Cricket 1908

J u n e i 8, 1908. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 217 and scored all round the w icket with the ease and certainty o f form er days, but, ow in g to increased w eight, was not quite so active as when he played regularly. In his first m atch for Sussex at L ord ’s— against M .C .C . and G round, in 1895— he made 77 not out and 150, which are very sim ilar scores to those o f last week. On that occasion Sussex, set 405 to win, made 385, Butt and C ollins putting on as many as 96 for the last w icket. Only R anjit­ sinhji and Butt, of the tw enty-tw o who appeared in that match, took part in last w eek’s gam e. S in ce they beat Notts at Trent B ridge Lancashire have experienced a bad time, g o in g dow n in succession against Y ork ­ shire at B ram all Lane and Kent and Surrey at Manchester. T heir lack o f success has been partly attributed, and in my opinion not unreasonably, to the wickets which have been provided at O ld Trafford. T he Athletic N ew s rem arks :— “ A sporting w icket is not to be con ­ demned, but cricketers ou gh t not to be ‘ under fire’ at one end for m ost o f the time that they are trying to get runs. There w ere as many as three balls in an over buzzing about the faces of players. That both sides suffer equally has nothing to do w ith the case. T his m ay or m ay not be so, but w e feel that the wickets now obtained are prejudicial to Lancashire cricket. In the first place matches are shortened, and that means a diminished revenue, and eventually a serious depletion o f the exchequer. T he players have com ­ plained for som e tim e, and w e include both amateurs and professionals. Ordinary stroke play, on stereotyped lines, is at a discount. T h is puts players out o f prac­ tice and out of conceit with themselves. Pitches are so true and so fast in other parts o f the country that when the L anca­ shire team visit these centres they are beaten by the pace o f the w icket. And they cannot hope to retrieve themselves on their hom e ground. If the best batsmen find it difficult to do their pow ers justice at O ld T rafford, how is it possible for the younger men to be su ccessfu l?” The Lancashire C .C . C omm ittee cannot ex­ pect budding cricketers to develop under present conditions. Unless an im prove­ ment is effected w e must expect to continue hearing of players being injured. Sporting w ickets are adm irable in their way, but it is possible to g o to an extrem e in the matter. W il l ia m T y l d e sl e y , w ho has appeared in Lancashire’s two m atches during the past week, w as born at Aspull, near W iga n , on A ugust 10th, 1887, and joined the ground-staff at Manchester tw o years ago. H e is left-handed both as batsman and bow ler, and is a fine field. H is bow ling is m edium -paced with a break either way. A you nger brother, Jam es Tyldesley, joined the O ld T rafford ground-staff re- cently as a fast right-hand bowler. The brothers are not related to “ J .T .” W h en K en t’s first innings at Manchester had been in progress about an hour it trans­ pired that Blom ley, the Lancashire w icket­ keeper, had been severely injured at the comm encem ent of the m atch by a fast ball from Brearley. U pon the suggestion of C. H . B. M arsham , the visiting captain, Phillips was allowed to take his place, not as a substitute m erely, but as a player, with the privilege of batting. This recalls the fact that when N otts, visited Manches­ ter in 1876 their wicket-keeper, F. W ild, w as disabled, and, on the suggestion of M r. A. N. H ornby, John Sm ith, a Lanca­ shire professional, took his place and made a couple o f catches in the second innings. I have heard that a discussion subsequently ensued as to whether a substitute should be allow ed to keep w icket, and that the M .C .C . decided that he should not. M o r e than passing reference deserves to be m ade to the rem arkable bow lin g by W ass against Essex on Friday last. On a pitch which suited him to perfection he obtained eigh t wickets in each innings and claim ed all sixteen victim s in the course of the d a y’s play. A gainst Lancashire at Liverpool tw o years a g o he did precisely the same thing, and it is of interest to know that o f all other living players only Blythe can claim to have taken as many w ickets in one day in a first-class match. (The last-named took seventeen for 48 runs for Kent v. N orthamptonshire, at N orthampton