Cricket 1912

478 CEICKET: A WEEKLY EECOED OF THE GAME. S e p t 7, 1912. during the Currie Cup Tournam ent on the Rand was his principal feat of the 1906-7 season in big cricket. In England in 1907 the wet wickets affected his batting, as they have done in 19 12 , and he was less consistently successful than in 1904. B u t he played several dashing innings, notably 74 v. M .C.C. (in 90 minutes), 68 v. M iddlesex, 76 v. E ssex, and, the best of all, 162* v. Gloucestershire. He gave no chance in this till 12 5, though he scored at a great pace throughout; and he and Schwarz added 2 2 1 for the eighth wicket in 10 5 m inutes. He was really more successful as bowler than as batsman during this tour. In the first few matches he had little bowling to do, and 4 for 12 v. Northants was his best performance up to the middle of Ju n e. From that time on, though never worked hard at the crease, he took a bigger hand in the attack ; and 6 for 33 v. Warwickshire, 4 for 36 in Kent’s second innings at Catford (the match which the Afrikanders won by two runs), 7 for 63 v. Yorkshire at Bradford, 4 for 47 v- England at Leeds, 6 for 67 v. E ssex, 10 for 52 v. South Wales, 5 for 19 in Somerset’s second innings, 6 for 9 1 v. M .C.C., and 1 1 for 69 v. Mr. Joh n Bam ford’s X I. at Uttoxeter were his best feats. He was one of the four great googly bowlers of the team , who among them secured 421 wickets during the tour. H is share was 72 (Faulkner took 73, Yogler 13 3 , Schwarz 143) at a cost of 13*45 each. He stood no higher than eighth in the batting table, with 939 runs (21*83, average). Since 1907 White has not played much important cricket, though of course he has taken part in good club matches on the Rand. Neither in 1907-8 nor in 1908-9 did he appear in a big m atch ; but in 1909-10 he turned out against Leveson-Gower’s M .C.C. Team . For the R eef at Vogelfontein he made 33 and took 3 for 48 in England ’3 first; for the T ransvaal he scored 23 and 25 ; in the first test he made 0 and 39. But the second test, at Durban, saw him in his best form . The sides tied on the first innings ; and again, as on several occasions four years earlier, it was a stand between White and Nourse (143 this time, after 3 wickets had fallen for 23) which pulled the game round for South Africa. The little man batted 4 hrs. for his 118 . It was not absolutely chanceless, but the faults were few. In the third match, at Johannesburg, he scored 72, he and Faulkner adding 1 14 for the fourth wicket. In the first of the two tests at Cape Town he did only moderately, and in the last game he was unable to play. He could not go to Australia in 19 10 -1, and he was not a member of the Transvaal team which ran second to N atal in the Currie Cup Tournament of that season at Durban. Between 1909-10 and 19 12 his only big match was T ransvaal v. Rest of South Africa, at Johannesburg last Christm as, one of the three trial matches played to help the selectors to choose the team for England. In this he scored 2 1 and 55. B ar Jam es Sinclair, a tremendous hitter, though in first-class cricket he never quite reached the heights expected of him, Gordon White is, I should say, the most distinctly spectacular of all the South African batsmen who have visited England. Short as he is, he has wonderful power to the off, and those flashing drives of his are just what the public loves. B ut a wet season considerably handi­ caps a batsman of the type to which White belongs; and we have only been favoured with glimpses of his old form this year. U p to date he has topped 50 once, in the last test with A ustralia, and has made 49 v. Yorkshire at Huddersfield, with four scores of 30 and under 40, and half-a-dozen of 20 and under 30 as the best of his remaining contributions. He has seldom bowled, and until the Yorkshire match at Sheffield had never taken more than one wioket in an innings. Then he had 3 for 3 1, and at Bristol last week-end he showed clearly that he had not lost all his bowling yet. At his best he is a very fine field indeed. J . N. P. F IN A L T E S T M ATCH .—Copies of the score, with full analysis, artistically printed on satin, m ay be had of M essrs. Merritt and H atcher, L td ., 2, Grocers’ H all Court, Poultry, E .C ., at one shilling ea,ch, or 1/1 by post. G E O R G E L E W I N & C O . , Club Colour Specialists and Athletic Clothing Manufacturers. OUTPITTBRS BY APPOINTMBNT TO The Royal Navy and Army, Cornwall, Kent, Middlesex, Somerset and Surrey Counties, and London Scottish, Irish and Welsh, Blackheath, Harlequins, Rich­ mond, Catford Rugby Football Clubs, and all the leading Clubs in the British Isles and abroad; M.C.C. S. African Tour, 1909, S. African Cricket Association 1910, and Queen’s Club, Kensington, the M.C.C. Australian Team 1911-12, and the South African Association Cricket Team 1912. Established 1869. W r it e f o r E s t im a te s . Telephone: P.O. 607 CITY Works at Camberwell. 