Cricket 1912

J uly 13, 1912. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 327 Special Club Notes. C o n t r ib u t e d B y “ T h e C h ie l .” Invitations have come along in considerable numbers and in most cordial tone. “ Welcome and ever welcome—good cricket, splendid tennis, excellent tea, charm ing ladies, all await ‘ The Chiel.’ ” So says one secretary. I am grateful, and in due course hope to look up all who have invited me. Like the celebrated Irish M .P., I m ay say that I am not a bird that I can be in two places at once; but I can be on more than one ground in the course of an afternoon. Don’t expect, please, a notification in advance that I am coming. I may turn up at any time to visit Ealin g, Ealing Dean, Spencer, Pallingswick, Honor Oak, Townley Park, Dulwich, Streatham, Barnes, Forest H ill, Albemarle and Friern Barnet, Derrick Wanderers, or any one of a score of other clubs. Last Saturday I looked up Beckenham and the Cyphers, whose grounds are within a quarter of an hour’s walk of one another. At Beckenham the genial and courteous secretary, Mr. H . Z. Baker, gave me a most encouraging welcome, and I appreciated the club’s hospitality fully. The Beckenham ground has a rare charm of its own. There are excellent pavilions for both cricket and tennis members. Thoroughness and good fellowship rule. Beckenham ’s opponents were Sutton. We have heard and read a good deal about slow cricket lately. The last two batsmen of Beckenham were in when I arrived, and wanted about 20 runs to win. J . S. Brocklesby, bowling for Sutton, had practically all his fielders to the on, with the wicket-keeper standing a yard from the stumps on the leg side. Over after over was bowled, with scarcely a ball on the wicket. It seemed to me that the stumps m ight have been dispensed with en tirely; no attempt was being made to hit them. The spectators were not pleased. I was not, either*. What is cricket coming to? But I enjoyed m y visit nevertheless, and hope to accept Mr. Baker's kind invitation to look in during the Beckenham Cricket Week, beginning on the 15th inst. On to the Cyphers ground, where a host of good fellows gave me a kindly reception. The Cyphers have a capital pavilion and enclosure—on a smaller scale than those of Beckenham , of course; but then county cricket has been played at Beckenham . Battersea (with seven second eleven men included) were playing the Cyphers. The game was an interesting one, though nobody but Huish and Christie did much with the bat for the visitors. I thought they played the wrong gam e; more forcible tactics would have paid better. B ut Rowe (7 for 33) bowled very finely indeed, and the wicket was a bowlers’ one. When the Cyphers batted the veteran White performed every bit as effectively as Rowe, and took 8 for 54. Cyphers won a good game by 150 to 91. To them “ The C h iel” sa y s: “ Thanks, gentlemen all, for your welcome and your hospitality. Long may you flourish ! ” A well-known member of a big county club was talking to me the other day about waste of time between the fall of a wicket and the incoming of the next batsman. “ They ought to cross at the pavilion gate,” he said, “ or even on the ground where the wickets are pitched at a considerable distance from the pavilion. But they don’t, either in county or club cricket.—not once in a blue moon ! ” I am with him entirely. I know of clubs who have notices posted up requesting that something of the sort suggested should be done ; but no one seems to pay any heed. The umpires might use their powers under law 45 oftener. I am opposed to the many alterations suggested in some quarters; but this reform would not be changing the game. It would be playing it. P lay the game, men ! Some club cricketers seem to have no respect for their club or regard for its hard-working officials. In my younger days we were happy to be selected for the team, and regarded the selection as in the nature of a royal mandate. The young men of to-day are as casual as can be. If any other attraction comes along, they leave the club in the lurch. If we had done that, we should have expected to be dropped on the next Saturday. Tevipora mutantur, I suppose. But I like the old style best. The new is—not crick et! * Are the Sutton men so much to be blamed, “ Chiel ” ? It was in first-class cricket that this kind of bowling began. Warwick Armstrong and A. O. Jones have exploited it. I should have thought myself, though, that more direct methods of attack would have had a better chance of success. Mr. Sydney Gregory, the Australian captain, writes to Messrs. Duke & Son, of Penshurst: “ We have used your County Cricket Balls in all the Test Matches, and we