Cricket 1907

J une 20, 1907. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. 211 Full details of the construction of the Demon-Drivers and other information of interest to GricKeters, w ill be found in the booklet entitled The Evolution of a Cricket Bat, which m ay be obtained upon application, and from which the following extracts are taKen s— D OUBTLESS buyers frequently wonder why it is that some bats are sold as low as 5o., while others cannot be bought for less than 27s. 6d., both being made of similar material. The reason is very simple. The higher-priced bats, which must relatively be few in number, have to provide for the loss incurred in manufacturing the lower- priced bats, which are necessarily numerous. The figures here given approximately show the proportions of the various grades for 1,000 bats. They are based upon the average results produced in the ordinary course of manufacture. First or Best Division. 1st grade 2nd grade 3rd grade 4th grade 20 50 100 150 Second or Common Division. 5th grade Lower grades 250 430 1,000. It will thus be seen that the manufacturer who intends to meet the ever-increasing demand for really good cricket bats must carry an enormous stock of timber. The stock held by Geo. G. Bussey & Co., Ltd., represents 100,000 bats. The question is sometimes asked why the “ Demon Drivers” are not more associated with the names of leading cricketers. It may be said, without presumption, that the answer involves a question of ethics which it is not intended to enter into beyond mentioning the fact that Geo. G. Bussey & Co., Ltd. (or their predecessors, Geo. G. Bussey & Co.) have never published a testi­ monial relating to a cricket bat not purchased and paid for in the ordinary way of business. Cricketers all over the world are informed that orders for Bussey’ s goods should be placed with Dealers on the spot. Their manufactures are graded according to a properly devised system, which provides for cricketers purchasing from the dealers in the provinces or colonies receiving the same selection as if sent direct from the Factory, which is the largest and most up-to-date for the manufacture of Requisites for Sports and Games. 6E0. B. BUSSEY& CO,, LTD., 36 & 38, Queen Victoria St., LONDON. Manufactory : Timber Mills : PEOKHAM, S.E. ELMSWELL, SUFFOLK. THE PROBLEMS OF CRICKET*. Major Trevor’s latest book is full of the qualities which have made him one of the most popular of latter-day writers on cricket, though it also reveals the defects of those qualities. A certain sentence in “ The Author’s Apology ” partly disarms one criticism that one might otherwise have felt compelled to make, though. The Major says there: “ In the expression of strong views there is always the danger of being dictatorial and dogmatic, and in an attempt to avoid that danger I can scarcely hope to succeed where better men have failed.’ ’ Unquestion- ably, Major Trevor is at times both dictatorial and dogmatic; but he is never dull and dreary. “ The Problems of Cricket” is a real live book. Personally, I dissent from something like 50 per cent, of the opinions expressed in i t ; but I have read every chapter of it with interest, and I did not find myself willing to skip even the early chapters, which I had studied carefully when they appeared in the Sportsman only a few months ago. Everyone who is interested in first-class cricket ought to read this book ; one might say, indeed, everyone who is interested in cricket of any class, for Major Trevor is not of those to whom the first-class section of the game is the only part of it worthy of consider­ ation. He would almost give you the idea at times that he found second-class cricket much more absorbing, much healthier, infinitely preferable on the whole; but one fancies that this is something of a pose. The best chapter in the book, to my mind, is that on “ Cricket as a Profession.” The author is not the first to propose the abolition of the unnecessary distinction between “ amateur ” and “ professional ” ; but his is the best statement of the case that I have seen ; and I commend it heartily to all who are interested in the subject. Absolutely the worst chapter is “ The Waste of Time.” I have seen a good many first-class cricket matches, and consequently have witnessed a good deal of unnecessary wastage of tim e; but anything even remotely like the imaginary match which is described on pp. 17-21 strikes me as utterly impossible. Certainly it goes far beyond all that I have ever seen. But, someone may say, the Major has sought to bring together everything in the way of time— wasting that he could remember or imagine. Not at a ll! That was what I thought until at the end of the descriptive account of