Cricket 1912

A ugu st 31, 1912. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 465 ball flashed past him and hit the wicket. He forgot to put his bat down and it was probably to this omission that he owed the adverse verdict. The omission also confirms the view that he did not realise his danger. England won by 244 runs, and deserved their success. They owed nothing to fortune, for I cannot agree with the view that they had the better of the luck in the matter of the weather and the wicket. I believe in being just before one is generous, and the one period when the wickot was at its easiest was between 5.15 and 6 on Tuesday, when Bardsley and Kelleway were putting on 41 runs in 45 minutes. The day’s play went far towards redeeming the competition. It was exciting enough and of a sufficiently high quality to make up for the com­ parative tameness of much of the play in the other matches. Big Matches of the Week. M id d le s e x v . S u r r e y . —Plenty of progress was made on the first clay of this match at Lords, the bowlers having all the best of matters. To begin with, Tarrant and Jack Hearne dismissed Surrey in 80 m in­ utes for 52. Then Rushby and Sm ith —chiefly Rushby, who bowled five men and had three l.b.w .—got rid of Middlesex for 74, only Haig, who played a good forcing game for his 22, doing much. Surrey’s second innings was an improvement on the first. Hayes and Bird added 45 for the second w icket; and after 4 had fallen for 59, Ducat and Goatly added 29, while the latter and Altham had put on 39 more, still unparted, by this time the play ceased. Heavy rain made Friday a blank, and, continuing into Saturday, rendered further progress impossible, M iddlesex thus taking points for a first innings’ lead. K e n t v . G lo u c e s t e r s h ir e . —At one time it looked very likely that this match at Dover would be finished in a single day. To start with the visiting team, with the best side they have put into the field this season, were all out for 67. Day won the toss and sent them in first. C. 0 . H . Sewell, C. S. Barnett, and. A. W . Roberts (the last named playing in a style foreign to his usual methods in county cricket, but quite the right game on such a pitch) all batted very w e ll; but the rest only made 10 among them. Blythe and D. W. Carr bowled unchanged. Kent lost two wickets for 4 ; then Humphreys, Jennings, and Hubble took the total to 99 before the fourth wicket fell. The telegraph board showed 100 for 4 when Dennett was put on a second time. The innings closed for 106, the left-hander having taken the remaining 6 wickets in 20 balls without a run being scored off h im ! It was rather curious that in no case did he secure two with successive balls. Going in again, Gloucestershire lost 7 for 36, all to Carr. Then Brownlee hit out while Barnett played the steady game, and 36 were added for the eighth wicket—Carr again. Here Blythe chipped in, and took the remaining two, Parker meanwhile hitting up a useful 15 . The total was 95, which left Kent only 57 to get for victory. Carr (18 for 74) and Blythe (7 for 81) bowled unchanged through both innings, a rare feat nowadays. Though there were fewer hours of rain at Dover than in most parts of the country on Friday, the wicket was so sodden that play was out of the question. The game was not abandoned at once on Saturday, but after the start had been delayed pending an improvement conditions remained so hopeless that it had to be given up eventually. Kent thus lost their last chance of the 19 12 championship. S u ss e x v. N o r t h a m p t o n s h ir e .— Robert R elf’s capital innings of 64, void of chance till the late forties, was the one good feature of the Sussex batting. He hit a 6 and six 4’s. There were six other double figures, but no one else really got going. E ast bowled very finely indeed, and the fielding generally was excellent, as indeed the Northants out-cricket has almost always been this season. Haywood and V ials made useful runs ; but the visitors’ batting was pretty slow till the Denton twins got together near the close, and showed that the bowling could be hit. On neither Friday nor Saturday was play possible. W o r c e s t e r s h ir e v . Y o r k s h ir e . —The pitch at Worcester recovered wonderfully. With the Severn in flood and the drainage gone all wrong, the outfield sodden and a quagmire in front of the pavilion, the pitch was pronounced fit for play at 3.30. After five wickets had gone very cheaply, W. B . Burns and G. L. Crowe added 57 by vigorous cricket in 40 minutes, and it was m ainly owing to them that the score reached 134, and to Drake, who, put on late, quickly disposed of the tail, that it got no higher. There was no play at all on Friday or on Saturday. L e ic e s t e r s h ir e v. W a r w ic k s h ir e .