Cricket 1909

C filC K ET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF T H E GAME. D ECEM BER 21, 1909 “ Together joined.in CricKet’s manly toil.”— Byron . No. 829. VOL. x x v i i i . TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1909. o n e p e n n y . A CHAT ABOUT MR. D. W. CARR. The season of 1909, despite the extent to which it was interfered with by rain, was one by no means devoid of incident. The chief interest of the campaign clearly centred in the doings of the Australians, but not even the brilliant batting of Messrs. Bardsley and Hans­ ford occasioned more com­ ment than did the sudden leap into fame of Mr. Carr. Fo r several years the player named had gained success as an all-round cricketer in club matches, chiefly in the south of England, but it is probably no injustice to him to say that at the beginning of the season his name was un­ fam iliar to Dinety-nine people in every hundred. It was his skill as a bowler of the Bosanquet type which brought him prominently to the fore, and caused him to play, when in his thirty-eighth year and during his first season of first-class cricket, for his County, for Gentlemen v. Players and for England against Australia. He was bom at Cranbrook — not Blackheath, as generally stated— on March 17th, 1872, and was educated at Sutton Valence School, in Kent, where he was in the Eleven four years, commencing in 1887. Proceeding afterwards to Oxford, he entered Brasenose College but did not obtain his Blue. In the Freshmen’s match of 1891 he scored 4 and took three wickets for 27 runs with leg-breaks, and for XVI. Freshmen against The Twelve he made 9 and 1 not out and had 17 runs made off him without taking a wicket. Owing to knee trouble— the result of a football accident—he did not play much cricket after the first year he was up, but when he had fully recovered he took part in a lot of club matches, chiefly with the Band of Brothers, Free Foresters, Blue Mantles, Oxford Authentics and the Mote C.C., of Maidstone : of the last- mentioned he has been a member for about twenty years. In 1897 he did very well indeed, both as batsman and bowler, and in July of that season appeared for Kent 2nd XI. against Sussex 2nd XI. at Brighton. It was for his medium paced bowling that he was chosen, but it was as a batsman that he proved tbe more successful, seeing that he scored 39 and tin t his two wickets o s t ME. DOUGLAS WARD CARR. seventy-two and a-half runs each. It was about that time that he played an innings of 165 for Free Foresters against the Boyal Enginee’s at Chatham— a score which ranks as the highest he has ever made in any class match. Mr. Carr's bowling was originally right- hand medium- paced with the ordinary off-break, but not much of that. He always had a leg-break and for many years proved effective as a leg-break bowler with a useful fast ball. One of his best feats with what riny be termed the old-style bowling mav be mentioned. Playing for Blue Mantles against Newbury in August 1896, he finished off the first innings with the hat-trick and, when Newbury followed-on, got wickets with the first two b ills of the second innings, thus obtaining five wickets with successive deliveries. (On another occasion he had five runs scored from his bowling owing to cover-point stopping the ball with his cap, which, seeing that they were counted in the analysis, was rather bard on the bowler.) Having played several times with Mr. Bosanquet, and envied his success, he spent the whole of the winter of 190-5—6 in trying to acquire the“ googlie” and eventually succeeded in making the ball come back with the leg-break action, only, however, to find that he had lost his old leg-break entirely. Then followed a year during which he was practically unable to make the ball turn appreciably in either direction. But, getting at length some control of both breaks, the seasons of 1907 and 1908were quite successful, and in 1909, as all the world knows, he played in the great matches of the day for the first time and caused history to be written. He possessed the best of all qualifications to represent Kent, which he did for the first time, at Oxford against the University, in the last week of May. On that occasion he took seven wickets for 95 runs, an analysis which, seeing that the match was marked by somewhat low scoring, was regarded as useful rather than in any way remarkable. Following this appearance, nothing was seen of the new bowler outside minor cricket for almost a couple of months— until, in fact, the second week of July, when he appeared both at the Oval andLord’s for the Gentlemen against the Players and took fifteen wickets