Cricket 1909

A ugust 12, igog. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 323 The construction of the Demon Drivers is fully described in The E v o lu tio n of a Cricket B a t, which may be obtained free upon applica­ tion. I CRICKET BALLS [ im p r o v ed m a k e - k e e p t h e ir s h a p e LA S ■' LO N C E R g CATALOGUE UPON APPLIC ATION . CATALOGUE UPON APPLIC ATION . CATALOGU E UPON APPLIC ATION . CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION . 5 -y f f n M| 1 DEMON DRIVERS ’JU ARE OUTAMO OUT THE BEST. f 0 •GRADES 7 - CATALOQUR UPON APPLICATION! 1TO GEO. G. BUSSEY & Co., L td . 36 & 38, Queen Victoria St., LONDON. Manufactory — Timber Mills — PECKHAM, S.E. ELMSWELL, SUFFOLK. Agents all over the world. AT THE SIGN OF THE WICKET. B y F. S. A s h le y -C o o p e r. The fifth Test-match has, after much heavy scoring, been drawn and, considering the wealth of batting talent on each side, it cannot be said that such a result was un­ expected. The Selection Committee chose a good team for England, but the result of their labours was destroyed by the unpar­ donable omission of Buckenham. Whether the step referred to was taken through under-estimating the strength of the Aus­ tralian batting or owing to a sa l lack of knowledge concerning the game is a moot point, but certain it is that the blunder astounded everybody and weakened the home side enormously. For some time past I have favoured the old arrangement whereby Test teams were chosen, and the latest, and most pronounced, mistake on the part of the powers-that-be has served to strengthen the opinion. As though the omission of Buckenhan were not sufficient handicap, Carr was allowed to bowl unchanged under a blazing sun for an hour and a-half, and the strain upon a bowler of 38, of his stamp on such an important occasion must have been very great. The story of this season’s inter­ national matches w ill furnish a very dark page in the history of English cricket. When the Australians lost at Edgbaston, after going down before Surrey and M.C.C., the great majority of people wrote the side down as a weak one, and no greater mistake could possibly have been made, as subsequent events have abundantly proved. The team, without possessing a bowler of the very first flight, is an excellently-balanced one and thoroughly deserves the amount of success which has attended its efforts. At the Oval this week they showed that they are equal to scoring very heavily on hard wickets, and it is perhaps as well, from the English point of view, that the match was not played to a finish. Whether a thoroughly representative team of England would prove equal to giving the visitors a good game on a hard wicket can be only a matter of surmise, for no such chance, unfortunately, has been given us. The great feature of this week’s game was, of course, the magnificent batting of BarJsley, who immortalized himself by making two separate hundreds. The nearest approaches to the feat were at Adelaide in 1884-5 when the late Percy McDonnell scored 124 and 83, at Lord ’s sixteen years ago when Shrewsbury made 106 and 81, and at Adelaide in 1901-2 when H ill ran up 98 and 97. Bardsley’s partnership of 180 with Gregory for the first wicket is a record for Australia, though exceeded by the 185 made by Hayward and Jackson on the same ground ten years ago. The Australians are to be congratulated very heartily on the part they have played this year in Test-matches. Except iu the game at Birmingham, by which time the new men had not become accustomed to wet wickets, they have always proved equal to the occasion and Englishmen should ungrudingly acknowledge that their success has been well merited. The Canterbury Week, which always seems to herald the close of the season, concluded on Saturday with Kent possessed of a sub­ stantial lead in the Championship table. The Week dates back to 1842, the first match being appropriately one between Kent and England. The county, after makiDg 278, were beaten by nine wickets, Dean and W illiam Lillyw hite dismissing them for 44 when they went in the second time. Many people actually thought that the match was sold, “ which, of course, was nonsense,” said Em ilius Bayley : but Alfred Mynn was after­ wards hissed in Maidstone Market. Em ilius Bayley—he is now Rev. Sir Em ilius Bayley Laurie, Bart.— is the only survivor of that historic match. He was then a lad of 17, and greatly distinguished himself in Kent’s second innings by going in first and carrying out his bat for 17, outlasting such cricketing giants as Alfred and Walter Mynn, Adams, Pilch, Felix, Wenman and Dorrinton. In the previous season he had performed the feat by which he w ill always be best remem­ bered—an innings of 152 for Eton v. Harrow, which was a very long score for those days of rough wickets, when all hits were run out. But cricket had been played at Canterbury many years prior to the institution of the Festival. Sir Horatio Mann, Bart., had a seat, Bishopsbourne, close by where many great matches took place. The opening stanza of “ Surry Triumphant, or the K en t­ ish M en’s Defeat,” published in 1773, runs: God prosper long our harvest-work, Our rakes and hay-earts a ll! An ill-tim’d cricket-match there did At Bishopsbourn befall. But to narrate the association of cricket with Canterbury would require far more space than is at command, and, much though the subject appeals to one, reference cannot be made, even briefly, to the always pleasing revels of the Old Stagers. The success of left-handed batsmen has been one of the most prominent features of the present season. Bansford and Bardsley have played many large innings — the latter two of over 200 — and each has experienced the satisfaction of making at least one century in a Test-match. As recently as last week, too, Llewellyn, of Hampshire, obtained two separate hundreds in a first-class match for the second time during his career, whilst Woolley must bo classed as oue of the most accomplished players of the day. In King, of Leicester­ shire, is a cricketer who, with more oppor­ tunities, would probably have made a very great name for himself : as it is, he can boast the unique distinction of having made two separate hundreds in a match for Players against Gentlemen—a record which many batsmen would w illingly give a year or two of their life to be able to claim. The earliest left-handed batsman of note was Kichard Newland, of Slindon, in Sussex, a great cap­ tain and one of three cricketing brothers who, like W . G., G. F. and E . M. Grace many years later, played for England. It was not customary to preserve the scores when Newland flourished, and therefore particulars of almost all his innings have been lost beyond recovery. H is best recorded per­ formance is his 88 for England v. Kent in the Artillery Ground, London, in July, 1745. Whether he was so good a player as James Aylward, the hero of the historic innings of 167 for Hambledon against England at Sevenoaks in 1777, it is impossible to say. The latter was a Hampshire man, who, in about the year 1778, was taken into Kent by the cricket-loving Sir Horatio Mann : “ but” said Beldham, “ the best bat made but a poor bailiff, we heard.” Still, he made good scores, and was the first player to obtain as many as a thousand runs for Kent. Seventy- five years ago Surrey possessed in James Saunders one of the most brilliant left- handed hitters of his own or any day :— “ A fine flashy hitter, by few he’s surpassed, And when he’s well in fetches runs very fast. ’ He made 99 (run out) for the Players against