Cricket 1909

CR ICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE G AM E . A pril 29, 1909. H. GRADIDGE And SONS, Manufacturers of all Requisites for Cricket, Lawn Tennis, Racquets, Hockey, Football, and all British Sports. PATENTEES AND SOLE MAKERS OF THE T O Used by all the y j Leading yA Players. ^ Made In Men's, Small Men's, or College, 6, 5, 4, dt 8 sizes. P r i c e L i s t s F r e e 011 A p p l i c a t i o n . Of all First-Class Outfitters and Dealers. ' • Reblading a Speciality. Factory; A rtillery P lace , WOOLWICH. J O H N W I S D E N ’S CRICKETERS’ALMANACK F o r 1 9 0 9 . Edited by SYDNEY H. PARDON. T H E Record of First-Class Cricket. Being the ONLY Publication giving the full Scores and Bowling Analyses of every first-class Cricket Match played in 190S. Price 1/- Post Free 1/4 C o n ta in s : Five Cricketers of the year, witli Photographs, Lord Hawke, J. B. Hobbs, J. T. Newstead, Alan Marshal, and Walter Brearley. Full Statistics of Ranjitsinhji’s Scores in first-class Cricket. Public School Cricket, by C. T o ppin . ‘ Cricket in the Sixties and at the Present Day.’ N OW R E A D Y . 21 CRANBOURN ST., LONDON, W.C. Cricket: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 168, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON E.C. THURSDAY, APRIL 2 9 t h , 1909. Pavilion Gossip. The abstract and brief chronicle of the time. ■— Hamlet. T h e R.M.S. Orontes, of the Orient line, arrived at Naples on Friday last with the Australians on board. Nine members of the team left the boat at Marseilles and travelled overland, via Paris, to London. C a r t e r and Macartney arrived at the Inns of Court Hotel, High Holborn, on Monday afternoon, having journeyed overland from Naples, and Bardsley and McAlister on Tuesday. It is expected that all the other members of the side will be in London this week. Armstrong and Laver have visited Monte Carlo and Trumper has been spending a few days in Paris. ---------- O n e of the stories told of the late Lord Sheffield by the livening News relates to his encounter with a pickpocket in Piccadilly. He was explaining to a friend that not even the most expert thief could pick his pocket without being discovered. For a joke the friend took Lord Sheffield’s handkerchief. In an instant the peer seized a seedy-looking individual who was passing, but the friend at once explained the situation. The seedy one was released, but when he had disappeared it was found he had taken with him Lord Sheffield’s pocket- book ! The hand is the hand of Mr. Ben Trovato. T h e Australian Cricket Board of Con­ trol, by-the-way, cabled to Dr. L. 0. S. Poidevin, who is now back in England, requesting him to convey the Board’s deepest sympathy to the relatives of Lord Sheffield, who did a great deal for Colonial cricket. T h e late Mr. T . E. (“ Peter”) Bagge, of Eton and Cambridge, left estate of the gross value of ±‘133,851, with net personalty ±‘40,498. T h e following interesting letter was published in last Sunday’s Observer : — C o u n ty C r ic k e t. S ir ,— 1 quite agree with your remarks in to-day’s Observer concerning County Cricket, and have long thought that the “ curse” of batting and bowling averages has done more to choke off real interest in cricket than anything else. For years in this county the anxiety among a certain section of so-called enthu­ siasts as to whether “ C. B. Fry's ” or “ Ranji’s” weekly average would be highest was far more important than whether Sussex had beaten Kent or Surrey, and it is sickening to take up accounts of county matches, pro­ longed to improve the averages of certain players. It has done more to kill cricket in Sussex than anything else. Now, sir, the remedy is not far to seek if th^ M.C.C. Committee will only act with vigour and pass a law that no unfinished match counts towards a player’s average! Players would very soon find out a way to finish matches then, and take risks, which they will not do now for fear of spoiling their averages. Yours truly, D own H ouse , ONLOOKER. F rant , S ussex , April 18th, 1 90 9 . That there are men who attach more importance to their own individual doings than to the success of their side is beyond dispute. Such players, who have been admirably described by Mr. Pycroft as “ wretches concentrated all in self,” are uninteresting on the field and a nuisance off it. They lack the true sporting spirit inseparable from real cricket. E. G-. HiYes has started the season well by scoring 98 for Honor Oak against Bromley Town on the former’s ground on Saturday. I t would seem that the Headingley C.C. possesses a black cat as a mascot. At least, so I gather from the following which appears on the Club card : “ Don’t leave all the ‘ work ’ to be done by the ‘ Mascot.’ Try to do just a little bit yourselves, especially with the roller on Friday nights. It’s no use working the ‘ Black Cat ’ to death. It can’t do everything. It only helps those who help themselves.” This reminds me of an entry in the com­ prehensive Glossary of Cricket Terms published by Albert Knight in his Complete Criclceter. A Pavilion Cat is there de­ fined as “ The feline creature occasionally harboured in a cricket pavilion. When a black cat, it was supposed to bring luck to the player who met it.” T h e opening of Walsall’s new cricket ground, which has been acquired and laid out at a cost of ±2,400, attracted a large concourse of people on Saturday. The opening ceremony was performed by Mrs. F. T . Cozens (wife of the president and captain), who pitched the wickets, and then received as a souvenir of the occasion a silver flower-vase containing a suitable inscription. M r . C. E. G r e e n , presiding at the Annual General Meeting of the Essex County C.C. at the Great Eastern Hotel on Thursday last, said that the position of the Club was absolutely sound, in spite of a deficit on the year’s working, and that, if sold up to-morrow, the value of the Leyton ground would be more than sufficient to cover all liabilities. Referring to the cricket played by the Eleven, he said that, although the team was com­ posed of some of the finest cricketers in the country, they did not collectively prove as successful as one would expect: how­ ever, he looked forward to a marked im­ provement in the coming season. The motion brought forward by Mr. A. J. Edwards to the effect that an entrance fee of one guinea be imposed for new members after December 31st next was withdrawn, there being considerable