Cricket 1912

A u g u s t 24, 1912. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 443 second wicket after Taylor had left at 27. Tancred was at the top of his form . He scored 5 1 out of 93 in 85 minutes, gave no chance, and hit six 4’s, though the pitch always favoured the bowlers. During luncheon the floodgates opened, and the ground was speedily under water. No play at all was possible on Tuesday. Strieker took his score to 29 on Wednesday, and Pegler made 2 1. Kilner’s batting—54 in 70 m inutes—and Pegler’s splendid bowling were the features of a fairly full third day’s play. Pegler took 6 for 29, and had no help from the field in taking them, three being bowled, one c. & b., and two l.b.w. He was not once hit for four. The game was drawn, of course. L a n c a s h ir e v. W a r w ic k s h ir e . —This match at Aigburth, Liver­ pool, was abandoned without a ball bowled. N o t t in g h a m s h ir e v . M id d le s e x . —Fourteen up ; then an ad­ journment on account of rain. A. 0 . Jones out at 18 ; then the score carried to 35, and thereafter another adjournment. On Tuesday there was a couple of hours’ play late in the afternoon, and Hardstaff and John Gunn took the score to 94 before they were separated, 76 having been added for the wicket. The batting was as dismal and dull as the weather. W ith 18 3 for 9 up on the third morning tbe innings was declared. M iddlesex lost Tarrant at 29. The Middlesex batsmen, scoring far more freely than the home players had done, made a ^ood fight for first innings’ points, but were out for 4 runs less than Notts. Douglas batted particularly well for 85 minutes, and Murrell hit freely. In 50 minutes at the end of the day Notts made 67 for 1. W o r c e s t e r s h ir e v. S o m e r s e t. —Only 35 m inutes’ play took place on the first day at Stourbridge. Somerset played Critchley- Salmonson, the Winchester captain. B ajan a wasted no time, hitting up 43 while Hyman, a fast scorer as a rule, made only 9. In 70 m inutes’ cricket on Tuesday, the Indian batsman made 50 more runs. The score was taken to 87 before Hyman left for 15 . On Wednesday B ajan a was out directly the game was re-started, caught for an admirable 95 (one 6 , thirteen 4’s). O. M. Samson hit well, and the total reached 226. The early home batsmen did only moderately, but the later men fared far worse. Five wickets were down for 74 when Hylton-Stewart, the Cantab, went on, and took the last 5 while only 3 runs were scored off him . In the follow-on Bowley hit up 5 1 in 50 m inutes, but there was never any likelihood of finishing the match. G lo u c e s t e r s h ir e v. S u r r e y . —For the first time in the long history of the Cheltenham Festival a game had to be abandoned without a single ball bowled. H a m p sh ire v. S u s s e x . —At Portsmouth play was impossible till after lunch on Monday. Runs were always hard to get, and Vine, who stayed 15 0 minutes for 28, was the only Sussex batsman to top 20 in the afternoon’s total of 106 for 7. The game could not be resumed until after lunch on Tuesday. Then the innings closed for 124, Jupp carrying his bat for 3 1. The runs had taken 210 minutes to make. When play was stopped by rain at 4.20 H ants had 82 up for 3, Johnston and Stone having sent up 55 in 40 minutes for the first. On Wednesday Capt. Barrett and Bowell put on 53 for the fourth wicket, the former and Brown 66 for the fifth, and McDonell and Barrett 52 unparted. The innings was declared at 245 for 5, the old Wykeham ist having batted 145 minutes for his 74*. Showers eased the wicket, and Sussex never looked like getting out a second time, though they took no risks, playing for safety in the main. The Triangular Tests. ( N in t h a n d F i n a l M a t c h : E n g l a n d v . A u s t r a l ia a t t h e O v a l .) (D a i l y I m p r e s s io n s .) B y H a m is h S t u a r t . If the Triangular Tests have been a failure in some respects, or rather have not quite realised the idea of thoir promoters, who hoped that the matches would produce the most strenuous struggles for supremacy between the “ mightiest opposites ” in the history of the game, the competition in one way has been the greatest success on record. Reference is made to the fact that tho issue of the competition depended upon the last match. It might well have been otherwise and the last match might well have been of no competitive moment, instead of being the deciding match of the series. Chance then gave the competition an interesting finish which