Cricket 1908

S e p t . 3, 190S. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 393 foregone conclusion, and on Saturday, after being 86 behind on the first innings in a low-scoring m atch, th ey dismissed the Philadelphians for 37 and pulled through b y four wickets. In the final stage of the L ord’s m atch Woolley, who should develop into an E n glan d player in the near future, took six wickets for 8 runs in tw enty-seven balls : at Canter­ bury, Fairservice obtained six for 12 in eleven overs, bowling through the inn­ ings. In each match, too, Hum phreys batted very w ell at a critical time, m ak ­ ing 44 against M iddlesex and 43 against the Philadelphians, on each occasion without losing his wicket. Kent have m any excellent young players at com ­ mand and the outlook for the county is decidedly bright. “ W e all love K en t—or those among us who do not are singularly lacking in taste,” says “ L on g-leg” in the Sporting L i f e :— “ There is that about the team which kindles enthusiasm . Their charac­ ter as an eleven seems a reflection of the pleasant surroundings o f their m any grounds. The spirit of true cricket must come down with the cool breezes which blow so cleanly through waving trees from the low wooded hills in the distance. A fter all, an environment counts for much. I t can be responsible for the shaping of personality. I t is easier to be dignified in a palace than in a slum, and a m an m ay carry him self with an air in rich garments who would hang his head if clothed in rags. And so a team playing their cricket am idst suitable su r­ roundings m ay well be expected to live up to the true spirit of the game in a w ay impossible to a side whose ground is a mere patch of green among bricks and m ortar, and who sight their catches against a background o f chimney stacks and smoke.” “ I t is, perhaps, sufficient for the K en t team to keep alive the grand sporting traditions of their county,” continues the same w riter. “ Where they finish in the Championship is a m inor matter. I t is the w ay, not the percentage, that is of chief importance. Cricket has become v ery much m ixed up w ith money, and although competitive cricket among the counties m ay carry with it a great m any advantages, it has the effect of putting the brake upon enterprise, and of inducing teams to place safety before all else. B u t K en t have retained their souls in spite of it all. T hey do not give the impression o f playing a match with their eyes on their points all the time, as so m any counties do. W inning or losing, they strike one alw ays as ‘ playing the gam e.’ And so—we all love K en t.” service for Lancashire during the last few seasons, w ill be lost to county cricket, for next year at least, as he has accepted an engagement with the K ilm arnock C.C. in Scotland. A s recently as last week he took nine wickets for 66 runs against Leicestershire. E r n e s t N e e d h a m is to be presented by his colleagues with the bat with which he made his two separate hundreds for D erbyshire v. E ssex at Leyton. The bat is to be ornamented w ith a suitably in ­ scribed silver plate. I t is announced that F ran k H arry, of D evonshire, who has done good all-round D u r in g 1908 the Oxford U niversity Authentics played ‘2 1 matches, winning 10, losing 6 and draw ing 5. M r. Cecil H eadlam , in his very entertaining Ten Thousand Miles through India and Burma, makes the follow ing reference to the formation of the club :— “ The name Autlientics, I may mention, caused a good deal of difficulty to the Post Office Babus. I was frequently addressed as the President of the Oxford Authorities—a title T really could not claim ; or as the Honourable Secretary of Oxford Arithmetic, a position to which, in my wildest moments, I have never dared to aspire. “ Some twenty years ago, not for the first or last time, the honour of representing the ’Varsity on the cricket field fell into the hands of a clique. Ju st as literary men in London run, like baby-linen, in sets, so at the ’Varsity it was not enough to be a gooa cricketer to be given a trial for your Blue. It was necessary to belong to a certain set or to have been at a certain public school. The result was an inferior eleven and repeated disasters at Lord’s. Now in those days there came on a visit to Oxford one Everard Britten Holmes, an enthusiast for cricket. And he, being much struck by the number of good cricketers who were never tried in the Parks, jest­ ingly undertook to get together an *Authentic ’ Oxford team, which should beat the side that was chosen to give battle to Cambridge. “ From that jest sprang the Club of Oxford University Authentics, which Mr. Britten Holmes founded shortly afterwards, and of which he has been ever since the very popular and devoted manager and secretary. That fine athlete and most original-minded of philosophers, Professor Thomas Case, was the first president of the club.” To date the Authentics have played 606 matches, winning 2 7 1, losing 96, and draw ing 239. F o l l o w e r s of cricket, and especially of Su rrey cricket, m ay be rem inded that H ayes takes his benefit at the Oval on the last three days of next week. The teams w ill b e :— N o r t h .