Cricket 1908

J u n e 25, 1908. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 233 also accepted engagem ents at Brighton and H astings, where it w as that he learnt his cricket. H e is a slow to medium-paced bow ler and a very hard hitter ; his highest score to date is 188 for H astings F oot­ ballers v. H astings W anderers, in the Central G round, in June, 1906, when he made his runs in less than tw o hours. H e has gained considerable note as an exponent of the A ssociation gam e. A f e w weeks a go I drew attention to the batting o f H ayw ood, the you ng Kent pro­ fessional, who is qualifying for N orth­ amptonshire. Last week he made 48 and 179 not out for Peterborough against New B righton in totals o f 121 and 266. He had to that date played eleven innings for Peterborough with an average of 112. S. F. B a r n e s , playing for Porthill against L eek on the latter’s ground, on Saturday, took all ten wickets for 22 runs in an innings o f 36. Porthill made 138, Barnes being top scorer w ith 34. F o r som e time Lancashire had been m eeting with such little success that their victory over W arw ickshire, at E dgaston, last w eek, was bound to give rise to no little enthusiasm am on g the C ounty’s sup­ porters. T o get 286 in the fourth innings o f a m atch is at any tim e no easy task, but to m ake that number for the loss of five w ickets, when thirty wickets had gone down for 555 runs, was a very m eritorious achievement. Tyldesley (J. T .) and Sharp, by reaching three figures, plainly showed that, given a good w icket, they are still capable o f scoring well, and their success should be an inducement to the authorities at Old T rafford to effect an improvement in their ground. T y l d e s l e y ’s success at E dgbaston is proverbial. H e has now played as many as ten three-figures innings on the ground, nine being for his county and one for E ng­ land against Australia. The list is as follow s. Score. Year. 152* Lancashire v. W arw ickshire, 1895 >■ 1897 100 „ V. „ 1899 118 „ v. „ 1901 145 „ v. „ 1903 123* „ v. „ 1906 209 „ v. „ 1907 118 „ v. „ 1908 ♦Signifies not out. T he test-m atch score referred to w as 138 in 1902 . A t the annual Speech D ay at Malvern C ollege, on Thursday last, the H ead­ master, the Rev. S. R . James, announced the R ev. H enry Foster’s resignation of the ch arge o f his house. T h e father of the fam ous brotherhood, Mr. Foster w as him ­ self a go o d cricketer in his younger days, and played frequently for W orcestershire. In announcing the resignation, the R ev. S. R . James remarked :— “ I find that No. 5 House was opened in 1871, the same year, by the way, in w hich the first Repton m atch was played. Mr. Foster was the master who first took charge of No. 5, and in his charge it has rem ained ever since. He feels that the tim e has now com e for him to give it up. It is not for me here and now to speak of the services w hich Mr. Foster has rendered to the school at large, for I am truly glad to say that though he is giving up his house, he w ill not cease his connection w ith the school, and I trust that we m ay have him w ith us as Second Master for a long tim e to com e. B ut I should like to say a word about his career as house­ master. Thirty-seven years is a long tim e in any m an’s life : in a schoolm aster’s life it represents 111 term s. In Mr. Foster’s case it represents the fact that m ore than 500 boys have passed through his hands as house-master. A m ong those 500 boys I take leave to say that there is not a single one who does not feel to Mr. Foster— and, m ay 1 add, to Mrs. Foster ?—a debt of gratitute w hich cannot easily be repaid. I should think that an unbroken existence o f 37 years under one and the self-same m aster m ust be a record in the annals of school boarding-houses (headmasters of Shrewsbury alone excepted), and if so it is only one m ore of the m any records associated w ith the nam e of Foster: It is im possible to say now , and for years to com e it w ill be im possible to appreciate fully w hat an elem ent No. 5 has been in the life of the school, and w hat an elem ent the Foster fam ily has been in the life of No. 5. I need hardly rem ind you that our present Senior Prefect, w ho is also head of cricket, football, and rackets, is no unw orthy representative of the clan, and I am glad to know that the youngest of the brothers w ill rem ain with us for a while to be head of No. 5 under its new m aster and in its new