Cricket 1909

J une 3, 1909. CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 169 T h e total receipts of last week’s Test match were ;61,429 11s. 9d. T h e eighty-two matches played between England and Australia have resulted as follow s: - W here Date of W on by W on b y -p] ri FirstEng- Austra- Dm. Total. i'layea.Match, land. lia. Melbourne ... 1877 ... 8 ... 10 ... 2 ,.. 20 Oval ...........1S80 ... 7 ... 1 ... 3 ... 11 S yd n ey........... 1882 ... 9 ... 11 ... 0 ... 20 Manchester ... 1884 ... 3 ... 2 ... 3 ... 8 Lord’s ...........1884 ... 4 ... 2 ... 3 ... 9 Adelaide ... 1884 ... 2 ... 5 ... 0 ... 7 Nottingham... 1899 ... 1 ... 0 ... 1 .. 2 Leeds ........... 1899 ... 0 ... 0 .. 2 ... 2 Birmingham... 1902 ... 1 ... 0 ... 1 ... 2 Sheffield.......... 1902 ... 0 ... 1 ... 0 ... 1 In Australia.. 1877 ... 19 ... 26 ... 2 ... 47 In England... 1880 ..16 ... 6 ... 13 ... 35 Totals... 35 32 15 82 T h e fact that H . A. Gilbert, of Oxford, was asked to be present at Edgbaston last Thursday, in case his services might be required, should make his presence in the Gentlemen’s team assured. The in­ vitation extended to him last week was, I am given to understand, due to his consistently good bowling and not simply on account of his performance against the Australians just before. Gilbert, by the way, was born at Bombay, and may be seen in the Kent Eleven at no very distant date. C o n c e r n in g the Conference which will be held at Lord’s this month between representatives o f England, Australia and South Africa, the A thletic News remarks :— “ Of course, at a meeting like this prepared to deal with anything in connection with International cricket, it would not be surprising to find a very comprehensive agenda paper, and we have the best authority for stating that such subjects as ‘ Buies for Test matches’ and ‘ payments of amateurs and pro­ fessionals ’ will be certain to find their way into the business. O f the latter nothing need be said now, but many matters such as qualifications, hours of play in Tests, appointment o f umpires, the question of rolling the wicket are likely to be discussed under the former exhaustive heading. In all probability a liberal exchange of views will take place at the first meeting, which, if a reason­ able course be pursued, will be followed by a postponement for some little time to-allow things to be looked at from all sides. A gradual evolution of ideas is likely to lead to more permanently good results than conclusions hastily arrived at.” A t Sale yesterday week Cheshire com ­ menced the first match played by the county for a period of fourteen years. They have entered the Minor Counties’ Championship competition. 8. F. B a r n e s , playing for Porthill against Leek Highfield in a North Staf­ fordshire League match on Saturday, took seven wickets for 12 runs. T h e annual match at Kingston-on- Thames on May 26th between Kingston Grammar School, which this year cele­ brates its sixth hundred anniversary, and Tiffins’ School produced some remark­ able cricket. Tiffins’ declared at 233 for two wickets (E. J. Weaver, 100 not out) and then dismissed their opponents for six, of which five were extras. M. T. Greenyer took seven wickets for 1 run and Weaver three for 0. T h e r e was some exceptionally fast scoring in the match at Cricklewood on May 26th between Trinidad and St. James’, West Hampstead. The latter, set 109 to win, scored 129 in forty-seven minutes, Savory making 34 of the number and Summerhayes 32. The first hundred runs were obtained in 25 minutes. L o r d H a r r is , who last year retired from the command of the Boyal East Kent Mounted Bifles, with which regi­ ment he had been connected for thirty- six years, is being presented with a testimonial, subscribed for by all ranks, in the form of a portrait of himself, to be hung permanently in one of the public buildings of the county. The picture is to be a replica of the one executed by Professor Sir Hubert von Herkomer, B.A ., for Government House, Bombay, when Lord Harris concluded, in 1895, his five years’ rule in that Presidency. O n Thursday last an inquest was held at the Stepney Coroner’s Court on William Alfred Bayley, aged 23, who