— Lord Hawke (capt.), A. H. Hornby, E. Smith, L. G. Wright, Hirst, Newstead, Tyldesley, Denton, Haigh, Dean, and Hunter. S o u th . —H. D. G. Leveson-Gower (capt.), P. F. Warner, P. R. Johnson, B. J. T. Bosanquet, J. W. H. T. Doxiglas, N. A. Knox, Hayward, Hayes, Relf (A. E.), Woolley, and Strudwick. These are strong sides and only fine weather is necessary to ensure the m atch being a success. F r o m The Morning P o s t :— One feature of the season now closing is the small number of promising new players who have been discovered. In past years there has generally appeared some colt of whom the gossip of pavilions lias prophesied that he w ill win many matches for his county, but this year there has been no school­ boy like Mr. J . R. Mason or Mr. A. C. MacLaren, and 110 young professional fresh from club cricket like Rhodes or Blythe who has at once taken a place among players of the highest class. It may be that the gap between county cricket and that which youths of nineteen or twenty 'can get is yearly in­ creasing. First-class batsmen strike one as being quicker on their feet, and therefore more ready to get into the best position for attack and defence than they were even a few years ago. Yet run-getting has not notably increased. The inference is that bowlers have improved po.ri passu. Consequently there is more for a “ young ’un ■’ to learn. As one reads recently published books on the game one cannot help wondering what would happen to the giants of twenty or thirty years ago if they were introduced as striplings into county cricket of to­ day. W. G. would, of course, get his 3,000 runs and his hundred wickets not later than his second season ; but one may doubt if the other great batsmen of his best days would achieve immediate success when opposed to a swerving bowler with two slips, an extra-cover, and a man ‘*in the gap.” And what would they do with balls that “ flop in the air ”—the phrase comes from Mr. Warner’s book describing his Australian tour ? As for the old-time bowlers, Mr. Jessop would be something of a revelation to them, and those who delivered a succession of high-toned slows, pitching an accurate length, \*ould wonder what they were playing at when Hirst stepped right in front of all three stumps and hit 4’s to square-leg. Cricket has so changed that comparison between the old and the new is impossible. A R e u t e r message from Johannesburg announces that South A frica’s B oard of Control has decided not to entertain the invitation extended by Australia’s B oard of Control to visit Australia next season, owing to there not being sufficient time to organise a representative team . I t was also officially made known on F rid ay last that the M .C.C. have informed the South A frican Cricket Association that they are unable to accept their invitation to send out a team after the conclusion of the present season. S o m e o n e has kindly forwarded me a copy of the Annual Report and B alance Sheet o f the Green Point C .C., of Cape Town, for the year ending Ju n e 30th, 1908. D uring the season of 1907-8 it was found possible to put seven team s into the field, all of which were entered for the different competitions o f the Western Province Cricket Union, with, on the whole, very creditable results. I t is doubtful whether an y other cricket organi­ sation in South A frica has ever had so m an y elevens playing under its control. In the different Cup competitions in which the Club participated the following were the results :— Played. Won. Lost. Drn. Senior Championship ........... 14 5 5 4- Junior Championship (2A ) ... 10 8 6 2 n >, (2B )... 10 8 7 1 „ „ (2C) ... 10 3 11 2 Pennant Championship (3A) 14 10 3 1 » » (3B) 14 3 1 1 , 0 (3C) 10 7 7 2 The Club possesses a bowler of much prom ise in E . A . Budgeon, who took eighty-one wickets for 11-8 0 rim s each for the first eleven. D u r in g M onday night half-an-inch of rain fell in Scarborough, and it came as a surprise to everyone when it was found possible to start p lay at the usual time on the next day. It appears that, u n ­ known to the captains, the wicket had been covered, so that, whereas the outfield was soft and wet, the pitch remained hard and dry. This action on the part of the ground authorities very possibly cost Yorkshire the match, for the county’s bowlers would have proved very difficult on a drying wicket. H ad it not been for this it is more than likely that Denton would not have had the distinction of m aking two separate hundreds in a match for the second tim e in his career. It would be difficult to im agine a more dreary ending to a county season than that experienced this week. B ourne­ mouth, the Oval, and Brighton all had their cricket spoilt by the weather, and if, as seems not unlikely, there is more rain to come players and spectators alike w ill be glad when the last ball o f the