Cricket 1911

MAT 20, 1911. CR ICKET : A W EEK LY RECORD OF THE GAME. 175 At the Sign of the Wicl<et. B y F. S. ASHLEY-COOPER. After the repeated experience,of bad weather in the early part of recent seasons, cricketers have cause to rejoice at the conditions under which the game has been played duriog the past fortnight. There has not been uninterrupted sunshine, it is true, but on the whole the weather has been far better than one had come to expect for the first half of May. And —quite as important a matter— the cricket also has been brighter, even such slow run getters as Kinneir and Quaife shedding to some extent their customary sedateness and batting in a manner which, if continued, should have a beneficial effect on the attendances at Edgbaston. So far as one can judge, cricketers appear to have enjoyed the game more than usual during the last few weeks, though one exception—of Bayes, the Yorkshire­ man, who bowled so pluckily at Lord’s last week with a broken bone in his foot—must be made. The critics had been told that the player named was fast, and some of them, when they saw him bowling little, if anything, above medium pace, began to wonder whether some of his admirers had not mis-judged his capabilities; but whatever shortcomings he was responsible for can now be easily understood, and one cannot but admire the manner in which he persevered though so severely handicapped. Some players there are who would have wished to make a bath-chair and beef-tea affair of the matter on the spot, but Bayes is evidently made of sterner stuff and possesses the true Yorkshire grit. One recalls C. G. Taylor, Lord Harris, Lilley and one or two others batting with a broken finger, but is there a parallel to Bayes’ feat in the annals of first-class cricket ? Not the least change which has taken place in connection with the game during the past thirty-five years or so relates to the report­ ing of matches and the telegraphing of scores. The first cabled message concerning the game in Australia came through, I believe, during the visit of “ W .G .’s ” team nearly forty years ago. It is interesting to glance through files of the Colonial newspapers of the seventies and early eighties and to note the obvious pride with which information was set forth under the heading “ By Electric Telegraph” or “ By Submarine Telegraph.” When Stoddart's team went out as recently as 1894-5 the Pall Mall Gazette was considered most enterprising, and justly so, to arrange for a daily service of news concerning the doings of the men. Now the result of a match in Melbourne can be made known in London within five minutes, a fact which tends to recall the admiration, not unmixed with astonishment, with which Pycroft announced in one of his books that it was then possible for people as far away as Edinburgh -to be acquainted with what had happened at Lord’s or the Oval as recently as an hour or two before ! The tape machine also has wrought a revolution in the circularisation of cricket news, and at the chief grounds the latest scores from other centres can be read on neatly printed strips of paper a minute or two after they have been made. At Lord’s last Saturday, when, despite the batting of Thompson and Woolley, the cricket was not particularly exhilarating, the only excitement was caused by the news on the tape from other grounds. Judging from the form shown so far by Surrey, great things should be in store this year for frequenters of the Oval. All the players except Hayes have already got well into their stride, and he may be trusted to strike form in the near future, for he has been practising keenly and is in good condition. Hayward looks like having a good season —good even for him—but much will depend upon his ability to keep down his weight. Last year too much rested upon Smith, but with Rushby in the side again the attack has been strengthened enormously, and now Surrey, even more than was the case last year, are a team to be feared by the strongest. Followers of the county’s cricket will have noticed the success of Hobbs as a bowler this week at Oxford, and probably have wondered whether he is destined to to get similar figures in county matches. It was, of course, generally known that he could send down a good ball, but not many can be aware that Strudwick can do the same. The latter has obtained a very fair number of wickets in club matches at various times, and may yet emulate Sherwin in unbuckling his pads and, by his bowling, ginning an important county match against time. As a wicket-keeper be is facile princeps , and on his merits should be a certainty for an England team. In last week’s sensational match with Leicestershire he caught John King in a wonderful manner, throwing himself forward and, whilst on his stomach, catching a ball which the bats­ man had played down a yard or so in front of him. It was an incident which Lewis Carroll would like to have described and Sir John Tenniel to have illustrated. The correspondence in this journal on the subject of “ England’s Greatest Eleven,” to which many famous players