Cricket 1908

2l8 CR ICK ET : A W EEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J u n e 1 8 , 1908 . J. N . B u c h a n a n , who scored 113 last week for C am bridge University against Mr. G . J. V . W e ig a ll’s X I ., and helped R . A. Y ou n g to m ake 194 for the first w icket, was in the Charterhouse Eleven in 1903 and tw o follow in g years. In 1905, when he was captain, he averaged over 54 runs an innings, scorin g 139 against W estm inster and 70 against W ellington. In 1906 he was the only Freshm an to obtain his Blue at C am bridge. A m on g several go od scores that he m ade that season m ay be m entioned 118 v. N ortham ptonshire and 115 v. G lou­ cestershire. Last year, on slow w ickets, he did not score so heavily, but at L o rd ’s he m ade 104 against M .C .C . and G round, and a m ost valuable 46 in the final stage of the University m atch. H e is a fine field, and a batsm an who m akes the m ost o f his great height and lon g reach. V e r y m any people have been declaring durin g the past month or so that O xford possess a far stronger side than C am bridge. Y et in the latter part of last week the latter beat M r. W e ig a ll’s X I . by ten w ickets, and the form er suffered a reverse at the hands o f a weak W orcestershire team to the ex­ tent o f 332 runs. Such is “ the glorious uncertainty ” o f the gam e. There have been few , if indeed any, better all-round perform ances this season than that by G. H . Sim pson-H ay w ard on behalf of a rather w eak W orcestershire eleven against the University at O x ford 011 Thursday last. H e w as sixth in order on the batting list, yet he hit so vigorously that by lunch-tim e he had made 104 not out. As m ost readers o f Gossip are prob­ ably aw are, it is very seldom indeed that a player m akes as m any as a hundred prior to the adjournm ent, and especially on the opening day o f a m atch, when play gener­ ally starts half-an-hour later than on the others. Sim pson-H ayw ard on the same day took six wickets for 13 runs in an innings o f 85. The batsmen w ere all at sea with his lobs and appeared to be greatly puzzled as to which w ay the ball would break. A t Portsm outh on Friday and Saturday last 1,155 runs were m ade for eighteen wickets in the m atch betw een H am pshire R overs and United Services. T h e R overs scored 418 for six w ickets, innings declared closed (S. S. B onham -C arter, 229) and 203 for three w ick e ts ; U nited Services, who had one m an absent, m ade 534 (Lieut. L e g ­ gett, 169 ; C omm ander W atson, 103). The B ath H erald has opened a Shilling Fund in connection with B raund’s benefit m atch, which will take place in A ugust. Subscriptions have already been received from several influential persons, including the M ayor o f Bath, the D u ke of B eaufort, and Messrs. S. M . J. W ood s and J. D aniell. m atch at Pot H all last Friday. O n the follow in g afternoon R . C. Murray obtained five w ickets with consecutive deliveries for W est K ent W anderers v. Stockw ell Park at Blackheath. T h e M .C .C . have, with the gracious approval o f H is M ajesty the K in g, selected a badge to be w orn, on a dark blue cap, by English cricketers playing for E ngland in Test m atches in this country. A. H . F y f f e , playing in a twelve-a-side m atch for O ld W ykeham ists against W in ­ chester C ollege on the 8th and 9th inst., took all eleven w ickets in the first innings at a cost o f only 22 runs. T he score o f the innings w as as fo llo w s :— "W in ch estfr C o lle g e . W . E. Parke, c K . 0 . M . Gray, c K . 0 . H unter, b Fyffe ... 0 H unter, b Fyffe ... 13 A . J. Evans, b Fyffe 13 R . H . Fowler, b Fyffe 13 S. H . H abershon, b W . A . Tresenter, not F y f f e ......................... 8 out ............................. 1 A . C. H uson, lbw , b J. B . Balfour, b Fyffe 0 F y ffe ............................. 2 W . W . Young b B. Blood, b Fyffe 19 F yffe.............................. 0 L . H . Bury, b Fyffe... 0 Byes, &c..................... 10 G. H oprung, c Little, — b F y ffe ... 4 T o t a l ................ 83 In the second innings, which amounted to 224, he took only three wickets^ W h il s t R obert R elf and K illick were batting in the first innings o f Sussex, at H orsham on M onday, a lady w alked calm ly across the playing pitch to the pavilion. T h is rem inds me that som e years a go, whilst an important m atch was in progress at N ottingham , tw o men took off their boots and raced bare-footed across the centre o f the ground for a small w ager whilst the fieldsmen were crossing over. W h itr — H e a d .