that terrible game I read these w ords: “ I have not enumerated a tithe of the interruptions and delays either wholly or partially preventible from which first-class cricket suffers.” Now he has enumerated (a) late start; (b) a few balls dow n; ( c ) sending for saw­ dust ; ( d ) sudden discovery that the striker is left-handed and consequent changing of the field; ( e) bowling screen being m oved; ( / ) splinter in finger of fieldsman who helps to move i t ; (g) conference among fieldsmen regarding splinter; (A) surgical aid ; (i) someone to field substitute; (j) screen moved again; (Jk) right-handed batsman’s finger strapped, but gives trouble ; (I) consultation between umpires anent this; (m) bat changed; (n) more trouble in placing field consequent upon one of the batsmen being left-handed ; (o) trouble with second- slip’s bootlace; (p) left-hander takes ground again ; ( q ) a few more balls down ; (r) one of them goes to screen; (s) batsman objects to an open w indow ; ( t) innings continued with- * “ The Pioblems of Cricket.” By Major Philip Trevor. Sampson, Low, Marston & Oo., Ltd., 10U, Southwark Street, E.C., and 17a, Paternoster Eow, E.O. 6s. net. out the expected declaration after lunch next day to enable batsman to complete his hundred ; ( u) twenty minutes instead of ten between innings; ( v) tea interval; ( w) un­ necessary rolling of pitch. Major Trevor can multiply this by ten, he says. I cannot. At the present moment 1 cannot add one to it. But then Major Trevor is a novelist, for which I am grateful, for both Carrington and that fine fellow who found his way into society through the cricket door have given me many hours of real pleasure. In general, Major Trevor is rather down on the Australians. But in chapter xxi. Austra­ lia gets from him sympathy which I think she hardly needs. I am of the Major’ s mind as to the importation of colonial cricketers having been carried too fa r; but I do not think that any of our colonies have as yet suffered severely. Setting aside colonial cricketers who migrated hither, but were certainly not imported, the following have come to England to play cricket, and to earn money by playing i t : Cuffe (Worcester), Dean (qualifying for Hampshire), Dwyer (Sussex), Ferris (Gloucestershire), Kermode (Lancashire), Marshal (Surrey), Roche, Tar­ rant, and Trott (Middlesex), from Australia ; Ollivierre (Derbyshire) and Smith (qualifying for Northants,) from the West Indies ; Llew­ ellyn (Hampshire), Yogler, Ben Wallach, and G. Whitehead, of whom the last three all failed to finish their qualifying period, from S »uth A frica; and A. 11. Mebla, who after all did not stay, from India. Mid­ winter’s name I do not include. Major Trevor’s account of his coming (p. 168) is absolutely incorrect. Midwinter was playing for Gloucestershire (under a birth qualifica- •tion, too) before the First Australian team’s tour in 1878. Surely the Major has heard of that drive from the Oval to Lord’ s, when W .G . and “ Frizzy ” Bush took Mid by storm and carried him off from under the guns of Dave Gregory and Spofforth and the rest of them ? Mid was padded and gloved ready to go in first with Charles Bmnerman against Middlesex ; but it was Alec Banner- man who partnered his brother that day at wickets at Lord’s, while the Bendigo Infant bowled against Surrey at the Oval, and suc­ cumbed for four when his turn came to bat. Midwinter had made contracts to play for Gloucestershire, and to tour with the Austra­ lians in 1878, but the county contract \yas the earlier, and W .G . enforced it. Of all the players mentioned the only Aus­ tralians who had made any name to speak of down under before thev came to England were Ferris, Trott, and Roche. Tarrant was not good enough for Victoria ; Marshal had played in three matches only for Queensland ; Dwyer, Kermode, and Cuffe had not the least chance of getting regular places in the New South Wales eleven. Of Dean I had never heard until the other day, and for many years I have kept well posted as to Austra­ lian cricket. The two West Indians were something more than raw material before they began to qualify, but the South Africans mentioned had made no great mark in their own country. Nor does Major Trevor’s case for the minor couniies and their ewe lambs seem well made out. Hayward, Hobbs, Reeves, and Carpen­ ter all come from Cambridge ; but the Cambs. C.C. had no hand in the shaping of any of them except Hobbs. Albert Relf came from Norfolk ; but he was born in Sussex. Robert Relf had played for Berkshire ; I never heard that Berkshire felt his loss much, though I fancy he will do big things yet for Sussex. “ Razor ” Smith is an Oxford man, I believe. Arnold came from Devonshire to Worcester—