of other days contributed, seemed to reveal the fact that amongst those best qualified to express an opinion the season of 1871, when “ W .G .” was at his zenith, may be taken as the time when we were able to put our strongest side in the field. The team chosen by Lord Harris appears to have been generally approved, though some would have preferred to see Carpenter in the side. With the latter opinion I am inclined to agree, for the Cambridge player, though nearing the end of his career, was still equal to scoring well against the best bowling. His fielding, too, was still a valuable asset, and it would have been a good thing to have a man of such experience and nerve on the side. “ A Veteran of the Forties” mentioned (page 97) a team which, with the substitution of Sir Frederick Bathurst for Redgate, would have been very difficult to beat, especially on the rough wickets in use at that far-distant time. Its chief strength lay in bowling— the ‘ forties’ were a golden age of bowling—and probably no side would have succeeded in scoring a hundred against it on an old-time pitch. Several cricketers of the past—including Lords Cobham, Darnley and Hawke—were prevented from contribu­ ting to the discussion owing to books of reference being inaccessible, whilst “ W .G .” preferred not to express an opinion—at least for publication. In closing the correspondence I take the opportunity to thank all those who so kindly let me know their views. At the risk of being told that followers of the game have had more than “ an elegant sufficiency” of cricket politics during the last few months—one might, with some truth, almost say years— I should like to refer for a moment to the Tournament which is to take place over here next season. The matter which is disturbing my peace of mind concerns the duration of the Test matches. The arrangement is that each of the three countries participating shall play a rubber of three matches against each of the other two, making nine matches in all. To set aside a week for each game would do incalculable harm to English cricket and would interfere with our season to an extent which it would be impossible to justify. On the other hand, if only three days a,re allowed for each match there is the risk of no definite result being reached—an event which would cause the Tournament to be nothing less than a fiasco. Longer playing hours than in inter-county games will be in force for the l est matches, but, even so, there is a very distinct chance of some of the fixtures being undecided. Something might be done to minimise the risk of such an occurrence if the authorities concerned could be induced to see that the wickets provided for the matches were not over-prepared. One could not, of course, consider for a moment the idea of going back to old wickets, which were generally dangerous—and invariably painful, to batsmen who stayed in long enough—to play on, but if pitches could be provided with a little life in them the cricket would always be worth seeing. A valued correspondent in Sydney has forwarded me the score of a remarkable match played in December last at Candelo (N.S.W .) between the home club and the Bega C.C. The score, which is appended, explains itself, but it should be stated that the partner­ ship of Blomfield and H. Wren realised 198. C andelo . Rev. Brown, not out ................. 50 W. Heuwuod, b Bateman .......... 1 T. Pike, b Bateman.......................... 8 J. Hogan, b Simpson .................. 0 O. Tortice, b Simpson ................... 0 R. Bofinger, b Sim pson.................. 4 E. Bright, b Simpson ................... 6 R. Tait, b Sim pson.......................... 5 R. Fitzell, b Simpson .................. 0 C. Mitchell, b S im pson.................. 0 Byes, &c.................................... 5 Total.................................. 79 At Lords’ last week, during the Kent match, “ Wanderer” of the Sportsman expressed the opinion that the name of a not-out player should appear in the Bega innings in order to make the score complete, on the ground that it would be impossible for the two batsmen in to retire at the same time. W ith this point of view I was unable to agree, inasmuch as I quite failed to see what there could possibly be to prevent one of the playe;s from “ retiring ” whenever he wished to do so. Whether his innings would, or would not, be reckoned as a completed on eln the averages— like the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la— “ Has nothing to do with the case.” A friend in common—Mr. Herbert Jewell, in fact—kindly listened attentively to all that could be said on both sides of the question, and then begged to be allowed to excuse himself from delivering a verdict, asking “ When doctors disagree who shall decide ? ” B ega . R. Blomfield, retired H. Wren, retired Simpson, retired W. Wren, retired ... Coates, r e tir e d ......... Byes, &c. Total........... 73 24 E . H . T w in in g (119) a n d W . L . J a ck (74) m ad e 203 fo r th e first w ick e t o f M agdalen C ollege v . E x e te r C ollege on M ay 11th an d 13th.