Cricket 1909

A pril 29, 1909. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 9 i “ South African Cricket,” and said he would like to see a closer union in South African sport. Mr. Ivor Difford, in reply, said they not only wanted to beat the Marylebone and Australian teams, but wanted to wipe the floor with the whole lot. The only way to accomplish thiswas by co-operation and closer union in sport. Vive le sport ? D o u b t le s s there are very many people in England who are interested in sport in Ceylon. All such will be pleased to hear that a weekly paper entitled The Ceylon Sportsman, the subject matter of which is confined exclusively to matters of sport, has just made its appearance. The first number, which reached me by the last mail, is a capital production, and the publishers have only to maintain its standard of excellence in order to be assured of success. It is a weekly paper published at five cents by the Maha-Bodhi Press, 44, First Cross Street, Pettah, Colombo. A m on g the many new bats recently put upon the market the one known as the “ M.C.C.” appears to have gained the greatest popular favour. It is built mainly of specially selected Sarawak cane, in which are spaces containing the finest quality catapult rubber closely packed. The top end has small strengthening insertions of vulcanised fibre and is bored into a moulded sleeve of the same material and then riveted. The utmost driving power is obtained with a total absence of stinging, and it is claimed that it is impossible for the handle to become sprung. A MESSAGE TO CRICKETERS. “ Be always awake, alive, and on your toes as it were, and ready to make the most it - e,very opportunity. . . . Let every man think only of his side and not of himself; take the good with the bad, always play the game, and play your very best.” — Mr. C. E. Meeth)8^ ®ssex County C.C. Annual General T^ m „«IATCI1 a t t h e O V A L .— Played on ■apni 26. Palmer took eight wickets for 79 . F irst S id e . A. Marshal, b Palmer 21 3- Harrison, b Pal- IOer ... H; ?• Vigar, c Bam- C T n gn’-,b Palmer - 13 + G- Giles, st Kemp- ton, b Palmer .. .. 25 burrows, c Abel, b S lm s..........................33 G.H.Latham,bPalmei 20 Hon. S. R. Beresford, b Palm er.......... Evans, b Palmer Riley, b Palmer Rockhill, not out Byes, &c. ... Total 9 , 0 . 0 . 5 , 13 ...175 E- G: Hayes, c Mar- snai, b Harrison ... 34 V r °.Vig"r- ,b 12 • c* Bainbridge, b ^vans ... c A-y-, Spring, o'Mar- r Harrison ...38 V \ ; Palmer, c Vigar, h Marshal......... 14 S econd S id e . Kempton, b Burrows 47 Shearcroft, b Evans... 11 E. H. D. Sewell, b Burrow s.................30 Hamish Stuart, c Evans, b Harrison 0 Sims, not out ........... 0 Byes, &c............15 Total ........206 HARD HITTING AND WET WICKETS. By “ F e lix ” in The Australasian. GrafVilr 0 ^ k;Sm 1 ith made 200 not out for Eden A. v. the r n i o S nd on February 28. Tho total of cle was 885 for seven wickets. A first-class hitter is not seldom a big factor in winning a match on a sticky wicket, but I am afraid there will be scarcely any of that class in the team now banded together. I remember a fine display by the famous New South Wales batsman, H. H. Massie, on a bowlers’ wicket at Kennington Oval. He hit in simply splendid style against the best bowlers in England, and his exhibition did very much indeed to win that Test match for Australia. Again, who can forget Percy McDonnell’s magnificent innings at Old Trafford, when he smote the greatest bowlers in England hip and thigh, and actually made 82 out of 86 on that bowleis’ wicket. Alick Bannerman was at the other end, and made 4 while Percy was making his 82. “ Steady. Alick. ” On that memorable occasion, A. N. Hornby, who captained the English team, was so delighted with the glorious hitting under such adverse circumstances, that out there in the field he applauded again and again, and was the first at the finish to con­ gratulate the renowned Australian on his incomparable hitting achievement. We have no such men as McDonnell, Lyons, Bonnor, or Massie now. George Giffen, at his best, was not classed as a hitter, but he could hit harder than any batsman now play­ ing in Australia, not even excepting the stalwart Warwick Armstrong. In these com­ ments on sticky wickets, and the probable in­ efficiency of new men on such wickets, I do not wish you to run away with the notion that you always get this sort of wicket in a rainy season in England. The state of the wicket varies a good deal in wet weather. There is the fast wet wicket, on which you can play forward with almost the ease and sureness that you can feel on a fast, true wicket, with the turf absolutely aidless to a bowler. I used the word “ almost ” because in my experience I have found the ball occasionally keep very low on a fast wet wicket. The bowrler can put on no work on