Cricket 1911

Novem ber 4 , 1911. EUGBY FOOTBALL AND CEICKET. 571 incomplete. He emigrated when about twenty-four, and, after a short period of wandering in which he lived for a time in Kimberley, then in Barberton, and later at Win- burg, Orange Free State (where on March 14th, 1883, he made the highest score of his life, 177 not out for Winburg v. Brandfort), he settled down at Durban. A slow bowler of considerable ability in his early days, always a fine free bat and an excellent field in any position, for fully a decade Don Davey was very nearly, if not quite, the best all-round cricketer in Natal. In all matches in 1885-6 he scored 647 runs, with an average of nearly 26, and took 82 wickets at a little over 8 runs each : in the following season only Major F. F. Crawford made more runs in Natal cricket than he did, Davey’s total being 1,133, and his average over 43. He represented Natal in the tournament at Kimberley, and ran up 82 v. Bechuanaland. In 1888-9 he played in both matches at Durban against Major Warton’s Team, though he did nothing of note ; in the following season he went with the Natal eleven on tour in Cape Colony, and headed the averages with 301 in eleven completed innings, his best performance being 62 not out v. Kimberley, when he played right through an innings of 106. When the second English team (the late Mr. W. W. Read’s) visited South Africa, Davey, with 26 and 11, was top scorer in each innings for 18 of Durban. In 1894 he went to England with the first South African Team, but was given few chances in the earlier matches, and when he did get a show and was batting well he broke down. At the end of June he scored 49 v. Gloucestershire ; on .July 19th he had just reached 50 v. Liverpool and District when he snapped a leg muscle in trying for a short run, and was unable to play again during the tour. With 146 runs in 8 innings (one not out) he was third in the averages, C. O. H. Sewell and Halliwell preceding him. The following South African season saw him play the best innings of his first-class career, a vigorous 80 for Natal v. Transvaal in a Currie Cup match at Pietermaritzburg. This was the game that Transvaal won by one wicket, thanks largely to the prowess of James Sinclair. Two years later Davey was a member of the Natal team which took part in the Currie Cup tournament at Johannesburg, and scored 57 v. Eastern Province and 43 v. Griqualand West. In 1897-8 he figured in the tournament at Cape Town, and hit up 78 v. The Border. After the war he dropped out of first-class cricket, but up to within three or four years of his death he still played occasionally for the Wanderers Club of Durban, and in 1906-7 was second in the club batting averages with a total of 117 in four innings, including one of 87. Mr. Davey was Chief Assistant Engineer of the Natal Harbour Works, and few men in the Garden Colony were held in greater respect and esteem than he was. A good fellow and a good sportsman, who loved cricket all his life and played the game as boy and man for forty years or more, he will be much missed in Durban. J. N. P. M r . L. GOLDSMITH, K.C. Mr. Louis Goldsmith, K.C., who died at East Melbourne on September 15tb, was one of the best-known cricketers in Victoria forty years ago. He was bom at Melbourne on September 14th, 1846, and had therefore just completed his sixty-fifth year at the time of his death. In Conway (1876, p. 139) he was described as 1 An uncertain batsman, but not, on the whole, an unsuccessful one, as he has at times a great amount of dash when the turf is quick. A brilliant, but uncertain, field. Does at times some wonderful things in running and picking-up the ball and quickly returning it. Does not catch well. . . . Altogether a useful cricketer.” In Scores and Biographies (xi. -4) he was summed up as “ an average batsman and a good field, generally at long-leg or middle-wicket.” He was one of the earliest Australian batsmen to cultivate the pull stroke. Mr. Goldsmith played for Victoria in four matches against New South Wales, four against Tasmania and three against Mr, W. G. Grace’s team in 1873-4, scoring in the eleven games 151 runs in seventeen inning3 and averagiog 9 05. His first match of note was v. Tasmania on the Melbourne ground in February, 1869, when the visitors were dismissed for 18 in their first innings, Sam Cosstick, unchanged throughout, sending down 85 balls for one run and six wickets. For many years he was associated prominently with the East Melbourne C.C., for whom, between 1867 and 1879, he scored 2,915 runs in 158 innings (nine of which were unfinished), averaging 19'56. His highest score was 102, made in 1870-1. He and Mr. W. W . Gaggin generally went in first together, and a very good pair they were, the former’s brilliant methods contrasting well with the latter’s steadiness. Mr. Goldsmith was the chief figure in the famous lost-ball match between East Melbourne and Melbourne in December, 1871, and in 1875-6 was a member of the E.M.C.C. eleven which passed through the season without a defeat. In 1870, on the Melbourne ground, he played for Melbourne University against Sydney University, in the first match in which the two sides ever met, and, with 41 and 36, was the highest scorer for either team. Cricket: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 168, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON, E.C. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1911. pavilion (Sosstp. The abstract and brief chronicle of the time. — Hamlet. ME matches will drop out of the County Championship programme of 1912, on account of the double Colonial v isit; but two quite new fixtures have been arranged. Derbyshire will meet Somer­ set and Middlesex will meet Warwick­ shire for absolutely the first time. Essex, Kent, Lancashire, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire have at one time or another antagonised all the other first-class counties ; but none of the other ten has a full list. In the Championship Derbyshire has never met Middlesex or Somerset ; Gloucestershire has never met Leicestershire ; Hampshire has never met Notts. ; Leicestershire has never met Gloucestershire or Somerset ; Middlesex has never met Derbyshire, Northants, or War­ wickshire ; Northants. has never met Middlesex or Somerset; Notts, has never met Worcestershire ; Somerset has never met Derbyshire, Leicestershire, or Northants ; Warwickshire has never met Middlesex ; and Worcestershire has never met Notts. O u t s i d e the Championship Derbyshire and Middlesex played one match together in 1888 ; many years ago Hamp­ shire met Notts, in home and home games ; Leicestershire and Somerset were opponents in their second-class days ; and Notts, and Worcestershire played one game in 1899. There have been but few matches between Derbyshire and Gloucestershire, Essex and Somerset, Leicestershire and Middlesex, Northants. and Worcestershire, Notts, and Somerset, Somerset and Warwickshire, and Warwickshire and Kent ; but these pairs of counties have met in at least one season each since 1893, some of them in two or more. T h e South African fixture list includes a match with the Second-Class Counties at Stoke. This is a good move, and the side the Afrikanders will have to meet should be a strong one, if only all the men whose assistance is desired are available. Batsmen like Messrs. Norman Riches, Bernard Meakin, T. A. L. Whittington, Henry Brougham, G. G. M. Bennett, F. Hargrave Carroll, E. H. Bourne, E. S. Phillips, F. W. Gillespie, G. A. Stevens, C. H. Titch­ marsh, L. J. Reid, C. F. Stanger-Leathes and T. A. Bradford, all-rounders such as Messrs. Michael Falcon, J. F. Ireland, H. C. Tebbutt, H. Tresawna, A. F. Morcom, H. R. Orr, F. G. Phillips, J. H. B. Lockhart, and Gordon Belcher, Dr. W. Y. Woodburn, the Rev. G. B. Raikes, Barnes, Wharmby, Newman, Silverlock, Coleman, Harrison (of Durham), and Maxwell, bowlers like Mr. P. W. Cobbold, Creber, Hacker, Morris, Hawksworth, Burton, Shelford and Riley, with a choice of several excellent wicket-keepers,