Cricket 1911

J an . 26, 19 11. CRICKET A WKKKLY RECORD OK THE GAME. 9 tw o younger children precede him on February 28tli. Tw o w ell-known cricketers o f other days have recently beta distinguishing themselves on the links. At the January meeting o f the Eye G olf Club, on the 7th inst., R . H . de M ontm orency won the m onthly medal with a score of 71-5-76, his 71 being a record for the course, while in the bogey competition in the afternoon he gave bogey 4 strokes and secured the challenge cleek with a return o f 6 holes up. Tw o days later, at Torquay, E rnest Smith w on the silver challenge cup at the local club’s winter meeting. H ow best to popularise cricket in England.— Produce a few Trumpers and Faulkners. M r . F. F. K e l l y , writing to m e from N ew York in the first week o f ihe present m onth, m ade an interesting suggestion. H e said :— “ In view o f the Triangular tournament in 1912, a game which should prove interesting and m ight be played for the benefit o f the Cricketers’ Fund would be R ight-H anded v. Left-H anded. W ith Bardsley, H ill, Ransford, Nourse and m any other good left-handers to choose from , there should be no difficulty in getting together two very attractive sides.” In an article on “ The Cricket Season o f 1910” in Blaclcivood’s M agazii.e for January a writer remarks :— “ It is hard lines, doubtless, for a side to be expected to bat in a bad light. But is it not equally hard lines to lose the toss on a perfect wicket and later to have to go in against a long score on a pitch which has either failed to wear w ell or has been practically ruined by rain '? Such a fate befell the two Counties which encountered Kent in the Canterbury week, but no appeal to stop the match because one side did not find the wicket in such a perfect state as the other had done would hold water. To return to one other point, it is distinctly hard lines upon the clerk or business m an, who can only put in an appearance late in the afternoon, to pay sixpence or a shilling for the privilege of watching perhaps an hour and a-halfs cricket, and then to take his seat only to see the day’s play brought to a premature conclusion on the score o f bad light. ‘ I took all the trouble to go to the Oval this afternoon, and had only been there half- an-hour when that old f o o l ------- said that he couldn’t see, and they chucked the match. I could have seen perfectly w ell.’ W e have heard remarks of this kind over and over again, and our sympathy has lain with the grum bler.” T h e same contributor adds :— “ B e it said that the appeal on the ground of failing light is distinctly a m odern inn o­ vation. Old stagers w ill readily recall the time when country batsmen, playing for local Tw enty-tw os against either the A .E . or the U .A .E . E leven, with perhaps m ore courage than skill, stood up on villainously bad wickets in all kinds of light against Jackson, Tarrant, M cIntyre and other fast bowlers, and accepted as a matter o f course the visitations of Providence, some o f them very painful, without any thought o f appeal.” Tom B o w le y , the old Surrey player, has just retired from his position as cricket coach at Sherborne School, after seventeen years’ service. T h e writer o f the Club W indow Gossip in the L iverp ool D a ily P ost states that K. S. Ranjitsinhji, the Jam o f Nawanagar, will not com e to England next summer with the Indian cricket team, to which his presence would have added great distinction, and o f which it had been hoped he w ould have been captain. M r . L . D . B r o w n le e , the Clifton, Ox­ ford and Gloucestershire cricketer, was married at Bristol, on the 17th inst., to Miss E thel Herapath, daughter o f a local medical practitioner. F or som e years the player m entioned, who is a son of the late Mr. W . Methven Brownlee, the biographer o f “ W .G .,” has been a journalist in London. M r . P e r c y M e l v i l l e T h o r n t o n , who was Conservative M .P . for Clapham from 1892 to January, 1910, received a p re­ sentation from his late constituents in recognition o f his services, at the T ow n H all, Battersea, on the 6th inst. Mr. Thornton, w ho is now in his 70th year, was, whilst at Cambridge, a noted athlete, and held the half-m ile championship. H e was the first secretary of the inter- University sp o rts; was also for many years hon. secretary o f the M iddlesex County C .C .; and is the author o f several books, including “ Harrow School and its Surroundings,” “ The Brunsw ick A cces­ sion,” “ The Stuart D ynasty,” and “ C onti­ nental Rulers o f the Nineteenth Century.” Am on g the names o f those connected with the game which appeared in the N ew Y ear’s H onours List were those o f Mr. A . Priestley, who took a team to the W est Indies in 1897, and Mr. A . Bailey, a keen supporter o f cricket in South Africa W . A. B. w r it e s :— “ A reference in the F ield to L illyivh ite's Quide in connection w ith the death o f Mr. A . B . R ow ley m ay once more rem ind cricketers that at the present time there is no cricket guide which gives the “ characters ” and descriptions o f players. I f an argu­ ment arises in the smoking room as to whether Jones o f Porkshire bats right hand and bow ls left there is absolutely no means o f finding out except by writing to the editor o f a newspaper who for his part is in exactly the same hole. The historian o f the future w h o wishes to discover what were V ictor Trum per’s characteristics w ill search in vain through his faithless W isden and A y res and other guides. Eventually, as the results o f a diligent search through the files o f evening papers, he will in all probability arrive at the conclusion that Trumper was the originator o f googly bowling, that ‘ Trumper ’ is m erely a variant for 1Thumper,’ and that he was called ‘ V ictor ’ because he once beat Mr. L loyd George at single w icket.” “ .I t is all very well to say, as so m any estimable people say in these days, that the m em ory o f modern cricketers is short lived. F or every half-dozen players that the old cricketers had to remember his successors have to remem ber at least a hundred, and it is absolutely impossible for any man to keep in m ind the styles o f all these batsmen and bowlers, m any o f w hom he has never even seen. What would we not give if, when we were in doubt about the characteristics o f one o f our present-day players, we were able to turn to a m odern L illyw h ite and find, grammatical peculiarities and all, something like this : “ M a c C a u liflo w e r , M r . D o n a ld . Born at H om e, B edford­ shire, April 1, 1800. This professional amateur (different to what y ou usually expect from W elshm en) is a useful googly bowler which n o England eleven could be complete without him in it. H e bowls right hand, fast or m edium or slow, and although m any years at it he still breaks both ways and swerves with or without a wind behind him which all googly bowlers are said to do. Bats left-hand and ‘ p u n ch es’ them . Makes breeches m the winter.” C r ic k e t e r s and followers o f the game w ill be glad to hear that M r. H . C. W isden L uff has been appointed Secretary o f the Cricketers’ Fund F riendly Society in suc­ cession to his father, w ho occupied the position for m any years. I hear, too, that the firm o f Messrs. John W isden and Co. have been honoured with a R oyal W arrant o f Appointm ent to H .M . K ing George. N e w S o u th W a le s beat V ictoria in the Christmas m atch at Melbourne by 193 runs. Bardsley and Trumper made a century each, E ric B arbour 82, while Kortlang and Matthews batted best for the losers. Trumper has now made 37 centuries in first-class cricket— 17 in Australia, 19 in England, and one in N ew Zealand. Bardsley, whose first three-figure score in first-class company was made only four years ago, has already 16 on the records— seven during the tour o f 1909, and nine down under. It would be no surprise to hear o f another to each o f them in the return game with Victoria, now due. I f V ictoria should happen to win that game, South Australia w ill presumably again take the Sheffield Shield, with two wins and a loss, against two wins and two losses by V ictoria, and a win and two losses by N ew South W ales. But if New South W ales wins, the senior state and South Australia will be on a level. It really seems as though the playing o f a return between these tw o sides would be fairer to all parties concerned.