Cricket 1910

S e p t . 8 , 1 9 1 0 . CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 393 Once when visiting a public school, he said, he saw a little boy run round the cricket field three times. He asked the head-master who the boy was, and he replied, “ That is Lord Randolph Church­ ill’s son. When he speaks too much we make him run three times round the cricket ground.” It might be a good thing, his Grace added, if the Speaker of the House of Commons would make Mr. Winston Churchill sometimes take three swift perambulatory turns round the pre­ cincts o f Westminster. F o e almost a month past Kent’s position at the head o f the counties had been assured, and in consequence there was perhaps just a little less interest taken in their doings than would otherwise have been the ease. In retaining the Cham­ pionship they have improved considerably on their record of last year, and slightly on that o f 1906, when they gained the distinction for the first time. Their figures for the three seasons are :— Matches. W on. Lost. Drawn. 1906 .............. 22 ... 16 ... 2 ... 4 1900 26 ... 16 ... 2 ... 8 1910 .............. 25 ... 19 ... 3 ... 3 This year the side would probably have won the Championship whatever system for determining it had been in vogue. It is worthy of remark that the three leading teams in the competition are Kent, Surrey and Middlesex in the order named, and that five of the first seven counties belong to the South. R. H . L a m b e r t , Ireland’s greatest cricketer, for the fifteenth season in succession has made over a thousand runs and taken more than a hundred wickets. This year he has made 1448 runs in thirty-one completed innings (average 46) and taken 127 wickets for 15 runs each. He has also made 33 catches. In 1909 he scored 1693 runs with an average of 84. I t is well for us that the Triangular Tournament should have been fixed for 1912, and not next year, says “ Balin ” in the R eferee. Another season’s play may do much for our young players. One must face the facts, and there is no get­ ting away from the conclusion that many of the leading cricketers o f to-day may be a little too old for Test matches two years hence. It is to the new talents that we must look to uphold our reputation when the Australians and the South Africans swoop down upon us. The steadying influence of long experience is invaluable up to a certain point, but we must in 1912 have a younger team than we put into the field last year. Youth means pace in fielding and running between the wickets, and tells both in saving runs and making them. W e shall have a whole season in which to build up a new Test match eleven, and I hope that the opportunity will not be frittered away. Our cricket authorities, however, are the last people in the world to look ahead, and it will require a good deal of pressure to stir them to action. It is because the need for new blood is so urgent that I and many others have lately watched with such keen interest the doings, to mention only a few names, of F. H . Knott, I. P. F. Campbell, F. R. Foster, Mead, of Hamp­ shire, Ducat, Hitch and J. W . Hearne. Nothing this season has, in its bearing on the future, been more significant than the success during the past month in the Kent and Surrey elevens of Knott and Campbell. I do not want to make too much o f these young batsmen, but experience proves that only boys of exceptional ability can step straight from school cricket into the best county teams and at once find themselves at home. Most of the boys who have done so in the past have helped to make history. We are sadly in want of amateur batsmen to fill the places left vacant by Jaekson, Fry, and MacLaren, and it may be that hour has struck. Certain it is, at any rate, that the public schools this year have been rich in talent. What that talent may develop into it is impossible to tell, but one may hope for the best. T h e West of Scotland C.C. are to be congratulated on obtaining the services o f such a useful bowler as G. F. Gamble for next season. The player named, a Leicester man by birth, has played in his time for London County, Surrey 2nd X I., and Lancashire 2nd X I. This year he has been engaged at Eastbourne. He was born on October 24th, 1877. Lord and Lady Harris, commenced last Friday at Belmont, the family seat, close to Faversham, where a large house party was assembled. Mr. Harris, who has only just completed his education at Oxford, is a lieutenant in the Royal East Kent Yeomanry, and is, like his father, an ardent cricketer. W r it in g in the Pall Mall Gazette , Dr. L. O. S. Poidevin says :— “ Lanca­ shire’s large percentage of drawn games is by no means due to an alteration in the character of the cricket played by its team : it is the direct result of the vagaries of the weather, which, in my opinion, have been chiefly responsible in other places for the increased percentage of finished matches. There is another factor, which constitutes one of the most objectionable features of the new system of scoring, and which has undoubtedly been at work, viz., the element of slackness that comes over the team that finds itself when halfway through a match in an absolutely hopeless position through the weather or other circumstances. There is no encouragement for that team to go on fighting to ward off defeat, for a loss carries no bigger penalty than does a draw. This factor has had not a little to do with the great reversal of positions noticeable with regard to the number of drawn games, especially amongst some of the lesser counties.” S p r in g , the Surrey player, gave a remarkable display of batting on Thurs­ day. Early in his innings—when he had scored 4, in fact—he was hit on the left hand by a very fast ball from Shipman and obliged to retire. He returned later and, batting with the right hand only, remained until he had scored 26. Although so severely handicapped, he made some very good hits, among them being two 4’s off Shipman, and enabled his side to secure a lead on the innings. Exactly a quarter o f a century ago Lord Harris, when playing on the same ground for Kent against Surrey, had a somewhat similar experience. Kent were in a hope­ less position when a ball from Beaumont broke a small bone in his right hand, but he most pluckily continued batting. To use his own words, “ As a matter of fact I played all the Surrey bowling—fast, slow and lobs—for thirty-five minutes with one, the left, hand. I had tried this before, and knew how extremely difficult it is to get round a straight bat on a good wicket. But you must play forward, and you must not attempt to get a run; I got two only whilst playing one-handed, and those the ball before I got out, but I helped to secure a draw, which was far more important.” For the Gentlemen of England against the Gentlemen of Kent at Canterbury, in 1859, the late C. G. Taylor — L et Sussex boast her Taylor— played “ with a broken hand in a sling.” F e s t iv it ie s in celebration of the coming of age of the H on. George St. Vincent Harris, only son and heir of T h e same writer continues :— “ In this particular respect I venture to think the new system has done something towards raising the percentage of finished matches, but in an undesirable way. From what I have seen I cannot convince myself that the new method of scoring has brought about any appreciable alteration in the character of the play, the standard of which, it seems to me, is merely moderate. The facts, ascertainable from a perusal of the bowling analysis o f any match or series of matches and the computation o f a simple percentage with the number of runs scored, do not show any noteworthy variation from last season’s general rate of scoring, and the conclusion is forced upon one that in this respect also ’ the new method has fallen short of expectations.” T h e late Allen H ill was buried in Leyland Parish Churchyard on Wednes­ day of last week. Representatives were present from the Leyland C.C. and a large number of wreaths were sent from various parts of the country. H ill, I am told, suffered terribly for the last two months of his life, and his death when it did come was a merciful relief. C. B. F r y had an amusing experience in the Hants v. Kent match at Bourne­ mouth, remarks The Field. He was fielding close to the crowd when Knott was batting, and an amateur photographer, anxious to improve the occasion, stepped into the field of play, and, placing himself in the approved manner, proceeded to peer anxiously into the “ finder ” of his camera. At this moment Fry had to rush