Cricket 1909

6o CR ICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A pril 15, 1909. Anderson, who was away owing to an injury, has appeared for Hertfordshire. Whaley, a capital all-round performer, hails from Cape Town. Is the last mentioned, by-the-way, the player of the same name who made two separate hundreds in a match at Gibraltar in 1898 ? THE AUSTRALIANS. COMPLETING THE TEAM. The selection of five players to complete the Australian team was made at Melbourne on February 15th by F. A. Iredale, P. A. McAlister, and C. Hill. The men chosen were Wbitty, Carkeek, McAlister, Gregory, and Bardsley. Hopkins was recommended as fifteenth man. The meeting was by no means unanimous, and considerable feeling was shown, the final selection being arrived at only by a majority vote. There was no trouble at all about the first choice, Bdidsley being agreed to without discussion. The selection of another bowler was then discussed. It was agreed that the chief weakness of the team and of Australia at the moment was bowling, and they decided to pick a bowler before considering the balance of the team. A long discussion took place up^n this point, the merits of Whitty, of South Australia, and Saunders and Haz­ litt, of Victoria, being in turn debated. From the experience of two of the selectors in England, it was agreed that if the merits were at all equal preference should be given to a left-hander, Hill pointing to the success of Tarrant and other Australian left-handed bowlers who had gone to England. In support of his view that the success of a left-hander in England could not properly be gauged by his performances in Australia, he pointed out that Whitty was a natural left-hand bowler, with a good command of the ball. He had played in only a few first-class games and was still very crude, but with the coaching he would get from the more experienced members of the team, and especially from Noble, his opinion was that long before the end of the tour Whitty would prove to be the most successful bowler on the side. Iredale said that he had not previously seen much of Whitty, but in the game just finished he had been impressed by his style, and he supported Hill in the selection of Whitty to complete the bowling. It then remained for the selectors to pick two men and a second wicket-keeper to com­ plete the team. Iredale proposed that the three be Gregory and McAlister as batsmen, and Carkeek as wicket-keeper. Hill objected strongly to both Carkeek and McAlister. As a wicket-keeper he was strongly in favour of Dodds, of Tasmania, with Gorry as a second choice. He pointed out that Dodds had batted splendidly in the match just finished, and had taken every chance offered, although he was keeping to bowlers who were all strange to him. Hill admitted that Gregory was again batting in his best form, and that on bad English wickets he would, if he kept up that form, be one of the most useful batsmen on the side, especially at a crisis. He had no objection to his being included. He offered, however, the strongest objec­ tions to McAlister being one of the team, as he considered him to be past his best, whilst his style was not suited to English wickets. As an alternative, he urged the claims of Gehrs, who had that day played one of the finest forcing innings they could wish to see, and had just the style of cricket the team would require. Both Iredale and McAlister urged that on a previous occasion when Gehrs was selected for England he was batting in equally good form, yet in England he had proved to be a complete failure as a batsman. Hill urged, as against this, that for some time after he arrived in England Gehrs was in bad health, and in the meantime other men played their way into the best eleven. Gehrs was never able to pick up his form. If the past failure was to be urged against him, it meant they would not pick him, even though he made a hundred in every innings he had played this season. They should consider Gehrs’s form, which both in Sydney and in Melbourne was beyond criticism. Hill further said that, in preference 'to McAlister, he w’ould take either Hopkins or Hazlitt. Hopkins had always made his thousand runs in England, and Hazlitt was a young player, coming on fast, and likely to improve with every match played, whilst McAlister was past his prime. He urged strongly that wherever the merits were at all equal the younger player should be given preference. He failed, however, to move the other two selectors, who stuck to their choice, and, forming a majority, carried their point. In objecting to Carkeek as second wicket­ keeper, Hill said that, whatever Carkeek’s merits as a player might be, he would offer the strongest possible objection to his being selected. The fourteen men being finally chosen, Ire­ dale proposed that they should urge the Board of Control to send fifteen players, and that Hopkins be recommended for the extra place. Hill said there was no prospect of the Board adding an extra man, but, with the views he held, he would agree to the recom­ mendation. [It was subsequently arranged that Hopkins should be included in the side. See “ Gossip” (page 56).