Cricket 1908

J u ly 3 0, 1908. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 3 i 3 “ W . G .,” as usual, appears to be the cricketer m ost m arked dow n by the auto- graph-hunter, and in this connection an am using story is g o in g the rounds. The “ Old M a n ,” upon being invited by a little girl of ten summers or so to hand over his signature upon a visiting-card, re­ marked, “ But I gave you one yesterday.” “ I k n o w ,” replied the little m a id ; “ but I ’ve just swapped that for three B ishops’. ” E r n e s t N eedham , by m akin g 107 not out and 104 against E ssex at Leyton, has caused his name to appear in a very select list. S corin g has been so easy a matter during the last twelve years or so that the feat of obtaining tw o separate hun­ dreds in a first-class m atch has becom e quite com m on, but it is nevertheless 1 great rarity for the perform ance to be accom plished by a left-hander. T h e late M r. F . M . Lucas, one of the best of all such batsm en, never did the fe a t; neither did M r. Cranston, Peel, Scotton, nor either o f the three great Australians, M oses, D arling, and H ill. T om M ars­ den, too, flourished when first-class m atches were few and far between and had perform ed all his great feats by the time he w as twenty-five years of age, whilst Jam es Saunders, who scored 99 in the Gentlemen v. Players’ m atch of 1825 and 100 in that of 1827, died at the early a ge of twenty-nine. Prior to last week the feat o f a left-hander m aking tw o separate hundreds in a first-class match had been perform ed only by J. H . K in g and C . B. L lew ellyn ; the form er made 104 and 109 not out for Players against Gentlem en at L o rd ’s in 1904, and the latter 102 and 100 for H am pshire v. Derbyshire at D erby in the follow in g year. By i curious coincidence neither K in g, L lew el­ lyn, nor N eedham had the satisfaction c being on the w inning side. A . E . N o r t h took all ten wickets for 21 runs in a total o f 49 for Bedminster against Penarth on the form er’s ground on Saturday. N ine o f the w ickets were bowled down. I t m ay be as well to rem ind readers of Gossip that the match between Lancashire and Y orksh ire comm ences at Old T ra f­ ford on Saturday, and not on the A ugust B ank-H oliday as originally ar­ ranged. T he alteration w as made on the suggestion o f the Lancashire authorities, who w ere desirous o f accordin g a gocc trial to the idea o f week-end cricket. A fter the match the Y orkshire side will continue their journey to Dublin, where they are due to meet the Gentlem en of Ireland. T he county will be without Lord H aw ke, D enton, H a ig h , and H irst for the latter m atch, and the captaincy will be undertaken by Hunter. T h e follow in g rem arks on barracking appeared in The M orning Post o f M on­ day :— It is often possible to learn much from our foreign visitors, but we trust that spectators on our cricket grounds will never acquire the arts of greeting their favourites which during the last week have been audible from Shepherd’s Bush even unto Piccadilly. A “ barracker” armed with a rattle or a squeaker would be quite unendurable. He is bad enough without artificial aids. It is a curious thing that two of the most obvious results of the spread of education should be a taste for the making of con­ certed noises, and a deterioration of manners among persons of the classes to whom education is more or less of a novelty. The little learning which they have acquired is at present a dangerous thing. In time no doubt intellectual advance will bring even to the barracker a truer sense of proportion. He will realise that the payment of sixpence at the gate of a county ground does not confer on him the right to spoil the enjoyment of the play by others, and that it is more dignified to exercise his undoubted right of criticism as an individual rather than as one of a mass of “ asses, apes, and cuckoos.” Until that happy time comes patience is an invaluable virtue, and a sorely-tired, for barracking is like dram-drinking : the appetite grows by what it feeds on. One would not be surprised to find that there are as many who enjoy hooting at a slow scorer as watching a Jessop or a Hutchings on the job. It might do some good if such persons could be prosecuted for unlawful assembly, but it is to be feared that only in