Cricket 1908

A ugust 27, 1908. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 377 and the team required 1 1 to win. Halli- day scored G, and was preparing to receive what w as supposed to be the first ball of the last over, when suddenly the visiting fielders left the ground. The Preston umpire called them back, and showed the time to the other umpire. The visitors at first refused to return, and stumps were drawn. Some members of the team had reached the pavilion, but were called back by their captain. The umpire, however, resented the w ay he had been treated, and declined to allow further play. A l b e r t B a k e r 's connection w ith the the ground-staff at the Oval w ill cease at the end of the present season. H e was born at Farnham on November 28th, 1872, and has been engaged sixteen years by the Su rrey County C .C . H ad he been identified with almost an y other side he would probably have played regularly in first-class cricket for a number of years, but Su rrey have had so m any great run- getters during the last decade or so that only once did he play for the county from start to finish o f the season. That was in 190 5, when he made over twelve hundred runs with an average of fJl'42. H is greatest feat was to score 90 and 128 not out in the match on the Leicester ground in the year mentioned. O n Saturday a youth inquired of the M agistrate at Tottenham who was liable for a window which he had broken. He was, he said, playing cricket in Fin sbu ry P ark when he hit the ball over the rail­ ings through the window of a passing tram . A s he was playing on the ground allotted for playing cricket, he questioned his liab ility for the damage. H e was, however, advised to pay the damage to avoid a summons. A g r e a t m any Scottish cricketers are hoping that the Australians w ill find it convenient to p lay a m atch at Perth or Dundee next year. Perth is one o f the chief centres of cricket beyond the Tweod, and a visit of the Colonials to the city would do much for the good of the game there. I n the course of a letter to M r. C. W. B utler, of Hobart, “ W . G .” expressed the opinion that in the last series o f Test m atches in Australia the better team won, and added : “ I t is a great pity the M .C.C. here did not send out our best team . I am wondering what your fellows w ill do when they next come home. I f they do not unearth some new first-class bowlers, they w ill not take back the ashes. We have very few young bowlers who are any good at the present lim e. The South A fricans are ju st now a v e ry good team , and w ill take all the beating we can give them . T h ey have three or four good bowlers, and they are sure to improve. I think they can give England and Australia a long start at the present time in this department of the gam e.” A n o t h e r long partnership for the last wicket has to be recorded. P layin g for E ssex Club and Ground against South- fleet, at Leyton, on the 19tli inst., A. C. B ussell (73) and F . J . Freem an (04 not out) put on 14 3 together after nine wickets had fallen for 2 2 1 . B ussell hit two 5 ’s and eleven 4’s and Freem an a 5 and twelve 4’s. G. L . J e s s o p , w riting in the Athletic News, tells how a batsm an on his return to the pavilion, having had his leg stump Knocked out of the ground, suggested to his captain, who happened to bo the ingoing batsman, that he should appeal because the umpire had given “ middle and o ff” instead of “ m iddle and leg.” The hand is the hand of M r. B . Trovato. C o m m e n tin g upon the fact that after the end of Ju ly the demands made on the bowler’s stam ina have begun to tell, The Morning Post rem arks :— “ Som ething m ight be done to lessen that demand by reverting to five-ball overs and lighten­ ing the ball a trifle. A n y alteration in the implements of the gam e is only to be made with the utmost caution ; and exactly how much weight can safely be taken from the ball would have to be a m atter o f careful experiment. E ase of delivery would be dearly purchased if the price paid were a loss o f pace and fire from the pitch. B u t it is hard to see any sound reason for objecting to five-ball overs. The time lost could easily be made good out of the time now wasted by dawdling, by trial balls, and by the excessive taking of guard.” O w in g to the fact that B raun d was absent with the E n glish team in Australia during the winter, the Liberals in B ath have objected to his vote on the ground that his occupation was broken for six months. The case is to be contested before the B evisin g B arrister. T h e Adelaide Observer states that D . B . A . Gehrs intends to take up wicket- keeping in earnest, and that he w ill wear the gloves regularly in future for North Adelaide. This is as it should be if Gehrs is to be recognised as the keeper for the State. H is known batting ability, com ­ bined w ith his qualification as a w icket­ keeper trained into form, should further strengthen his candidature for the next Australian team which w ill come over. I n another column w ill be found the full score of a m atch played in North Queensland in the last week in Ju n e, in which one of the sides was dismissed without scoring. F o r the particulars I am indebted to M r. Geo. Geeson, of Bipple Creek, H erbert Iiiver, who knows several of the players belonging to each club, and vouches for the authenticity of the score. I believe I am correct in saying that the last previous instance of a side collapsing in Australia without a run being scored was in November, 1906, when, in a match between State School teams, George Street dismissed Faraday Street, in Melbourne, for 9 and 0. T h e Johannesburg correspondent of the Sportsman says, “ I am hoping in the course o f a m ail or so to give par­ ticulars of a new proposal to be put forward by M r. A . B ailey, which will re ve a l his tenacity of purpose and demonstrate that his energy in the direction of m aterialising a scheme of some sort has not abated one jo t. He informed me this week-end that he is not ready yet w ith his new scheme, having other people to consult, but that he hopes to be in a few days.” En glish cricketers w ill receive this news with m ixed feelings. H . H . C o r n is h , the editor o f the American Cricketer, performed the hat- trick' for Belm ont v. Germantown Team D., at Elmwood recently, and took eight wickets for 2 1 runs in an innings of 76. M any followers of the gam e over here will perhaps be able to recall him playing for M iddlesex against the Australians at L ord’s in 1893. T h e North-Western Tournament held at Chicago in the early part of the present month was m arked by a very noteworthy batting performance on the part of H . Livingstone, of the Pittsburg F ield Club, who scored as follows in consecutive in n in g s:— August 1 ... Pittsburg V. Wanderers ........... . 26 ,, 3 ... Pittsburg v. St. Louis ............ *102 „ 5 ... P.ttsburg v. Winnipeg ............*119 ,, 7 ... United States X I. v. Canada X I. *106 * Signifies not out. In this connection it m ay be recalled that on consecutive days in August, 1906, H . N. B . Cobbett, of the V ictoria C.C., B ritish Columbia, made 14 3 v. New Westm inster, 49 v. Nelson, 144 v. B urrard, and 15 2 v. United E leven . T h e Championship of the above-men- tioned Tournam ent was won by the W anderers, of Chicago. I f space permits, the fu ll scores w ill appear in the next issue of Cricket. M o r e than a passing word deserves to be said in reference to the recent batting of J . W . H . T. Douglas. In successive innings for E ssex he scored 10 2 not out v. Sussex, 1 1 5 v. Kent, and 88 v. Surrey, all the runs being made at Leyton. G enerally he adopts stone-walling tactics, but his innings against the Su rrey attack showed very plainly that he is fully cap­ able of playing bright cricket when he has a mind to do so. H e was in the Felsted X I . from 1899 to 19 0 1, made his debut for E ssex in the last-mentioned season, and does not complete his tw enty - sixth year until next week. In first-class matches in 1906 he scored 1,0 15 runs and took 93 wickets, whilst last year his aggregates were respectively 992 and 90. T his season he has made 1,044 runs and taken 75 wickets. The Dail'j Telegraph points out that some m isapprehension has arisen as to the position of Lancashire on the Advisory Comm ittee. It has been stated that by failing to win their return match with Worcestershire, Lancashire fell so