Cricket 1911

152 C R IC K E T : A W EEK LY RECORD OF THE GAME. M ay 13, 1911. Club Cricket. Cricket was played under the pleasantest of conditions on Saturday, and many a “ flannelled fool ” went forth to the wicket to bowl or to be bowled. It was a great consolation to most of us to know that the laws of the game had not been tinkered w ith; the position is exactly “ As you was,” as the coster said when he had rudely caused an officer strutting in the streets to look round. Club cricket-land produced a fine crop of batting performances last week­ end. A noteworthy accomplishment was a “ knock” by W. R. W illiams playing for Forest Hill v. Ibis, who served up the kind of bowling meant for lambasting. He actually helped himself to 195 in under two hours, his figures including 4 sixes and 27 fours. W . E. W illiams has been connected with the Forest Hill C.C. for over fifteen years and for fourteen consecutive seasons has acted in the capacity of honorary secretary. As a mark of great esteem and appreciation of his services the Club presented him in 1903 with a valuable gold watch and chain. His best performance for the Forest Hill O.C. was in 1897, when he averaged and one idea, for his practical and active sympathy with other pastimes is universal. In addition to playing for Surrey, he has served on the County Committee fcr some years. He and Richard Brooks, who is almost as good behind the wicket as ever, and certainly as keen, are now the two oldest playing members of the Wanderers. K. Dixon (118) put up a splendid performance on the 6 th for Teddington v. East Molesey. He and N. C. Jacks (92) scored 180 in the first hour. Dixon in h:s century hit two 6 ’s and twenty 4’s. He is an old Blackheath School boy and was easily the best boy bat in the school team for two seasons. Whilst touring in Sussex last year he scored very freely, and when in form impresses one as a batsman of distinct class. Three bowling achievements:—C. V. Balkwill, eight wickets for 17, Forest Hill v. Ibis; the dismissal of Norbury Park for 60 by Gilbert and Wilfred Reay (Beddington) ; M. B. Haworth, six for 21, Streatham v. Leatherhead. The bowling of the brothers Reay was one of the features of the season in club cricket in 1910, both being very keen and persevering, accurate in length, fastish, with a break both ways, and with artistic change of speed. The younger Reay, it will interest many to know, is still only nineteen years of age. Photo b?/] [ ]Veston Son, Eastbourne, JYIr."S. COLMAN (The W anderers). 31';for fourteen completed innings. As he has batted with dis tinction on’ so many occasions he can look back with satisfactionon a long list of splendid achievements. Playing for Hampton Wick v. Northbrook, R. J. Sivers batted finely for 82 not out. Born at Hampton W ick some forty summers ago, Sivers learnt all his cricket on the local ground. Since 1886 he has scored about 18,000 runs for his club, including twenty-one centuries. Without doubt his best performance for Hampton W ick was 101 not out against the M.C.C. in 1907. For twelve years he was captain of the side and is generally looked upon as a giant in local cricket. Stanley Colman, whose portrait appears on this page, is, as every cricketer knows, manager and captain of the Wanderers— London’s premier club so far as playing strength is concerned. Although not calculated to arouse enthusiasm as a batsman, Colman, by patience and persistence, has notched many long lines of figures in the scorer’s book. He has not been a man of one sport Photo by] [Tamsden, Eastbourne. M r. R. li. BROOK S (The W anderers). Blackheath, with Captain Bush, A. P. Day and R. N. R. Blaker, went down before the R.M .A. at Woolwich last Saturday, the players mentioned amassing only 19 between them. Granville (Lee), still handicapped by the absence of A. S. Johnston, were beaten by Gravesend. The visitors were dismissed for 185 (C. E. Lovell, 65), but this proved the undoing of Granville, who responded with 165, of which C. E. C. Kendle made 56. An interesting personality in George McCanlis, brother of Captain McCanlis, of Kent, umpired in this game. Besides playing a good deal of cricket for Kent in the seventies, McCanlis once made over 600 runs in a week. This has been equalled by Dr. Russell Bencraft (Hants.), who aggregated 780 in six matches, and by A. E. Stoddart, who scored 900 in three completed innings in the Hampstead Week of 1887. At Oxford on Friday and Saturday last for Trinity v. Christ­ church, C. L. Norman (141) and H. S. Altham (125), flogged some schoolboy-undergraduate bowling unmercifully. The latter player,