Cricket 1912

208 CEICKET : A WEEKLY EECOED OF THE GAME. J u n e 8, 1912. w ill make the im policy of changes in the eleven seem great. If the's ix men mentioned, w ith Banjitsinhji— beg pardon, the Jam Sahib— as captain, Field, W . T. Greswell, Dean, and one of those three fine veterans, H irst, Hayward, and Tyldesley, or perhaps Hayes, were t o meet the chosen team, I am n ot sure that it would be more than tw o to one on the latter. I AM told that W h itty cannot crow over Tremlin after all. The latter has also had to undergo two operations, and it is n ot at all likely he w ill be seen in the field this season, which is a great pity. J ohn G u n n has a special partiality for the Leicester­ shire bowling, it would seem. He made his record score— 294— againstitin 1903 ; in 1905 he scored 178, in 1908,144*; and this year he has made 113 and 107. But his latest innings was worthy o f the old Notts slow-scoring tradition, which Arthur Jones has done so much to make the team live down. I note that when Notts needed 69 in quick time last Wednesday week, A. O. J . did not send John in to help get them ! G. A. M o r r o w has been doing big things in Irish cricket. Scoring in the Emerald Isle in May does n ot usually rule high ; but the old Dublin University man has made for the Phoenix club in successive innings within a week (May 24 to 29) 461 runs— 79 and 17 v. County Kildare, 97 v. Castleknock, and 130 and 138 not out v. Boyal Artillery. In his 130 he hit up twenty-five 4‘s ; his second century was neither so good nor so dashing. J. W . F. Crawfurd, the old Oxonian, who went in first with him, quite overshadowed him during their partnership, making 79 (sixteen 4’s) ou t of 125. The cricket was lively enough for anything. There were ten 4’s in Thorold’s 57, thirteen in Maxwell’s 77, fifteen (besides a 6) in Mansfield’s 84, and fourteen in Morrow’s second innings. An incorrigible joker tells me that the first day was Morrow’s day, and that the morrow was also Morrow’s day. “ Oh, get o u t ! ” ‘ ‘ That,’ ’ he answers, ‘ ‘ was just what Morrow wouldn’t do ! ” V o g i / e r , it is said, leaves South Africa for good. It is a pity, for, in spite of his poor show in Australia, the general opinion seems to be that he retains much of his old skill and deadliness, and, though there is plenty of good cricket at W oodbrook, it is scarcely of international class. B. S. (Suffolk) suggests that Yorkshire’s bad week against Kent and Cambridge nearly turned Sir Archibald White. But I understand that Sir Archie is not bald, and if he were one does not quite see how he could turn white. I n the Whit-Monday match at Edgbaston Jeeves, who will be qualified for Warwickshire next season—he hails from Yorkshire-—hit a ball over the pavilion, clearing the boundary fence, and dropping into the road. Dr. W . S. T r e s a w n a , the Cornish batsman, has scored 29 not out, 169, and 101 not out for Abergavenny this season. In 1908 he made 257 not out in a Staffordshire League match. He has run up a good many fine scores for Cornwall, and some time ago had to decline an invitation to assist Middlesex, his professional duties not allowing him to play three-day cricket. I a m told that the stand between E. L. K idd and F. C. Gough Calthorpe v. Sussex was for the eighth, not the seventh wicket, and hereby correct my error. Another error— of omission, this time—was the failure to include Bagshaw among the batsmen who have played through an innings for Derbyshire. He did so v. Surrey for 114 in 1897. N in e of the team to play for South Wales against the South Africans at Swansea have already been chosen— T. A. L. Whittington (captain), Norman Biches, Dr. W . S. Tresawna, H. A. Gilbert, E. S. Phillips, Bancroft, Creber, Hacker, and Maxwell. Both Biches and Whittington are in fine form, I hear. T he Scottish fixtures on the Australian card are not yet, I learn, to be regarded as definite. There was just a possibility that the colonials might visit America ; but this is hardly likely now, and in all probability they will be in the Land of Cakes in September. H arry B utt to retire at the end of this season! Well, he has had a long innings, and has earned no end of credit and esteem, and in George Street he will have a worthy successor. All the same, we shall miss him. The Triangular Tests. ENGLAND’S ELEVEN AND SOME ' ‘ MANCHESTER” AFTERTHOUGHTS. B y H am ish S t u a r t . When it is remembered that certain responsible writers have deliberately expressed the opinion that the England eleven for the triangular tests would be the strongest side that has ever represented England, it seems strange that the eleven actually chosen for the first lest should convey the impression that they are a weak side. The writer does not, of course, agree with the extravagant estimate of Enpland’s present strength formed and expressed by those referred to above, while the term “ weak ” is used merely in the relative sense. In other words, the England eleven are a weak side compared with many England elevens of the past. Moreover, the side does not reflect trial form except to a limited extent; nor does the side strike one as the best available whether one regards the team from the general point of view or from that special standpoint—trial form. There is plenty of batting in the side ; and though one might prefer this man or that man to certain of the men chosen primarily for their batting, this aspect of the matter seems immaterial, and is hardly worth discussing—except perhaps in the cases of two men, Jessop and Woolley. One is well aware, of course, that W oolley has been chosen as an all-rounder; but he is certainly not an all-rounder in the sense that could be predicated of Hirst, Braund, Jackson, Lockwood and others of recent times and of Ulyett, Barnes, Steel, Peel and others of an earlier day. Woolley is primarily a bats­ man. Even if he did take over 100 wickets and score over 1,000 runs in 1910, he remains merely what one may call an “ occasional ” bowler, which is something miite different from a change bowler like Humphreys, the reserve onan of the side. By an “ occasional ” bowler I mean a bowler who Svery now and then does a big performance under suitable conditions, arid is at the same time always useful as a change, though never quite good enough to start the bowling on a normal wicket, much less on a real batsman’s pitch. I take it, therefore, that Woolley is primarily played for his batting. That being so there is no room in the side for both Jessop and Woolley. If a left-handed batsman who could bowl was a necessity, Jessop should have been left out; if not, Woolley should not have been included. Woolley is almost as fast a scorer as Jessop ; in the Lord’s trial he even beat Jessop in pace ; but neither is dependable, and there is little reason for including two men who can get runs quickly and knock bowlers off their length and who belong to the “ come off or fail” variety in a special and not the ordinary sense, for of course, all batsmen are in a way the same in this respect. The difference which I am endeavouring to state between Jessop and Woolley and such batsmen as Fry and Warner is, however, well known and well defined. I hold and am prepared to maintain that those responsible for the test arrange­ ments have been too hasty in their actions, and that the test trials should have been two matches between the M.C.C. Australian team and the Best of England. I hold also that the English captain should not have been elected until the M.C.C. team had been tried as a side under English conditions. If this had been done, I feel certain that the M.C.C. side would have beaten the Rest of England at the Oval quite as decisively, or at least in quite as convincing fashion, as they did at Lord’s. There may be eleven better players than the M.C.C. Australian side that played at Lord’s, but England has not a better side. The M.C.C. side are a side in the best and fullest sense of the term, and their play in all respects shows that unity of action which makes for strength. The fieldsmen and wicket-keeper know their bowlers, and can anticipate their intentions ; each man has his place and no bowler need be over-bowled; while there is plenty of variety in the bowling. Then the sympathy between the captain and the players could hardly be more intimate, and the same sympathy