Cricket 1910

S e p t . 1 5 , 1 9 1 0 . CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 409 fifty years ago an old gentleman, living near Goudhurst, in Kent, placed the following notice on a wall surrounding his property :— “ Take notice all—that from this thicket You m ay cut stum ps for your cricket. B ut never let m e catch you at Cutting dow n a tree for a bat, For if you do and w ant a ball I tell you plainly, fellow s all, I ’ll give you a m anufactur’d one, Made for m y trusty w ell-tried gun. ” The author of the lines was a magistrate and well-known in the county.” I n this connection it may be recalled that Mr. Charles Box has left it on record that the following advertisement could at The peculiarity of the balls made by Small was that, after rain, when the ball had dried, it assumed its correct weight. In a letter to the F ield Mr. W. E. Denison states that “ The laws of cricket were entirely re-written twenty-eight years ago.” I f that were the case, they were not given to the public at the time, nor, seeing the comparatively few altera­ tions made when the rules were revised two years later— in 1884— can very much importance have been attached to them. Frankly, we should like to know more concerning what took place in 1882, and we hope that Mr. Denison will enlighten us. I n the two matches in which he THE KENT ELEVEN. scoring 1518, Vine 1408, H . P. Chaplin 1238, Eelf (A. E .) 1206, Cox 1098, Killick 1093, and B. B. Heygate 1012. This is a record for Sussex, although in 1905 six batsmen reached a four-figure aggregate for the county. This season, moreover, P. Cartwright, Leach and Vincett each obtained over 700 runs, and, considering that the latter was dismissed thirteen times without scoring and never made a hundred, his aggregate of 792 is some­ what remarkable. T u rn in g to the bowling figures we find that, in the same series of matches, Belf (A. E.) is the only player who has taken as many as a hundred wickets, but Killick, Vincett, Cox, Belf (B. B.) and Leach have each obtained at least 50. Photo by] [H. B. Coliis , Canterbury. FIELDER. HUISH. WOOLLEY. W. HEARNE (ScOier), FAIRSERVICE. BLYTHE. S. H. DAY. J. R. MASON. E. W. DILLON (Capt.) K. L. HUTCHINGS. D. W. CARR. HUMPHREYS. SEYMOUR. one time be seen displayed in a village of the same county :— “ H ere’s good news ! I, Thom as Cruse, Make good shoes For cricketers’ use, They are so stunning That if once set running, W ithout any punning (joking), T hey’re sure to score som ething. So bespeak in tim e A nd you’ll have them prim e, F or in truth sublim e M any m aintain that I’m The only good cricket shoem aker.” Better known was the notice placed by one of the Hambledon players above his d o o r:— “ Here lives John Small, Makes bats and balls, Pitches a w icket, plays at cricket, W ith any man in England.” took part last week, G. H . Ashbery, the well-known medium-paced bowler of the Wanderers, Beddington, Mitcham, and Purley Clubs, obtained sixteen of the twenty wickets of his opponents which fell. He took nine in an innings for Mitcham against Young Amateurs of Surrey and seven in an innings for Bed­ dington v. Epsom. In the last-mentioned match G. Beay obtained his one-hundredth wicket of the season for Beddington— a performance which his brother W . Beay will probably equal the day after to-mor­ row when the Club plays against the H.A.C. at Finsbury. I n the thirty-one games played by Sussex this year— there were five matches outside the County Championship com ­ petition— as many as seven members of the side made a thousand runs, B elf (B. B.) These facts impress upon one the convic­ tion that the present-day Sussex team is an exceptionally good all-round side. Yet, apart from Whit-Monday, the largest number of persons to pay for admission to the Hove ground on any one day was only 2,815— on the second day of Killick’s benefit m atch! The apathy on the part of the Sussex people furnishes a most remarkable contrast to the enthusiasm found in every part of the neighbouring county of Kent. G r im s h a w , who played a few years ago for Yorkshire, has been making his pres­ ence felt this season in Birmingham League matches. He has been engaged with the Dudley C.C., and in seventeen completed innings has scored 725 runs with an average of 42'64. I understand that there is a distinct possibility of the