Cricket 1911

350 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J u l y 22 , 1911. there was Mr. 0 . G. Radcliffe, formerly of Gloucestershire ; Mr. C. S. Awdry, of Winchester, who still plays, was beginning, besides Mr. J. E. Stevens, of Sherborne, who afterwards made a lot of runs, but has dropped out now.” “ How came you to take up cricket as a profession ? ” “ I was so keen on the game that I felt no other way of earning a living would suit me as well. I didn’t have much difficulty in making a start; I wrote to Mr. Ansell, the Warwickshire secretary, and was taken on at once. No doubt what I had done for Wiltshire helped there.” “ You qualified for Warwickshire in 1898, I believe ? ” “ Yes, and I made a pretty good start. But in the next year I played very little, owing to illness. From 1900 on I have not missed many matches, though. My highest total was 1,569 in 1905 ; but perhaps my best year was 1901, when I made 1,354, with an average o f 52.” Kinneir aggregated 1,131 (average 49-17) in 1900, 1,24‘2 (average 38*81) in 1904, 1,031 (average 32*21) in 1906, and 1,042 (average 29*77) in 1908. His average in 1905 was 40*23. Up to the date of writing he has totalled 12,814 runs in 370 completed innings—average 34*63. The wonder is that he has not been chosen for Australia earlier. But in 1901 he had not been playing first-class cricket long, and, as it chanced, both in 1903 and 1907 he was far below his usual standard. “ What do you consider the best innings you have ever played ? Probably not the recent fine one against Hampshire—one generally finds that a man has a preference for some smaller score made when conditions were against him .” “ That’s quite right. In my own case, I always have thought that m y best innings was the 98 I scored v. Lancashire at Manchester in 1902. And I think Quaife’s 106 in the same game was the best innings he ever played. The pitch was difficult all through, and neither of our totals reached 200, while neither of Lancashire’s reached 150. We beat them by 102 runs, and I doubt whether Warwickshire ever won a game better.” “ You have a rare good side now, with a sporting captain, and excellent youngsters coming on. Don’t you think it is as good a team as the county ever had ? ” “ I do. Mr. Foster is a great all-round player; our older men are still good, and amongst the others Parsons in particular promises well. He gets runs nearly every time he goes in ; he is cool and self-confident, and he makes his leg-strokes particularly well. Smith is a splendid wicket-keeper, and has trained on into a really fine batsman. Reserves? Well, I don’t know that we have as many as some counties; but Horace Bates, a son of the groundsman at Edgbaston, deserves mention. He is a slow left-hand bowler of real prom ise.” “ Your young amateurs? ” “ Some of them are quite good. Mr. Hands, who is playing to-day, has made a lot of runs in good club cricket during the past week or so. But I sometimes think young amateurs—I don’t mean ours in particular—think the game an easier one than it is. They might do better if they recognised the difficulties more clearly. Certainly the onlooker does not appreciate these as he should.” “ You are thinking of some of the charges of slow play levelled at the team, and at yourself and Quaife in particular? Personally, I don’t think that either he or you is to be blamed. You play your natural game, which is what any man must play best; and if you attempted to blossom out into big hitters the result would hardly be likely to satisfy anybody. I don’t mean that either is not capable of scoring fast at times, for both can pick out a loose ball as well as most men.” “ There has been a lot of that sort of grumbling. It has never influenced me much, and I am quite sure it hasn’t Quaife. Suppose you had a whole side of Jessops—or even a Jessop in every team ? The latter might be a good thing, but even that would cause people to relish the original Jessop less ; and teams of Jessops would make big hitting so commonplace that the spectators would tire of it.” “ What of your 268 v. Hampshire ? ” “ All I have to say about it is that I was debited by the papers with four chances, whereas I really only gave two. I was missed at point—a very difficult catch, close to the ground—and once in the slips, but then no fieldsman actually got to the ball. As to the chance in the long-field, it simply wasn’t a chance as far as the fieldsman was concerned, though in a sense it might count against me. I’ll own I thought: ‘ Well, that’s done i t ! ’ But the wind took the ball and swerved it, and it dropped yards short of the man who is said to have missed it.” “ You umpired in the match with the All Indian team—what did you think of them ? ” “ A very much better side than some people make then out. I was particularly taken with the tall left-hand bowler, Warden, who has a high delivery and is really clever too. One of the batsmen— I can’t remember his name, and must admit that I find difficulty in distinguishing one from the other—batted beautifully, and some of the others, without scoring many runs, showed that they