Cricket 1908

26 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F eb . 27, 1908. linue the captaincy of the Surrey Eleven, although he would in all probability be able to assist the side occasionally. Much speculation was at once aroused as to who would be his successor, but it has only recently been officially announced that Mr. H . D. G. Leveson-Gower, one o f the keenest of cricketers, has promised to undertake the duties. The choice is one upon which the County, the Com ­ mittee, and the player named are all to be congratulated. A m on g the fifteen gentlemen the K ing has recently been pleased to approve to be of his Majesty’s Council are two whose names will be familiar to cricketers. I refer to Messrs. C. T. Giles and J. J. Parfitt. The former was a member of the Harrow X I . in 1868 and 1869, and was the bowler off whom Mr. C. I. Thornton made his famous straight drive over Lord’s Pavilion in the E ton and Harrow match of 1868. M r. Parfitt’s fast bow ling gained him a place in the Surrey and Somerset elevens. H e is one of the few cricketers who have obtained a wicket with the first ball they ever delivered in a first-class county match. T he Absolon Memorial Fund, not haviDg yet been closed, subscriptions may still be sent to Mr. H. V . L . Stanton, “ W anderer” of the Sportsman, or to Mr. Arthur W . Mynett, of 44, Wisteria Road, Lewisham. I am re­ quested to state that, although subscript­ ions are limited to half-a- guinea, any amount up to that sum w ill be welcomed. A g r e a t deal of comment was caused in the early part of the month when it became known that it was seriously contemplated to transfer one or more of Derbyshire’s home matches to Bramall Lane. Whether any of the “ home ” matches played outside the County could have been included in the competition for the Championship will not be argued, as on the 13th inst. the Derbyshire Committee decided not to entertain the suggestion. W alter W atts , who has been custodian of the Cambridge University Cricket G round— “ Fenner’s ” — for 47 years, and who is now in his eighty-first year, has been pensioned from Lady Day next, Dan Hayward, a brother of the Surrey cricketer, and a member of the Cambridgeshire County Eleven, has been appointed his successor. D uring the present month the Notts County C.C. have erected a little cross in the cemetery at Red H ill, Arnold, to the memory of the late George Anthony. Mr. Sandford Robinson, William and Jack Oscroft, and several members of the Sulley and Anthony families are buried in the same pi ice. M r . W alter M itchell , who died at Eskbank, near Edinburgh, on the 3rd inst., played cricket with the K ing when H is Majesty as a boy used to visit Dal­ keith Park regularly. During a recent stay at Dalkeith House the K ing con­ versed with Mr. Mitc'jell on the subject of their boyhood game?, and said he remembered quite distinctly playing with him at the wicket. On the day follow ing the public it ion o f the last issue of Cricket, a mild sensa­ tion was created by the receipt of a telegram from Melbourne stating that Tarrant, acting on behalf of Middlesex, had engaged the services of James Horan, one of the most promising young V ic­ torian cricketers, and of D wyer, an all­ round player belonging to Fitzroy. The report was at once contradicted by Tarrant, and Mr. Webbe stated most emphatically that Middlesex had no intention of qualifying any more Colonial players. It is said that the two cricketers will nevertheless sail for England to­ morrow. P l a t in g recently for the Maharaj ah of Kashmir’s team against Sialkote, A. H. Mehta, the Parsee cricketer, who was at one time engaged on the ground-staff at Old Trafford, took five wickets with con­ secutive balls. This reminds me that it was on the Sialkote ground in August, 1893, that Pipe - Major Sutherland obtained six wickets with successive deliveries for Sergeants of the Station v. Sergeants of the 11th Hussars. A l l readers of Cricket, and especially those interested in Surrey cricket, will be pleased to hear that Mr. C. A. Stein, who had a serious illness last year, is now fully restored to health. I t is with much regret that I have to announce the death on Thursday last of Mr. Montagu Cavenagh, late of the War Office. Although unknown even by name to the large majority of Cricket readers, Mr. Cavenagh was for some years on the staff of this paper, and in his position of sub-editor always worked loyally and well in its best interests. Of recent years he became well known to thousands of followers of the winter game through his articles in the Morning Leader and the Football Star above the signature of “ Oval.” O w ing to tha matter not having got beyond the Committee stage, I have hitherto purposely refrained from making any allusion to the movement which is about to be launched in connection with Mr. A . O. Jones and his association with Nottinghamshire cricket. As, however, an inkling of the matter has bacome public property, and some of the state­ ments which have appeared in the Press were inaccurate, it may be as well for me to state that a Testimonial fund is to be opened and that it is hoped £ 2,000 may be obtained. As the subscriptions are to be limited to ten guineas, this may prove a big task. The amount received will, I understand, be invested in trustees appointed by the County Committee. A. E. R e l f scored 157 and L . G. Hemus 148 in an innings of 539 for Auckland v. Canterbury at Christchurch in Decamber. The full scores of the inter-Provincial matches will appear in the next number of Cricket. I n the Annual Report and B ilanca- Sheet issued by the Ne v Zealand Cricket Council for the season 1906-1907 reference is made to the t>ur of M .C.C. team :— “ It is now a matter of history that the Marylebone Cricket Club was able to accept the invitation of the New Zealand Cricket Council to send an amateur team of cricketers to this Dominion last season. To those members who constituted the team belongs the honour of being the first accredited representatives of the famous Club that have visited the Islands................ The members of the Team, one and all, made themselves most popular both on and oil the field all through New Zealand. They “ played the game ” in every sense of the term—that is to say, they upheld the best traditions of English cricket, and nothing more need he said in th'dr praise. The tour of the Marylebone Cricket Club Team resulted in a loss to the Council of approximately £950. Owing, however, to the loyal support given by several of the affiliated Associations to the Council, it was happily able to meet its entire liabilities connected with this tour, and has out of the proceeds already refunded the sum of 12 s. 7 d. in the £ to all those Associations who gave guarantees towards the cost of the tour, and also to the personal guarantors of the Council upon the amount of their respective guaran­ tees.” The Piunket Shield in 1906 07 was awarded to Canterbury. Thb Adelaide Observer, referring to the great partnership by H ill and H irtigan in the third Test match, states :— “ The Adelaide public were so pleased with the double performance of Hill and Hartigan that the shilling subscription taken up by Mr. T. R. Bright to purchase mementoes for them was warmly responded to on the ground. At the close of the match Mr. Bright handed to C. Hill for Mrs. Hill a handsome chain and pendant in the form of a bird studded with pearls. To Hartigan he gave a gold chain and pendant. The inscription, with the necessary changes, was: 1 Presented to Roger Hartigan for world’s record, 243, with Clem Hill for eighth wicket, third Test match, Australia v. England, Adelaide, January, 1908.’ The total amount subscribed was over £24.” The inscription, in stating the stand of 243 to be a “ world’s record” for the eighth wicket is misleading, to say the least. If my memory does not deceive me, S. E. Gregory and Noble added over 440 together for that particular wicket for Sydney v. Warwick seventeen years ago. For Yorkshire v. Warwickshire, at Edgbaston, in 1896, Peel and Lord Hawke put on 292 after the fall o f the seventh wicket. ONK of the features of the Australian season has been the reverses sustained by New South Wales in their matches with Victoria and South Australia. For six years in succession they had won the Sheffield Shield, but this season they lost