Cricket 1907

A p r il 18, 1907. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 71 SCOTTISH NOTES. Scotland will have two champion counties this summer. Forfarshire and Aberdeenshire are joint holders of the honour. How will Scotland fare against the South Africans ? Caledoniamust advance a bit before she brings her cricket up to the level of her Rugby football. After this feason only one professional is to be allowed in Scottish county matches. County championship matches post­ poned on account of bad weather will not be replayed. So says the new addition to the rule. The Scottish counties want to match their strength against an English com­ bination. That is the road to improve­ ment. Perthshire are very sorry to lose F. G. Bull. The old Essex amateur did grand service for the Big County. July 22nd, 23rd and 24th are the dates set down for the meeting of Scotland and South Africa. Good luck and good weather! With William Ringroee in their pro­ fessional ranks, the Forfarshire attack should be very powerful this summer. The Yorkshireman can send them down at a tine pace. On the Dundee Fair holiday week For­ farshire C.C. are to have their annual tour, and a very attractive fixture list has been arranged as follows :— July 20.—Ganton, at Ganton. July 22 and 23.—Scarborough, at Scarborough. July 24.—Harrogate, at Harrogate. July 25.—Darlington, at Darlington. July 26 and 27.—Perthshire, at Perth. Ganton is Ringrose’s native place. Louis J. Tancred, one of the great South African batsmen, has a fondness for Scottish bowlers. The home players, however, hope they will get rid of him this time before he scores 250. Cricket has improved very much in Aberdeen during the past ten years. It should improve still more in the near future, though a “ granite city ” scarcely seems the place for the game. It must be rather hard on the balls. Dunfermline Club have the largest share of the representation on the Fife- shire Selecting Committee. They deserve it, as they run all the financial risk con­ nected with the county combination. The West of Scotland has now three Leagues. The adoption of the League system is proving good for the develop- of the game. The Western League Championship Table for 1906 reads thus, each club play­ ing twelve matches :— Uddingston ... West oil Scotland Olydesdale Greenock.......... Poloc................. Kelbume.......... w . L. D. P. 10 0 2 10 5 2 5 3 4 2 6 2 2 5 5 -3 2 ti 4 —4 1 5 6 —4 2 6 4 - 4 In this table abandoned matches are included as drawn. Uddiugston, it will be seen, were the team of the season. Not a single defeat sullied their record. The attractions of the United States of America have robbed Dumfermline Club of several of its best players. The extension of the county system would be a good thing for the game in Scotland. When are the strong shires of the East and West to come into line with those of the North P Reginald Sutton and Tom Halmshaw are Perthshire’s professionals for 1907. Both are Yorkshiremen. May they turn out as grand players as such Yorkshire predecessors as Louis Hall, J. T. Brown, or Schofield Haigh! Sutton is a fine fast bowler, a valu­ able batsman, and a brilliant fielder, particularly at cover-point. Tom Halmshaw is a left-hander with a swerve. (Oh, if he would only turn out another Hirst, what a place the North Inch would be). Against Morley last year he took five wickets in six balls. Keene, of Worcestershire, a slow to medium left-hand bowler, should be a ns fal professional for the Grange. Pen- due k, of Gloucestershire, a fast right-hand bowler, though not so well known, is spoken of favourably. Higgins, the veteran professional, headed the Forfarshire averages last season—a great achievement. He also did his full share in the wicket-taking. Cupar have secured a very good left- handed bowler in Nixon, of Wimbledon. The new professional is not a high-olass bat, but can hit. The East of Scotland would like a League. In these dajs it is a laudable ambition. Last season Scotland’s fixtures with first-class teams—Surrey and West Indians—were all a record of loss. Both matches were lost, and financially there was a loss. May there be better luck all round this year! Less golf and more cricket at our big schools would be a desirable improve­ ment. — Leng's Cricket Handbook. CRICKET ANNUALS. B y A lfred J . G aston . Lecturing during the past week in Sussex prevented my accepting the invi­ tation to pen a short article dealing with Cricket Annuals to Cricket in celebration of the 25th year of issue. How time flies! As a comparatively old stager, whose whole bone and sinew have been in the game since childhood, I rejoice to pen a few lines on once my favourite hobby, the collection of cricketand. Bat how few the cricket collectors and cricket bibliophiles of to-day ! Not a score of ardent cricket bibliographers are to be found, the most prominent at the present time being Mr. Alfred Lawson Ford, of Gwynallt, Lynmouth, Devon, the Rev. Robert Stratton Holmes, of Wakefield, Mr. F. S. Ashley-Cooper, and Mr. Alfred D. Taylor. Possibly in the States and the Colonies a few collectors are in existence, but, as a rule, many so-called collectors only possess cricket literature of a period of about forty years. That charming cricket “ Notcher,” the Rev. R. Stratton Holmes, refreshes old memories by contributing to Oricket of last week one of bis chatty and breezy articles which were the life and the em­ bodiment of Cricket ia the nineties. To my topic, however, of “ Cricket Annuals.” How I used to revel in the perusal of the early Wisden and the Green L illy! Wisden we have still, but, alas! the yellow Fred Lillywhite’s Guides of the fifties and sixties, the green Companion (John Lilly white’s) of the sixties ana seventies, and the red Annual (James Lillywhite’s) of the seventies, eighties and nineties are dead. Why the decease of the Annuals ? The answer is easy— the sales did not pay the cost of produc­ tion. So long as the Annuals served the publishers as an advertisement for the sale of cricket goods they were issued, but with the advent of cheap newspapers with chatty notes and articles on the game day-by-day, the shilling cricket annual was doomed. ’Tis a pity, cer­ tainly. Wisden, however, survives, thanks to the enterprise and the very business­ like genius of the proprietor, Mr. H. Luff (John Wisden and Co., Cranboume Street, London), and the brilliant editing of Mr. Sydney Pardon, a specialist of specialists, who, with his staff of ready writers, are eye witnesses of first-class matches in England throughout the season. With the exception of the above, the shilling compendium in this country has given place to cheaper* publications, viz., the sixpenny, threepenny, aye, and even one penny Annuals which the cricket enthusiasts purchase greedily. How one misses, though, the delightful articles on Public School cricket which for many years were a feature of the Green Lillywhite and the Red Annual by the late Rev. A. F. E. Foreman, and the crisp and pungent “ A Few Loose Strings ” which the late Mr. C. W. Alcock and Mr. Ashley-Cooper tabulated for the “ Red Lilly.” How one would rejoice to realise that in India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada Annuals deal­ ing with the game could be issued at popular prices ! I firmly believe they would flourish if published on the lines of the Athletic News 3d. brochure, Ayres’ 6d. Cricket Companion, or even the York­ shire Post Penny Annual, and the popular Star and Leader Manual, or Leng’s Cricket Handbook. Wisden, like Whitaker's Almanack, is universal, but in the pub­ lishing of books of the present day the rage is for cheapness. Per contra, it is indeed pleasing to realise that Barbados still supports a shilling Annual, and South Africa again blossoms forth with a yearly volume dealing most exhaustively with the game. In concluding this colume to Cricket, which I have tiled regularly since the initial issue of 1882, I may be par­ doned if I pay a well deserving tribute to my brother townsman, Mr. Alfred D. Taylor, to whose indefatigable labours in compiling “ The Catalogue of Cricket Literature ” the hearty thanks of cricket collectors are due. Preston, Brighton. April 13th, 1907.