Cricket 1908

A p r il 23, 1908. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 89 stronger than the M .C.C.’s team as their four victories to one might lead one to infer ; indeed, he thought that if luck had not entered into the matter the Englishmen might have won the rubber. He did not consider the Australian bowling very strong, but added that several fine young batsmen were coming to the front. He thought that, on a good wicket, the South African team of last year might have beaten Australia as well as the M .C.C.’s side. Hutchings also regarded present-day Australian bowling as not very formidable, CRICKET PRACTICE AT RUGBY SCHOOL IN l8l6. (See page 84.) had the tourists included Hayward and Tyldesley England would not have lost the premiership for the time being. The old players—Noble, Hill, Trumper, &c.—are not themselves, and the young players, with extremely few exceptions, fail to reach the desired standard of excellence. Barnes stated that, with ordinary luck, the Englishmen would have won at least three of the Test matches. He con­ sidered it a bad arrangement that after six days’ play in great heat at Melbourne the team had to proceed to Adelaide for another Test match which also extended over six days. The illness of Mr. Jones Messrs. Spottiswoode and Co., of 5, New Street Square, E.C., have kindly for­ warded me an advance copy of a pamphlet (published at sixpence) entitled “ The Waste of Daylight.” It concerns a pro­ posal to reduce the length of four Sundays by twenty minutes, a loss of which practic­ ally no one would be conscious, whereby we should have eighty minutes more day­ light after 6 p.m. every day during May, June, July, and August, and an average of forty-five minutes more every day during April and September. This would mean that first-class matches would no longer begin when the sun was at its best and brightest, and end for the day in wretched light ; they would begin and end an hour and a half sooner as regards the sun. The idea has been carefully conceived, and Mr. R. Pearce, M.P., has drafted a Bill on the matter and introduced it in the House of Commons. The proposal has so much to recommend it that it deserves to succeed. The Sportsman has been ascertaining the opinions on the tour of various mem­ bers of the English team which returned last week from Australia. Jones, in ex­ pressing himself disappointed with the re­ sults of the Test matches, said he did not consider the Australians were so much and spoke highly of Ransford, Hartigan, and Macartney, whom he considered the best of the rising players. Braund, who thought the English side had “ just a bit too much dash,” attributed the loss of the rubber partly to bad luck and partly to missed catches—an expression of opinion which coincided with that of Hardstaff and Gunn. Rhodes regarded the long-drawn- out Test matches as feats of endurance and hardly worth seeing. Dropped catches, to his thinking, were chiefly responsible for the reverses sustained in the Tests. Hayes expressed the opinion that Austra­ lian cricket, despite their recapture of the “ ashes,” is not great and opined that and Humphries had a great influence on the result of the rubber, and Barnes con­ sidered the first match would certainly have been won had Humphries kept wicket. The ever-youthful “ W.G. ” played his first match of the season for London County v. Clapham, at the Crystal Palace, on Saturday. After taking five wickets for 21 in a total of 62, he showed fine form in making 63, just beating his opponents off his own bat. The London County innings realised 334, C. V. Staples being highest scorer with 99, included in which were two 5’s and sixteen 4’s.