Cricket 1909

A pr il 29, 1909. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 89 opposition. Mr. J. H. Douglas was elected to the Committee to fill the place of the late Mr. R. Cook. T h e side to represent Derbyshire in their match with Yorkshire at Derby on May 3rd, 4th, and 5th, will be selected from A. E. Lawton (capt.), R. B. Rick­ man, L. Or. Wright, L. Oliver, J. Chap­ man,AVarren, Morton, Cadman, Needham, Humphries, and Bestwick. A l t h o u g h for some time news of the appointment had been generally expected, the announcement that Mr. Charles Lawrence Arthur Smith had been offered, and had accepted, the captaincy of the Sussex Eleven has aroused considerable enthusiasm in the county. Mr. Smith is a Sussex man by every tie ; he was born at Henfield on New Year’s Day, 1879, and educated at Brighton, and belongs to a family which has been in­ timately associated with the county’s cricket for almost seventy years. With C. A. Smith, W. Newham, W. L. Murdoch,Kanjitsinhji, and C. B. Fry as successive leaders, it is well over twenty years since — except in cases of emergency — Sussex were captained regularly by a Sussex man. The players are anticipating a pleasant and successful season. Me. C a t h c a r t W a so n , M.P., has been told by Mr. Lloyd-George that he will “ consider ” the idea of taking, for national purposes, one- half of the gate-money taken at all cricket, hockey, foot­ ball, horse-racing, and dog- racing meetings. “ I n this season,” says the Observer, “ it will be nice to set our kinsmen a good ex­ ample by playing real sport­ ing cricket. This would evolve inspiring rites for the interment of the 1keeps ’ idea which, when Mr. Jones’s side was in Australia, made the word ‘ Test ’ to smell foul in the nos­ trils of cricket. And even if we cannot bring our Australian kinsmen back to the fold we could at least strive to remove the cause of this ‘ keeps ’ shadow which is eclipsing much of the old glorious sun which once shone so brilliantly on our county grounds.” I n last week’s issue I was able to announce that an Irish team would undertake a short tour in America in the autumn. Their chief matches have now been arranged as follows: — Sept. ltith to 19th—v. Gentlemen of Philadelphia. > 20th to 22nd—v. Colts of Philadelphia. >) 23rd to 26th—v. Gentlemen of Philadelphia. They sail about September 1st, and from the 9th to 14th of that month will be Northamptonshire County C.C. The players concerned are Cox, Wells, Hay­ wood, Ellis, and Falconer. It appears that they have hitherto been paid thirty shillings weekly, but, in consequence of an increase in the number of hours during which they were expected to be in attendance for practice, they demanded an increase of a pound a week. The players named met a sub-Committee of the Club on Saturday, when they were informed that their request could not be acceded to. Thereupon the five left the meeting understanding that they were suspended. On March 27th the following team left Adelaide in the ss. Kancnvna to play a series of games in Western Australia:—A. W. Wright, N. Claxton, D. R. A. Gehrs, J. C. Reedman, G. T. Bloom­ field, L. E. Howard, W. P. Stuart, F. T. Hack, L. W. Chamberlain, K. H. Quist, W. Stirling, and J. R. H. Woodford. The West Aus­ tralian side selected to meet the tourists in the inter­ state games was composed of C. W. Harper, R. M. Evans, S. H. D. Rowe (North Perth) ; T. Coyne, E. F. Parker (Wanderers) ; B. Banks, C. H. Howard, R. Selk (South Fremantle); T. Hogue (North Fremantle); H. A. Evers (Perth); and A. Christian (Corinthians A.). I t came to me as a shock on Monday last to hear of the sudden death in Adelaide of Mr. John Creswell, for over a quarter of a century the Secretary of the South Australian Cricket Associa­ tion, as it was only a few days before that I had heard from him. In the early part of the year he had paid a visit to New Zealand and since his return had been in exceptionally high spirits, and even on the day of his death was as bright as 6ver. Shortly before four o’clock, while in his office, 23, Way- mouth Street, he was seized with an apoplectic stroke, and, notwithstanding the attention of .two doctors, passed away at 8.45 p.m. without regaining conscious­ ness. English cricketers who have visited Australia will have pleasant memories of him. ______ T h e fame of South Australian-made bats is evidently going to spread further afield than the Commonwealth. On February 27th Mr. E. Kummnick, of Lobethal, wrote to Frank Laver, the manager of the Australian Eleven, and generously offered to supply each member of the team with a bat of his own manu­ facture. Mr. Laver replied as follows :— “ I thank you for your congratulations and for good wishes, and on behalf of the playing in Toronto and Ottawa. It is probable that a match will also be arranged for them against New York. F o r the following summary' of McAlister’s batting for the first eleven of the East Melbourne C.C. I am in­ debted to “ Felix” of The Australasian. The figures have come to hand at a most opportune moment, for a Chat about Mr. McAlister appears on another page of this issue of the paper :— Season. Innings. Average. 1889-90 ... .......... 10 ... ......... 30 1890-91 ... ... ... 11 ... ......... 21 1891-92 ... .......... 7 ......... 17 1892-93 ... ... 11 ... ......... 22 1893-94 ... .......... 15 ... ......... 15 1894-95 ... .......... 11 .. ......... 32 1895-90 ... ........... 9 ......... 07 THE LATE MB. JOHN CRESWELL, Photo by Bond&Co.] [Adelaide, South Australia. 1890-97 ......... 7 ... . . ... 9 1897-98 ......... 0 ... . . ... 59 1898-99 ......... ... 11 ... . ... 50 1899-00 ......... 9 ... . ... 55 1900-01 ......... 8 ‘ ... . ... 99 1901-02 ......... ... 10 ... ......... 78 1902-03 ......... ... 10 ... . . ... 70 1903-04 ......... ... 11 ... ......... 02 1904-05 ......... ... 13 ... . ... 34 1905-00 ......... ... 12 ... ... 41 1900-07 ......... ... 11 ... ......... 79 1907-0S ......... 0 ... ......... 48 The season of 1908-9 had not been con­ cluded when “ Felix” sent off his letter, and therefore the figures for the past year are not included in the above table. A r e g r e t t a b l e and serious incident has arisen in connection with five members of the ground - staff of the