Cricket 1909

47 6 C R I C K E T : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Dec. 2i, igog. OBITUARY. M r . H . A w d r y . Mr. Herbert Awdry, who was born in 1852, died at Winchester on the 13th inst. H e was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and was in the former Eleven in 1870. He had been a master at Wellington College since 1882 and tutor from 1889. -------- J. D. B. M r . S. B e ar d . M r. Steyning Beard, a staunch supporter of Sussex cricket, died at 20, Denmark Villas, Hove, on the 13th inst., at tbe age of 64. M r . H . L . D awson . Mr. Harold Littlewood Dawson, at one time a prominent member of the Streatham C.C., died in Northern Nigeria on November 16th at the early age of 34. In 1900, when he scored 824 runs for Streatham with an average of 43 36, he played at the Oval for Surrey against the West Indians, but made only 1 and 26, being run out each time. He was educated at Dulwich and in 1892 joined the Streatham C.C. for which, except during a brief absence in Borneo and Australia, he played regularly. He was a brilliant punish­ ing bat, scoring well all round the wicket, and mademany centuries in good-class club cricket. M r. E . R il e y . M r. Edward Riley, whose death occurred at Paterson, New Jersey, on November 29th, was born in Coventry, England, on January 1st, 1845. On settling in the United States in 1869 he identified himself actively with the game of which he was always a liberal supporter. In recent years he was a member of the New York Veterans Cricket Association. CRICKET IN CEYLON. C E Y L O N v. P. A. M c A L IS T E U ’S XI. Played at Galle Face on November 8th and won easily by the home side. In their first innings the visitors lost their last five wickets for 7 runs. Score and analysis C eylo n . R. E. S. Mendis, c Ma- A. C. Amath, not out 32 crow, b Whitty ... 22 F. de Saram, c Bards- A. T. Pollocks, lbw, b ley, b C arter........ 4 McAlister................. 56 D. B. Gunasekara, not W. de Rosayro, c Car- out ......................11 keck, b Carter ... 23 Byes, &c.............. 21 D. L. de Saram, cRans- — ford, b McAlister ... 14 ! Total (5 wkts)*lS3 * Innings declared closed. C. A. Perera, A. F. Molamure, E. Weerasuriya and T. Kelaart did not bat. P. A. M c A liste r ’ s XI. First innings. Second innings. W. Bardsley, lbw, b D. L. de Saram................................. 3 not out........... ... 27 W. J. Hebden, b Kelaart.. 4 H. Carter, b M endis......... 40 st Rozayro, b Kelaart ... ... 10 V. S. Ransford, c Molamure c Gunasekara , b b K elaa rt........... ......... 16 Mendis ... 5 H. Bradden, b Kelaart .. 3 P. A. McAlister, c Amath b M e n d is......................... 3 notout... ... ... 12 F. N. Jones, b Mendis 1 W. R. Macrow, b Kelaart.. 2 W. Carkeek, b Kelaart .. 1 c R o z a y ro , b Kelaart .. ... 3 F. R. Sullivan, not out .. 0 b Kelaart ... ... 0 W. J. Whitty, b Kelaart . . 0 Byes, &c................ . 5 Byes, &c. ... 2 T o t a l................ . 78 Total (4 wkts) 59 C eylo n . O. M. R. W. O. M. R. W. Whitty ... 20 6 25 1 Sullivan ... 2 0 7 0 Macrow ... 10 2 23 0 Carkeek ... 4 0 9 0 Ransford ... 8 2 15 0 M cAlister. 10 3 20 2 Bnrdsley ... 4 1 10 0 Carter ... 10 0 53 2 P. A . M c A liste r ' s XI. O. M. R. W. O. M. R. W. Kelaart................... 122 31 6 ............ 10 3 24 3 D. L. de Saram ... 71 31 1 ............ 10 0 33 1 M endis................... 4 0 11 3 ........... THE MELBOURNE CLUB. M C C - f e r - W ith regard to the contention between the M.C.C. and the Victorian Cricket Associa­ tion, any fair-minded man w ill readily allow that there is a good deal to be said on both sides. I can go back in full memory of cricket to the time when George Parr’s team appeared on the Melbourne ground in 1863- 64. I was not inside the ground on that occasion. M y “ coign of vantage ” was a good old gumtree outside, and I remember Tom Hayward and Carpenter making their great stand, which was dissolved just up ^n drawing time. I also remember Dr. E. M. Grace, of that English team, drinking tea at a booth. From those days, when I was 10 years old, right up lo now, I have liked the Melbourne ground and the Melbourne Ciicket Club. A t that time the member roll was small, and continued small for many years. But ever since Major W ardill took the secre­ tarial reins the progress of the club has been simply extraordinary. There are as many thousands of members now as there were hundreds when he assumed office. It is not, in my opinion, correct to say that this striking development is due to the coming of English teams. English teams came in the days of the small member roll, long before the Major’s time as secretary. But the Major adopted a broad and expanding po’icy in connection with sport aud the affairs of the club. He made the ground a recreation ground in the truest sense. If you lo >k at an annual report of the M.C.C. you w ill see not only cricket but various affiliated sports — football, b jw I s , rifle-shooting, tennis, skittles, boxing, gymnastics, lacrosse. A