Cricket 1911

November 11, 1911. RUGBY FOOTBALL AND CRICKET. 575 pavilion (Sossip. The abstract and brief chronicle of the time. — Hamlet. N J. A. Horne and P. M. Care the Grammar School, of Ashford, Kent, possesses two young batsmen of much promise. They scored very consistently in match after match this -year and averaged 48 and 45 respectively. Against Folkestone Grammar School they put on 230 together without being separated after the fall of the first wicket, Horne making 151 not out and Care 103 not out. The former has played for the Mote and Hothfield and the latter is also well-known locally. Both are expected to be at the School again next summer. A n o t h e r “ Man of Kent ” who enjoyed a most successful season was Mr. J. F. Reynolds, of Tonbridge, who has appeared once or twice for the county. It is thirty years since he played his first match for Tonbridge, but during the past season he scored 945 runs for the Club with an average of 78’75. In the match with the Wanderers he scored 188 and his brother, Mr. F. H. Reynolds, 101, the pair sending up 230 for the first wicket. In the official Kent History he is described as “ A batsman of the steady type, with an excellent cut just behind point, and a useful medium-paced bowler, though formerly his delivery was fast. He is an excellent field any­ where, but especially at cover-point or short-slip.” Some of his performances for Tonbridge have been quite remarkable. Against Tonbridge School in May, 1891, his analysis in the second innings (49) was 14’4 overs, 13 maidens, 3 runs, 11 wickets : it was a twelve a-side match and the 3 runs were made by R. S. H. Baiss off a no-ball. Exactly ten years later he made 214 not out against Hastings, scoring 309 for the first wicket in partnership with Mr. J. H. Kelsey (119). B. H. T w in in g (Eton and Magdalen) has been elected captain of the Oxford University Cricket Club for next season, with I. P. F. Campbell (Bepton and Hertford) Secretary. Mr. Twining is an Etonian. The last Dark Blue skipper who hailed from the school by the Thames was Mr. William Findlay (1903), and his immediate predecessor, Mr. C. H. B. Marsham, was also an old. Etonian. It is now just on a quarter of a century since Cambridge had a captain from Eton, Mr. Frank Marchant, the hard-hitting Kent amateur, leading the Light Blues in 1887. Wellington has the honour of providing Cambridge with a captain after aninterval of only five years, as Mr. Meyrick Payne (1907) came, like Mr. E. L. Kidd, from the Berkshire school. T h e development of cricket in our colonies and dependencies proceeds apace. It is many years since Lord Harris wrote in a now defunct paper—the article was reprinted by permission in the December, 1884, number of C r ic k e t —on the subject of “ Christmas Cricket,” telling how, while our country endures the rigour and dulness of the long winter season when no cricket is possible, in many other regions of the world the game goes merrily on. Since then the noble lord has himself helped in no small measure to establish cricket more firmly in India, where next year the Triangular Tournament at Bombay will be replaced by aQuadrangular—or should it be Quadrilateral ?—one. The Mohammedans will enter into competition with the Presidency, the Parsis and the Hindus. T h e West Indian Challenge Cup competition has become' annual. In South Africa there is the Currie Cup Tournament and in Australia a full programme of State matches, in addition to the English team’s fixtures. Lord Hawke takes a team to the Argentine—true, the Argentine is not a colony or dependency of Great Britain, but in a cricket sense it may well rank as such. In Hong-Kong and Shanghai—unless the rebels spoil it—the game goes on, and in the Federated Malay States, Canada, Philadelphia, California, New York they have seasons practically coincident with our own. Then, of course, there is New Zealand. I t is expected that the Auckland team—late holders of the Plunket Shield, which is now in the proud possession of Canter­ bury—will tour the Dominion early in the new year, probably meeting Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Canterbury and Otago. Perhaps Canterbury will be met first; then, if Auckland can win back the shield, she may defend her right t,o it against the other provinces. The Hawke Cup, won in 1910-11 by Southland, will be played for by the minor associations, and no doubt there will be a bigger entry for it than was the case last season. N e a r l y forty years have passed since an Auckland team made its first tour of New Zealand. This was in 1873-4. Auck­ land beat in succession Canterbury (by 7 runs), Otago (by 4 wickets), Wellington (by 3 wickets), and Nelson (by an innings and 56 runs). On several occasions since the most northerly province of the Dominion has made similar tours, but never with quite such complete success. As illustrating the develop­ ment of New Zealand cricket at the date of the first tour, it may be chronicled that the highest individual scores for the Auckland team were B. J. Yates’s 31 v. Nelson and 29 v. Canterbury, and the highest against it A. J. Cotterill’s '37 for Canterbury, Garwood’s 31 for Otago, and Barker’s 30 for Canter­ bury. The highest total by a side in the four matches was 144. No doubt the great strength of the Auckland team was in its bowling. Its four bowlers had the following records for the four matches of the tour: W.W. Bobinson, 30wickets for 171 runs ; T. S. Sweet, 22 for 156; W. F. Buckland, 13 for 115 ; and G. Lankham, 6 for 32. In later seasons Sweet played for Canter­ bury j but when Auckland toured for a third time in 1884-5 (there was a second tour in 1882-3) Robinson was still in the ranks, and made 42 not out v. Otago, 38 v. Canterbury and 36 v. Wellington, being highest individual scorer for his side in two of the three matches. T h e r e is much of genuine interest in the early history of New Zealand cricket, and we hope some day befpre long to return to the subject. Reuter announces that, after an excellent voyage, the members of the M.C.C.’s team arrived at Adelaide on Saturday last in splendid health and as fit as possible. They commenced practice on Monday, when there was a civic reception. Their first match—against South Australia—began yesterday. The game at Maitland, arranged for December 22nd and 23rd, has been cancelled. The team sails from Adelaide for England by the Orient-Royal Mail Line S.S. Otiv/iy on March 8 th., T h e Committee of the Essex County C.C. have decided to set apart a match at Leyton next season for the benefit of Buckenham, their fast bowler, who has rendered the county excellent all-round service for a number of years. T h e Jubilee of the Incogniti C.C. will be celebrated by a dinner on the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation, Tuesday, February 15th, 1912, at the Hotel Russell, London. As the available space is limited, any member (playing or retired) who has not received full particulars shouldcommunicate immediately with the Hon. Secretary of the Jubilee Dinner sub-committee, Mr. Philip Collins, 6 , Bedford Bow, W.C. I n the St. George (Sydney) Association’s B Grade Compe­ tition, on September 23rd, J. Freestone, of Kogarah Belgrave, took the whole ten wickets of Kogarah Congregational for 52 runs in the second innings. His record, for the match was sixteen for 67. In C. B. Fry’s Magazine for November there is a first instalment of a thoughtful and well-reasoned article by