Cricket 1906

J u n e 7, 1906. CRICKET A. WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME, 185 and 82 runs, and the Elphinstone College Past and Present by four wickets. They drew against the Bombay Gymkhana, the Hindu Gymkhana and the Elphinstone Club. In the match against the Elphinstone Club (a powerful Parsee combination) Ceylon had 25 runs to make to win in five minutes. Three batsmen threw away their wickets, and the visitors were IS runs behind with one wicket to fall when the bell rang. Ceylon scored in the tour 1,957 runs for 92 wickets, against 1,853 for 108 wickets by their opponents. Considering that the Ceylonese were without the services of their crack bowlers T . Kelaart and J. Ludovici, their success was remark­ able. This was the first visit of a Ceylonese team outside the colony, and their batting especially created a very favourable impression. D. A. Ilaffel captained the Ceylon Team. Mr. Stoddart will remember him as the young left-hand bowler who played for Ceylon against his team when it passed through Colombo in 1894. He captured fourteen wickets for 87 runs in the match. The English team were out for 76 runs in the first innings, and had lost seven wickets for 81 in the second. Raffel clean-bowled ten batsmen, including Stoddart in both innings. Raflel has since got his arm out. T r u e to his word Mr. Bartholomeusz has duly forwarded a oopy of tbe sixth edition of his Handbook to Ceylon Cricket, published last March. It is emphatically what it claims to be—an epitome of cricket and other field sports in Ceylon from year to year. Special prominence is, of course, given to cricket, which has, it is very gratifying to find, lately become increasingly popular with all classes in the Colony. A particularly promising feature in the outlook for Ceylonese cricket is the encouragement given to the game now in all the colleges and schools, which is bound to bear good fruit in a continuous supply of likely recruits. The complete success whioh attended the visit of Ceylon’s representa­ tives recently in Bombay muBt also give a great impetus to the game. Anyhow, Cricket readers will watch with genuine interest for future developments of the game in the Island. Lieut. W. F. 0. Faviell, of the 2nd Battalion Worcester Regiment (whose portrait forms the frontispiece of the Handbook), not only headed the batting averages for 1905, but achieved the unique distinction of scoring over 1,000 runs and taking over a hundred wickets during the year. A n aggregate of nearly 600 runs in a day does not suggest any great necessity forbrighteningthecricket. Yetthecorres­ pondents who express their preference for club cricket so effusively in the news­ papers could hardly have all been present at the Oval last Thursday, to judge by the scant attendance. The occasion was the annual match between Surrey Club and Ground and Battersea (12 a side), and the outcome was a little matter of 585 runs for thirteen wickets. Going in against a total of 274, with two hours and 38 min­ utes left for play, the Surrey Club got these and 37 more at a cost of only two batsmen. Moulder (118) and P. H. Slater (100) became partners on the fall of the second wicket at 10 1 , and were still in at the finish after an addition of 210 runs. O u r good friend, R. A. Duff, one of the stalwarts of the last Australian team, was a participator in a merry little piece of run-gettiDgon Easter Monday. With A. E. Johnson he helped to put on 73 runs in 18 minutes in the second innings of the Sydney team against Mudgee. The Mudgee Guardian naively adds that “ It was an exhibition of fierce hitting, runs being compiled at the rate of four a minute, though the bowling was excel­ lent.” T h e Chingford cricket ground, in a recant matcb, received avisitation from a curious intruder in the shape of “ bold Reynard.” The players, discarding the manly toil of cricket for the moment, went in hot pursuit, but the fox was too much for them. I have reason to know that cricket ground at Chingford well, and am quite prepared to put implicit belief in the fox. A n active and ussful cricketer in his time, and a keen supporter of the game to the last, Robert Brough, the well- known actor, who die! in Sydney on April 20th, will be much missed in the cricket community cf New South Wales, and, indeed, throughout Australia, where he was very popular. I k n e w when I told that story about the ball and the cyclist last week, that it would not be long before somebody went “ one better.” But at the same time I hardly expected that my record would so soon be outdistanced. Still, I am bound to give in to the following incident recorded in a weekly paper :— During a cricket match on the Woodville Ground, Boston, which adjoins the Great Northern Railway line, a player hit the ball into the truck of a passing goods train bound for Derby. Are they, one might perhaps enquire, like Charley's Aunt, “ Still running ” ? T h e y order matters in cricket, it would appear, in Australia, even in the States where the game has still perhaps to reach the high water mark of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, better than in the Old Country. I have before me as I write an official souvenir published in Brisbane, with copious information about Trumpet’s Team in anticipation of their recent visit to Queensland. Freely illustrated with portraits of all the principal members of Trumper’s party, the souvenir which is, I maysay, the workofour valued Australian correspondent, Mr. E. B. Ross, is a distinct credit, outwardly as well as inwardly, to tbe cricket enterprise of the Queenslanders, and particularly to its compiler and publishers. T h e total 136 was fatal to no fewer than five batsmen on Thursday last week at Leyton. In theEssex innings, Bucken­ ham and Russell fell at this total, while the three Derbyshire men were Needham, Rickman and Warren. In their second innings three Derbyshire men were out at 18. I t cannot be said that the weather has been favourable for cricket so far this season. Rain has spoiled many matches, and on the so-called fine days there has nearly always been an unpleasant wind. I should doubt whether anyone has seen a first-class team in the field without sweaters, except in the oase of a hardy individual here and there, who knows that ahard-working fieldsman can always keep warmexcept inbitterlycoldweather. B y taking seven wickets for 13 runs for Essex on Saturday in the second innings of Derbyshire, on a wicket which seemed made for him by the heavy rains of the previous day, Walter Mead showed plainly that on his day he is as effective as ever. In the first innings he was unsuccessful, but althoughhe only bawled six overs nobody could look at him, and but for exceptionally bad luck he would have had at least two wickets. It is noticeable that, when he is bowling, the batsman has practioally to play at every ball, and very seldom does he find a bad one. O n Saturday, when a few Derbyshire wickets had fallen quickly, and it was evident that it was a sheer impossibility that 263 runs could be made on a wicket ruined by rain on the previous day, Essex had a few anxious moments. For heavy thunder clouds were gathering, and rain seemed imminent, the odds being considerable that if it fell there would be no more cricket. Therefore, as becomes the members of a team of good sportsmen, the Derbyshire men did not exercise theirprivilege of taking a full two minutes, but each batsman appeared at the pavilion gate without a moment’s delay. Whereupon some of the crowd said that no doubt the batsmen were anxious to get away by an early train. But virtue is its own reward. W. M. T u r n e r , the Essex batsman who made 104 not out last week for Essex v. Derbyshire, may perhaps be described as a fine club cricketer, with the addition that he has a first-class defence. He is very severe on a loose ball, but at present he seemsquite unable to score off anything which is more or less of a good length. On the other hand, with more experience of first-class bowling he may go far. He is not yet a brilliant fieldsman, but he seems to be improving considerably, and in the match against Gloucestershire he often distinguished himself. W. B r e a r l h y , the Lancishire amateur, who has reconsidered his decision tostand aside from Lancashire cricket this season, took eight wickets in 19 overs for 28 runs for L. C. Braund’s Team against a Scottish XII. on Friday last. I n the course of the historyof their club the Yorkshire Gentlemen can very seldom