Cricket 1910

M a r c h 31, 1910. CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. tives of thirty of the foremost clubs in Manchester, has offered a substantial objection to the starting of county matches on Saturdays. In the opinion of the Association, such an arrangement has a tendency to injure local clubs by attracting their players on the only after­ noon they are at liberty. The protest is not likely to pass unheeded by counties which, like Yorkshire and Lancashire, rely to a very large extent upon local cricket as a recruiting ground. OSCROFT.—On Feb. 24, at Uppingham, Rutland, to Mrs. and Mrs. P. W. Oscroft - a son. RADCLIFFE.—At Musleybank, Malton, Yorks., on March 10th, to Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Radcliffe—a son. I n the absence of Mr C. E . de Trafford, the president, Mr. E. Holmes presided at Leicester on the 23rd inst. over the annual meeting of the Leicestershire County Cricket Club. In moving the adoption of the report the chairman said that unless they had a large accession of members the abandonment of first-class cricket in Leicestershire was a contingency of the not distant future. The financial statement showed the deficiency last year to be over .£500, bringing the total debt of the club to £880. Subscrip­ tions had decreased from £1,750 to £1,640, and gate receipts were £1,580, including £300 share of Test match receipts, against £'1,500 the previous season. Mr. de Trafford was unanimously re-elected president. I n the Gilbey sale at Christie’s on March 12th, a portrait of Mr. George Osbaldeston, the famous cricketer of other days, was sold for sixty-five guineas. M e . A. C. S. G l o v e r having resigned the captaincy of the Warwickshire Eleven, the position has been offered to Mr. H . J. Goodwin, the Cambridge University cricketer and international hockey player. Mr. Goodwin, who has already played for the county on many occasions, is not only a capital bowler, but a good bat and brilliant fieldsman. T h e annual report o f the Warwickshire County C.C. states that, with the notable exception of Hargreave, most o f the prominent professionals have been re­ engaged. The proceeds o f the match with Surrey in July will be granted as a benefit to Quaife, who, since he joined Warwickshire, has scored 18,818 runs at an average o f 43' 15, and secured 313 wickets at a cost of 29'15 runs each. His record includes five scores over 200 , and 40 other centuries. The receipts from the Test matches last season were £ 886 , which enabled the Club to show a profit on the year’s working of £477, while subscriptions totalled £2,194, the highest in the history of the Club. The gate money realised £1,479. At the Annual General Meeting, at the Grand Hotel, Birmingham, on the 15th inst., Mr. G. H . Cartland referred to the pre­ sent County Championship system, which, he said, was really no championship at all. He welcomed Lord Hawke’s pro­ posal to form two divisions, but sub­ mitted that the practice of counties refraining from playing certain other counties on account of personal differ­ ences among one or two players, was pernicious and ridiculous in the extreme. He hoped measures would be speedily adopted compelling all first-class counties to meet each other at least once a season. H . E. W h i t e , o f Hertfordshire, has been appointed to succeed the late T. A. Hearne as ground superintendent at Lord’s. White has been connected with West Herts, and Hertfordshire cricket for many years, and is well above the average as an all-round player. P r e s id in g over the Annual General Meeting of the Notts County Cricket Club on the last day of February, Mr. W . E. Denison said that the success of the first eleven had not been so great as could have been wished. They had done best against the strongest counties, wliilelosingto some which ought not to have had the smallest pretension to beat them. The financial statement was not altogether satisfactory, but all the counties had suffered last season through the wet. The gate receipts showed a falling off of nearly £500. Lord Hawke’s scheme for altering the conditions of the County Champion­ ship had met withuniversal condemnation, with which he agreed. I f they were to benefit the counties, they could only do so by making them o f equal strength. Replying to a question, Mr. Denison said he was not without hopes that fixtures between Notts and Kent might be revived. Mr. Robert Holford was elected president, in succession to Colonel Birkin. O n the same afternoon the Annual General Meeting of the Kent County C.C. was held at the Golden Cross Hotel, Charing Cross, the Earl of Guilford, the retiring president, being in the chair. Lord Harris stated that Blythe’s benefit fund amounted £1,516 beating all records for a Kent player. Including their share o f Test-match receipts, Kent made a profit of over £1,000 on last year’s working. In answer to a question from the Earl of Darnley as to the chance of renewing the matches with Notts, Mr. George Marsham said that as a member o f the Committee he was glad of the oppor­ tunity of saying how matters stood. During last year negotiations were en­ tered into, and in August a suggestion was made by Mr. Pearson-Gregory that the respective secretaries should meet in London and discuss the question with a view to the arrangement of fixtures. The Kent Committee went very carefully into the matter, with the result that he (Mr. Marsham) wrote to Mr. Pearson-Gregory on August 26th to the effect that he thought it more satisfactory and far more likely to lead to uninterrupted relations if the respective grievances were discussed by representatives of the two committees with a view to the slate being left quite clean, and a resumption o f the matches being assured at the earliest date, which probably would scarcely be before 1911. He (Mr. Marsham) suggested that a deputation of, say, three members of each Committee should meet in the autumn, but to that proposal he had received no reply further than that Mr. Pearson- Gregory intended to lay it before the Notts Committee. T h e new President of the Kent County Cricket Club is Sir Marcus Samuel, of Mote Park, who was Lord Mayor in 1902-3. With regard to the Championship, Kent did not support Lord Hawke’s scheme or any other plan for altering the present state of things. Mr. E. W . Dillon has promised to captain the Kent Eleven again this year as he did last, but he may not be able to spare quite so much time. T h e Sheriff of Nottingham, Mr. T. Ward, in a characteristic speech at the annual meeting of the Notts County Cricket Club, astonished the members present (who never suspected his cricket­ ing abilities) by telling them that twenty years ago he made a record which, he be­ lieved, was yet unbeaten in the annals of the game. He was playing in an interest­ ing match, and had the misfortune to make a couple of “ ducks.” That, said the Sheriff, in the laughter that followed, was not absolutely a record, but his op­ ponents were playing one man short, and they looked round for a substitute. “ Oh,” said the captain of his own side, “ here’s a chap made two ‘ ducks; ’ he’ll bat for you.” So the Sheriff that was to be batted again, and again he made a “ duck ” ! And that is where the record came in. B u t Mr. Ward, being a Nottingham man, should have remembered the two matches which were played on the Forest Ground in 1834 between X III. of Bingley and X I. of Nottingham in which the arrangement was that the former should have four innings to the latter’s two. In the first game W . Welsh scored 0, 3 not out, 0 and 0 , and W . Richmond 1 , 0 , 0 and 0, whilst in the second — Horse- pool, jun., made 0, 36, 0 and 0. Other players have been dismissed without a run three times in a match in which each side has had three innings. E. S p r y , the Gloucestershire slow bowler, has been appointed professional to the Imperial Tobacco Club at Bristol, succeeding Peter Hardy, the Somerset left-hander, who has joined a Lancashire League club. On Saturday, the 19th inst., a team under the leadership of Mr. H . D. Swan, of Colchester, sailed from Liverpool in the Booth Line steamer Anselm, for a short tour in Portugal. The side was composed of the following gentlemen - H. D. Swan (Gentlemali of Essex) (Captain.) Hon. S. R. Beresford (Surrey Club.) W. H. Carrick (Cumberland.) R. T. Crawford (Leicestershire.) C. Kenward (Wanderers.) R. Kenward ("Wanderers.) E. Maturin (Colchester and East Essex.) C. P. McGahey (Essex.) J. W. Noakes (Purley.) P. A. Perrin (Essex), and J. C. Robertson (Gentlemen of Leicestershire).