Cricket 1912

340 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J uly 20, 1912. I have written no line about the quarrel which I desire to cancel, for all was written in good faith. I don’t suppose my opinion matters very much to anybody ; but, for what it is worth, it is honest, and it is given after due thought. Please, “ Old Subscriber till n ow ," take yourself out and kick yourself ! Y ou need it. L a t e st B u l l e t in : The Editor of C r ic k e t is bearing up as well as can be expected in the sad circumstances, and it is thought he may recover. I n the old days, before bowling analyses were kept regularly, it was the custom to state the average number of wickets per innings taken by a bowler. This was manifestly a false criterion in some ways ; but it had points of interest. No bowler of the present season would come much better out of such a test than George Dennett, who up to July 13 had bowled in 16 innings for Gloucestershire and had taken 84 wickets— over 5 per innings. Not once had he failed to take a wicket, and in ten innings he had had 5, 6, 7 , or 8. F rom May 20 to June 15, David Denton, who had just before run up 107 and 82, aggregated 119 in 11 innings From June 17 to July 13 he made 992 in 12 (once not out). David is in great form just now ; if the English batting required strengthening— but I am not among those who are convinced that they know better than the selectors. A re the Lagden brothers qualified for Surrey ? I believe their home is at Weybridge. H. S. Altham and I. P. F. Campbell are Surreyites ; and of the other men who played in the ’Varsity match F. C. G. Calthorpe, E. C. Baker, J. L. S. Vidler, and N. J. Holloway all owe allegiance to Sussex, li. H. Twining, S. H. Saville, G. E. V. Crutchley and E. L. Kidd to Middlesex, F. H. Knott to Kent, B. V. Bardsley to Lancashire, A. J. Evans to Hampshire, W . N. B iley to Leicestershire, E. A. Shaw and W . B. Franklin to Buckinghamshire. Of the other four, I believe that the Hon. G. J. H. Mulholland has no English county qualifica­ tion, .T. N. Fraser cannot have as yet, and about G. W . V. Hopley and J. S. F. Morrison I really do not know. I n connection with David Denton’s second innings of over 200 within a fortnight, a correspondent writes to ask that a complete list of individual scores of 200 and over in first-class cricket should be given in these pages. As there are something like 300 such on record, and a list would run to nearly two pages, this is quite impossible just now, though it might be done in one of the winter numbers. P e r h a ps it will be sufficient for the present to say that up to date (July 13) the following have more than three such scores to their names : C. B. Fry (16), the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar (14), W . G. Grace (13), Shrewsbury (10), Abel (9), W illiam Gunn (8), Tom Hayward (8), M. A. Noble (7), W. W . Armstrong (6), G. L. Jessop (5), A. C. MacLaren (5), W . L. Murdoch (5), R. H. Spooner (5), V. T. Trumper (5), G. Giffen (4), Hayes (4), C. Hill (4), Hirst (4), Iremonger (4), A. O. Jones (4), and William Quaife (4). N o r th am p to n sh ir e have now played at sonic time or another every first-class county except Middlesex. Worcestershire, the last but one promoted team, have played (in the Championship) all except Nottinghamshire, Just now Northante stand at the head of the table, W or­ cester at the f o o t ; but a comparison of the records of the two up to date gives the lowlier-placed county’an advantage. F r o m 1899 to July 13, 1912, Worcestershire played 265 Championship matches, won 75, lost 98, drew 92. From ' 1905 to the same date Northants played 137, won 42, lost 69, drew 26. Thus Worcester has won 43 per cent, of finished games, Northants 37. If the figures be taken on all games, however, Northants, whose proportion of draws is small, has an advantage— 30 to 28. Neither’s record is great, but that of each fully justifies the promotion accorded. T h e first win secured by Northants over Surrey was in the sixteenth match between the sides. Worcestershire did not beat Surrey till the eleventh season of home and home matches between the sides, and has only 3 victories to sot against 10 defeats in the series to date. In Kent matches the record is worse— 2 to 16. W ith Lancashire and with Yorkshire it is 4 to 14. Northants’ figures in matches with these sides are: Surrey. 1 win, 11 defeats; Kent, 3 and 8 ; Lancashire, 1 and 5 ; Yorkshire, 2 and 3. D e r b y sh ir e is the only county in matches with which Northants has a credit balance (10 won, 4 lost). Worces­ tershire has won more matches than she has lost with Derby­ shire (3 won, 1 lost), Gloucestershire (11 and 9). Hants (12 and 9), Leicestershire (10 and 5), and Somerset (11 and 2), and has won 6, lost 6, with Warwickshire. O u r compositors were at it again last week. The Australians’ innings at Edinburgh was declared “ b'oscd ” : Oxford had “ very bad lin e s” ; B. O. Lagden punished “ every ball,” instead of “ every loose ball.” But tbis last m ight have been worse. The man capable of anything so gratuitously blundering as “ very bad lines ” might well have rendered “ lo o s e ” as “ boozed.” Yes, I saw the proofs; But after ten or a dozen galleys of proofs the man who has other things to think of while he is correcting them, and who knows that the press is being kept waiting, is likely to pass almost anything. D id Sussex ever before put into the field a team consisting of seven amateurs and four professionals ? Certainly not in recent years. Bemembering what Alletson did at Hove last year, one could not help feeling it queer and regrettable that he should have been fielding only as a substitute on Monday. His big score was followed by many failures ; but a man capable of such hitting deserves more encouragement than Alletson seems to get. Yet it must be granted that a difficulty would have been experi­ enced in picking out the man to stand down for him, even on the scene of his great triumph. T h e r e have been five first-wicket partnerships of over 100 for Lancashire this season, and Harry Makepeace has played his part in all of them. The details may be given thus : 112 v. Surrey at the Oval, with A. H. Hornby. 110 v. Australians at Aigburth, with B. H. Spooner 141 and 193 v. Notts at Trent Bridge, with A. H. Hornby in each case. 161 v. Surrey at Manchester, with R. H. Spooner. A n o t h e r Triangular Tournament seems very unlikely. Admittedly neither Australia nor South Africa could support one with any prospect of financial success ; and it does not appear that England will have another, at least for years to come. A t the Imperial Conference on Tuesday the scheme of future visits was drawn up thus : 1913-4, England in S.A. ; 1914-5, Australia in S.A. ; 1915-6, England in Australia ; 1916, Australia in England ; 1917, S.A. in England. T h a t Pelham Warner should have broken down in the height of the season will be regretted b y everyone. But the breakdown was scarcely unexpected. One may fairly doubt whether he was ever really fit for three-day cricket this season. The spirit was stronger than the flesh. S in c e last week there have been tho following additions to the list of scores of 1,000 runs 10.—Hobbs (J. B.), July 13. 11.-—Woolley (F. E.), July 13. 12.—Humphreys (E.), July 17. Dean (July 12), Blythe (July 12), Thompson (July 15), and Haigh (July 17) have qualified for the 100 wickets list. (T o be continued in our next.) FO R S A L E — C ricket F ield . 1892 to 1895, complete, unbound, in gnod condition. What offers?— J . W. W ., c/o C ricket . 33 and 35, Moor Lane, E .C .