Cricket 1910

33 ° CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A u g u s t i i , 1 9 1 0 . on Saturday, contributed 200 to a total of 323 for three wickets and carried out his bat. This is the largest individual score ever made in a North Yorkshire and South Durham League match. O w in g to the fact that Mr. S. H . Wood is in constant practice and in good form, it has been suggested that an endeavour should be made to induce him to return to the Derbyshire team. Several times he has assisted Glossop, but his county cricket has been played for Suffolk, for whom he possesses a residential qualification. His last match for Derbyshire was in 1902. D u r in g the Heathfield Cricket Week C. Mills, the old Surrey and South African cricketer, took forty-nine wickets for eight runs apiece. Among the visiting sides were Surrey Club and Ground, Boston Park and Catford. Mills played his first match for Surrey in 1887, and is now in his forty-third year. W . J ohnson scored 153 for Ottawa against Belmont on July 28th, this being the highest innings played in America during the season to that date. It is not often so large a score is made against the bowling of J. B. King. T h e Wellington Cricket Association of New Zealand offered T . S. Warne, the Victorian player, .£182 per annum to act as groundsman, with £50 travelling expenses and permission to undertake coaching, by which his salary could be increased by anything from £50 to .£100. Owing to illness in his family, Warne was unable to notify his accept­ ance of the position, and the Association decided to renew negotiations with him later. I t will interest English cricketers generally, and those o f Nottinghamshire in particular, to hear that Frank Shack- lock has been appointed coach to the Auckland Cricket Association in place of S. P. Jones, resigned. Some years ago Shacklock was coach to the Otago Association and afterwards at Wanganui College, but for the last few seasons he has been out of the public eye. S om erset are to be congratulated very heartily upon giving Kent such a good game at Taunton this week. It would have been strange indeed if, after the disastrous season they have experienced, they had succeeded in lowering the colours of the Champions. Yet as recently as yesterday’s luncheon interval a win for them appeared quite possible, but their last six wickets fell for 22, Carr obtaining four of them at the cost of a single. A win for Somerset would have proved highly popular generally and would have done the county an immense amount of good without injuring to any great extent the chances of Kent o f securing the Championship. Still, as it is, the moral effect on the Westerners should be far from a negligible quantity. T he mantle of Somerset as “ the team of surprises” appears to have fallen on the shoulders of Leicestershire, who have had the happy knack this season o f beat­ ing counties of established reputation. Kent, Lancashire and Yorkshire have all fallen before them, so whatever else the county may do during the short time before the campaign closes it will always be able to look back upon the year with no little satisfaction. The side outplayed Yorkshire this week in all departments of the game, and the result must be regarded as one of the greatest triumphs ever achieved in the county’s history. 1H .P .T .” writes :— ‘ Under the freak conditions of 1910 the first position in the County Championship has been virtually settled for weeks past, and is now undoubtedly assured to Kent. On the season’s form the Hop County must have won under any conceivable manner of reckoning, but the peculiar one adopted probably took the go out of her most formid­ able rivals, who found themselves slipping back for no fault of their own, and made the task of retaining the Championship com ­ paratively easy. The hopelessness of ousting Kent is evident when it is stated that, under the present terms of competition, that county would have been Champion four times in the past five years and on tbe other occasion (1907), instead of finishing eighth, would have tied for second place with the following extraordinary record: Played. Won. Lost. Dr’wn. Notts . IS ... 15 ... 0 ... 4 ... 78' Kent ... 26 ... 12 ... 9 ... 5 ... 46 Yorks ... .. 26 ... 12 ... 3 ... 11 ... 