Cricket 1911

C R IC K E T : A W EEKLY RECORD OF TH E GAME. SEP TEMBER 2, 1911. “ Together joined in CricRet’s manly toil.”— B y r o n . n o . 8 83 . v o l . x x x . SA TU RD A Y , S E P T E M B E R 2, 1911. p r i c e 2 d . A Chat about A. 6 . feewis. GOOD m any professional footballers have dis­ tinguished themselves in county cricket. Among men now playing Jam es Iremonger, Harold Hardinge, Joh n Sharp, Alonzo Drake, Ernest Needham and Andrew Ducat—the list is not exhaustive, of course — are cases in point. A. E . Lew is, who was born on Jan u ary 20th, 1877, at Bed- m inster, is another of the band, and one of the best among them. He has carried into the cricket field the nerve, pluck and resolution that served him so well between the posts of the winter aren a; and, while his county has been experiencing disaster after disaster, he has worked like a hero in its cause. F or the past two or three seasons he has been undoubt­ edly the best all-rounder on the Somerset side—the best bats­ man in Mr. Randall Johnson’s absence, the best bowler at any time, and always a good field. He played his first match for Somerset at B ath in M ay, 1899, v . Yorkshire, scored 3 and 1 1 , and bowled 6 overs for 19 runs without a wicket. H is only other game Ithat season was v. Kent at T on ­ bridge, when, sent in last, he recorded 0 not out and 0. Playing regularly in 1900, he did very useful work w ith­ out achieving anything great. B ut in 19 0 1 he made a big jump. In the match with the South A fricans at Taunton he was undefeated in each innings, m aking 52 and 100 against the bowling of Kotze, Sinclair, Rowe and oth ers; in August he scored 12 0 v. Sussex, help- Photo by] ing Mr. Lionel Palairet to send A. E. up 258 for the first wicket, and 1 1 3 v. Surrey, when he and the same great batsman added 1 1 1 for the second. Both these innings were played at Taunton, and his other most notable score of the year, 68 v. Lancashire, was made on the other home ground at B ath. W ith a total of 838, he averaged 27'93 per innings. H is bowling was little used, and he did not take a single wicket. In the wet season of 1902, he hardly did him self ju stice; but his 82 v. Worcestershire at Taunton, highest score in the m atch, was a fine fighting innings, and he also played well for 63 v. Middlesex at Lord’s. H is only really notable score in 1903 was 94 v. Gloucester­ shire at B ath. B u t in 1904 he was in great fettle, though he had one bad spell, when in six successive innings he could only total 35. B ut before that he had run up 63 v.. Glouces­ tershire at B ath, forcing the game finely on a treacherous w icket; and directly after his run of ill-luck he had a great match v . H ants at Taunton, narrowly m issing two centuries, his scores being 10 1 and 97. H is 96 v. Worcestershire on the same ground was lu ck y ; but that match also was a memorable one for him, for in it he bowled with success such as had never attended his efforts before, taking nine wickets for 100 runs. H is all-round cricket (five for 60 in Surrey’s first and 1 18 not out in Somerset’s second, he and Mr. D aniell sending up 14 1 for the first wicket) a little later had m uch to do with one of the several defeats which Surrey has suffered on the banks of Tone. W ith 861 (his highest aggregate to date) at •a n average of 29’68 and thirty-seven wickets at a little over 23 each, he had now to be ranked as an all-round per­ former. As a batsman he started 1905 badly, and it was not until the latter part of the season that he made m any runs ; but meanwhile his six for 42 in Gloucestershire’s second innings at B ath had [Hawkins db Co., Brighton. helped to bring about Somer- LEW IS. se*’s only win the campaign. H e got going against H ants, at Southampton in Ju ly , and j scored 84 and 75, and his 70 not out v. W arwickshire at Taunton was the highest score made in his last m atch of the season. In ] 1906 he not only batted very consistently, his scores including j 107 v. Worcestershire (Taunton), 8 1 v. Gloucestershire (Bath), ! 64 v. Sussex (Hove), 63 v. Gloucestershire (Bristol), 5 1 v. ! W arwickshire (Birm ingham ), and ten scores of between 20