Cricket 1909

2 6 4 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J u ly 15 , 1909 . H. GRADIDGE And SONS, M an ufacturers of a ll Requisites for Cricket, Lawn Tennis, Racquets, Hockey, Football, a n d a ll British Sports. C r i c k e t : PATENTEES AND SOLE MAKERS & OF THE Used by all the Leading: Players. Made In Men’s, Email Men’s, or Ctllege, 6, 5, 4, <fc3 size*. P r i c e L l s t a F r e e o n A p p l i c a t i o n . Of all First>Class Outfitters and Dealers. R eblading a Sp eciality Factory; A r tille ry Place, WOOLWICH. i t URINE 9 9 For cleaning and whitening Buckskin and Canvas Boots and Shoes, Cricket Pads, &c. Packed in spunzinc container,withsponge. Of all dealers, or post free 6 d . WILL NOT RUB OFF OR CAKE. STANLEY FEAST & CO., S RsTE; A WEEKL Y RECORD OF THE GAME. 168, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON, E.C. THURSDAY, JULY 15 t h , 1909. | ) a t r U t n n ( S n s s t p - The abstract and brief chronicle of the time. — Hamlet. T h e record of the Australians is now as follows:—Matches played, 20; won, 9 ; lost, 3; drawn, 8. They have won the toss 12 times and lost it 8 times. R e s u l t s of matches played between the Australians and Worcestershire :—■ 1902.—Australians won by 174 runs. 1905.—Drawn. 1909.—Australians won by an innings and 112 runs. Of the three matches played only two have been finished, and both were won by the Australians. T h e other day a contemporary, des­ cribing the incidents in an important match, mentioned that one of the batsmen hit a four at the same time that a noble lord and somebody else were walking to­ gether in front of the pavilion. This seems an excellent idea which might be carried out further. Thus: “ At this stage the captain tossed the ball to Smithers, who began to send a few down to loosen his arm at the identical moment when the Countess of Maidenover’s poodle strolled on to the playing area, hotly pursued by a footman in her ladyship’s livery. In his turn the footman was followed by ground- man Robinson. At the precise instant that Smithers had sufficiently loosened his arm to be able to bowl his first ball groundman Robinson, forgetful of the respect which is due to the upper circles, seized the menial by the collar and kicked the hound into the middle of next week.” I t is well known that Sheffield does not hold the record as the most sunny town in England. A short time ago a stranger, whose visits to the neighbourhood have always been accompanied by exceedingly bad weather, anxiously asked awell-known representative of a Sheffield newspaper : “ Does it always rain in Sheffield ? ” “ No,” was the reply: “ Sometimes it’s only so dark that you can’t see to play cricket.” I n the course of an interview which appeared in last Saturday’s Daily Dis­ patch, A. C. MacLaren said:— <l I sincerely hope that the Selection Committee will not make too many changes in the next team to play at Manchester. I am afraid that they will, and my point is that we have few Test-match players. We have few men of their calibre coming on. We have not the young player of the highest class, and the older cricketer is becoming slower in all his movements. We can see as well as ever, and our brains are right, but there is just tbat tinge of slowness in our shoulder movements which means defeat.” “ We have a bad batting side; in fact, it is the worst batting team that England has had for many years. I foresaw the trouble. I did not want to be the captain. My cricket career is coming to a close, and I realised (that these Tests would not do my reputation as a leader any good. However, I have had to play in spite of my personal wishes. We must make the best of the situation, but it is not wise to make sweeping alterations unless we have better young men.. Where are they? S p e a k in g at the annual meeting of the Cricketers’ Fund Friendly Society at Lord’s on Monday evening, Lord Harris said he should imagine the mistake made in connection with the selection of England teams for the Test matches was in not having enough con­ fidence in the young blood. He thought that a young eye and young legs were valuable assets and often made up for lack of experience. It was very bad luck for England that the best bowler of the year, Blythe, had been out of health and unable to play. D e a l in g with the subject of modern batting, Lord Harris said he thoroughly agreed with those who had criticised very severely the style of trying to get all the runs on the on side. The thing had gone a great deal too far. Fields had been placed more and more on tho off-side, and the batsmen, having to find some­ where to get runs, it became the practice to force the ball away on the on-side, but to hit the off balls on the off-side and the on balls on the on-side was not impossible. He appealed to those present and their brother cricketers who were employed in coaching to induce the youth of the country to come back to the old and legitimate style of play. In his opinion and that of many of the old cricketers, the habit of getting in front of the wicket and hooking the ball round on the on-side was bad cricketing. I n the first round of the Tidworth Gar­ rison Cup, played at Tidworth on June 29, 30 and July 1, Royal Scots Greys heat Royal Fusiliers by three wickets. For their success they were very greatly in­ debted to H. D . Pender, who contributed 173 and 58 to totals of 222 and 148 for seven wickets. Of the 215 runs made from the bat in the first innings of the Royal Scots Greys he was responsible for all but 42, the next highest seores being 16 by Private Axford and 8 by Private Thompson. D a v id D e n t o n was the fourth player to complete his thousand runs in first-class cricket for the season. He just reached the number by means of his innings of 21 for Yorkshire against Leicestershire at Leicester on Friday. F r o m the Field :— 1 It is time tbat attention was called to one of the abuses brought about by Test match cricket. A few years ago it would almost have been possible to count on the fingers of one haud the names of the bats­ men who were in the habit of publicly