tinction for him. This is the only explana­ tion I can think of. But the difficulty which often occurs to me is what would happen if I, an amateur, were to meet Rhodes for instance, on the cricket field, and asked him to come to dinner with me? My house, 1 must explain, only boasts of the usual hall door, there being no back entrance or area gate. What’s to be done ? We certainly mustn’t enter by the same door. The only solution of the difficulty I can see is that I, being an amateur, should go in through the hall door, and Rhodes should drop through the coal shoot. But till this question is settled I can’t ask a “ pro” to dine with me. The following extract from the Sydney Referee will be of interest to Cricket readers as substantiating a statement made in “ Gossip,” to which exception was taken on the other side :— Mr. R. H. Campbell, of Melbourne, writes to Cricket'. “ In your issue of November 30th, speaking of the Rev. E. F. Waddy, you say, ‘ As far as I am aware, no parson has yet represented one of the three great States.’ You are correct in so far as the rev. gentleman above-mentioned is the first and only parson who has played for either of the States; but so far back as 1869 the Rev. E. S. Carter represented Victoria, then a colony.” As a matter of fact, the editor of Cricket was literally and substantially correct in his statement, for when Mr. Carter played for Victoria in 1869 he had not taken Holy Orders. He was in Australia only eight weeks, and it was after his return to England that he took Orders, and was appointed to the curacy of Christ Church, Ealing (vide “ Old Ebor’s ” “ Old English Cricketers ” ). A merican cricketers are apparently determined not to be behind hand this year in the matter of high scoring. J. Pacey, the Frankford County Club professional, set them a good example with the first century of the season as early as April 21st. He was playing for Frankford (Pa.) v. West Philadelphia, at Frankford, and retired after “ notching ” 102. T he Melbourne Leader is responsible for the announcement that J. Mc’C. Blackham, the great Australian wicket keeper of the past—the greatest stumper perhaps the cricket world has ever seen—- has gone into the furniture trade. The Leader man adds that J. Mc’C. B., when advising customers who are furnish­ ing, invariably recommends “ stump ” bedsteads. G. A. T. V ials , the young amateur who batted in such promising style and, moreover, fielded so well for Northants at the Oval against Surrey last week, is an old Wellingburian. He got his cricket colours at the Wellingborough Grammar School in 1903, though an attack of double pneumonia in June kept him out of the tide in the later matches, and, in fact, nearly settled him. In 1904, though only 17, he did good service for the county, having an excellent bat­ ting average in addition to the fielding record. Though last year—Northants’ dtbut as a first-class county—he took part in only three matches and with but moderate success as a batsman, he was of great use in the field, making some really brilliant catches in the country. He is a son of Mr. T. H. Vials, who has been an active member of the Northamptonshire committee since 1872, was the honorary secretary of the club from 1883 to 1891, and twice held the post of honorary treasurer, first in 1882 and again from 1901 to 1904. J. R. M . M ackay , whose phenomenal batting has been one of the outstanding features of New South Wales o.ricket during the season just ending, can claim, according to the Sydney Referee, a double record for 1905- 6 in respect of the largest number of runs for the State, as well as the aggregate in all matches. A recent score of 156 not out brought his aggre­ gate for matches under the New South Wales Association, interstate, first-class matches, and grade competitions to 1,837 runs, 902 in interstate and first-class engagements, 814 in first-grade compe­ tition, and 121 in Burwood v. Western Districts. T he record in first-grade cricket in Sydney so far belongs to Trumper with 1,001, bat this may even by now have been beaten by Mackay. Though he has only played for Burwood since 1902-3, he has male twenty hundreds in all Asso­ ciation matches, six of them for New South Wales. R. A. Duff, it may be stated, has made only six and V. Trumper eight centuries for the State. M, A. Noble is, in the matter of centuries for New South Wales, well ahead of anyone else with 14. M r . J. M. F ramjee P atel , the Nestor of Parsee cricket, is spending this summer in England to recuperate his health. He has been made an honorary member of both the Marylebone and Surrey County Clubs, a double compliment he has thoroughly well earned by reason of the good work he has done for the game in India. By the way, his book, “ Stray Thoughts on Indian Cricket,” which has an introduction by Lord Harris, will furnish interesting reading to all who have followed the development of cricket in India. Two other cricket personalities from over the sea are also over here for the summer. I refer to J. O. Anderson and P. G. L. Bridger, two of the leaders of cricket in the Argentine. The former has been one of, if not the most, consist­ ent and heaviest run-getter out there for some years. He played for Hertford­ shire before he left England, if I re­ member rightly, and, I understand, will take part in some of that county’s matches during the present season. T he long catalogue of cricket literature which has occupied such a considerable space in these columns during the last few months has just received another, and important, addition in the shape of Mr. Percy Cross Standing’s “ Biography of the Hon. F. S. Jackson.” Mr. Stand­ ing’s previous work on K. S. Ranjit- sinhji will be remembered, and it need only be said that his appreciation of the great cricketer who captained the English teams so successfully in the Ttst matches la9t summer will in no way suffer in comparison. Mr. Standing was a valued contributor to Cricket in the early days, so that his literary successes have a special interest. His last work, which contains a full, true and particular account of every incident worthy of note in Mr. Jackson’s cricket career, is artistically and copiously illustrated. Cassell’s are the publishers. T hough practically lost to the active list of first class cricketers Lockwood, the Surrey player, is doing good work in training the young idea. On the com