time and patience lies the real remedy. T w o members o f the Sussex team in C ox and V ine have been engaged by the Jam Sahib o f N aw anagar to g o out to India in N ovem ber. T his will m ake their fourth cricket season in succession, for last winter they were with the M aharajah o f K uch Bahar. Doubtless the Sussex authorities carefully considered whether it would be advisable to grant perm ission for the tw o players to again accept such an engagem ent, seeing that it would mean that by the comm encem ent of next season they would already have been playing al­ m ost without a break for tw o years. A t the end of last w eek three well- know n cricketers scored 99, R . T . C raw ­ ford doing so for C ane H ill Asylum against Fulham , the R ev. W . R ashleigh for C an­ terbury against O xford University Authen­ tics, and J. H . S loggett for Green Jackets against Eton Ram blers. T he last-named w as not out, the eleventh man not proving equal to keeping up his w icket until he reached three-figures. G lo u c e s t e r s h ir e are to be heartily con ­ gratulated upon their success at Trent B ridge last week. A capital b ow lin g per­ form ance in the last stage of the match brought about the victory which Jessop’s tw o fine innings had rendered possible. T he latter, in addition to leading the side very ably, scored 153 runs in the match out of 166 obtained whilst in in 128 m in utes; in the first innings he scored off 33 of the 70 balls he received and in the second off 37 o f 56. In the second innings o f N otts. Ford dism issed H ard­ staff, Payton, John Gunn and Alletson in the course o f six overs for 9 runs, and, although Irem onger, O ates and H allam scored well, Gloucestershire pulled off the match by 59 runs four m inutes before time. A t D erby, on Saturday, Jasper Draper, aged 17, was remanded for a week on a charge o f the m anslaughter o f W illiam Burns. D u ring a gam e o f cricket on some waste ground on the previous even­ ing there was a heated dispute, and Draper is alleged to have struck Burns on the head with a hom e-m ade bat. Burns fell and died within a few minutes. Accused said he w as defending him self. In the course o f F riday’s play at L ord ’s, Tarrant, who had previously obtained his 1ooth w icket o f the season, m ade his 1,oooth run. H e is the only player who has yet accom plished the double feat this year. E n c o r e “ W . G . ” P laying for London County against Banstead at the Crystal Palace on the 23rd inst. the G .O .M . per­ form ed the hat-trick. O n e o f the best Public School perform ­ ances of the year w as accom plished by Repton on their ow n ground against the Quidnuncs on the 18th inst. T h e latter, who w ere assisted by five Blues in the persons o f M . Falcon, R . A. Y ou n g , J. F. Ireland, C . C . G. W righ t, and H . J. G oodw in, were dism issed for 184 and beaten by nine w ickets. R . Sale hit eigh ­ teen 4 ’s in his 106 not out for the School. D e rb y s h ir e , I hear, have a very prom is­ in g batsman in F . H . Taylor, who is only eighteen years o f a ge. H e has been scor­ in g well for W irksw orth, and up to Satur­ day had an average o f 63.71 for seven com ­ pleted innings. T w ice he has failed to score and once he was run out before reaching double figures, but tw o not out centuries and an unfinished effort o f 71 against Belper M eadow s helped to make his a ggrega te into one o f 446 for eleven innings comm enced. I t has been suggested that W arw ick ­ shire should meet Staffordshire in a friendly match before the close o f the sea­ son. T h e latter, for w hom D evey made his first appearance last w eek, have a good side, and one w hich, with Barnes in form , should prove equal to g iv in g a good gam e to m ore than one o f the first-class counties. Am on g the cricketers w ho have a birth qualification for Staffordshire, but do not assist the side, are W . B. Burns, A . C . S. Glover, and T . S. Fishw ick. T h e m atch-w inning capacity o f the H am pshire eleven should be m uch in­ creased by the inclusion of the old W in ­ chester and C am bridge m edium -paced bow ler, H . C . M cD onell, in the side. H e headed the C am bridge averages in 1903 and 1904, and in the latter year, when playing for Surrey against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham , bow led unchanged with J.