Cricket 1906

O ct. 25, 1906. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME, 447 the strong attack Lancashire had at that time—an innings worth many a century. “ How easily he plays him (Mold)!” exclaimed a spectator next to me, “ just as if he (Mold bowling his fastest) was a little boy.” It exactly describedShrews­ bury’s mastery of the bowling, and there was no thought of no-balling Mold in those days. Poor Arthur Shrewsbury’s place is indeed amongst the immortals of the game, as his star was in the ascendant not for one or two years only, but for over a quarter of a century, as a writer to Cricket in 1888 aptly put it:— “ A star shininghardly leas brightly Than the planet of W.G.” Great as a youth of 20 ; .great evento the end, at 46. To show that figures, qud figures, are not everything, we might suppose a man who only plays, say, half (20 not 40) the number of innings that another does, having the ill-luck to appear only onbad wickets. In this case, too, if ha had played more he mutt have done better and come nearer to the man who had a better average, because better wickets to play on. Figures, therefore, are not everything. But who can convince “ the man in the street ” of this ? To himthey are everything because “ it’s there,” he will tell you, “ in black and white.” No one can argue with people of this kind. Some years ago a schoolboy in his first teem, playing against other and smaller boys in a small fieldwith small bound­ aries, notched a score of over 600 in quick time. The man in the street hails him as the greatest scorer that ever lived. Stoddart’s 485 against the Stoics goes by the board; MacLaren’s 424 is eclipsed; W.G.’s 400 not out against XXII. of Great Grimsby is not to be thought of; it is in black and white that over 600 has bten made; scores of 400 are not in it now. But, seriously, to get a better idea of the comparative worth of big innings we should increase the columns of our average tables. We should have one stating how many chances were given and one stating whether the wicket favoured howlers or batsmen. The former would be no trouble to Mr. Ashley-Cooper, the most painstaking of all statisticians, and, indeed, he often gives us the information one way or another in his writings, but the latter would be for a despair, even to him. For it would be impossible to judge of the comparative value of the many famous and historic innings played by England’s premier cricketers, unless we knew the state or states of thevarious wickets on which they were made, and this, when no mention was made of the matter in the reports, would be also impossible to determine. One would be inclined to rank Hay­ ward’s performance of this year as greater than those of Fry, Ranjitsinbji, or Abel, even though the two former so easily excel him in average, for the reason that Hayward playtd so much more, and that the Brighton ground of a tew years ago was the easiest to score upon and the most famous for high aggregates. But to compare him with the Master himself. Ah, that is a horse of a different colour ! Compared with the great gulf which separated W.G. at his best from other players the differences as to aggre­ gate and average of modern players are but as those which distinguish Tweedle­ dum from Tweedledee. In proof of this let us contrast the doings of the principal batsmen in 1871 (W.G.’s greatest year for average and aggregate) with those of 1906. 1906. Not Highest Inns. out. Runs, score. Aver. C. J. Burnup .......... 21 ... 3 ... 1207 ... 179 ... 67 05 Hayward ................. 61 ... 8 ... 3518 ... 219 ... 66*37 K. L. Hutchings ... 34 ... 4 ... 1597 ... 176 ... 53'23 Arnold ................. 39 ... 4 ... 1767 ... 166 ... 50‘48 Tyldesley, 2270 (av. 46), Hayes, 2309 (av. 45), Hirst, 2385 (av. 45), Denton, 2287 (av. 40), came next to Hayward in aggregate, and were the only others to total over 2,000. 1871. Not Highest Inns. out. Runs, score. Aver. W. G. Grace .. ... 39 ... 4 ... 2739 ... 268 ... 789 Daft ................ ... 19 ... 4 ... 565 ... 92 ... 371 Carpenter........ G. F. Grace ... 16 ... 4 ... 446 ... 87*... 37'10 ... 24 ... 3 ... 716 ... 98 ... 34'2 Only Jupp, 1068 (av. 24), besides W.G., scored over 1000 runs, but then W.G. did a fair share of bowliug, taking 71 wickets at a cost of 16 per wicket. In all matches in 1871 W.G. scored 3,696 runs. This includes matches against odds for the U.S.E.E. He took over a hundred wickets. Hayward did no bowling in 1906. If Hayward in his present splendid form could have played with the 1871 cracks, would he have done better than such masters as Daft and Jupp ? Hardly. But would he have approached the man who doubled in average, and more than doubled any other batsman of the year, and nearly trebled the next to him in aggregate ? Who could think so ? And it’s all in black and white for the benefit of the man in the street. And I would further add my opinion that if W.G. could play now in his 1871 form his aggregate and averagewouldbe amazing. He who could average nearly 80, running out nearly all his runs, in days when an average of over 30 was something exceptional, would assuredly have averaged about 130, have compiled at least 20 centuries, and have totalled over 5,000 runs a season on the easy wickets, with easy boundaries, easy to reach, of the present time. AN AUSTRALIAN CRICKETER ON AMERICAN PLAYERS. The following extract from a letter published in the Sydney Referee from T. S. Warne, the Australian international player, who was engaged as coach to the Belmont C.C., of Pniladelphia, will be readwith interest. They are at all events the opinions of an expert who has no bias in the matter :— “ The Belmont people are anxious for me to settle here,” Warne writes, “ for good, but I have not finally made up my mind. As umpire I get all the principal matches, and umpired the game which practically decided the Halifax Cup between Germantown and Merion A team, at the lovely Merion ground. The Philadelphia people paid me a great compliment, as it was my first season here, and there were about forty other umpires, by appointing me to act as umpire in the International match, United States v. Canada, played on July 9 and 10, on the Germantown Ground at Manheim. I lined up at the ground, but, just before going out, Dr. Lester, the U.S.A. captain, came to me, and said, although the Association had ap­ pointed me, the Canadians had brought their umpire with them. However, they paid me the fee, so I pocketed my dis­ appointment, likewise the dollars. “ One of the wickets prepared by me got a great advertisement. Belmont, winning the toss from Merion B., batted first, andat drawing of stumps had piled up 561 for six wickets down. It was pretty good going, play starting at 2 p.m. and stumps drawn at 6.45 p.m. J. B. King, batting first, eompiled the mammoth score of 344 not out, thus beating the previous Amerioan record (313)—his own— made last year, for highest individual score. Mr. King is an ideal athlete, scaling 187 lb., without an ounce of fat on him. He is a very fine bat, and when he ‘ lets himself go ’ can hit as hard as anyone I have seen. A fine fast bowler, he can make the ball swing in a lot—the ‘ in-shoot ’—and he can also make it swerve out at will— the ‘ out curve.’ He has a style of his own, taking a very long run, and just before delivery he throws both hands above his head and then almost hits himself between the shoulder blades. Mr. King is also an exceptional field. Dr. Lester, of the Merion Club, is also a tine all-round cricketer, a splendid bat, a dodgy bowler, leg and off break (just a little), and good field. King and Lester are the two best cricketers in America, and I am certain, playing in Australia, would both have reached International circles. Nearly every American bowler swerves. It is much easier to do so here than in Australia, and it is put down to the atmosphere. “ The Americans have a batting style of their own, which evidently comes from baseball. They crouch slightly as we do, but when the bowler is on the run they stand quite erect, with the blade pointed back at the wicket-keeper, level with the bails, and the stroke, or shot, as it is termed here, is made from that position. The only batsman that I remember in Australia with a similar style is Peter McAlister. He pats the block-hole like the rest of us, but before making the stroke stands up at his full height. “ I thinktheGermantownA.,Merion A and Belmont teams would give the;best of our Pennant teams a good ‘ shake.’ ”