Cricket 1906

CR ICK E T: a w e e k l y r e c o r d o f t h e g am e. JULY 26, 1906. •*i i @ i I f r - ~ ~ -=*■— 4 I I I 1 “ Together joined in Cricket’ s manly toil.”— Byron. h o . 728 . v o l . x x v . THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1906. p b i c e 2 d. CHATS ABOUT CRICKETERS. WALTER LEES. Time was, and that not bo very long ago, when a benefit match was regarded as the practical completion of a player’s career. But twentieth century cricket has changed all that. The new methods show a dislinct advantage over the old, at all events from the point of view of the party most interested. He is at the moment looming largely in the public eye instead of appealing for support when his hand has, perhaps, lost a little of its cunning, and some, at least, of the infinite variety which made his play S3attractive to the crowd has gone. Walter Lees, who receives from the Surrey Club well-earned recognition of valuable services in the Yorkshire match to begin at the Oval to-day, has been particularly fortunate in the cir­ cumstances attending his benifit. Though this is his eleventh season in Surrey cricket he will not reach his thirtieth birthday till the last week of the year. It is difficult indeed to realise that only thirteen seasons have passed since he c*me up from Halifax to show the experts at the Oval of what cricket stufif he was made. Though only a boy of sixteen at the time, the grit of the Yorkshireman was ■writ large in him and he passed the test of the Surrey authorities with honours. Two years were, of course, required to establish his residential qualification, so that it was not until 1896 that he got a chance in county cricket. Ten years ago Surrey had aparticularly strong all-round side, and with a quartette of bowlers of the calibre of George Lohmann, Lockwood, Richardson and Brockwell, there was just at the moment little or no room^ for youngsters, however promising. But the following teason (that of 1897) saw him firmly established in the side of which he has been such a useful member ever since. To give any­ thing like a detailed account of his many good performances during the last ten years would be superfluous. This season, in spite of the fact that he spent the winter in South Africa playing cricket as one of the Marylebone team, Lees has shown himself the same consistent bowler, keeping up his end with dogged perseverance, and refusing to be hustled, whatever the methods, defensive or aggressive, of the batsman to whom he has to devote his attention. This week’s match with Worcestershire gave him his hundredth wicket of the year, and he is oneof a small band of seven who have this record in first-class matches. One of the best of his many good performances of the present season was at Chesterfield a fortnight or so ago. On that occasion in Derbyshire’s second innings he took seven wickets for 33 runs, and it is not too much to say that his bowling at the finish was the most important factor in Surrey’s success. In representative matches he has perhaps hardly had the opportunities his merits demanded. Still, he has played for,.the Players against the JGentlemen both at Lord’s and the Oval, and he was first reserve for England against Australia at Trent Bridge in the opening teBt match of last year. As a traveller, too,vLees has a record which few cricketers can claim. He has been to South Afiica three times, twice' to fulfil engagements, besidesmaking a visit to the Argentine Republic, where he won golden opinions from all sorts and conditions of men as a cricket coach. Though primarily a bowler, Lees is also a batsman to be reckoned with. Last summer the Hampshire bowlers had to field while he made merry with a little matter of 130 runs. Only a few weeks ago the Sussex Eleven had even better reason to remember him as a rungetter, seeing that he made 137 of the best. As a bowler, Lees’ bad luck has been proverbial, and it is the higher tribute of his intrinsicmerit that he has been so remarkably successful, in spite of continuous illfortune which might have daunted a lees resolute player. With a big heart and unfailing nerve, as well as judgment, no amount of work has been too much for him. Always cheery, however the game has been going, he has proved himself to be of the ideal temperament for a cricketer, in which^ capacity he has earned the respect of players of every class. Both as a cricketer, and as a man, Walter Lees has, indeed,j acquitted [ himself in a WALTER LEES.