Cricket 1911

S ept . 2 , 1911. CBICKET: A WEEKLY EECOED OF THE GAME. 483 A Cha t abou t the 5 ^rl<shire Team. (Continued from page 463.) II. Mr. Ernest Garnett, who plays for the county all too seldom, has two or three points of resemblance with Mr. Bennett. Like him, he is a Lancastrian by b irth ; like him, he failed to get his blue while up at one of the ’Varsities ; and, like him, he is a very fine bat. Mr. Garnett was born at Bromley Ooss, near Bolton, on April 5th, 1875, and was educated at Charterhouse, where he was in the eleven in 1893 and 1894, and captain in the latter year. He aggregated 592 runs in 15 innings (3 not outs) then, playing particularly good cricket. Proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, he scored 23 and 111 in the Freshmen’s match of 1895, 54 in the Seniors’ match, and 79 in his second innings for the Twelve v. the Next Sixteen in 1897 ; bu t in spite of these good scores he never had a trial in the team, though he did play for it once, against Liverpool and District (after the ’Varsity match) in his third year. In his schooldays Mr. Garnett was reckoned a defensive player, and in his schooldays, too, he kept w ick et; he has developed considerable aggression since, and now fields in the slips. His first match for Berkshire was in 1907, and his appearances have been few ; but he has scored largely almost every time he has turned out, and in 1908 he hit 282 (highest score in a Minor Counties match since the present competition was formed) v. Wilts, and 202 v. Dorset at Reading in one week, one of the big scores being made on the Monday, the other on the Thursday. Mr. Garnett is headmaster of a preparatory school at Wokingham, and probably does not care to give up the greater part of his holidays to cricket ; hence the rarity of his appearances. In 14 innings for Berkshire he has totalled 757 runs. Some surprise was expressed when Mr. Henry Broug­ ham was given his blue at Oxford this season ; but after the ’Varsity match cavillers at Mr. Evans’s judgment preserved a discreet silence. Born at Wellington College on July 8th, 1888, Mr. Brougham, unlike the majority of the side, has a birth qualification. He was educated at Wellington, where he was in the eleven for three or four seasons, and he first played for the county in 1905, when he scored 107 v. Oxfordshire at Beading. In 1906 he totalled 134 in six innings, but played seldom in the next few seasons. But in 1910 he batted in really fine style, aggregating 296 in seven innings, with 138 v. Devon at Exeter as his highest score. He had meanwhile played in the trial matches of three seasons at Oxford without making his m a rk ; but two excellent scores of over 50 in a supplementary trial this season earned him a place in the eleven, and he was given his blue. His fine effort of 84 in the Dark Blues’ second innings was one of the chief factors in his side’s victory ; and there is probably no other instance of a man untried until his fourth year having quite so big a share in the result of a ’Varsity match. Mr. Brougham has recently been going great guns for his county, scoring in successive matches 53 v. Devon at Exeter, 64 and 52 v. Dorset at Dorchester, 54 v. Carmarthen at Llanelly, 122 v. Bucks. at Beading, and 150 v. Carmarthen at Beading. Mr. Brougham scores chiefly by lusty and well-timed drives. As a fieldsman he does capital work in the deep. Doctor William Young Woodburn was, like Captain Hill, a newcomer in the team last year. He is an Australian by birth his natal place being Dunkeld, Victoria, and the date of his birth, November 27th, 1877. He was educated at Hamilton, one of the Australian public schools, and at Melbourne and Edinburgh Universities. His all-round cricket was of great service to the team in 1910. Left- handed as a bat, he drives well, and, with a highest score of 75 not out, he had an aggregate of 304 and an average of over 23 ; while his right-hand slow-medium bowling, well varied, and with an effective off-break, accounted for 43 wickets at just over 17 each. In addition he fielded well at cover-point. Mr. Gordon Belcher, who was born at Brighton College on September 26th, 1885, was another new man in 1910. Educated at the place of his birth, he was in the College eleven in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1904, and during those