Cricket 1911

M ay 20,1911. CR ICKET : A W EEK LY EECOED OP THE GAME. 159 5 H l i Ki T h is is a ph oto graphic reproduction of the C ric k e t B a t from which it is tak en w ith o u t a n y faking w h a te ver. H ave you seen a blade showing such a m arvello u s ra p id ity o f grow th P C rick e te rs should read “ Th e E v o lu ­ tion o f a C ric k e t B a t,” obtainab le free upon ap p licatio n to C R IC K E T D E A L E R S o r GEO. G. BUSSEY & Co., Ltd., 36 & 38, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, L O N D O N . Cricket Notches. B y t h e R e v . R . S . H o l m e s . HAVE just [heard a characteristic story of a famous old Northern wicket keeper, which has never before been made public. An ear bother led him to consult a specialist and an operation was deemed necessary. At one stage the pain was so acute that the patient, losing all self-control, struck out with his right fist and floored the surgeon by a violent blow on the mouth. Asked what followed, he said : “ I made off with all haste : the last I saw of the doctor was that he was trying to squeeze himself under the sofa. I never paid him a second visit; my ear, wonderful to relate, never troubled me again, although the operation was never completed.” After this aside, let’s to the game, for the play is the thing. The county season has opened in splendid style, and sundry acquaintances of mine assure me that it is owing to the new method proposed by Somerset. In all proba­ bility that has nothing to do with it, although it is almost certain that the recent complaints as to the decadence of the game have not been altogether lost on our county cricketers. Anyhow we all seem to be waking up. There are no certainties in cricket, as everybody knows ; else I would have backed Leicestershire at fairly long odds when at the Oval last week the most violent storm I have ever experienced on a cricket ground put a summary stop to the day’s play.‘ ‘ It’s all up with Surrey now,” said my next-door neighbour under shelter; ‘ ‘ they are essentially a good wicket side: that start of Lei­ cestershire’s means a one-innings victory for them. You may take my word for it, as I know as much about Surrey cricket as almost anyone.” A stranger to me, I can only hope he is a subscriber to this journal ; perhaps in future he will bemore careful before taking a stranger into his confidence. It was a delightful partnership of Wood and Whitehead, although I began to wish it would come to an end ; not because I was sorry for Surrey, but for myself ; any partnership of more than a hundred runs gets as monotonous to me as watching Gray monopolise the billiard table for a whole session did the other afternoon. I make an exception when England batsmen take root in a Test match : otherwise I go to a match to see eleven or more Jbat, not two. M tStill Whitehead’s innings was well worth watching, for, he was always making haste.y In the corresponding match last year the same men_comjiiled no less than 168 runs, although his recent Oval innings was his first County century since 1907, Wood’s last previous century coming a year later. Their united innings realised 257 out of a total of 311, the next biggest individual innings being 17 ! On Friday I kept wondering after the startling collapse how Leicestershire would have fared had they had to bat instead of Surrey. The latter rose to the occasion in splendid style, Hayward showing the way with a delightful long-handle innings which recalled his great season of 1906. As an unfinished game seemed certain on Friday evening, and Surrey might probably be behind on the first innings, the tenth partnership between Strudwick and Rushby was almost the tit-bit of the match; anyhow, it gave Surrey a useful lead of just over 30 runs. Smith and Rushby then did pretty much as they liked with the ball, and so in the end Surrey secured five points with all their wickets upstanding. It was a great victory. Surrey now seem to have a very reliable team, and so they need not, like Yorkshire, to make experiments ; nearly all their men are young. Hayward is the one exception, but a batsman of his physique and temperate habits should last several seasons yet. Cricketers have no business to be old at forty, although their joints are sure to be stiff after a winter’s rest. I fully expect Hayward to be in the Surrey eleven for at least five more years, and now that the youngsters are shaping well and so great a responsibility does not rest on him, 1 hope that he will play his natural free game, although, owing to his perfect style, his cricket always gives pleasure to an old fogey even when he is not scoring rapidly. Cannot Hitch spare himself when bowling ? His inordinately long run must soon wear him out. And why does he indulge a double hop in his long run ? I wish he had seen the old Yorkshire bowler Allan Hill, one of the fastest bowlers of his day, and whose bowling had a lot of ‘ ‘ devil ” in it as soon as the ball touched the ground ; but Hill never took more than four or five strides before delivering the ball. He was the prettiest fast bowler 1 have ever seen, so perfect was his delivery. And here’s my old county Yorkshire knocking at the door, for although I am not a Yorkshireman as several persons imagine, I lived long enough in that county to admire and love its genius for all sorts of sport. After their fine victory over a powerful M.C.C. eleven in the early days of last week, in which all the old hands played a conspicuous part, one was not prepared for a set-back at Leyton. I had a friend staying with me last week, a cricket enthusiast with a hole and corner memory. He told me that Yorkshire