last season). In the first innings o f the Essex m atch W ass obtained his last six wickets for 9 runs in three overs, perform ing the hat-trick ; at the end o f the second innings he took five wickets in fifty balls for 16 runs. I n this year’s m atch between M arl­ borough C ollege and Liverpool, R . O . Lagden, playing for the form er, m ade 149 not out in his first innings and 102 in his second. M arlborough follow ed-on and L agden scored all his runs during the second day. The full score c f the match will be found on page 221. Prince H. Narayan, in the early part o f this week, also succeeded in m ak in g tw o separate hundreds, scoring 104 and 103 not out for Som erset Stragglers v. D evon D um plings at Taunton. J. F. O r c h a r d , who plays occasionally for D evon, has been d oin g som e rem arkable scorin g for Sidm outh this season. T o June 10th he had played seven innings, only one o f which was com pleted. H is scores w e r e :— v. Exeter Training College ... 59* v. H oniton ................ j............... ... 79* v. E x m o u th .......................................... ... 47* v. Exeter School .............................. ... 104* v. Rev. Copleston’s X I ...................... ... 62 v. C h a r d ..................... ................ ... 101 * v. 4th Devon Itegt............................... ... 102 * ♦Signifies n ot out. T his shows an a ggrega te o f 545, which is, in the circum stances, also his average. It will be seen that he exceeded the hun­ dred three times in four successive innings, being not out on each occasion. G . L. J e s s o p delighted the spectators at Bath last week by m akin g two separate hundreds in the m atch between Gloucester­ shire and Som erset. H is scores were 143 and 133 not out, and it w as a rem arkable coincidence that in each innings he should be at the w icket an hour-and-a-half and score off 53 of the 104 balls bow led to him . B rief particulars of his tw o double­ hundred perform ances in first-class cricket are as follow s :— 104 out of 153 in 70 m ins. ) Gloucestershire v. York- 130 out of 182 in 95 m ins. J shire, at Bradford, 1900. 143 out of 179 in 90 m ins. l Gloucestershire v.Som er- 133*out of 175 in 90 m ins. J set, at Bath, 1908. •Signifies not out. In last w eek’s m atch, therefore, he made as m any as 276 o f the 354 runs obtained during the three hours he was in. Five years a go, when playing for X II. of G lou­ cestershire against N ext X V I I I ., in Earl B athhurst’s Park at Cirencester, he scored 109 in his first innings and 106 not out in his second. D u r in g the last nine or ten years many interesting events have occurred in county m atches on the Bath ground. In 1900 Gloucestershire beat Somerset there by a w icket, although 32 runs were still re­ quired when Paish went in, last m an, and partnered R . W . R ice. In the follow ing year Somerset scored 561 (Lionel Palairet and Braund m ak in g 225 for the first w icket) against Lancashire, who were beaten by an innings and 117 runs. In I9C3, Jessop, playing for Gloucestershire, hit a 5 and eleven 4 ’s in scoring 81 out of 87 in 40 minutes, but the match with H am pshire was abandoned without a ball being bow led. O n the second day o f the latter gam e water was three feet deep on parts o f the enclosure, and on the last day four feet, o w in g to the overflow ing o f the A von, but the decision to abandon the match was not announced until the third day. Tyldesley played an innings o f 210 there in 1904, and tw o years later R . H . Spooner scored 240 for Lancashire, Jessop 80 and 66 for Gloucestershire, and Rhodes 64 and 115 not out and H irst 111 and 117 not out for Y orkshire. In the m ean­ tim e tw o rem arkable gam es had taken place in 1905, Som erset, after follow ing-on against Gloucestershire 194 behind, w in­ ning by 68 runs, and the Australians scor­ ing 609 for four w ickets (A rm strong, 303 not out). Last year the South A fricans played on the ground and defeated the hom e county by 358 runs. A.. W . L u p t o n , who played for Y ork ­ shire against Leicestershire last w eek, is a Lieutenant in the W est Y orks. R eg i­ ment, now stationed at M alplaquet Bar­ racks, Aldershot. Last season his fast bow ling accounted for 194 wickets at a cost of just over four runs each ; his batting average was 27. H e was born at Brad­ ford, and some tim e a g o was invited to assist H am pshire under the residential qualification.