Cricket 1906

26 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F eb . 22, 1906. Nourse, the Natal cricketer, who carried his bat for 93, was carried into the pavilion on the shoulders of the crowd. A Bhilling subscription which was made on the ground on his behalf produced between £40 and £50 in a few minutes. Later, the members of his club, Grey- ville, started a public testimonial fund for him. T he last moments of the first Test match at Johannesburg are thus described in the Natal Mercury :— Excitement ran tremendously high during the long partnership between Nourse and White, but it was nothing to the tension caused when Sherwell—an Isipingo boy—- joined Nourse with 45 to get to win. Only those who saw that partnership can have any conception of the extraordinary excitement. Every ball was cheered, and Sherwell played the first ball as confidently as though he had made 50 already. It was a great perform­ ance. But the scene, as Sherwell made the winning h it! Words would inadequately describe the unique display of enthusiasm. I have seen some historic finishes at Kenning- ton Oval, and I have read of other exciting finishes. But, if they beat the wonderful excitement seen at the Wanderers’ ground on Thursday, it would, indeed, have been no wonder that faints and collapseswere reported. S hbopshire has no longer a county cricket club, but in its place a new club has been formed, to be known as the Gentlemen of Shropshire, with Mr. Wynne Corrie as president and Major Hart Sitwell as captain. Among teams which will oppose the new club in 1906 are the M.C.C., Free Foresters, Oxford Univer­ sity Authentics, Cheshire Gentlemen, Staffordshire Gentlemen, Denbighshire Gentlemen, Herefordshire and Leeds Grasshoppers. T he match between the West Indians and the Minor Counties is to be played at Ealing on June 21st and following days. A t the annual meeting of the Glouces­ tershire County C.C. on January 25th the chairman, Mr. A. W. Beloe, said that, while it was true that one or two counties were well off, the majority were struggling and entirely dependent on the weather, and, in the event of that being bad, on guarantors. He suggested that it was urgent that the first-class counties should seriously consider whether something could not be done to place all the coun- | ties on a more satisfactory basis. The existing state of things was unbearable. There was no doubt that interest in county cricket had declined, and he trusted something might be done before it was too late. A t the same meeting G. L. Jessop said :— “ He thought that the County Champion­ ship might be made even more interesting than it was by altering the percentage of points for wins and draws. The present method was absurd. With regard to finances, he suggested that the less prosperous counties should combine together and approach the wealthier counties with the object of obtaining for visiting teams a small percentage of gates. He pointed out that when Dr. Grace was the draw of the world counties like orkshire and Lancashire used to reap a great advantage from a visit by Gloucestershire, whereas, when playing at home, the latter scarcely benefited by the visit of those teams. If some scheme could be devised the poorer counties would have a chance of paying their way. As to next season, he knew of no new talent, but the county had never had such a splendid lot of young fellows as at the present time.” T h e r e was an interesting finish to a match at Durban on December 30th between I Zingari and Australasians. The former had to make 99 to win in the fourth inniDgs of the match, with less than three-quarters of an hour to play. Orders were given to the batsmen to bit out, and although the first two men were out before a run had been scored, the total was 78 when 15 minutes remained. On the other hand, the last two men, N. Harvey and C. P. Harvey, were at the wickets. By determined cricket they took the total to 90 with nine minutes to go, but when only four more runs were required, N. Harvey was bowled, and the Australasians won five minutes before time. A ustin D iamond , who made 164 (retired) for New South Wales against South Australia in December, was bom in Yorkshire, but went to live in Aus­ tralia when he was very young. H. Carter, the New South Wales wicket­ keeper, was also born in Yorkshire. I n the District match between South Hobart and New Town on December 16th, at Hobart, New Town were dis­ missed for 10 runs in ten overs, C. J. Eady taking four wickets for 4 runs and C. Johnson 4 for six. The New Town score is as follows :— N ew T own . —Firstr_innings. E. Burgess, c Gill, b Johnson ................. 0 O.B. Davies, b Eady ................................ 0 T. Tabart, b E ady...................................... 2 F. Chancellor, c L. Butler, b E ad y.......... 1 P. Payne, c and b Johnson........................ 2 N. Douglas, c Kent, b Johnson................. 0 C. B. Davies, run out ............................... 0 G. H. Bailey, b Eady ............................... 0 K. Bailey, not out ...................................... 4 W. Hooper, run out ............................... 1 E. Brooke, b Johnson ............................... 0 Sundries ...................................... 0 Total ...............................10 A n Australian paper contains the fol­ lowing tale about almatch in a Melbourne Junior Association competition :— It was the final match of the series, and the result was practically a foregone conclu­ sion for the team that had to come ten miles to play. On the road out the overworked van horses went on strike, and refused to budge. The ground was three miles distant, and the match due to start in twenty minutes. The captain knew that if he was not ready to play the game must be forfeited, and a certain victory lost. He accordingly struck a bargain with a passing cyclist, and arrived on the scene five minutes before time, won the toss, and sent the other side in, declining all assistance in the field. Ten minutes were occupied in getting ready, and the first ball went to the boundary for 4. The solitary player strolled leisurely after it, carried it up to the crease, and after further delay bowled again, which resulted in another 4. In the meantime the others of the team were arriving on foot, and the game com­ menced in earnest, resulting in the expected win for the visitors. Fkom the Adelaide Observir: — J. Brunton, the old South Adelaide player, had an exciting experience the other day while trying to score a century. Brighton were playingSturt, andwith fourwickefs down Brunton was 92 not out, so that his mind was easy. Threadgold began an over and the other batsman was caught at ithe wicket. Each of the next four balls hit the off-stump, and with the last man coming in Brunton was still at the other end 92 not out. As he had been left 93 not out in the previous match his feelings can well be imagined. Fortu­ nately for him his companion survived long enough to allow him to reach the three figures. Threadgold finished with an analysis of five wickets for 32 runs. Two incidents in connection with the match between New South Wales and Queensland at Sydney, in December, are thus described in the Sydney M ail : — One of them was a catch by White, from a stroke by Hayes, off a full toss fromHordern. White was standing at short leg, closer than usual, and a few yards towards the bowler. Hayes made the stroke very hard, and White stuck out his hand in a formal sort of way, and at the same time turned for the purpose of chasing the ball. To his great amazement, he found his fingers surrounding the ball. There was a third incident in the catching waywhich I suppose shouldbementionedhere. I was anxious to see what Hordern was doing with the ball—how much he was breaking—so I went to a spot in the northern pavilion, and there, leaning against the steps, I had a good view of the bowling. Evans came in and hit three fives; two fell in the balcony of the members’ pavilion, and the third came to me, and moving forward, I took the catch a foot from the ground. On returning to the press-room, I was told that some one had been asking who was the “ old ” gentleman who made the catch. T he report of the Notts committee shows that the county made a profit of £128 8s. on last season’s matches. This does not include the sum received from the test matches. It is interesting to note that the match against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge only produced £68, while in the Surrey match the receipts were £474. As their share of the test matches Notts received £1,123 4s., of which £200 has been set apart for the benefit of Carlin and H. B. Daft. I n the course of a speech at Durban, at a dinner given in honour of the M.C.C. team, Mr. Collins, the captain of the Natal X I., said that Natal had not quite as good material as the Transvaal, but this was probably owing to the fact that as soon as a Natal cricketer showed any promise he was immediately offered a good post in the Transvaal; in fact, he had been expecting an offer himself. (Laughter).