four seasons aggregated over 1,000 runs with an average of just on 20, heading the batting table with nearly 30 per innings in his last year, and took 118 wickets at a trifle over 16 each, a decidedly creditable all-round record. In 1905 he was a freshman at St. Catherine’s, Cambridge, but he never had a trial in the Light Blue team. He played once, with no success, for Hampshire in his first season after leaving school, but then had no more county cricket till he turned out for Berkshire last year. His bowling, fast medium right-hand, with a swerve from leg, accounted for 42 wickets at a trifle over 17 ea ch ; and he scored 216 in eight completed innings, his highest being a well-hit 112 v. Wilts. Up-to-date of writing this season his best performances have been a freely-got 104 not out v. Carmarthen at Beading, and eight wickets for 82 in the Devon match at Exeter. Mr. Belcher’s place in the field is usually short slip. Unlike the majority of the team, Mr. Arthur Percy Strange is a Berkshire man by birth. He was born at Aldermaston on December 30th, 1881, and was educated at Charterhouse, where he was in the eleven in 1898, 1899, and 1900. Without doing anything much out of the ordinary during his school career, he showed good form as a batsman, and was of use at times as a change bowler. Messrs. C. C. T. Doll, G. T. Branston, O. T. Norris, and G. V. Goodliffe (who has also represented Berkshire) were among his contemporaries in the Carthusian team. He first played for the county in his last year at school, but did little as a bat, though always of value in the field. Playing a few times with but moderate results in 1903 and 1904, he showed distinct improvement from 1906 onwards, and has during the last few years been of real value to the side when available. In 1908 he aggregated 217 runs, w ith an average of 24, and in 1909 he made 201 with an average of 20. Up to 1906 the 24 innings he had played for Berkshire had only produced 147 runs ; since then he has made 604 in 30 innings, without including some very useful scores made this year. He was not able to play at all in 1910, it may be noted. When set Mr. Strange scores freely all round the wicket, driving power­ fully to the off, and making forcing strokes to leg ; in the field ho is a distinctly capable performer either at third man or in the country ; and at a pinch he has been known to bowl with success. Mr. John Harold Bruce Lockhart (born March 4th, 1889, at Beith, Ayrshire) is a new man in the Berkshire team this season; but>—though he was dropped from the Cambridge eleven for the ’Varsity match—he is well known to fame as a Light Blue bowler. His curious high-tossed slows, which batsmen strange to him seldom play with much confidence, earned him a high place in the first-class bowling averages of 1909, when he had 49 wickets at under 18 each ; but in 1910 his 31 wickets cost 30 each. This season he took 5 for 63 v. Surrey, 8 for 85 v. York­ shire, and 10 for 102 v. the All-Indian Team. He hits hard, but has not as yet done big things in the batting line. Sedbergh, on the Yorkshire moors, was his school. In three successive matches for Berkshire at the end of July and beginning of August— v. Devon, Dorset and Bucks.— he took as many as 33 wickets. There are one or two other amateurs who must be mentioned, though they have not been playing regularly of late—Mr. A. F. Todd, a capital wicket-keeper, and Mr. H. F. Morres, who is playing for the first time since 1908, when he showed excellent batting form in two or three matches. He is an old Oxonian, though not a blue, and has represented Dorset as well as Berkshire. One of the principal factors in Berkshire’s great advance last season was undoubtedly the fine bowling of that sterling professional, George Mark Hawksworth (not Hawkesworth as the name is often incorrectly rendered), head coach at Bradfield College. Hawksworth was born at Aylestone Park, Leicester, on February 17th, 1881, his father being then groundsman to the Leicester County Club, but afterwards to the Kensington Park C.C., with whom G. M. himself put in eight years as pro. He then went to Ilolswerthy, in Devon, and while there did some extraordinary bowling feats. For Holsworthy v. Briton Ferry he had all II wickets (12 aside playing) for 51 runs ; for South Devon v. Torquay he repeated the feat,