46 “ The first place being settled, apologists for the present arrangement tell us that the subsequent placing does not matter in the least. So there we a re! But it strikes one as being a remarkable expedient by which to try to attract outside interest to the competition. “ As a contrast the following table shows what the positionwould havebeen on Monday last if the Divisional system had been in use :— CHAMPIONSHIP PROPER. Plyd. Won. Lost. Dm. Pts. Kent ...................... 10 8 0 - 2 8 Lancashire ............... 11 5 3 3 2 Surrey ... ............... 12 5 4 3 1 Yorkshire ............... 12 4 4 4 0 Nottinghamshire ... 11 3 4 4 -—1 Middlesex ............... 8 2 4 2 —2 Northamptonshire ... 10 3 5 2 —2 Sussex ...................... 11 3 6 2 —3 Hampshire ............... 9 2 5 2 —3 QUALIFYING COMPETITION. Plyd. Won. Lost. Drn. Pts. Warwickshire ......... 8 4 1 3 3 Essex ...................... 8 2 0 1 2 Gloucestershire ........ 5 2 2 1 0 Derbyshire ............... 6 2 3 1 —1 Worcestershire ......... 5 0 1 4 -—1 Somerset ............... 3 0 1 2 —1 Leicestershire ......... 4 1 3 0 —2 Minor 1........................ 1 1 1 1 1 Minor II...................... 1 1 1 1 ? In this case the Championship would have been almost, but not absolutely, secured by K ent; but the remaining seventeen counties would all have been still keenly interested in the matter of promotion and relegation. The other first-class county matches (which would not count directly in the competition, except to decide ties about promotion) had so far resulted in 47 wins and 9 losses to upper, opposing lower, division clubs.” Charterhouse Friars v. K. J. Seth Smith’s X I. at Basingstoke on Friday last, and on the following day T. B. C. Piggott scored 203 not out for Maidenhead v. Brondesbury on the latter's ground. The latter and J. B. C. Gannon (78) added 258 for the third wicket in 70 minutes. Piggott made his runs in 83 minutes and hit four 6’s and twenty-nine 4’s. J. W . H ea rn e , the most recent bearer of the famous name to appear in first-class cricket, has already succeeded in adding to the reputation of the family. Last year he showed very good all-round cricket, but at Lord’s on Monday he accomplished a most remarkable per­ formance against Essex with his leg- breaks. His analysis after lunch read 5‘1 overs, 4 maidens, 2 runs and seven w ickets:— From this it will be seen that he actually obtained his seven wickets in 25 balls without a run being made off him ! The only parallel to this in a fixture of such importance is furnished by the Notts v. Gloucestershire match at Cheltenham in 1877, when “ W .G .’’ took the same num­ ber of wickets in 17 balls without being scored from. Notts lost five wickets at the same total, and “ W .G .” took seven­ teen wickets in the match, nine in the first innings and eight in the second. G. O. S m ith made 136 not out for M id d le se x , after losing to Kent and Surrey, have gained a well-earned—I almost wrote Hearne d — victory over Essex at Lord’s. P. F. Warner’s form this year has been far from what it was last season, for even at head-quarters, where he has generally done so well, his efforts have not met with much success. But yesterday he played one of the best innings of his career, keeping his wicket intact whilst those of his colleagues were falling, and eventually, amid much excite­ ment and enthusiasm, winning the game for his side and carrying out his bat for 101. He is always so keen, and so well worth watching, that his return to form is a matter for congratulation, apart altogether from the fact that the success of Middlesex depends to a great extent upon his efforts. Saville, a new-comer to first-class cricket during the past week, played admirably at the crisis, and had much to do with his side’s triumph. T he success of Surrey has been a feature of the last fortnight’s cricket, and it is worthy of mention that in succession they have beaten Northants (at the Oval), Warwickshire, Notts, Middlesex and Northants (at Northampton). To-day they meet Yorkshire at the Oval, and next week play at Cheltenham and Taun­ ton, so unless something unforseen occurs — and it does sometimes in cricket— their match with Kent at the Oval should prove one of the events o f the season as it would be between the two leading counties. I f only J. N. Crawford and Rushby had been available—but o f what use is it to speculate on such a subject as