Cricket 1912

AtfGtiST 2 4 , 1912. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. 446 career, had for quite a long time something like four innings a week. Unless it be Fran k Cox, an old Eastbourne College boy and regular starting batsman for the old Southend Club, or Corney Beal, I have never opened an innings with a partner I understood better than Willie Tew. There is something delightful about Tew’s batting that forces you to the belief that the bowling you are meeting is easy. At any rate, I always had that feeliDg when starting an innings with him. During the last twenty-two years I have taken the first ball bowled to the side I was playing for in about eighty per cent, of the matches I have participated in, and I should say Tew has done the same for the clubs he has assisted. Most of our matches together were for the late Forest Gate Club, but Tew’s principal cricket has really been plaved with the South Hampstead Club. A Staffordshire- born man W illie Tew was early brought to London, and he has been one of the leading figures in London Club Cricket fields for nearly thirty years, yet to-day there are very few better batsmen to watch, and only four years ago I believe Tew registered six successive centuries, four of which were made for Southend. A G o o d S t o r y . Tew has a wonderful store of cricket anecdotes, and tells a really good story against him self. While on bis honeymoon he was asked to play in a match, and after a knock at the nets, he kept his F. W . T EW . * (South Hampstead C.C.) , pads on thinking he would, as usual, go in first, so you can imagine his surprise when he found his name number eleven on the lis t ! Recovering from the shock, he took his wife for a drive and arrived back just in time to make 14 not out. The captain of the side Tew was assisting in this game was two days later playing against South Hampstead. Tew therefore took a special journey to London to have the pleasure of playing against the man who had thought him worthy of the honour of going in last, and as " Willie ” made nearly 200 against the gentleman’s eleven before he got himself out, it is not surprising that, at the end of the game, he should have had an apology for the error of judgment committed. F unny H appenings . Two other funny happenings in connection with Tew’s career occurred at Southend and Walthamstow. When he was acting as captain of the Southend team he invited me to play for them. He had spoken kindly of me, and I in return, not having played cricket for the previous nine months, gave an inglorious exhibition, being unable to time a ball. He was chaffed about it at the time, but a fortnight later he got his own back for he watched me defy the Southend bowlers for nearly two hours. At Walthamstow he brought us a player who he said was a brilliant cover-point. H is friend had an off-day, and let a lot of balls pass between his legs to the boundary. I remember at the time we thought Willie was playing a joke on us, but seeing that his friend in the next four matches saved about 100 runs by some of the most brilliant cover-point work I have seen, Tew’s judgment of a cricketer was once more proved correct. T ew ’ s S t y l e . At the crease W illie has an almost ideal style. He gives the ball the full face of the bat and gets set in a couple of overs. He hits with tremendous power, and scores all round the wicket at a rare pace. He has in his time been a very tricky and deadly bowler, while in the field few men surpassed him in his younger dayd. Always a great cricketer, a sportsman and a thorough enthusiast, the glad hand of welcome is extended to the old South Hampstead favourite on every ground all round London. C le v e r P la ye r s . There are few better bowlers than H . A. Clarke of Albemarle and Friern Barnet. Clarke has a rare command of length, and he can make tbe ball turn very quickly on almost any kind of wicket. The Bank of England have a splendid batsman in Roebuck, who possesses a sound defence and cuts and drives with rare power. Beddington have a great match winning bowler in W. Reay. He has the style of a Lockwood, bowls at a good pace and makes the ball break rapidly from the pitch. E llis of Dulwich is a pretty bat to watch. H is defence is sound and he places his scoring strokes very skilfully. In Goddard, Wanstead have a batsman above the average. Goddard meets the ball with the full face of the bat and hits with wonderful power when set. A F in e B o w le r . Edmondson of the H .A .C . is a fine bowler. He has an easy action, keeps a good length, and makes the ball come off the pitch very quickly. The Hong Kong Bank eleven have a splendid batsman in Stasg. He is the latest Bank cricketer to make a century. Stagg is a pretty player to watch. He meets the ball with the full face of the bat, and few men can cut and drive better than he does when set. Two capital Hornsey players are Wenyon, a neat batsman, and Clarke, a clever swerving bowler, who puzzles most batsman he meets. Kensington, North and South, have a really fine cricketer in Budgen. This smart batsman never flatters the bowlers. He punishes the loose balls very skilfully, and directly he gets to the wicket he begins to score at a good pace. Cricket in Scotland. B y H a m i s h . The following eleven has been chosen to represent Scotland in the match with Ireland at Bray on the 29th, 30th and 31st inst. —M. B. Dickson (capt.) and B. W. Sievwright (Arbroath), T. A. Bowie (Clackmannan County), J. A. Ferguson (Perthshire), G. W. Jupp and J. W. Sorrie (Carlton), W. Webster (Aberdeenshire), J. B. Walker (Greenock), J. H. Bruce Lockhart (Berkshire), J. Storrie (Hawick) and J. McDougall (Gala). The team is not representative of the strength of Scot­ land, and at such a late period of the season this was only to be expected ; but I imagine the methods of the selection committee are to blame to a large extent. The absence of R. G. Tait and G. K. Chalmers will be generally regretted, the more so as we have no adequate substitutes. Before the eleven take the field there will doubtless be a few changes, and personally I shall not feel sorry if one or two find it inconvenient to travel. J. H. Bruce Lockhart may be worthy of his inclusion ; but I am by no means alone in thinking that places in the eleven should be confined to cricketers who are taking part in club cricket in Scotland. Our cricket programme is a gradually diminishing quantity, and few will regret it when the end comes, if the weather does not improve. Saturday saw a repetition of what we have become accustomed to—rain and interrupted matches. The Grange played the concluding match of their season, when they came a cropper against Pentland, the best of the junior clubs in Edinburgh. Pentland scored 119, and by good bowling on the part of S. J. Little (4 for 30) and A. Davison (4 for 23) dismissed the premier club for 62. J. Peel, one of the oldest regular cricketers in the country, scored an oven hundred, and was still undefeated, for Brunswick (201 for 4) against Stewart’s College P.P. (60 for 2) ; and Combey (99 and 5 for 36) did excellent work in