Cricket 1911

J une 17, 1911. CEICKET: A W EEK LY BECOED OF THE GAME. 251 Bu t never since then has the whole team got going together in a championship match. Whitehead, Knight, and, in a smaller degree, three or four others batted well against Warwickshire ; but the bowling was poor, and the out cricket generally scarcely up to first-class form. For the debacle against Kent there was, no doubt, some excuse, the wicket in the second innings first suiting the champion county’s two crack left-handers. Though the M.C.C. match was lost by 299 runs, most of the crack bats did something creditable ; but the strong team of the premier club found runs all too easy to make. Since then Northants. and Worcestershire have beaten the side quite easily.* Cecil Ward and Shipman battled gallantly in the Whit-Monday match ; Mr. Wood again, and King as a bowler, did well against the West Midland shire. Mr. W o o d has never failed completely in any one of the nine matches played at the time of writing. He has scored four centuries, four times carried his bat through an innings, aggregated 807 runs, and averaged over 57. Whitehead has made two brilliant centuries, and three or four other useful scores. Shipman, without doing quite all that was expected of him, has worked very hard indeed, and deserves credit. Analyses of 5 for 51, 5 for 50, 5 for 46, have gone to John King’s credit. Knight has played innings of 113 and 92, Coe of 101, 70 and 54, Lord of 73 and 71. Mounteney and Brown have shown promise, especially the former, who flogged Yorkshire to the tune of 96 on Tuesday. T h e r e looks value for a win or two here. But, as in some other seasons, the team appears to suffer from a lack of cohesion, a want of ability to grapple occasion and make full use of an advantage won. There were times last season when this old reproach bade fair to be wiped out, and the defeats of Kent, Lancashire, Surrey and Yorkshire earned the side much well-deserved praise. But 1911 sees the team back in the old rut. T h e illness of Jayes, the failure of Astill’s promise, and the loss of V. F. S. Crawford’s punishing hitting, have no doubt hit the side hard. These things form some excuse, but hardly enough. Mr. John Shields has no light task in his first year of captaincy. I t must be disappointing—we will not say dis­ heartening—to Mr. Wood to see his repeated fine efforts of no avail. It is no exaggeration to say that he is to Leicestershire what Hayward is to Surrey—the strong man of the side. This was made abundantly evident this week at Bradford against Yorkshire, when he set up a record for inter-county cricket by making two separate hundreds in the match and carrying his bat through both innings. This must naturally be regarded as the most outstanding performance of a career marked by many meritorious feats. Mr. Wood has been before the public for some time now— as far back as 1901 he obtained 2,033 runs during the season—but he has not yet completed his thirty-fourth year. O n e of the best performances for some time by a school team was that accomplished by Eton against the Free Foresters on Agar’s Plough on Saturday. The visiting side was composed of R. H. Twining, F. A. Phillips, II. I>. G. Leveson-Gower, R. H. deMontmorency, Lord Hawke, J. N. Buchanan, C. S. Rattigan, E. R. Wilson, W. S. Bird, A. F. Morcom, W. G. Druce and J. A. Berners—a fairly strong side, all will admit, though it might well have been stronger in bowling. The College, going in first, made 322 for four wickets and declared, and then dismissed their opponents for 77. A. I. Steel and R. A. lister-Kaye shared the wickets between them, and G. R. Colman, E. F. Campbell and D. G. Wigan all exceeded fifty. W h i l s t Steel the younger was bowling out the Free Foresters, his father was scoring freely off the Charterhouse bowling for Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein’s X I at Cumberland Lodge. Mr. A. G. Steel always had the reputa­ tion of being able to return to the game after a long absence and at once do himself justice, and on Saturday last, although he had not played for six years, he scored 74 at the rate of a run a minute and hit eleven 4’s. ‘ 1 W.G.” was caught at second slip from the third ball he received before he had made a run, and was thereby enabled to have a long chat about the game with the Prince of Wales. Later the Prince and “ W.G.” posed for a photograph. The score of the match will be found on another page. I t is to be hoped that Mr. Frank Foster’s refusal of the invitation given him to play in the Sheffield trial match does not mean that he has made up his mind to confine his activities to county cricket. There are few men in the country who look so likely to do England real service in the international battle of the future its the Warwickshire captain. He bowled very finely and showed great nerve in a tight place against Sussex at Coventry ; and his 105, followed by 9 wickets for 118, against Yorkshire at Bir­ mingham, showed him as an all-round performer of the very highest class. A mong other men whom one would like to see given a chance in the trials are Messrs. Arthur Day, J. W. H. T. Douglas, G. A. Stevens and M. Falcon, with Pearson, Bowley, Bowell, Brown, Hairy Whitehead, Charlesworth, Drake, Hardstaff, Hendren, Hardinge, Dean, and William Tyldesley. Some of these are not exactly youngsters, it is true, but not one of them can be classed among the veterans. Neither Pearson nor Bowley, one thinks, has ever been valued at his true worth away from Worcester. Bowell is showing really fine consistent form, and White­ head, Hendren, Charlesworth and Hardinge have lately made big innings in excellent style. Mr. Day’s claims can hardly be disputed ; Mr. Falcon is not only a really good bat, but quite a useful fast bowler, and full of vim and keenness. T h e r e are older men who might be named. Mr. F. L. Fane at his best—and he is at his best just now—is quite international form. It may seem like heresy to some that one should support Dick Burrows ; but the burly Worcester man has taken a good crop of wickets at a very low cost this season, and really seems to grow younger. ‘ ‘ Talbot ’ ’ Lewis, that gallant fighter for luckless Somerset, is good all-round ; and, if a high heart in the face of disaster counts for anything, he should have that much talked-of thing, the test-match temperament. T h e r e are also a number of men who have already played for England, including such “ old crocks ” as Tom Hayward, John Tyldesley, and Mr. Charles Fry. The unthinking howled at them in 1909 ; to-day most people would choose them among the first four or five. Ernest Hayes, John Sharp, Wilfred Rhodes, Buckenham—all these one feels it only right to mention. But they do not really need trial ; they have proved themselves over and over again. A t Chigwell on Whit-Monday the home side had three hours and a-half’s batting against King’s College, and did so well that at call of time their scores stood as follows C h igw eli ,. A. J. Waugh, b Spackman .......... 27 f G. Francis, not out ...................107 N. F. Norman, c Calder, b Jordon 171 j Byes, &c................................... 20 P. Campbell, c Calder, b Jordon ... 30 — K. D. Abbott, not out ..................102 Total (3w k ts )............457 King’s College had been dismissed previously for 199. A n attempt is made by a contemporary to give a different complexion to the Iremonger incident at Trent Bridge. That contemporary’s contributor sat next to the man whom the tall .Notts, player marched off to the police-station, and is certain that there was no general demonstration. Only the one man made himself un­ pleasant. Very well ! It becomes all the more certain that Iremonger collared the right man. Again we say— Bravo, James ! D e r b y s h i r e has always been among the unluckiest of counties. Death or desertion has robbed her of some of her best men ; and, not once but many times, promise of good work to come has been singularly lacking in fulfil­ ment. In more than one case men who might have been