Cricket 1909

J une 17, 1909. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 201 failure of others by emphasising the paralysing effect of “ the occasion.” That “ paralysis,” or “ neurotic testitis ” as a learned onlooker called it, seems always in operation in “ Tests.” A r m s t r o n g rarely sent down two balls alike when meeting with such supreme success on Wednesday. At one time he had taken 5 wickets for 8 runs in 10 overs and a ball. This was at the fall of the sixth wicket, while when he went off at 71 for Noble to dissolve the Jones- MacLaren partnership his figures were:— O. M. r . w. is r 10 5 The best performance of an English leg-break bowler in a Test was Braund’s 8 for 81 at Melbourne in 1903-04. T h e missing of Ransford when 13 in the slips by MacLaren off King on Tues­ day proved one of the most costly mistakes —such dropped catches are really bad later. I cannot help thinking that it would be advisable always to allow a longer interval between an international tour and a triangular contest, for it stands to reason that if England, with a weak team, should win the rubber in Australia in 1911-12 a good deal of interest in the three-cornered contest in this country a few months later would disappear. A r e v e r e d correspondent writes:— “ When a cricket or football team has to be chosen in these days it is the custom in this queer old country of ours to give the inexperienced player the cold shoulder. Selection committees ask pathetically “ How can he be expected to do credit to his country in a test match if he has never played in one ? ” Occasionally it happens that someone stands out at the last moment and that someone else who has never played before in a test match simply has to be chosen, and so the ball o ’clock. At Edgbaston during the first test match boys of the same barefaced impudence were at half-past six yelling ou t,1Seven o'clock edeetion,’ and, what is of more importance, were selling their papers. This reminds me that, five minutes after Surrey had beaten the Aus­ tralians at the Oval in May, a newsboy was rushing along the Kennington Eoad with a contents bill shewing the words ‘ v. Surrey, Result.’ The little wretch had saved an old bill which referred to a previ­ ous match played by Surrey. This may have been the same boy, or a relation, who once had me over the Derby. A few min­ utes before the race was run he was tearing along Cannon Street with the contents bill shewing only the words ‘ Derby. Result,’ and sold his bundle of papers in a few minutes. As a matter of fact I dis­ covered too late, by the accident of a puff of wind, that the complete contents bill was ‘ Lancs, v. Derby, Result.’ ” OLD-TIME CRICKETERS AT REPTON SCHOOL. luck—ever made in a Test match. It is not too much to say that it cost England a match which they should have saved, and which was lost—the dropped catches being ignored—by bad batting on the last day. Gunn, Tyldesley and Hirst were all out to balls that they should have played. MacLaren, on the other hand, was out to one of the best balls sent down in the whole match. As was generally expected, the accredited representatives of England, Australia and South Africa, at their meeting at Lord’s on Tuesday, approved the proposal to have a triangular cricket contest in this country a few years hence. It was agreed that an effort should be made for the contest to take place in 1912, and that England should visit South Africa in 1909-10, that the latter country should send a team to Australia in 1910-11 and that England should follow suit a year is kept rolling. If Lockhart, the Cam­ bridge “ googly ” bowler, had been an Australian he would have been playing in the test match at Lord’s this week. As he is an Englishman (of Scottish extrac­ tion) he will doubtless be condemned to wait until all the world understands his methods. Then at last, when he is beginning to think that, after all, the best view of the sea is obtained from a bath chair, his chance will come, because another veteran has got the mumps and has to stand down.” T h e same correspondent continues: “ One of these days I really must prepare an article about the various ways in which I have been 1had’ by evening newspaper boys. On Monday night the newsboys in the neighbourhood of Fenchurch Street were shouting ‘ Close of play,’ and, of course, being in a hurry I received a 6.80 edition which only gave results up to 6 A f t e r the first Test match was played, at Edgbaston at the end of last month, Laver met with such repeated successes as a bowler that his inclusion in the side for this week’s fixture at Lord’s became assured. His analyses are worth giving in detail:— o. m . R w. I 26-2 4 80 6 "• I 10 1 31 1 v. Leicestershire v. Cambridge University... v. Hampshire ................. v. Som erset................. 31 20 31 21 15 15 58 6 10 25 4 12 53 6 11 27 7 4 40 3 4 20*2 7 38 In four matches in a fortnight he thus took 37 wickets for 9‘51 runs a-piece. “ T h e public makes its own idols; it naturally resents a mere Test Selection Committee playing skittles with them,” says The Observer. “ And so there is much outcry about the exclusion of a man whose cricket is very live cricket,