Cricket 1912

4 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. JAN. 27, 1912. In Adelaide they had met the Bev. Cecil Wilson, late Bishop of Melanesia, who had played for Kent. The Bishop had told them how on travelling through his vast diocese ho had taught the natives of Norfolk Island to play cricket. English elevens now visited Belgium and France, and the game was being played in Portugal. The pen was said to be mightier than the sword ; he thought the cricket bat could beat them both. Reuter reports that an last Sunday week the English cricketers were invited to dinner by Admiral Sir Day Bosanquet, the Govenor of South Australia, at his hill residence at Marble Hill. They arrived in motor-cars and found the house in imminent danger of destruction owing to a fierce bush fire. In order to reach the house they had to dash through the flames. They at once began to assist in the work of quelling the fires, their help being most opportune. F r o m Mr. .Tamos Young, official scorer to the New South Wales Cricket Association, there has reached us a most ingenious sample score-sheet, the last word in score-sheets, we should imagine. It gives the score of the match between the M.C.C. team and New South Wales, and it also gives practically a detailed history of the game. W e regret that it is impossible to reproduce it here ; but a description may be attempted. The first column gives the order of going-in ; the second the batsman’s name ; the third the order of dismissal ; the fourth the number of minutes the batsman was at wicket. Then, by a clever device of slanting lines bisecting squares, with the names of the bowlers above, one is shown how many balls each batsman received from each bowler, and how many runs he scored off them. T h u s w o find that Hobbs batted 24 minutes, received 10 balls from Macartney, and scored 3 runs off them, and 16 from Folkard, scoring 12, and then he lost his wicket to that bowler. He thus scored 15 runs off 32 balls. George Gunn, top scorer, batted 129 minutes for 50, had 22 balls from Macartney, but scored nothing off him, 20 from Folkard, scoring 4 , 38 from Hordern, scoring 17, 22 from Cotter, scoring 8, and 50 from Minnett, scoring 21. He was run out after playing 152 balls. B e l o w we get the analysis of each bowler, the duration of the innings (-1 hours, 57 minutes in this case, for a total of 238), the number of balls bowled (625), the extras, properly assorted, the runs at the fall of each wicket, and a brief account of the innings, thus :— ” Tho start was delayed th-ough the state of the wicket until 2 p.m. Trumpet', winning the toss from Douglas, sent England in. Tho batting was careful against good bowling, and the score at the conclusion of the day’s play was 151 for four wickets. Rain on Friday night and Saturday morning preventel play o:i Saturday, and the innings terminated on Monday just after lunch. The century occupied 143 minute;, and the second hundred 124 minutes. The third wicket partnership of 73 by Gunn and Mead occupied 98 minutes.” T h is is capital. We have only one objection to make to it and that is made in no carping spirit. Mr. Young invonted the system, and we are afraid that it needs a scorer of Mr. Young’s calibre to work it. The average scorer would be hopelessly at sea. Not that the system is anything but perfectly plain and simple ; but—well, you know the average scorer, though doubtless he has improved somewhat of late. We imagine, however, that Mr. Young does not recommend his system for any but matches of public importance, and the scorers on such occasions ought to be competent to deal with it. W h il e Sidney Barnes is doing great things in Australia, it is interesting to note that his club, Porthill Park, headed both first and second divisions of the North Staffordshire and District Cricket League in 1911. In the first division 61 points out of a possible 78 were secured, the runners-up, Norton, registering 49 ; in the second division 52 points out of a possible 66 was the quota, Silverdale Second Team, which came next, having 39. In both cases Porthill were thus far away ahead of their nearest rivals. Mr. J. S. Heath, one of Staffordshire’s most promising young players, is a valuable member of the team which Barnes adorns. T h e League has been in existence ever since 1890, and of the ten clubs which it then comprised, seven— Porthill, Fenton, Tunstall, Burslem, Norton, Silverdale and Longton—are still in membership, though only the first three have retained their places throughout. The League has had only two secretaries throughout its long career— Messrs. W. C. Hancock and Stanley Gleaves, both of them, we are glad to be able to say, regular readers and staunch supporters of Cricket. We mean the paper, not the game, though that they are also staunch supporters of the latter goes without saying. A u g u s t football has done harm to the North Stafford­ shire League, and Mr. Gleaves has been trying hard to arouse a crusade against it. Frankly, August football strikes us as greedy. With all due respect to an excellent game, we should like to see it abolished—August football, understand, not footer as a whole. The eighth month of the year should be sacred to cricket—which is, when all is said, the grandest game that man has ever devised. Though to this some may retort that man never devised it, but, like Topsy in “ Uncle Tom ’s Cabin,” “ it growed.” We will not argue that question, but we are quite prepared to argue long and strongly against football encroachments upon August. O n e cannot help feeling sorry that the Argentine tour of the M.C.C. team should not be extended across the Andes to Valparaiso, where, one hears, a little band of enthusiasts keep the game going under great difficulties. It is only on very rare occasions that the Valparaiso club can fix up a match with a team from elsewhere ; most of its matches are of the nature of scratch games among the club’s own members, with the occasional help of some such rare bird of passage as Mr. Bernard Meakin. In bygone years the club used to have matches with Fleet teams from the Pacific Squadron ; but nowadays even these infrequent treats are denied it. B e f o r e us lies a cutting from some paper we cannot identify, giving a resume of the results of these Fleet matches. There is something of pathos in it to one who love3 the game. Where else does a match between a naval team of the scratch type and a club count for so much ? Scarcely anywhere, we should think. Perhaps Valparaiso took the games more seriously than the jolly sailors did. Anyway, the club won in the great majority of them. The highest total made was 232 against H.M.S. Conquest, Cormorant and W ild Swan in April, 1886. Very seldom indeed did the Fleet teams reach a three-figure total. T h e Chilian does not take to cricket; but at Buenos Aires there is an Argentine born, employed as a groundsman, who is said to be quite a useful player. We shall doubtless hoar more about South American cricket during the next few weeks. I t will interest many to know that Ernest Jones, the express bowler of Australian teams of a few years ago, is still “ as hard as nails.” A t least, in the West Australian District Competition match between Fremantle A. and East Perth A., at Fremantle, on December 9th, he took six of the latter’s wickets for 5 runs. The hat-trick was included in the performance. On the same afternoon Arthur Christian, formerly of Melbourne, hit up 80 in 47 minutes for North Perth A. v. West Perth A. A p l e a s in g ceremony took place at the office of the South Australian Cricket Association on the afternoon of November 20th, when a number of representative members of the organisation assembled to do honour to Mr. J. N. Crawford, in recognition of his fine innings of 126 for South Australia against Victoria. A subscription list was started among members of the South Australian Cricket Association to mark their appreciation of the