could make their strokes really well.” “ You speak of the left-hander, Warden. I have noticed that you throw and bowl right hand. Are you left-handed in any other way than as a batsman ? ” “ No. I did bowl left-hand at one time, but I was laughed out of it. I wish now that I had stuck to it. I think, if you ask him, you will find that Killick is like myself—left-handed in no respect off the cricket-field, and there only left-handed as a batsman.” I did ask Killick later on, and he corroborated. I also asked Santall, with whom I had the pleasure of a chat, whether^he thought the present Warwickshire team the county’s best. But I found that he had a preference for the side of ten years or so ago, with Walter Quaife and Diver and John Devey, and Hargreave at something like his best. “ You used to be quite a useful change bowler. How is it you never go on now ? ” “ I think because no captain we have had since Mr. Bainbridge has taken me at all seriously in that wayt I’ve lost my bowling now ; a man is no good unless he gets a chance fairly often.” “ Other left-handers—what do you think of th em ?” “ Blythe is the best bowler of his type I have ever seen. Mead of Hampshire is a splendid bat. He was quite first-class, though little more than a boy, when he first appeared, and he has improved greatly since then.” Kinneir spoke in terms of generous praise of several other men — not all left-handers—and especially of Albert Relf, whom he would much like to see in the team for Australia. So would I, for the more one sees of Albert, the more clearly one recognises his tremendous keenness and his immense capacity for work. J. N. P e n t e lo w . CH ESHIRE V. N O RTH U M B ERLAN D .—Played at Crewe on J u ly 5 and 6 and w on by Cheshire by three w ickets. Score and analysis :— First innings. N o rth u m berland . Second iunings. C.F. Stanger-Leathes, c Moorhouse, b Sm oker 37 b B uxton ... , 35 Maj-shall, c Tipping, b Smoker ............ 0 b M oorhouse 4 Richardson, c M oorhouse, b Sm oker ............ 0 b Smoker 1 B. C. Cumberlege, c Tipping, b M oorhouse 33 b Turner 7 C. A rkw right, b Sm oker ............ ............ 21 b Turner 9 C. M. Skinner, c and b B uxton ............ 10 c W right, b S m ok er............ •2 N. E. Barber, c M oorhouse, b Sm oker ............ 3 b B uxton . 27 N. R. E. W ilkinson, c Turner, b Sm oker ... 3 b B uxton 0 M ilne, b B u x t o n ............................. ............ 0 not o u t ............ , 44 T. Ullathorne, b Sm oker ............ ............ 15 c M oorhouse, b B uxton ... 0 Elsey, not out ... ..................... ............ 6 c W right, b Turner ............. 16 B yes, &c.................. ............ 6 Byes, &c. . 25 Total ............ ............134 Total . 170 First innings. C h esh ire . Second innings. E. Osborne, b Marshall ........... ............ 44 b E lsey ............ 0 M oorhouse, c Milne, b Elsey ... ............ 1 b E lse y ............ , 13 F. C. Hunter, c Arkw right, b Elsey ............ 7 b M iln e............ 0 T. H. W right, c and b Elsey ... ............ 31 n ot o u t ............ , 67 Sm oker, b M iln e ............................. ............ 14 run o u t ............ 6 C. P. Woods, c and b Elsey ............ 30 st Ullathorne, b M ilne .... S A. S. Turner, b Skinner ............ ............ 12 st Ullathorne, b M ilne .. . 30 H . P. R igby, b E lse y ..................... ............ 0 c Elsey, b M ilne................... 0 L. N. Jones, b M iln e .................... ............ 8 n ot o u t ... ... . 3 Buxton, b Elsey . .................... ............ 8 J. D. Tipping, not out ............ ............ 0 Byes, &c.................. ............ 13 Byes, &c . 10 Total ............ ............168 Total (7 w kts) . 137 First innings. N orth um berland . Second innings. O. M. R. W. O. M. R. W . S m o k e r ..................... 19.4 2 68 7 ............ ............ 21 3 59 2 B uxton ..................... 9 0 36 2 ............ ............ 12 0 42 4 H unter ..................... 4 0 15 0 ............ 2 1 1 0 M oorhouse ............ 5 1 9 1 ............ 1*2 0 1 1 Turner ............ 12 0 42 3 First innings. C h e sh ir e . Second innings. O. M. R. W. O. M. R. W. M ilne ..................... 19 4 72 2 .., ... ............ 17 2 57 4 Elsey ..................... 19’4 6 43 6 ............ ............ 15 1 54 2 M arshall................... 2 0 11 1 ............ S k in n e r.................... 2 0 29 1 ............ .11 6*1 1 16 0 G EO RGE L E W I N & (Established 1869.) Club Colour Specialists &Athie tic Clothing Manufacturers OUTFITTERS BY APPOINTMENT To the M.C.C. W est Indian X I., 1911 ; M.C.C. South African X I., 1909-10 ; the Australians, 1896, 1899 and 1902 ; Mr. Stoddart’s X I., 1894-1895, 1897-1898 ; Mr. M acLaren’s X I., 1901-1902 ; W est Indian X I., 1900 and 1906 ; South African X I., 1901 and 1907 ; and M.C.C., Lancashire, K ent, Surrey and Sussex Counties, Wanderers, Stoics, Brom ley, Sutton, and all Public Schools’ Old Boys’ Clubs, and Queen’s Club.— W rite for E stim ates F r e e . WORKS CAMBERWELL. Telephone: P.O. Oity 607. 8 , CROOKED LANE, MONUMENT, LONDON BRIDGE, E.C.