design could not have secured and which might not have been forthcoming if the competition otherwise had been all that its promoters and every lover of the game hoped that it would be. But to the game. England made two changes in the side originally announced. Dean, owing to the soft state of the pitch and the unsettled weather, displaced Hitch, while Douglas was chosen at the last moment through the inability of Hayes, owing to a bad cold, to play. Both changes were warranted, for Dean has bowled against both the Colonial sides with great success (34 wickets for 374 runs as against the 34 wickets for 350 of Baines), while Douglas by reason of his steadiness as a batsman was just the right type for a play to a finish match. More­ over he could also act as Hitch’s undei study as a fast bowler. The wicket, owing to the heavy rain of Saturday and Sunday night, was a slow, difficult pitch and was never easy all day. Under the circumstances, England did well to score 233 for 8 wickets during the 4J hours of actual play. For their good total England were mainly indebted to Hobbs, that most consistent of all test batsmen, Woolley and Rhodes, each of whom played a very fine innings in his very different style, and to useful contributions by Douglas and Foster. Spooner and Heaine were rather unlucky, but Fry, it must be confessed was again disap­ pointing and seems unable to do his powers justice at present in test matches. At one time it appeared likely that a much larger score would be made, in spite of the state of the wicket, for Hobbs and Rhodes, for the second time in the present series of tests, scored over 100 for the first wicket. At Lord’s against the Australians they made 112 for the first wicket (Rhodes being first out with 59) and on Monday they made 107 in 110 minutes, Hobbs being first out for a very fine 66. The only fault in Hobbs’s innings was a tendency to lift the ball at the start. For the rest he was his own great self and made no mistake until caught at the wicket off a ball which he could and of course should have left alone. Hobbs’s driving was specially fine, while his timing on the leg side was excellent. He hit 4 fours. Spooner was unlucky, for after. carefully playing himself in, he was out to a wonderfully fine catch by Hazlitt at forward short leg. The stroke was value for a four, but the catch was also value for such a wicket as that of Spooner. It is impossible to praise Fry’s innings. He was frequently beaten and was never comfortable in scoring 5 in 40 minutes. It is most unfortunate that such a great batsman has been unable to give us the joy of seeing him at his best in these matches. The reason of his “ failure ” is probably psycho­ logical. Rhodes batted for 3 hours for his 49,yetwas never tedious. The reason, I fancy, was that though not making scoring chances as Hobbs did, ho never missed a scoring chance that was presented. Rhodes played “ the six day ” game—the game that aims at wearing the bowling down, waits for safe scoring chances and does not run even ordinary risks. I have here “ personalised ’ ’ the game, but no matter, My meaning is, I hope, clear. Woolley played the same game, but in his own fashion. He allowed his natural self more scope than Rhodes did. Woolley was batting for two hours and was out in the last over of the day. The feature of his play was his late cutting. His late cuts were the best strokes of the day. Woolley timed the ball well on the leg side, a remark that also applies to Rhodes. The latter hit one five and 3 fours, while Woolley’s greater aggressiveness, and hence the more natural character of his game, may be gathered from the fact that he hit 11 fours. The sixth and seventh wickets each added 36, Woolley and Douglas in 50 minutes and Foster and Woolley in 30 minutes. Douglas provided an irony by scoring 18 while Woolley was getting 17 so that the“ slow,steady ” man scored faster than the “ dasher,” for Woolley is, of course, a very fast scorer when occasion serves. The fielding was splendid and many runs were saved by the intelligent anticipation of most of the men and the clever placing of the field. The bowling was on the whole good, but one will defer consideration of it until dealing with the second day’s play. All that need be said here is that none of the bowlers made the most of the wicket. No fewer than 12,824 paid for admission, so that the attend­ ance was between 15,000 and 16,000. This is not a great crowd for a test and such a test—but it was good for the