Cricket 1912

C R I C K E T : A W E E K L Y R E C O R D O F T H E G AM E<— J u n e 2 9 t h . 1 9 1 2 . Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. NO. 14 . VOL. I. N e w S e r ie s . S A T U R D A Y , J U N E 29, 1912. PR1CE 2 °' No. 903 Old Series. A Chat about flir. Is. J. Tancred. Are the loudest grumblers the best judges of cricket? I fancy not. I wonder what sort of England eleven we should get if some of those who vilify the selectors were allowed to take their places ? And, as it is in England, so it is in South Africa. Among the members of the F ifth South African Team whose selection aroused most hostile criticism were Sidney Pegler, Herbert Taylor, and Louis Tancred. Up to the time of writing Pegler has been the side’s best bowler ; Taylor has done ex­ cellent work as one of the first pair at wickets, and has fielded splendidly; and, though handicapped by rheuma­ tism, Tancred has given clear evidence that he retains much of his old powers. As, indeed, why should he n ot? A man of thirty-five is not an old crock in most cases. Louis Joseph Tancred bears a name that has been illustrious ever since South Africa began to be known as a cricketing country. In those days, only a quarter of a century or so ago, his elder brother, the late A. B . Tancred, who died last year, was adm ittedly South A frica’s premier batsman. L . J . him self very early began to show brilliant form . As a schoolboy of 14 at St. A idan’s College, Grahamstown, he ran up scores of 113 , 86*, 72, 70, 64*, and 64 during the season of 1890-1. No complete record of his doings at school is available ; but before he left St. Aidan’s he had registered several other centuries, and on going up to the Rand he soon made his mark there. H is first match of anything approaching first-class importance was for X V of Johannesburg v. Lord Hawke’s Team , in Jan u ary, 1896. He failed to score in his one innings then, and did not appear against the Englishm en in any other match of the tour. In 1896-7 he first played for the Transvaal in Currie Cup matches, and contributed 40 to his side’s total of 3 1 1 v. Western Province at Johannesburg. In the Cape Town tournament of the following season he ran up a fine score of 120 v. Natal, and also scored 57 v. the Border. I believe it was ill-health that kept him out of the matches against photo *>v] Lord H awke’s Second Team in Mr. L« J4 1898-9. After that came the ^war, and little cricket of any importance was played for a long time. But Tancred had sufficiently made his name to be chosen as a member of the Second South African Team to England in 19 0 1. He is the only member of that team now with us again. Running into form early, he was always making runs, and was quite one of the most consistent batsmen on the side. Like Murray Bisset, the captain, and Rowe, he played in all the 25 matches. H is biggest scores were a finely-hit 165 v. East of Scot­ land at Edinburgh and an excellent 91 v. Glamorgan ; but perhaps his best innings, all things considered, was his 65 v. Yorkshire at Harrogate, when he and Reid sent up 105 for the first wicket. Among his other good performances were 58 v. Gentlemen of Ireland, 57 v. Derbyshire, 56 v. Surrey, 56 v. Liverpool and District, and 50 v. W arwickshire, the last score made when scarcely anyone else on the side could do anything. He was fifth in the batting averages with between 25 and 26 per innings. Playing in all three test matches of the Australians’ brief South African tour of 1902, he made 97 and 24 in the first, but did little in the other two. For X V of the Transvaal against D arling’s men he scored 70, he and Shalders putting up well over a hundred for the first wicket. He was not specially successful in the Currie Cup Tournament at Port Elizabeth that season ; but in 1903-4 he played splendidly for 83 and 102 against Western Province at Johannes­ burg in the final, being top scorer in each innings. He paid his second visit to E n g ­ land in 1904, and did great things. Llewellyn, who only played in half- a-dozen m atches, headed him in the averages; but with 1,640 runs at an average of 48-23 Tancred was far ahead of the rest of the team, and from beginning to end of the tour was always scoring freely. Against Scotland at Edinburgh he made 250 in 225 minutes by splendid hitting (thirty-six 4’s), though with some lu ck ; against Dublin University [Hawkins & Co., Brighton. he ran up 148 in about as many TANCRED minutes with only one ch an ce;