— The visitors lacked Foster and Sm ith, still engaged at Lord’s when this match began at Hinckley. Kinneir’s was the one outstanding innings of the day. He batted 135 minutes for his chanceless 60, and has, evidently, run into form again. For the third innings in succession, John King had 7 wickets. The total of 176 took three hours in the m aking. At call of time Leicestershire had 38 up with Knight out. Friday was a blank, and so was Saturday. E s s e x v. H a m p s h ir e . —Without Douglas, Perrin, and J . R. Freem an, the home side were very weak. R. D. Clark, G . B . Davies, and P. J . Richardson (University College School and Cambridge) were all included, the last named, as well as Scoulding (of the Beckton Club) for the first time). Hants lacked F ry and McDonell, and included R . du B . Evans, the old Wykehamist. The visitors lost Stone and Johnston very cheaply, and at 9 1 Barrett and Bowell had also retired. Then Philip Mead and George Brown played a great game, the latter showing back-play of really high quality. They added 109 together in 75 minutes. Mead’s innings of just over 3 hrs. included only five 4’s. Bignell joined Brown, and 65 more were added in 45 minutes before the amateur was out. Sprot rattled up 25 of 33 in 15 minutes. Brown, who hit seven 4’s, was eighth out after batting about the same time as Mead. At the close of play Hants were 353 for 8 . On Friday play was impossible, and on Saturday the game was abandoned quite early without another ball bowled. L a n c a s h ir e v. S o u th A fr ic a n s .— The one defeat sustained by the South Africans in their matches with the counties was from Lancashire at Liverpool, and they were naturally keen on winning the return. The wicket was not an easy one, and the County Palatine did well to make 170 on it. John Sharp, as in the first match, was top scorer ; and A. H. Hornby and F . R . R . Brooke also played valuable iunings. Faulkner bowled effectively, but Carter might well have been given more work and Pegler less. In 80 minutes at the close of the day the Afrikanders made 69 for 1 , Taylor and Nourse adding 47 together unparted. As elsewhere, Friday was a blank day, and there was never any prospect of cricket on Saturday. S o u th W a le s v. A u s t r a lia n s . —Deferred till Friday, owing to the prolongation of the test match, this game had to be abandoned without a ball bowled. C a m b r id g e s h ir e v. N o r f o l k . — B y winning this game at Fenner’s, Norfolk made themselves safe for the Minor Counties Cham ­ pionship, with seven matches won outright, and a win on the first innings, as the result of eight games. Falcon was again top scorer, making 77 for once out in the match. Gibson was too much for the Cambs. men in their first innings ; but, though he bowled well again when they followed on, Watts, the brothers Reid, and W. C. Hunt made useful scores (the other seven aggregating 13 among them), and 174, a good total for such a pitch, was realised. Gibson had 12 for 68 in the match. D o r s e t s h ir e v . D e v o n s h ir e . — The home side scored points for a first innings’ lead in this match at Sherborne. There was very little play on the first day. The feature of the game was an innings of 90 by R . H. D . Bolton, the old Rossallian. C a m b r id g e s h ir e v. L in c o ln s h ir e . —R ain prevented any play in this match at Cambridge on Friday and Saturday last. S u f f o l k v. S u r r e y I I .—No play was possible in this return match, the last on the Suffolk card at Felixstowe. B u c k in g h a m s h ire v. B e r k s h ir e . — No play at all at High Wycombe in this match. S u sse x v. W a r w ic k s h ir e .— Of nine first-class games scheduled, this at Hastings was the only one in which any play at all took place on Monday. In the course of 2 hours 40 minutes, Sussex made 164 for 6 , Robert R elf, H. L . Simm s, and Jupp scoring among them more than three-quarters of those. R elf played a really good innings of 49; Simms, after a slow start, hit well, having six 4’s in his 4 5 ; and Jupp slammed hard. On Tuesday morning Jupp and Cox, continuing a partnership begun overnight, carried it to 96 for the seventh wicket, and the innings realised as many as 28 1. Jupp made his 70 in 80 minutes by really fine forcing cricket. Cox batted 14 5 minutes for his capital 63. None of the Warwickshire bowlers seemed very deadly, though the sun after rain ought to have meant a queerish wicket. The wicket wa 3 much more difficult when Warwickshire batted, and suited George Cox to perfection. He may have lost—as he says —the ball that went with his arm ; but he can still make use of a caked pitch. Charlesworth, Baker and Langley hit out, but the other batsmen were almost helpless. The catch on the leg side by which Vincett dismissed Quaife was a very fine one; it came low, and he rolled over in grabbing it, but held on. Following on in a minority of 156, the Champions lost 2 for 41 before close of play. On Wednesday the remaining eight wickets went down on a tricky pitch for an addition of 44. Quaife carried his bat for 22 , the result