— On the 10th o f June, at St. Bartholom ew ’s, Sydenham, by the Rev. Peron Holm es, Frederick Charles, elde. t son o f the late Fred trick W illiam W hite, to Ida Florence, eldest daughter o f the late W . W . Bead and o f Mrs. Read, “ N u tboum e,” L ow er Addiscom be Road, Croydon. S. W il s o n took five w ickets, all bow led dow n, in the course of an over for I ley- w ood v. W ak den , in a Central L eague T h e success o f Surrey over Lancashire at M anchester this week w as as em phatic and com plete as any w ell-wisher of the side could have desired. In all departments of the gam e they proved themselves superior to their opponents, and Lancashire had the worst o f the play throughout. It w as very unfortunate that H ornby was injured and obliged to retire from the match, but the heavy reverse sustained by his side cannot seriously be attributed to his absence. The inclusion of R ushby in the visiting team w as m ore than justified, seeing that he and Lees bow led unchanged throughout the m atch. But the m ost w elcom e feature of the gam e was the superb batting of Leveson-G ow er, who played one o f the best and pluckiest innings o f his career. As the wickets are at present at O ld T rafford, no little nerve is necessary for one to face Brearley there when bow ling his fa stest; but to do so and score over 70 without a false stroke bespeaks som ething very nearly akin to genius. C o m m e n t in g upon the abolition of boundaries, the M orning Post rem a rk s:— “ It is all very well to run about for five or six hours on one day in the w eek, but to do it for six w ould be killing. One wonders what T yldesley’s m ileage for a season would be, especially as, not being a bow ler, he would get no chance of goin g on point duty. O nly the leisurely cricketers, whose names need not be m entioned, would last for lon g if all hits had to be run out. Men like Tyldesley, Jessop, H irst and C raw ford would be the first to w ork them ­ selves to death in the interests o f their sides. ” A ft e r enjoying a spell of gloriously fine weather, cricketers have again had their matches ruined by rain.’ Yesterday no play was possible on m any o f the chief grounds, the consequence being that several interest­ in g m atches were abandoned. In the matter o f weather H orsham w as particu­ larly unfortunate, seeing that play there was out of the question on tw o consecutive days. So m any im portant fixtures are arranged for the near future, that it is to be hoped the present dreary conditions will not continue and so prove a spoil-sport. D u rin g the week both Y orkshire and Notts are due to meet M iddlesex at L o rd ’s, and, so far as one can ju d ge at the m om ent of w riting, the first of the m atches will not be decided on a hard w icket, which is to be regretted. WITH THE M.C.C. IN AU STRAL IA * M ajor P. T revor, w ho accom panied the last E nglish team to Australia in an official capacity, has here reproduced the reports o f the m atches he contributed at the time to the colum ns of the Daily Telegraph. There are also som e additional chapters dealing with various aspects of present-day Australian cricket. T he scores given are, unfortunately, m ost unreliable and they often lack the com pleteness which the com ­ piler o f such a b ook should m ake every effort to attain. At tim es, as in the return match with N ew South W ales, the initials o f Colonial players are not given, whilst frequently, when an attempt has been made to supply them, they have been recorded incorrectly : thus, w e read o f T . M acartney, T . C arkeek, E. Cotter, T . B laxland, &c. T h e extras, too, have been “ jum bled to­ geth er,” and apparently no effort has been m ade to record w ho were responsible for the no-balls and wides. T he nam es of the players are occasionally set out in the scores in m ost curious order, one o f the m ost noticeable instances appearing on pa ge 160, where initialness W addy is shown to have gon e in tenth and scored 107 not out. And surely such an entry as “ J. N. C raw ford, throw n out, 43 ” should not have appeared in such a book as this. It seems a pity that som eone well acquainted with present-day Australian cricket was not invited to look through the proof-sheets, for by that means very m any slips could have been avoided. T he book consists of 290 pages and has paper covers. * With t/ie M.C.C. in Amtralia. B y M ajor P. Trevor. L ondon : Alston Rivers, Ltd. Price, Is. net.