—Ed. Cricket .] During the meeting Hill accused his col­ leagues on the selection committee of having practically made their choice before the meeting was held. He asked them to give him their solemn word of honour that nothing of the kind had taken place. Both McAlister and Iredale assured him that they had never considered the choice of players in any way whatever, either together or with any other person. Hill, in conclusion, said that he intended to wash his hands of the whole affair. He did not consider that the best men had been chosen, and would make no secret of his opinions upon that point. OBITUARY. S ir D onald C u brie . Sir Donald Currie, K.C.M.G., the famous shipowner and philanthropist, who was born in Greenock on September 17th, 1825, died at the Manor House, Sidmouth, on Tuesday last. He will always be remembered by cricketers as the donor of the Currie Cup, which proved the means of greatly increas­ ing the popularity of the game in South Africa. He entrusted the Cup to the care of Major Warton, who took the first English team to South Africa, in 1888-9, and who was commissioned to present it to the centre or Province which played the best cricket against them. The distinction fell to Kimberley, whose XVIII. beat the Englishmen by ten wickets in the first match and drew in the return. Since then several interesting Tournaments have been played between the chief cricket centres in South Africa for the possession of the Cup. THE M.C.C. TEAM IN EGYPT. (Continuedfrompage A 6 .) 5 th M atch .—v. EGYPT. Played at Cairo on March 11 and 12. M.C.C. won by 44 runs. The visitors, without doing anything sensational, held a slight advantage almost from the start and eventually won by 44 runs. Luther and Brackley added 59 together for the seventh wicket in the first innings, and Branston showed useful all-round form. For the home side Carver, in addition to scoring 40 and 16, took five wickets for 30 runs, and Mustard eight for 100. Score and analysis M.C.C. First innings. Capt. E. G. Wynyard, lbw, b Burrough ...................13 C. H. M. Ebden, b Burrough 30 E. J. Metcalfe, c MacLaren, b Burrough ................... 2 B. P. Dobson, c Wyatt, b MacLaren...................'... 0 Capt. A. C. G. Luther, b Carver..................................51 G. T. Branston, b Mustard .. 5 G. H. Simpson-Hayward, b Mustard............................ 0 Lord Brackley, not out ... 24 K. L. Gibson, b Carver ... 5 Lt.-Col. H. C. Moorhouse, b Mustard............................ 0 A. V. Drummond, st Daven­ port, b Burrough ............ 9 Byes, &c..........................13 B-q/ifi..n-G** — Total ....................158 E gypt . First innings. Capt. Davenport, b Simp­ son-Hayward .................... 1 G. Scott-Dalgleish, c Moor­ house, b Branston............ 2 G. MacLaren, st Gibson, b Drummond ......................20 Capt. Crake, b Simpson- Hayward ............................ 2 H. B. Carver, e Ebden, b B ran ston ..............................40 Rev.J.Burrough, st Gibson, b Simpson-Hayward Major L. Stack, lbw, b Branston .......................... Major J. S. Liddell, b Simpson-Hayward........... Lieut. T. Wright, c Wyn­ yard, b Drummond A. V. Mustard, not out ... O. P. Wyatt, c Brackley, b Branston ................... is* 17 Second innings. b M ustard........... 4 b Carver ........... 8 b M ustard........... 1 c Davenport, b Carver ........... 5 c and b Mustard 30 lbw, b Mustard... 30 c W r i g h t , b M ustard........... 7 b Carver ........... 5 notou t.................. 0 c Crake, b Bur­ rough .......... 13 c M u sta rd , b Burrough ... 2 Byes, &c. ... 18 .lOt - Total.......... 135 Second innings, c Wynyard, b Branston........... 7 c S-Hayward, b Drummond ... 0 c Moorhouse, b Branston ... 11 c Drummond, b S-Hayward ... 5 b Branston...........16 c G i b s o n , b Drummond 20 4 b S.-Hayward ... 19 i , » - t i " 4 run out 8 not out........... 2 c Moorhouse, Branston c B ra n ston , 1 S.-Hayward 8 Byes, &c. 21 1 20 Total ...109 Total... ...140 M.C.C. First innings. Second innings. O. M. R. W. O M. R. W. Carver ......... . 4 1 16 2 ... .. 5 0 14 3 Burrough . 29 a 7 54 4 ..,, ... 16 3 29 2 Mustard... ... 22 6 53 3 , ... 16 2 47 5 MacLaren .. 2 0 22 1 .... ... 4 0 27 0 E g ypt . l7 o . O. M. R. W ' M. R. W . Branston .. 15-1 4 \ ... ... 16 3 42 4 S.-Hayward.., 16 0 56 4 ..,, ... 16 1 52 3 Drummond ... 3 1 8 2 ..,. ... 6 0 22 2 Luther .. 2 1 4 0 LctkftA/ U> 1 «• 0 ____ 6 th M a tc h .— v. ALEXANDRIA C.C. Played at Alexandria on March 15. M.C.C. won by 104 runs. Owing largely to Lord Brackley and Metcalfe, who scored 73 and 59 respectively, the visiting team won comfortably. The Alexandria .C.C. lost their first four wiukets for 16 runs, but the total reached 186, Beyts and Dawson adding 61 for the last wicket. Score and analysis :— M.C.C. C. H. M. Ebden, c Mac­ Laren, b Barnard ... 13 Lord Blackley, b Bar­ nard ..........................73 E. J. Metcalfe, c Mac­ Laren, b Barnard ... 59 Capt. A. C. G. Luther, b Dawson ........... Capt. E. G. Wynyard, c Carver, b Barnard 23 K. L. Gibson, c Mus- tai*d, b Dawson ... 18 13 G. H. Simpson-Hay­ ward, b Mustard ... 11 B. P. Dobson, not out 21 G. T. Branston, b Carver ...................20 L ie u t.-C o l. H. C. Moorhouse, b Mus­ tard .......................... 28 A. V. Drummond, lbw, b Carver.......... 0 Byes, &c..............11 Tutal ...290