such a wicket, and the only thing I ever found it necessary to be very careful about was the great pace which the ball sometimes made from the pitch, especially when it kept low. In a word, on these wickets scoring may be regarded as easy. Then there is the wicket easy and slow after rain. Though the bowler can get work on this wicket, the break is slow, and can be watched, without the serious sense of appre­ hension characteristic of the sticky wicket. Sometimes this wicket, slow after rain, has two paces, and when the ball comes slowly from the pitch beware of making the full forward stroke, or playing too soon. I remember an old English player, the famous B. B. Cooper, telling me this when I was a colt, and I not only never forgot it, but found it invaluable advice for the whole of my sub­ sequent cricket career. Auother bit of advice I remember from B. B., and it was also when I was a colt batting, or, rather, trying to bat, on a sticky wicket. I was floundering forward, and B. B., noticing this, said, “ Don’tdo that; you must learn to play back, and watch the ball all the way, every bit of it, on a sticky wicket. ” Those few words did not take long to utter, but they proved of immense service to me in batting. I have said enough, I think, to show that cricket in England, in a wet season, is vastly different from cricket in the usual Australian summer season. I especially except the present month, when we look in vain for the “ odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds. ” Personally, I hope our men may strike a glorious summer in the old country, and have such a glorious tour that they may be able to say at its close, “ Finis coronat opus. ” THE BEST BOOK ON CRICKET. A Melbourne reader asks me the name of the best book ever published in connection with cricket! In answer, one is inclined to put to him a series of questions. But that would be too much like a dissection. Theie are treatises, histories, books of anecdotes, scores, songs, and books that touch lightly on all these matters, and other books by the hundred. As tastes and minds differ so must appreciation for books be diverse. I find no end of pleasure myself in picking up Nyren’s “ Young Cricketer’s Tutor” and mingling with the Beldhams and David Harris—“ a bowler who between anyone and himself comparison must fail ”—and John Small and Lumpy, and other worthies of Nyren’s time, so charmingly pictured by him. Here you got cricket unadulterated by latter- day ills, cricket played with pure delight. It is good to mingle with such cricketers now and then, in the flesh or in books. Nyren was a keen, but kindly, observer; he had imagination, the power to give true literary life to his thoughts, and, on top of it all, he loved cricket. Nyren’s enthusiasm was simply glorious. It gave a glow to his words. It may have made a few heroes out of very common clay—but what matter ! One of my most valued books is “ The English Game of Cricket,” by Charles Box, published in 1877. Within its pages seems everything within the range of cricket. It has literary qualities, is exact in fact, and it is perfectly indexed. The fourteen volumes of Scores and Biographies are stupendous, the w’ork of a life, the product of a fortune. But while Mr. Haygarth’s work is incom­ parably above any other in the collection o facts, it is largely a book of scores, shorn of the game’s life, unadorned by comment or anecdote. The comparatively few pages de­ voted to history, biography, and incidents are so full of that which charms in cricket pages that one cannot help sighing for more. If Nyren and Mr. Haygarth could have laughed at Father Time and became col laborators what a book it might have been! The Badminton book is the best of all those dealing with the art of playing cricket. Mr. A. G. Steel, the Hon. R. H. Lyttelton, Mr. R. A. H. Mitchell, Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. Fred Gale, and “ W. G.” have so much to say of intimate concern to cricket, say it so clearly, and bring in so many apprecia­ tions of the heroes of Australian cricket that it is hard for one to think a better book exists in the cricket library. A comparison of such a book with that of Box or Nyren is relative and therefore of little value. I say, put these books and others rich in personal sketches, reminiscence, anecdote and inci­ dent, put them all on your best bookshelf and consider yourself fortunate to possess them. But if you want to pedestal one you must select it for yourself as your taste dictates.—“ Not Out” in The Sydney Referee. “ It is nice to see, for piquancy’s sake, an occasional fiery wicket, if only to produce the rout of leg play .”—2he Observer. C r i c k e t v o lu m e s i to is f o r s a l e . Handsomely bound and in perfect condition. What offers? “ X .Y .Z. ” c/o Cricket 168, Upper Thames Street, London.