Cricket 1911

J u l y 15 , 1 911. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 339 team ow ing to the injury to Bale, which is not, it is good to hear, quite so serious as was at first reported. B y the way, what has becom e o f Mr. H . G. B aclie, who headed the W orcestershire Second averages in 1907, w ith ‘248 runs in eight innings ? H as he quite given up cricket for lawn tennis '? It is a great pity if he has, for in spite of som e failures he had the makings o f a really good bat. S p e a k i n g o f failure, w e should like to ask whether the pillory is not a little out o f date ? A Leicestershire amateur has had the m isfortune to fail to score in his first five innings for his county. In his sixth innings he m ade six, and a con ­ temporary cam e out with a startling headline : “ Jelf Scores at Last.” It was m eant jocu larly, no d oubt; but for all that it strikes a w rong note. F a i l u r e should not be jeered at. It is only reasonable to presume that if a county club comm ittee offers a m an a place in the team it is because he is know n to possess ability. Pluck is needed to persevere in the face o f ill-fortune ; but jok es o f this kind are apt to choke a m an oil’, and are unfair either to an amateur or a professional. The latter has his living to earn ; the form er is giving up his time to the game, which stands in need o f m ore amateur assistance, and, though he is not likely to object to a mere statement o f fact, w ould probably prefer to be spared such tackless jestin g as that referred to. T h e Indian team have com e in for som ething of the same sort. A vow edly they are here to learn. On the testim ony of those who have played against them in their ow n country they possess considerable ability, which a tour like this is likely to develop. Messrs. H . P. Chaplin, G. N. Poster, and others, have all expressed the opinion that there are am ong them cricketers o f real class. But a section o f the Press persists in judging them by the standard o f Australian and South African teams, and setting them down as duffers. E ven the Rev. R. S. H olm es, in our ow n pages, has been girding at them ; but it will, o f course, be understood that our genial and talented contributor does not express the editorial views. C o n s i d e r the side’s difficulties. T hey are absolutely strange to the conditions o f first-class cricket in England. They are o f various races and languages, a fact which cannot make for hom ogeneity in a team . K. M . M istri, probably their best bat, has seldom been able to play, ow ing to his duties as secretary to the Maharaja o f Patiala, who has him self turned out in only three or four matches to date. But it is hardly necessary to say m ore, except that in our opinion their cricket has been, even thus far, when no win has yet been credited to them, by no means so weak as to ju stify an objection to the M .C.C.’s decision that their matches with first-class sides should rank as first-class. A mistake was make both in 1894, with the South Africans, and in 1900, with the W est Indians, in refusing that rank to the m ore important matches o f a touring team. F a i l u r e is no crim e— whether in cricket or in the sterner affairs o f life. Success is not always the m ighty thing that the world thinks it. So little m ay turn the scales. The great thing for the combatant is that he should do his best. There are tw o im portant things that the critic m ight rem em ber with advantage— not to sneer at a man who does that, and not lightly to assume that a m an is not doing that. I n our last issue we gave particulars o f a match in America wherein ten balls were bow led to the over. Comm enting on the game, a writer in a contemporary rem a rk s;— “ I am almost tempted to ask tw o M etropolitan or county clubs to repeat the experiment, and provide me with unbiassed opinions." W e have not the slightest doubt that the whole of the sixteen first-class counties have already tumbled over each other in their eagerness to oblige the gentleman referred to. P i t y the sorrows o f the secretary o f a county club where cricket has not yet caught o n ! E very county ought to have its club, for cricket is still the national game ; but it is not surprising that in a few shires the effort to keep one going has been abandoned in despair. The Cumberland Club has lately been resuscitated, though it goes in for nothing am bitious in the way o f a programme ; Cheshire has bobbed up again after a long sleep ; but we believe w e are correct in saying that at the present time Herefordshire, Huntingdonshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire and W estm oreland, even i f som e o f them possess organisations, do not play county cricket. A ll o f these are agricultural counties, and m ost o f them are small, of course, while they have not in general any considerable number o f w ealthy residents. C a r m a r t h e n s h i r e has made a gallant effort, but unless som ething is done, and done quickly, the W elsh shire will go to the wall. Practically without professional aid, Carmarthen has done quite creditably in its section o f the M inor Counties tournam ent, especially so last year, when it was fifth in a field o f eleven. But gate-m oney is alm ost nil, and subscriptions am ount to under £50, so that, though only eight matches are played each season, the club finds itself w ith a deficit which represents a full year’s incom e. It is to be hoped that “ gallant little W ales ” will not suffer Carmarthenshire to go under. Surely there are more than thirty people in the county who are sufficiently interested in the gam e to contribute to its funds ? A hundred or so m ore subscribers o f half-a-guinea would keep it going. G a t e - m o n e y alm ost nil, we have said ; but in that respect Carmarthen is no worse off than some other m inor counties. N orfolk, cham pions in 1910, took under .£150 in match receipts during that season. Staffordshire had as much as .£308, including a sum received for insurance o f a m atch. But Bucks. took no m ore than .£12 14s. 2d., and H erts only i.'ll 7s. Od. Carmarthen’s .£14 4s. 6d. tops both these. W h y is it ? There is plenty o f good cricket in m inor county m atches, and there is also a cham pionship to be fought fo r ; yet the public does not go to them . One w ould think that an August afternoon spent on the Lakenham ground at Norw ich, at St. Albans, at Reading, or at F elixstow e, w ould appeal to m any m ore than it does. M r. G eoffrey Stevens, Barnes, Silverlock, M r. R iches, B ancroft, Mr. W hittington, H oldstock, M r. G. G. M . Bennett, Coleman, Mr. R . B . C ow ley— one can name only a few— show cricket as good as that o f the average first-class player, not to put the standard too high. But probably it is not the average first-class player the public flocks to see. It wants a Jessop, with his daring and dash, a slashing Alletson, an incom parable R anjitsinhji, a graceful F oster, a polished Spooner, a peerless George H irst, a m ighty Charles F ry, a w on drous T om H ayw ard, or a John Tyldesley, full o f vim and vigour. A f e w weeks ago we announced the fact that Mr. Aubrey Faulkner had sailed from South Africa in order to settle in England. That, as it happens, is not the only loss his country has sustained, for, according to the Johannesburg Post “ R . O. Schwarz has m ade up his m ind to settle dow n in England, and South Africa will not know him again, save perhaps as an occasional visitor. During the last three years he has not been out here for any length o f time, due to the fact that Sir Abe B ailey has spent m uch o f his tim e in England. The latest in ­ form ation to hand, how ever, is that Schwarz has join ed a firm o f stockbrokers in L ondon, and has entered the Stock Exchange there. H is resignation has been received b y the local Stock E xchange. H is settling down in England, of course, deprives South Africa o f the benefit of his services during the present season, and it appears doubtful whether he will be able to assist the country o f his adoption in the triangular tests during the 1912 season, for with cares o f business he w ill have some difficulty in finding time for practice.” O n another page we present portraits o f four o f H am pshire’s rising men. It is true that on ly one o f the four is Hampshire by birth, but that matters very little, for none can doubt that Mead, B rown and Remnant are every bit as keen on their