Cricket 1912

A ugust 10, 1912. CEICKET: A WEEKLY EECOED OF THE GAME. 399 Cricket: A W EEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 33 and 35, MOOR LANE, LONDON, E.C. SATUEDAY, AUGUST 10, 1912. Communications to the E ditor should be addressed to him at 33 & 35 M oor Lane, E .C . Advertisements, Subscriptions, &e., should be sent to the Manager, at tbe same address. The follow ing are the rates of subscription t o C r ic k e t :— Great Britain. Abroad. One Tear ............................... 6s. 3d. ... 7s. 6d. T he 24 Summer Numbers ... 5s. Od. ... 6s. Od. T he 6 W inter Numbers ... Is. 3d. ... Is. 6d. NOTICE. Messrs. WRIGHT & CO., of 7 , Temple Lane, Tudor Street, E.C., areAdvertisementContractorsfor CRICKET , and will be glad to give their best attention to any Firms desiring to advertise in the paper. Scale of Charges will be sent on application. pavilion (Sosstp. T h e abstract and b rief ch ron icle o f the tim e. — Hamlet. I t is not surprising to hear that the Triangular Tourna­ ment scheme has been denounced by the Australian Board of Control, or that some of those who resent the domination of the Board have condemned Mr. McElhone for undue precipitance. The fact of the matter is that no cablegram from the Board was needed to kill the scheme, which was practically already dead, slain by the bad weather, the public indifference, and the ill-luck or the poor form—have it which way you will—of the South African side. T h e b e never really was much chance of a triangular tourney coming off successfully in either Australia or South Africa. The actual question at issue was whether it would go in this country. It has not gone ; and for a good many years to come no one is likely to suggest its revival. Which is a pity in some respects, for the scheme had its merits. But there are other things to be considered. Just as club cricket is the backbone of the whole game, so county cricket is the backbone of the first-class game in this country ; and it is quite possible that had the Triangular Tournament been a huge success county cricket would have been given a mortal blow. Some men are spoiled by the tense atmosphere of test matches for the calmer pleasures of the average county game. The State matches in Australia have suffered from test cricket in this way. T h e ideal spectator is the man who knows the game, who has played it, who can appreciate its finer points, can watch with interest the fight between clever bowler and dogged batsman which to so many seems nothing but sheer waste of time, understands why Vine and Jessop are unlike, why some bowlers can be scored off with ease—even though they are getting wickets, and others keep the batsman tied up though they cannot get him out, who does not cheer leg-byes and stupid overthrows, but reserves his applause for real merit, who does not demand that a side should cast its wickets away to provide the lookers-on with amusement—who, in short, is a cricketer. T h e trouble with the average spectator is that he is not a cricketer—never has been—never will be. He is not really qualified to criticise. He regards the game in the same light as a circus or a music-hall performance. Primarily it is nothing of the sort. It was never designed to be played for the amusement of the crowd ; the crowd is an incidental, not an essential, part of cricket. T h e b e is an oth er sid e to th e shield, o f course. T he co u n ty clu b s, on e and all, ask fo r th e crow d ’s su p p ort, and b em oa n sm all atten dances. H o w far this can be held to a ffect th e fa ct th a t crick et is n o t a gam e w h ich can be g ov ern ed b y m o b -la w w ith o u t sp oilin g it com p letely, it is n o t fo r m e t o say. I h ave alw a ys believed th a t the healthy county club should be practically independent of gate-money. Subscribers should make it so. Most members of county clubs are men who know the game. They do not yearn to dictate to the players as to how they should play it, as the sixpenny patron so often does. They do not—as a general rule, for there have been exceptions— misbehave themselves when a match takes a course of which they disapprove. What is wanted is more of them. J ohn H obbs says there is too much big cricket. This is true, though lovers of the game are apt to shirk saying it outright. For the man who takes his cricket mainly on paper there can hardly be too much. H e has a veritable feast provided for him at the expense of a copper each morning in a fine summer. Seven, eight, nine, or ten first-class matches ; centuries, long partnerships, bowling feats, sensational collapses ; the whole drama of bat and ball is his'at less than the price of a drink. Long tables of averages on Sundays and Mondays—the Sunday ones usually grossly inaccurate, and the Monday ones not above reproach, by the way ; the County Championship chart, with its fascinating possibilities, to be studied twice a week ; he does not want these things lessened, as they would be if tho number of matches wore cut down, either by each county’s arranging fewer or by a diminution of the number of counties ranked first-class. B u t if county clubs are to be run on gate-money, the fact will have to bo borne in mind that the busy man cannot go to every match. And most of us are busy nowadays, while it is mainly from the comparatively small leisured class that the county club members are drawn. Whether they go to matches or stay away makes no financial differ­ ence to the clubs. The man who can spare, say, half-a- dozen afternoons in the summer goes to no more matches because his club has a dozen at home instead of half-a dozen. With from 60 to 80 championship games per annum, as was the case twenty years or so ago, each game meant more than it does now, when there are over 150 ; and the average gate was bigger then than it is now. T h e problem is too difficult to be grappled with in a few paragraphs. But it does seem to me certain that (i) the casual patron should not be allowed to become a dictator ; (ii) the real lovers of the game ought to support it in the most practical way by subscribing to at least one county club ; (iii) that any considerable increase of public attendance is not to be looked for, indeed that the natural tendency is towards a decrease ; and (iv) that some county clubs at least would be well advised to curtail their fixture lists unless they can increase their membership. F eom Bank Holiday to the end of August the Glouces­ tershire, Kent, Middlesex, Sussex and Yorkshire teams are engaged on every date. Essex, Surrey, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire have only one date each vacant ; Hampshire and Lancashire only two. But of course August, the holiday month, has claims to be considered pre-eminently the cricket month, and gates are better then than in June or July. C o in c id en c e s in last week-end’s cricket: Sussex (v. Somerset) and Essex (v. Kent) each totalled between 100 and 110 in their first innings. In each case four men made double figures, the four of Sussex aggregating 69, the four of Essex 70. The Australians (v. Derbyshire) and the South Africans (v. Lancashire) totalled 123 and 124 respectively in their first innings. In each case four men made double figures, the Australian four aggregating 103, the South African four 104. A n o th e b coincidence which seems to have passed unnoticed :— James Seymour, 118, Kent v. Surrey, Blackheath, July 27 and 28, 1911. James Seymour, 117, Kent v. Surrey, Blackheath, July 25, 1912. H a r o ld H a b d in g e has made ten centuries in first- class cricket up to date (August 4), and four of them have been recorded v. Essex : 153 and 126 at Leyton in August,