Cricket 1906

CR ICKET : a weekly reoord of th e same . AUG. 30, 1906. “ T o g e th e r jo in e d in C r ick e t ’ s m a n ly t o i l . ” — Byron. No. 7 33 . VOL. XXV. THURSDAY, AUG. 30, 1906. PRICE 2d. CHATS ABOUT CRICKETERS. J . S H A R P . Sharp b y name and Sharp b y nature. A bright, cheery little sportsman, in fact. N ot b y any means a player o f one stiio g , bu t an athlete o f infinite variety in anything he undertakes. A double first in cricket and football, Sharp is w ell-kn ow n in and has taken a place quite in the forefront o f b oth games. W h o that saw the final for the F ootb all Association Cup betw een E verton and N ew castle U nited at the Crystal P alace last A pril bu t w ill remem ber vividly the sturdy forw ard always on the ball, resolute and fear­ less, taking all the kicks that came in his w ay in a cheery spirit, as if they were pleasant little incidents of an afternoon’ s football ? That was Joh n Sharp, o f E verton, the footballer, one o f the very best exem ­ plars o f the A ssociation gam e at the present time. T he happy temperament w hich has stood him in such g o o d stead on the fo o t­ ba ll field has naturally helped to make him a cricketer as w ell. C ricket and football indeed require very much the same temperam ent— the cool head and ju dgm ent, the facu lty fo r initiative and a readiness o f resource. P er­ sonally, I have a belief in the you n g cricketer w h o has had a football training. The w inter gam e inculcates the essential lesson o f p layin g fo r the side, and, besides that, it makes fo r nerve and pluck. T he footballer used, as a rule, to b ig crow ds, is not easily upset, even on that ofttim es disquieting walk to the w icket. In any case, Joh n Sharp o f E verton w ou ld be one o f the very last to give an impression o f unreadiness. H e has, like all athletes o f any parts, shown the masterful capacity w hich enables the genuine artist to show to advantage at the crisis, when others less gifted by nature generally fail. I f he is better know n at the w inter gam e b y reason o f the greater gatherings to be fou n d at football matches, as a cricketer he haB quite as distinguished a record. F or the last eight years he has been one o f the most useful members of the Lancashire C ounty eleven. B om on February 15th, 1878, he was just tw en ty- one w h en he m ade his first B core o f any im portance in county cricket. That was in June, 1899, at M anchester, where he m ade 57 against Surrey’ s bow lin g . T hou gh his highest score that year was 72 v. Leicestershire, at Leicester, a m onth later, it perhaps hardly gave him the same satisfaction as his fifty against Y orkshire in the August Bank H olid ay M atch at Manchester. The L ancashire E leven o f 1900 were, all round, a form idable com bination and up to a certain p oin t were looked upon as likely candidates fo r the C ounty Cham ­ pionship. W ith A lb e it W ard, A . C. M acLaren, T yldesley and C. E . H artley in their best ru n -gettin g form , and M old, B rigg s and C uttell to b ow l, the C ounty was unlucky to have to p lay second fiddle even to Y o r k ­ shire w ith its unbeaten record. Just then Sharp was overshadow ed b y the p le­ thora o f fine cricketers. Still, he did w ell w ith both bat and ball, and, considering that he had to g o on m ostly as a chan ge when batsm en had g o t set, his record of fifty-three wickets, at an average cost o f tw enty-three runs was a very fair p er­ form ance. The follow in g summer saw a great change in the constitution o f the L ancashire team . The b o w l­ in g in particular underw ent a transition w ith M old only m oderately successful, C ut­ tell disabled w ith an injured hand during a great part of the summer, and B riggs, ow in g to illness, an absentee t h r o u g h o u t . S t i l l , the changes gave Sharp his o p p o r t u n i t y , w h ic h h e utilised to c o n s i d e r a b l y strengthen his position in the cou n ty side as an a ll­ round player. The year o f 1901 w as a veritable trium ph fo r him , as, in addition to taking the largest num ber (112) o f wickets g o t b y any Lancashire bow ler, he had a battin g average o f nearly tw en ty-six runs fo r thirty-five com pleted innings. The soft w ickets o f 1902 w ere all against a bow ler o f his pace, and up to 1905 he did little w ith the ball. O n the other hand, each season fou n d him m ore and m ore successful as a bat, till last year he was able to show a fine record o f 1,318 runs as the result o f th irty -six innings, in -