ll these have attracted members to the club, and I daresay many members came in the heyday of cycling and the Austral Wheel. Monday night concerts, too, have also done their part in attracting members. I think it would not be very wide of the mark to put down half the member roll to cricket and interstate and international mutches, and the remaining half to the various other attractions afforded by the club. So far as other associated cljjbs are con­ cerned, it can be said that they have sustained loss in consequence of the large increase in the number of M.C.C. members. It goes almost with >ut saying that men will go where they get best worth for their money. They know that they got that “ best worth ” on the M.C.C. ground. Heuce the defection of members from other asso­ ciated clubs. Bat, apart from this con­ sideration, other associated clubs furnish players for interstate and mternati >nal matches, and their play is a factor in pro­ ducing the monetary results which accrue from interstate and international matches. This is a matter which should never have been disregarded. Yet there was a time when one associated club (not the M.C.U.) fur­ nished regularly four or five players iu big cricket and received absolutely no consider­ ation. But, whatever may have been urged against the M.C.C. iu those far-back days, I think it w ill be conceded that in recent years the great club has acted in a fairly generous spirit, and it may be that further generosity to the association with regard to finance w ill be manifested in the future. So far as inter­ state matches are concerned, the ground has for years been given free to the association, and the annual reports of that body in ­ variably contain words of grateful thanks to the M.C.C. Anyone who can go back to the old days of the club— the days of the wooden pavilion and Sam Cosstick— cannot fail to entertain the very warmest feelings of admiration for the gentlemen who have year after year striven so strenuously and successfully to build up the club into its present colossal proportions, and to establish the splendid appointments, which are unsurpassed on any other cricket-ground in the world. The club has been of immense service to cricket in Australia. Thousands upon thousands of lovers of cricket in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide have to thank the M.C.C. for many days of wholesome recreation in watching stirring struggles between England and Aus­ tralia for supremacy in cricket. A ll the money that has come to the M.C.C. from these great games and from members’ sub­ scriptions has been spent in effecting im ­ provements and in constructing the grand buildings that we see on the ground to day. The immense amount of money expended has given employment to very many persons in the course of years, and at the special meeting last month it was decided to spend a further large sum in extending and improving the accommodation for the public on the outer ground. The new debt to be incurred is heavy, but a financial weight that would completely crush any other associated club is merely a feather-weight to the M.C.C. This is, of course, due in the main to the grand member’s roll and consequent splendid receipts from subscriptions, aggregating about £10,000 a year. But if the income is large, the expenditure is also large. Apart from the M.C.C. ground itself, the improvements effected on the Albert Ground, iu St. Kilda- road, cost quite a big sum last year. The club, under the very excellent management of Major YVardill, has attained a position that places it almost on a par with the greatest cricket club in the world, the re­ nowned Marylebone club, at Lord’s. A ll admirers of our M.C.C. w ill hope that no un­ toward circumstances may dim the lustre of its well-won renown. By the pursuance of a temperate and conciliatory cjurse, and by lending a helping hand whenever possible to other associated clubs, tbe M.C.C. executive will earn added laurels for the good old club, and perhaps out of the present dispute may be evolved a sound and permanent adjust­ ment of all financial difficulty between the club and the Victorian Cricket Association.— “ F e l i x , ” in The A u s/ra la sian . BOOKS R E C E IV E D . Ayres' Cricket Companion , 1910. London : F. TI. Ayres, Ltd., Ill, Aldersgate Street, E.C. Price, 6d. Both Mr. W. E. C. Hutchings and C. James, the young Notts cricketer, were married during the last week of November. “ O V A L B A R E I D ’ S O V A L . W H I T E . The celebrated preparation for cleaning Cricket and all B uff Leather Good*, W arranted not to rub oft or cake. A s used at K en- alngton O to I, and h ighly recom m ended by K . S Ranjitslnhjl, Dr. W . G . Grace, O. B. F ry, Lord Dalmeny, Australian X I., 1905, G . L. Jessop, Ac., Ac. P a c k e d In z in c b o x e s . 6 d . p e r b o x . J. J. REID, 878, Kennington Rd., London. Printed and Published by M e r r it t & H a tc h e r , Ltd., 167, 168 and 169, Upper Thames Street, London, E.C., December 21st, 1909.