think they are the best balls we have ever used.” S.E.G., with his twenty-two years’ experience of international cricket, and fifty test matches, ought to know a thing or two about cricket balls, too. Club Cricket Notes and Jottings. Order of going-in cards, 3d. per dozen. Score-sheets, 3d. per dozen. Vacant date insertions, four lines or less, 1/. “ Thought C ricket was dead ’’—that was what someone told “ The C h id ” last Saturday. After the efforts made to get greater publicity, this is more than a little disappointing. But I have any amount of evidence that those efforts have not been in vain. In future it will not be so difficult to get the paper, for I have fixed up with newsagents in practically every suburb to have it on show and sale. T hat more people than ever are wanting it I am sure. No, sir, C ricket is not dead, but very much alive, and would like to be kicking—good and hard— the miscreant who told you it was dead ! I am having copies of the paper sent this week to the secretaries of over a hundred clubs which have not yet come in. These are not chosen at random ; every club communicated with thus has opponents among the many clubs who send in their news regularly and give C ricket practical support—clnbs such as Hampstead, the Wanderers, Ealing, London Scottish, Ealin g Dean, Shepherd’s Bush, Forest H ill, Norbury Park Wanderers, Albemarle and Friern Barnet, Southgate, Clapham Ramblers, Parson’s Green, Stanmore, River Plate House, Acton Town, Derrick Wanderers, Finchley (East), Heathfield, Hampstead Nomads, Spencer, South West Ham , L . & N. W. 11., Upper Sydenham, West Kent Wanderers, G . W. 11.—but it is out of the question to give a complete list. They are many ; but the more the merrier. We make no charge of any kind. If a club’s news is in the paper, one may reasonably suppose that the club’s members will buy it. If a direct supply is wanted, well and good ; but this is not in any way pressed upon the consenting clubs. W ill club captains secretaries , and other officials please READ THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE? To Secretaries who are already sending along news—the earlier the better ! If you would only all send so as to reach the Editor on Monday, we m ight get the paper out a day or two sooner. As it is, scores dribble in up to Thursday, when they are too late for insertion. The following were among last week’s centuries :— R . V . Minnett, 156 *, Mr. L . Robinson’s X I v. M .C.C., Ju ly 1. Capt. W . G. M. Sarel, 160*, Tonbridge v. Devon Dumplings, Ju ly 2. Rev. W. V. Jephson, 115 , Hampshire Hogs v. United Services, Ju ly 3 A. A. Martin, 10 3*, Old Charlton v. M .C.C., Ju ly 3. M. H. C. Doll, 145, M .C.C. v. Forest H ill, Ju ly 3. Munds, 14 1* , M .C.C. v. Forest H ill, Ju ly 3. C. P. Hurditch, 128*, Twickenham Orleans v. Acton Town, Ju ly 3. R . H . V. Cavendish, 13 1* , Household Brigade v. Yorkshire Gentlemen, Ju ly 3. Capt. M. Crichton-Maitland, 117 , Household Brigade v. Yorkshire Gentlemen, Ju ly 3 Roberts, 100*, Blackwood v. Panteg, Ju ly 4. W. G. Swainson, Eastbourne v. Devon Dumplings, Ju ly 5. J . W. F . Crawfurd, 11G , O. U. Authentics v. Aldershot Command, Ju ly 6. Major H . S. Bush, 14 1, Army Service C. v. R . A. Woolwich, Ju ly 6. C. Pinkham , 112 , M.C.C. v. Wimbledon, Ju ly 6 M. F . S. Jew ell, 116 , Gent, of Wore. v. Bromsgrove School, Ju ly 6. C. E . Dalton, 189*, Mill H ill Park v. South Hampstead, Ju ly 6. L. T. Weaver, 100, Hornsey v. Nondescripts, Ju ly 6. C. F . Welch, 12 2 *, Stanmore v. Fulham Palace, Ju ly 6. Hodges, 147, Bushey v. Westbourne Park Wanderers, Ju ly 6, L . Phillips, 15 3*, Dulwich v. Cane H ill Asylum , Ju ly 6. Kirkpatrick, 102, War Office v. Can. Pacific Railw ay, Ju ly 6. W ilkinson, 100*, Dudley v. M itchell and B utler’s, Ju ly 6. Richardson, 12 5, Paddock v. Lascelles H all, Ju ly 6. J . R . Longhurst, 102*, Spencer v. Marlow, Ju ly 6. H. A. Hodges, 118 , Tonbridge v. South Saxons, Ju ly 6. H. R . Kirby, 257, Mayfield v. Tunbridge W ells, Ju ly 6. S. Markwick, 103, Mayfield v. Tunbridge Wells, Ju ly 6. E . H . Lake, 112 * , Priory Park (Chichester) v. Portmouth Magnets, Ju ly 6. C. Campbell, 10 1, St. Philip’s, Arundel v. Amberley, Ju ly 6. A. H. Haines, 122, Wye College, v. the Mote, Ju ly 6. W . R . Lyne Sm ith, 108, River Plate House v. Streatham H ill, Ju ly 6. C. E . Anson, 13 5 , Yorkshire Gentlemen v. Heworth, Ju ly G. Buck, 102, Sinapis v. Union Castle, Ju ly 6. Capt. G. L . Whatford, 103, Eastbourne v. Devon Dumplings, Ju ly 6. S. J . Croft, 103, Gravesend v. Sidcup, Ju ly 6. There wer? two matches among those played last Saturday which were singularly alike in their main features, the chief difference being