conditions.” T he R ig h t H on. Alfred Lyttelton, after distributing the prizes, paid a well- deserved tribute to M r. Foster in the fol­ low in g w ord s:— “ H e w as quite certain that that great bulw ark against time in the sporting and other worlds, to whom reference had been m ade that day— the R ev. H . Foster— had made his influence in the C ollege felt in that spirit o f courtesy and true chivalry in the sports of which he had been so great a master, and to the honour o f which he had devoted so many gallant son s.” I n the course of the sam e speech Mr. Lyttelton remarked :— “ I have never con­ cealed my view that, chiefly ow in g to their publicity, athletics are generally exa g­ gerated at the present time. I do not say it is any f^ult o f the Press, but, to a certain extent, the Press lend countenance and support to that tendency in sport. There is an exaggeration in it. I do not think— and I speak here as an expert— that any gam es are so well worth playing as those which are played am ongst on e’s own fellows, and without the necessity of great publicity or o f lon g accounts written about them in the newspapers. T he tendency is when sports becom e too public that they lose their true essence, which, after all, is that o f recreation.” A c c o r d in g to the A thletic N ew s , it is said on authority that the Im perial cricket scheme for 1909 w ill not now be per­ severed with. T h is is the best cricket news that we have heard for som e time, as the whole proposal was fantastically preposterous and U topian rather than utilitarian. T he Australian B oard o f Control has cabled to the M .C .C . asking the club and the counties to receive the Austra­ lians in 1909, and has invited the South A fricans to visit Australia next year. South A frica, with ineffable nonchalance, not to use a stronger word, feels that the whole question o f the Im perial cricket scheme will have to be reconsidered. It would be far wiser to let this chim erical notion be forgotten, and let Australia and South A frica interchange visits with E ngland as they have done for these many years past. O n Tuesday the follow ing m essage was sent to the Australian Board o f Control :— “ The follow ing resolution has been passed b y the M arylebone Cricket Club Comm ittee as an in ­ struction to their representative at the m eeting of the Counties on July 3 n e x t :— ‘ That a visit from an Australian eleven in 1909 should not be refused because they have declined to take part in a triangu­ lar contest, but the M.C.C. w ould prefer to see the proposed triangular contest carried out.’—Signed, F. E. L acey.” It will be seen that nothing is said in this m essage about the Australians being the only visiting team next year, but perhaps that w as understood. A sp e c ia l General M eeting of the Surrey County C .C . w as held in the Pavilion at the O val on Thursday afternoon last for the purpose o f announcing the result of the ballot on Mr. A. M . L atham ’s amend­ ment with regard to the com pulsory re­ tirement o f Comm ittee-m en. T his pro­ vided that four m embers of the Comm ittee shall retire every year, and not be eligible for re-election for another twelve months. T he voting resulted :— For the A m en d m en t.................929 A gainst the Amendment ... 289 The necessary m ajority having been ob­ tained, the amendment was carried. The total poll amounted to 1,234, sixteen papers being spoilt. N ext year Mr. Latham will m ove that the Comm ittee have pow er to co-opt m embers to serve on sub-Com - mittees. Lord Alverstone presided over the m eeting, which lasted only a few minutes. P la yin g for Band of Brothers against Navy and Marines, at Chatham , on Thurs­ day last, Capt. C. B. O. Sym ons, R .E ., made 134 runs out o f 140 scored whilst he w as in. I n opening a new sports ground at T otland Bay, on Saturday, C ol. A lex­ ander Leith, Conservative candidate for the Isle of W igh t, said that when a person becam e a Parliam entary candidate many people thought he at once became a bank. He had been asked to join every row in g club, bicycle club, cricket club, football club, quoits club, and even a m arbles club in the Isle o f W’ ight. H e had been asked to build churches o f every denom ination, and to m ake a harbour at Freshwater Bay. T h e writer of the admirable cricket notes in the M orning P ost s a y s:— We suggest that the w ant of keenness w hich characterises College cricket has som ething to d