Cricket 1912

J une 8, 1&12. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 219 Overseas Cricket. In Wellington (N.Z) senior matches during the season just ended the leading batsmen were W. R. Baker (64-25 per innings), W. R. Gibbes (44*90), J. J. Mahony (40'00), E. M. Beechey (35'70), I I . Nunn (34’55), and K II. Tucker, (33'50). Gibbes and Nunn were also among the more successful bowlers. J. V. Saunders took 40 wickets at 12 '82 each, and was tenth on the list. Wellington Central won the championship. Before next season much will have been done to improve the Basin Reserve ground at Wellington, which lies under the reproach of providing the worst wickets in any of the bigger towns of the Dominion. The Welling­ ton C.A., by a bare majority, has passed a resolution against the scheme of sending a N. Z. team to Australia in 1912-3 ; but the names which carry most weight with cricketers were chiefly in the minority list. In Christchurch cricket the senior championship was won by Riccarton, equal on points with Sydenham, but winners of one more match. Among the figures recorded by men who have played for Canterbury province in batting are W. Carlton’s record 824 (average 63'38), W. Hayes with 495 (61 '87), Alfred Norman 397 (49’50), D. Sandman 526 (47-81), E . R. Caygill 444 (44'3,0), Harold B. Lusk 530 (40-76), D. Reese 446 (29'73), K . M. Ollivier 264 (29'35), and S. A. Orchard’s 268 (20’61). D. Reese (54 at 18-11) took most wickets, followed by J. H. Bennett (51 at 10"92), T. Carlton (50 at 15'02), C. T. R ix (46 at 23-56), D. Sand­ man (42 at 14'78), and A. W . Thomas (41 at 15"73). Just under a hundred men took part in the competition, in which six clubs played, and the general run of the cricket was distinctly high-class. Otago has had a very wet season, and H. G. Siedeberg writes me from Dunedin that regular practice has been quite impossible. The Grange C.C. won the senior cham­ pionship. On March 23rd T. McFarlane made 211 in a total of 285 for Albion v. Opoho, and Siedeberg 192 of 319 for Carisbrook A. v. Carisbrook B. In Auckland Parnell and Grafton tied for the championship, and had to play off the tie. J. Marsh, the aboriginal bowler who played with success for N.S.W. a few times ten years or so ago, appeared in a match in Victoria at Easter, and took 11 wickets for 64. M. A. Noble played for Wagga Wagga against Mel­ bourne C.C. on Easter Saturday and Monday, and W. W. Armstrong for the other side. Noble made 55 in his second innings. Armstrong, owing to an attack of tonsilitis, did not bat. Frank Laver had 10 for 38 for a Worrough team captained by Colin McKenzie against 18 of Trawool. A t Bendigo recently W. Murray, who played for Vic­ toria a dozen years or so back, hit 120* in a total of 142 in a railway match. North v. South of Tasmania at Hobart during the Easter holidays was drawn, owing to a blank day (rain) on the Monday. The scores were : South, 324 for 6, dec.—R. J. Hawson 91, R. Penny- cuick 84*, E. T. Boddam 67, K . Watt 31, J. L. Hudson 22. North, 102— C. Cameron 27 ; and 15 for 4. Watt took 6 wickets for 24, Boddam 4 for 21. North had a spoiled wicket to bat upon, hence the one-sided play. Penny­ cuick and Boddam did some hard hitting, but both gave several chances. Harry Trott is a long way off being done with yet. He hit three sixes in an innings of 76 for South Melbourne v. St. Kilda on April 13, playing right through for his side, and next season he hopes to go on tour in New Zealand ! After all Harry is not quite 46, and men of his stamp are not necessarily old crocks at that age. There was a little good cricket in South Africa at Easter, though by that time the winter game was in the ascendant. Durban Incogniti went north, and played Volksrust (Trans­ vaal), scoring 221 (H. W . Chapman 50) to 87 and 93 for 7 ; the Wanderers, Johannesburg, scoring 192 (Chapman 100*) and 46 for 5 to 162 ; and Estcourt (Natal), scoring 72 (Chapman 21) and 103 to 64 and 46 for 6. Chapman, a club mate of Herbert Taylor’s, was top scorer in three innings of five. In the Johannesburg match Fred Le Roux had 8 wickets for 63 for the home side. A t Estcourt V. Jackson had the remarkable analysis of 7 for 2 for the tour­ ing team, and Bowley took 11 for 46 for the home side. A t Maritzburg the season closed with a match between F. A. Morris’s X I. and C.O.C. Pearse’s X I. on Easter Satur­ day. Dudley Pearse scored 67 and the captain 59* for the former side, who made 191 ; Ormerod Pearse ran up 112, V. Pearse 48*, and C. Payne 47, for the latter, whose total was 253. A. Stockdale had 6 wickets for 36 for the winning side, -W. Llewellyn (is this a brother of C. B. ?) 