Cricket 1912

164 CRICKET : A WEEKLY EECOED OF THE GAME. M a y 25, 1912. H an d s across the soa to No. 1, Volume II., of the Canadian Cricketer (and Amateur Sports—-but never mind that) ! A few issues of Volume I. appeared last year, and it was then announced that lack of adequate support had caused its discontinuance. Now it bobs up again, in distinctly improved format, and since there is behind it the amazing energy of Mr. A. R. Morrison it has probably come to stay. Of all the hearty greetings extended to it none is heartier than that offered here and now by its elder brother— E n g lish C r ic k e t as it terms us in doing us the honour of quoting. F77” T h e issue to hand contains a capital portrait group of the Eaton O.C.’s X I., which won the Lionel Rawlinson Cup and Toronto City League Championship last year, articles on the Ontario Cricket Association, a Retrospect of the early history of the Parkdale Club (Toronto), plenty of matter about the prospects of the season, and a few early scores. I hope to welcome it weekly, and if any of m y readers would like to get it and finds any difficulty in doing so, I shall be pleased to put him in the way of its regular receipt—-subscriptions payable in advance, of course. I n the first match played by a certain preparatory school this season the captain of the side made 159, and the next highest score was 16. My correspondent does not give full particulars, but he will see this, and will doubtless note that I should like to have them. I suspect him of unnecessary modesty. W h e n one takes into account the weight and hardness of a cricket ball, fatal accidents in the field are far less frequent than one would expect. On Wednesday in last week Mr. Herbert Griffin, keeping wicket in a match at W o o d Green, was struck on the left temple, fell, and expired almost immediately, one regrets to tell. C o n g r a tu la t io n s to Bert Tremlin, of Essex, on the fact that he is making a speedy recover} after an operation for appendicitis. He and Whitty can compare notes when they meet. But Whitty scores over Tremlin ; he under­ went two operations. H e n d r e n “ dun out, 0 ” — evening paper. N ot the first or the only one to be done out, Elias ! Some batsmen are almost invariably treated that way— if one believes their accounts. Ode to Cricket. (From the fixture card of the Neasden Sport Club.) Oh, the winter is past, and the ground’s getting fast, And the green of the turf is bewitching. So come along, lads, quickly brace up your pads, For the groundsman the six stumps is pitching. Let the merry coin spin, while each side hopes to win, To the wickets the umpires are strolling, And right gladly we’ll yield to the charm of the field, Leather-hunting, or batting, or bowling. What can ever compare with the cut that is square, And the hard forward drive of a Trumper, Or when fielding you try just to emulate Fry And to rival MacGregor as stumper. With a swing and a run now the over’s begun, And the ball speeds along to the wicket. “ Buck up there, third man, save the four if you can ! ” Oh, ’tis cricket, right glorious cricket! ” T h e Bev. A. S. Farnfield, of the famous football brother­ hood, is now Chaplain at Barming Asylum (Maidstone), and will strengthen the asylum’s already strong cricket team, which includes N. W. Stevens, of Norfolk. “ W i l l he play for S.A.? Or the Vogler Mystery.” The papers say Vogler is coming to England, with his wife and family—but we may leave them outside the question. Messrs. Allsop and Mitchell say they have no official news, and that A.E.E.V. will certainly not figure in the team without the consent of the S.A.C.A.—one does not quite know whether it is implied that the Association’s consent is scarcely likely to be given. Meanwhile the latest version is that the crack bowler of 1907 is probably going to Ireland, “ to coach gentlemen there.” It reminds one o f : “ Georgy-Porgy lived in the fen, Brewed the beer for gentlemen. Gentlemen came every day Georgy-Porgy hopped away—” a rhyme familiar to my callow days which may be new to C r i c k e t readers. Suppose the S.A.C.A. does consent after Vogler is installed in Ireland—will he “ hop away” ? The Triangular Tests. The Value of the Trial Matches. B y H a m ish S t u a r t . There are still some who write in ironical scorn of Test trials, holding that they prove little, if they seem to suggest much, and that they tell us nothing new even when they appear most instructive b y reason of individual performances of exceptional excellence or the high collective quality of the play. For this view of the trials there is, of course, something to be said. All the players (Clark was a fortunate but very highly tried exception to the rule in the first trial) have already proved their worth, and not a man on either side would have secured his place unless he had actually accomplished many great performances and was a test player de facto or in posse. A century or a very good innings by Fry, Spooner, Hobbs, or any other batsman of such long and well established reputation is not a revelation of power. If early in the season such an innings is merely a confirmation of previously well-proved ability—a sign that the power of the past is unimpaired ; if later in the season such an innings merely suggests that the batsman was in form and was not out of luck. The success of such players of proved worth in a trial is thus assuring, not informative except in the limited way indicated. A decided success on the part of such a player as Clark would, of course, be in a different category, but cases of men being tried as Clark was must necessarily be rare, even if trials become regular fixtures, and an established means of aiding the selectors to pick either England’s sides for test matches at home or sides that go on tour. If success means so little, what can “ failure ” be held to imply ? When the writer on cricket puts down “ Hay­ ward failed,” he simply uses an accepted phrase indicating with the least possible expenditure of space and words that some great player was quickly out and made few runs. No one would ever dream of saying that “ Brearley failed,” if he were bowled first ball, because Brearley is played as a bowler and is not expected to make runs. “ Failure,” in this sense is relative, and an innings that might be a batting triumph for Brearley would hardly be called a successful effort by Spooner, or add to the fame of that batsman. The greatest of batsmen in his best form may “ fail ” in the sense of the phrase and his failure would not even justify a negative conclusion. But three or more failures, if we could trace the failure to temperament or rather the lack of the big game temperament, would be informative. That form of anxiety to succeed which so often paralyses power and makes natural cricket ability a vain possession, is not always easy to detect, and though an irresponsible amateur might excuse his failures in ordina- ary cricket on the ground of nervousness—even he would be slow to admit that, on the last analysis, he was the slave of a form of egotism which cricket “ with its one chance only ” fosters—the professional, with financial interests to consider, would be the last to plead “ nerves ” as an extenuating circumstance—a disability that was temporary and which he would yet overcome. * In the case, however, of men of proved worth who have won their spurs as test players, failure in trials proves nothing. Take the case of Hayward in the first trial. He was simply out of luck not out of form, as witness his fine batting against the j3outh