8 , c r o o k e d l a n e , m o n u m e n t , e . c . Cricket in Scotland. B y H amish . In gaining a narrow victory, Scotland came out of her engage­ ment with Ireland rather better than was expected, a result no doubt due to the fact that Ireland fielded an eleven which was as non­ representative as our own. It is unlikely that the match will ever again be played so late in the season. M. R . Dickson and R . W . Sievwright played up to their reputations, aud G. L . D. Hole, in all­ round work, was the most useful member of the side. Hole does not devote much time to the game nowadays, which is a pity, as he would still be one of the first choices for any Scottish representative side, were he to put in some serious practice. Scotland has emerged from her intei'national matches with rath r a mixed record of good and bad. Our prim ary failing is the liability to collapse, and the reason for this is that few of our men are blessed with the big match temperam ent; and we cannot expect any marked improvement in this respect until such engagements are more frequent. I suppose that the matter of these engagements pretty much resolves itself into a question of money. B ut how is it that the M .C.C. can despatch teams to the four quarters of the globe on purely m issionary enterprise, and yet they cannot send eleven first- class cricketers for three or four days across the Borders into Scot­ land ? Would it be impossible to induce an Eleven of the Gentlemen of England to meet us in a friendly contest ? Such as C. B. Fry, R. H. Spooner, and F . R . Foster, to mention only a few, would be heartily welcomed. Let them be well-known county players. Is this an absurd proposal ? Turning now to Saturday’s games, we had the pleasure of carrying them through in fairly congenial conditions. Most of the clubs have finished their programmes, and next week will see the end, with the exception of an odd match or two among the most enthusiastic. In Glasgow and district the game was carried on as merrily as ever last week-end, and two or three interesting matches were down for decision. The most important was tho Western Union match between Kilm arnock ( 86 ) and Uddingston (111) . Through this win Uddingston have still a chance of dead-beating with Ayr for the Championship. For the winners D. C. McNab (57) and Nash (5 for 46) were most prominent, and D . C. Stevenson (36) and Nixon (27 and 5 for 39) for the losers. Clydesdale (109 for 6 ) were too good for East Stirlingshire (92). Their professional, Beardsworth, who has done exceedingly well the past few weeks, took 6 wickets for 36, followed by 34*. Another club to record a victory was Ferguslie (91) over West of Scotland ( 66 ), though for the latter Johns (8 for 38) put in a smart perform ­ ance. A yr (243 for 6 ) continued their triumphant career at the expense of the luckless Glasgow Academ icals (106), and incidentally Turner, the A yr Professional, had a day out. Not content with scoring a century ( 102 ), he proceeded to gather wickets and finished with 7 for 20—5 bowled and 2 lbw. Kelburne (128) beat Greenock (103 for 9), and a tame draw was the result of the m atch between Drumpellier (154 for 8 ) and Poloc (72 for 2). Stenhousemuir were fortunate to escape defeat in their first game with Perthshire, but at Larbert the Perth men made no m is­ take, though the scoring was low— 1 17 to 67. Benskin (9 for 30) was in great form with the ball. Eigh t of his victim s were clean bowled, and the other he caught him self. Another bowler to capture nine wickets on Saturday was J . Paton for Dunfermline (120) against Burntisland (131), and curiously enough he gave away exactly the same number of runs. Dunferm ­ line should not lack for bowling talent next season, as it is there that Morfee, of Kent, will take up his quarters. I am sorry to see highly paid professionals still being brought to Scotland to play the game. It is certainly not “ Cricket ” in the true sporting sense of the term. In the other Fife match Arbroath (57), without their cracks, managed to beat Cupar (54). For Arbroath G . C. McLeod had 8 wickets for 20, and for Cupar, A. F . W ilson, also of the Watsonians, had 6 for 16. In Edinburgh Leith Caledonian (102) were defeated in the last over by Selkirk (154 for 9), and for this victory the brothers Grieve, who added 12 3 in partnership, deserve nearly all the credit. W. Grieve scored 78, and W. G. Urieve 54, besides capturing 7 wickets for 40. On the Links at Leith the Franklin (70) finished their diamond jubilee season by suffering defeat from Kirkcaldy (102 for 6 ). At Hawick G ala (161) had all the best of a draw with the home team (61 for 7 ) and thus made certain of the championship of the Border League. West (38 and 6 for 18) was the outstanding figure on their side.