Cricket 1908

9o CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p r il 23, 1908. The Philadelphians have decided to sail from New York on the Umbria on June 20th, and will, therefore, probably reach London seven or eight days later. From June 29th until July 4th the London County C.C. ground at the Crystal Palace will be at their disposal for practice. They open their tour by meeting a team repre­ senting South Wales at Cardiff on July 6th. M r . W. P. M c E lh o n e , Hon. Secretary to the Australian Board of Control, has informed “ Not Out” of the Sydney Referee that, as far as he can see, there appears to be no likelihood of Australia agreeing to the triangular contest in 1909. “ Not Out ” adds:— “ Mr. Bailey’s proposals are being very widely advertised, but so far they have not made any great impression on cricketers in Australia. The Triangular Contest is one-sided—or two-sided— in its likely benefits to cricket, and the side out in the cold would be Australia.- The feeling is growing stronger and stronger in this country that if South Africa so ardently desires the scalp of Australia she must come after it, since Australia has already paid her a visit. This is most reasonable. And after South Africa has recovered from her first wave of en­ thusiasm over her proposed schemes she will probably agree with this view. Australia will be glad, perhaps, to wel­ come South Africa as a competitor for “ The Ashes,” but will suffer 110 slight in any arrangement that may be made to that end.” The South African Cricket Association has officially announced its readiness to take part in the proposed Tournament in England next year. A S ydney Grammar School boy, Lee Scott, secured all ten wickets for 6 runs in an innings of 40 on March 4th whilst playing for the second eleven of the School against Gladesville Asylum. Nine were bowled (including the hat-trick) and the tenth lbw. P. R. Le C on teu r , who has just been elected Victorian Rhodes Scholar, says the Sydney Referee , is a prominent member of the Melbourne University Eleven. He has played in three of the inter-University matches, having made 14 not out, 5, 16, 26, and 23; and secured five for 131, one for 117, five for 49, three for 99, and three for 61. The only other candi­ date for the position was G. Hazlitt, the young Victorian bowler, who batted so ably in the first Test match, and who has done well at his studies. I n the Noble Testimonial Match played at Sydney last month between The Australian Eleven and the Rest of Australia, there were two noteworthy failures for the former side, Trumper being caught off Laver for a “ duck” and E. A. Windsor, the Tasmanian, taking no wickets in the first innings of the Rest and having 102 runs hit off him. The latter, however, made amends bv scoring 78. S. E. Gregory’s innings of 106 lasted only an hour and three-quarters. W. A. S halders played a fine innings of 113 for Wanderers v. Pirates at Johan­ nesburg on March 21st. On the same afternoon Nourse took seven wickets for 31 runs in a total of 119 for Greyville v. Queen’s Park at the Oval, Durban. W ith the match between Surrey and the Gentlemen of England at the Oval the first-class season was opened on Easter Monday, but it is not until May 4th that the County Championship competition begins by Surrey meeting Northampton­ shire on the same ground. The Gentle­ men, who were led by “ W .G .,” were hot a very strong side, the most noticeable absentee being C. B. Fry, who had been advertised to play, and for whose non- appearance no reason was made public. As the same thing has occurred before, and as it is possible some people may have attended the match in the expectation of seeing him play, it would surely be best in future to make reasonably sure of the side’s constitution before advertising the names. I t speaks well for the enthusiasm of followers of the game that the attendance on Monday reached about 3,000, for the weather was most ungenial though there was a fair amount of sunshine. Early in the morning there had been almost two inches of snow on the ground, and after play had been in progress half-an-hour the game was stopped for some time by a fall of snow. From Tuesday’s Star :— “ Cold at Easter is often the precursor to a fine summer,” says a morning paper, and we may add that yesterday the pre­ curses were not loud, but deep.” T he first “ duck” of the season was made by Hobbs, the first boundary by Marshal, and the first 50 by Hayes. Hobbs was the first batsman bowled, Hayes the first caught, and Brearley obtained the first wicket. Hobbs and Hayward, who had made 100 or more for the County’s first wicket as many as eighteen times during the previous three seasons, did not open the innings to­ gether on this occasion, when, curiously enough, each was disposed of without a run. F. E. S m ith , who was born at Bury, in Suffolk, on May 13th, 1872, and was en­ gaged on the ground-staff at the Oval as far back as 1891, was making his first appearance for Surrey since 1898. He played for the County several times be­ tween 1893 and 1898, and in 1894 took 95 wickets for less than fourteen runs each, his slow deliveries forming an admirable contrast to the tremendous pace of Richardson and Lockwood. He has now returned to England after a long engage­ ment in South Africa, and it would be a great thing for Surrey if he could repeat his success of fourteen years ago. A man of thirty-six, however, can scarcely be ex­ pected to reproduce his form of fourteen years earlier, but the experiment of in­ cluding him again in the County eleven after so long an absence is certainly an interesting one. In Senior League matches for the Wanderers C.C., of Johannesburg, in 1905-6 he bowled 29 overs for 94 runs without taking a wicket; in 1906-7 his record in the same class cricket was 97 overs for 253 runs and 17 wickets, aver­ age 14.9. S. E. B u sh er , who made so promising a debut in first-class cricket on Monday, has for some time been known to Metro­ politan players as a good all-round per­ former. He is a member of the Barnes C.C., and bowls well above medium pace. Against Surrey Club and Ground in 1906 he took five wickets for 50 runs and two for 30 in totals of 210 and 141 for three wickets, and in the corresponding match of last year carried out his bat for 45 after obtaining eight wickets for 50 in an inn­ ings of 129. He is twenty-five years of age. W hen Surrey were scoring freely on Monday afternoon and bowling changes were frequent it seemed strange that a trial was not given to V. F. S. Crawford, especially as every other man on the side with the exception of the wicket-keeper was put on. In club cricket Crawford has obtained hundreds and hundreds of wickets, and why he is so seldom tried in first-class matches is a mystery. In inter­ county games last season he delivered two balls , and when tried against M.C.C. and Ground at Lord’s very quickly disposed of Braund, who had got thoroughly set with over a hundred against his name. In small matches “ V .F .S.” has more than once taken over 200 wickets in a season. I t was impossible to watch “ W .G .” in the field at the Oval this week without recalling what a wonderful career his has been. It is forty-four seasons since the old gentleman played his first match at Lord’s, and he had earned the title of “ Champion” over twenty years before Mr. J. N. Crawford, who played against him this week, was born. These facts testify eloquently to his physique and skill. His initial appearance in first-class cricket dates back to 1865, and therefore his par­ ticipation in the great matches of the day covers a period of forty-four years. It has been repeatedly stated during the past few days that the history of cricket fails to furnish a parallel to this wonderful re­ cord, but the famous John Small, the