Cricket 1911

27(i C K ICK ET : A W EEK LY EECOED OP THE GAME. J une 2 1, i 9 i i . O ne o f the ch ief m atches o f the Scottish season w ill be that betw een East and W est at H am ilton Crescent on Saturday. T he form er w ill be w ell represented, but the constitution o f the W est team has occasioned m uch criticism . It was surprising to find T . C. B ow ie, of Clackmannan, m ade tw elfth m an. So far neither side has been completed, but am ong the E ast’s representatives will be G. W . Jupp and A . S. Cairns, o f Carlton ; J. E . B alfour-M elville, D . Chapel, P. S. Fraser and T. P. H erriott o f Grange ; J. C. Murray (A cad em icals); J. D rumm ond (U niversity), and W . F . Turnbull (Stewartonians). A remarkable bow lin g feat was accom plished in a m atch at Great Y arm outh on June 14th by a boy, w ho dism issed six batsm en in five overs, five o f them with successive balls, without a run being scored o ff him . The w h ole side w ere out for 6. W h o w ill g o t o A u stra lia in th e n e x t M .C .C . team ? T h e p resen t w riter has ju st b e e n ask ed t o g iv e a list o f p ossibles, from 45 t o 50 in n u m b e r, fo r a sp ecia l p u rpose. H e fo u n d ev en th is w id e lim it b a re ly en ou gh , a n d th ou g h p o ssib ly h e in clu d e d a few n am es a t w h ich certain critics w o u ld sneer, h e feels th a t h e has b y n o m ean s m ad e sure o f g iv in g all w h o h a v e an o u tsid e ch a n ce o f b e in g selected. for the northern kingdom, cricketically and otherwise. Therefore, when we again betray ignorance of things Scottish, we shall hope to find “ Caledonia stern and wild.” T h e r e are those who are fairly certain to be asked and to accept. These are few. There are those who may be asked, but probably will not accept. There are those who may be asked, and will be likely to say “ Yes ” ; and those, a whole crowd of them, who would go like a shot if asked, but are hardly in the running, except through refusals by others. Give our list, do you say ? No, thank you ! Too early for that yet. F rom South A frica a cricketer with an international reputation writes to us as fo llo w s :— “ There has been an interesting discussion in C ricket lately as to the best E ngland E leven in som e particular season. It m ight be equally interesting to enquire what w ould be the best eleven, supposing all the players to have been in their prim e at the same period. W hat do you think o f the follow ing :— W . G. Grace. A . G. Steel. Shrew sbury. G. M acG regor. D aft. Freem an. C. B . F ry. Emm ett. W . W . B ead. Shaw (A.) F . S. Jackson. Gunn, L ohm ann, A . C. M acLaren and R ichardson w ould doubtless have strong claim s to inclusion. Ranjitsinhji I om it as he is an Indian and should never have been played for E nglan d.” The question is one o f considerable interest, and also one which m ight be discussed for ever without the opinions of m any people coinciding. B elieving, as we do, in the m erits o f the early players, we should prefer W illiam B eldh am to F ry , and w ould add that a side w h ich could do w ithout P ilch, D avid Harris and H illyer w ould be strong indeed. T he change in the m eteorological conditions in the latter part o f last week was, in some places, too sudden to be pleasant. At Haslingden, where L ow erhouse should have played the local side, hailstones, some o f which are stated to have been three- quarters of an inch in diameter, fell heavily, and very soon the field was com pletely covered with ice. But it m igh t have been worse. In a club m atch in Kent about eighty years ago, the force o f the hail was so great that the stumps were broken. T h e reception given to “ Cricket’s Guide to Cricketers,” by Press and public alike, is very gratifying. But we are not satisfied yet. We believe that there is not a solitary reader of this paper who would not appreciate the little book, and we are sure that the readers of C r ic k e t have not all bought copies yet. Ax error crept into the article on Norfolk cricket in our issue of three weeks ago. The Bev. J. S. Treglown writes from Deopham Vicarage, Wvrnondham, to say that Mr. C. J. H. rJPreglown was born at Herne Bay, Kent, on February 13th, 1893—not at Wymondham on July 26th of that year. A n o th e r mistake ! It is not to Clackmannan that the little scattered pieces on the map of Scotland belong, but to Cromarty. And Cromarty is no longer a county, we understand, having been incorporated in Ross-shire. It is not an important matter, and no one has troubled to take us to task about it. B u t just there it irks us. Have we so few readers north of Tweed ? Or does the Scot treat us unworthy of notice the mistakes made by the mere Sussenach about his beloved country ? Next time we go wrong about Scotland we should prefer to be jumped on hard, with both feet, because we have an immense amount of esteem It is no mere compilation from existing printed sources. Do you want to know when the Denton twins were born ? —where the new Yorkshire captain went to school ?—the age of little Walden, whom his comrades call “ Fanny,” promising batsman and nippy cover-point ?—whether So-and-so bowls left and bats right, or vice versa ?—the number of centuries Tom Hayward has made ?—how many times Leonard Braund has visited Australia ?—who has made two centuries in a first-class match ? All of these things you will find in the little book, and you will not find them all anywiiere else. W h a t is the best team that could be selected from players taking part in English first-class cricket now or recently who were born outside the British Isles ? Glancing through the pages of the “ Guide to Cricketers,” one finds material help for the answering of such a question. One sees that among those born in Australia were Messrs. S. M. J. Woods and P. R. Le Couteur, Cuffe, Tarrant, and T ro tt; that Messrs. C. O. H. Sewell, W. H. B. Evans, R. O. Lagden and M. J. Susskind, and Llewellyn, are all South Africans by birth ; that Messrs. P. P. Warner, S. G. Smith, and L. C. L. Sutton, of Somerset, hail from the West Indies ; that Major A. J. Turner, Capt. J. G. (jreig, Messrs. R. A. Young, I. P. P. Campbell, N. C. Tufnell, A. W. Roberts, E. A. and W. T. Greswell all first saw the light in India, Capt. K. O. Goldie in Burma, Mr. R. L. L. Braddell in the Straits Settlements, Mr. J. P. Ireland in Mauritius, the Rev. P. H. Gillingham and Mr. J. I. Piggott in Japan, Messrs. P. R. Johnson and D. C. Collins in New Zealand, Mr. W. P. Robertson in South America. Messrs. A. Hartley, C. R. Hartley and J. N. Horlick in the States, Mr. W. H. Holbech in Canada, Mr. Philip Cartwright at Gibraltar, and George Leach at Malta. A t Fram lingham on June 14th the College m et eleven Clergy o f Suffolk and had all the best o f the game. T hey scored 184, the captain (W . R am ) making 96 not out, and got rid o f the opposition for 61. G oing in again, the Clergy had six wickets down for 45 by the time stumps were drawn. A c u r io u s incident marked the close o f last Saturday’s m atch betw een B olton and Ashton, on the form er’s ground. B olton made 146, and when the last A shton w icket fell both sides claimed the victory. The score-books o f both clubs gave the A shton total as 144, but m any spectators declared that they had actually made 147 and had, therefore, w on by one run. It was discovered that the Ashton analysis gave 147 runs for Ashton, whereas the B olton analysis totalled 144. The aggre­ gate o f the separate scores for each A shton m an in both books agreed on 144 as the total. M uch confusion prevailed, and the supporters o f both sides went hom e claim ing the victory. T h e high standard of attractiveness which characterised this year’s cricket up to the end of May—we are talking of the game, not the paper, but we hope it is true of both —continues. We cannot have an Alletson innings every day ; but almost every day provides us with some new happening big with interest to talk about. Kent’s double