5 for 44 for the losers. Cricket in Philadelphia made a start on April 20th, when Haverford College beat Frankford, H. W. Seckel scoring 46 for the winners. A fortnight later Haverford went, down by 16 runs to the Philadelphia C.C., for whom P. N. LeRoy scored 33 and took 3 wickets for 14, A. J. Henry (Editor of the “ American Cricketer ” ) taking 3 for 30. University of Pennsylvania (W. S. Jones 44) lost to German­ town, for whom H. P. Austin scored 44 and E. M. Mann took 6 wickets for 12. Merion (R. M. Gummere and C. C. Morris 42 each, the former retired, the latter not out, R. Lee 53) beat Moorestown. The Halifax and Phila­ delphia Cup matches do not begin until June. It was, after all, John B. Thayer, the crack Phila­ delphian cricketer of other days, who went down with the “ Titanic,” his son, John B. Thayer, jun., aged 17, escaping. Mr. Thayer was born on April 21st, 1862, and played his first match for the Merion C.C. when only 14. He was a really brilliant bat and a magnificent field, while he could also bowl well. He visited England with the First Phila­ delphian Team (1884), and was third in the batting averages with 817 runs at over 28 per innings. His principal scores were 63 v. Gentlemen of Cheshire, 77 v. Gentlemen of Leicestershire, 50 v. Gentlemen of Gloucestershire (in this match he caught W . G. at mid-off from a drive of great force, and the Champion presented him on the spot with his bat), 53 v. Castleton C.C., 60 and 93 v. Gentlemen of Derbyshire, 46 v. Gentlemen, of Surrey, 43 v. Gentlemen of Kent, and 48 and 64 not out v. United Services. His bowling accounted for 22 wickets at over 21 each, 5 for 35 v. Gentlemen of Surrey his best performance with the ball. Business prevented his playing as often for Philadelphia as would otherwise have been the case— he was a prominent man in the railway world— but in practice and available he would always have found a place in the team. This is the tribute of the Newhall Brothers to their old comrade : “ A loyal ally, a generous foe, a true sportsman, an unselfish gentleman, and, with the sinking of this great ship, the Sir Philip Sidney of American cricketers.” Captain J. P. Green writes : “ In the same spirit in which, on the playing- fields, he would at any time have sacrificed himself for his side, so in that last arena where life and death contended, and where it was plain, almost from the outset, that two out of three might perish, he spent his last hours in helping women and children into the boats which saved them, and, having done all he could for others, met death with the perfect courage that had marked his entire life.” Mr. C. Christopher Morris wrote me a few weeks ago : “ You must all be proud of those splendid fellows on the ‘ Titanic.’ ” So we are ; but not all the glory is Great Britain’s. Americans died heroically too, and we are as proud of Astor and Thayer and Futrelle as of our own men ! The death is recorded of William (“ Pro.” ) Robertson who was one of the best bowlers in New Zealand in the nineties ; but to this I must refer again later. Liverpool Jottings. B y G. A. B rooking . D. Q. Steel who was born as far back as 1857 is in very good form for a veteran and must have an average of about 50, so far this season. On the last two Saturdays playing for Upton (a pretty village near Birkenhead) he has scored 28 not out and 34, and was also among the wickets with his tricky slows. It is a singular thing that he and two of his more famous brothers “ A. G.” and “ E. E .,” all bowled in much the same style, right hand slow breaks.