was injured by a cricket-ball on the previous Saturday. He met with the accident whilst playing at Neasden. The ball struck him on the head, but he proceeded with the game and died on the following Tuesday. Death was due to a fracture of the skull. A verdict of Accidental Death was returned. “ A c e r t a in class of batsman has arisen,” says the Observer, “ which de­ fines no wicket as good unless the ball comes along at an even pace and never varies in its rise of more than half-stump high. This idea may come from the softening of the chivalrous character by intellectual pursuits, but to the old- fashioned cricketer it is the suggestion that batting should be lowered to the level of mere mechanics. The marled wickets invention is at the base of all this. Our reverence for the game would not long survive were this definition in keeping with the real principles of batting. ‘ The ball keeps low ’ was the effeminate excuse given by a great batsman in M.C.C. v. Australia. The puerility of the excuse might have been worthy of these reprobate spirits who would be reducing cricket to the mere pencil and card propensities of the medal golfer.” C an e Hill Asylum made 251 for five wickets, innings declared closed, against Bellevue on Saturday, V. P. S. Crawford being responsible for 179 of the number. He made 28 runs—two 6’s and four 4’s—- off an over, during which three balls were in requisition, and reached three figures when the total was 112. Altogether, he hit three 6’s and twenty-two 4’s. He was finally out lbw through the slow bowler lobbing the ball up in the sun on to his body. Bellevue were dismissed for 96 owing to the bowling of “ B. T., ” who took seven wickets for 31. W h i l s t playing for Chelmsford v. Col­ chester and East Essex, at Chelmsford on Saturday, Dr. Taylor broke a bone in his arm. On the same day W . Welsh, the well-known boxer and Northampton Bugby forward, broke his collar-bone whilst bowling in a match. He met with a similar accident whilst playing football a few months ago, and apparently the limb had not become thoroughly sound again. O n e of the most interesting cricketers at either University at the present time is Bruce Lockhart, the Cambridge Fresh­ man from Sedbergh, whose “ googlies” have been working havoc among his opponents recently. In the Freshmen’s match he took a dozen wickets, for Etceteras v. Perambulators thirteen, and for the University against Yorkshire five in one innings and eight in the other. In the last two matches fifteen of his victims were stumped, which must surely be almost, if not quite, a record for such class cricket. In four con­ secutive matches for Surrey in 1868—- against Sussex, Kent, Notts, and Lanca­ shire— Pooley stumped 16 and caught 16, and ten years later stumped 8 and caught 2 of the Kent men at the Oval. I f L ock­ hart can only maintain his form—he was clearly chiefly responsible for his side’s success over Yorkshire— it will be very interesting to see how the Oxford side play him at Lord’s, for they are hardly likely to meet his bowling before the University match. A C h e s h ir e boy, whilst playing cricket on May 22nd, was by accident struck with the bat on the bridge of the nose. Only a slight wound was inflicted, and the boy’s mother, after bathing it, put on a plaster, and in a few days the wound had almost healed. On the 26th, however, the boy complained of feeling ill, and the doctor was summoned. Sep­ tic poisoning had apparently set in, and the doctor found him suffering from lock-jaw. Death occurred on Thursday evening last. G e o r g e L e a c h , the Sussex fast bowler, enjoyed a couple of triumphs last week. At Lord’s he took seven wickets for 26 runs in an innings of 47 against Middle­ sex, and at Brighton six for 27 at the expense of Gloucestershire, who collapsed for 48 and were beaten in a couple of days by an innings. He was born at Malta—not Hailsham, as generally stated — but comes of an old Sussex family, and has not yet completed his twenty-eighth A b e n e f i t match was played on the Grange ground on Monday and Tuesday last between Gentlemen of Edinburgh and Players of Scotland for the benefit of Percival King, who was born at Stock-