Cricket 1912

S e p t . 7, 1912. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 479 Cricket: A W EEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 33 and 35, MOOR LANE, LONDON, E.C. S A T U R D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 7, 1912. Communications to the Editor should be addressed to him at 33 & 35 Moor Lane, E .C . Advertisements, Subscriptions, & c., should be sent to the Manager, at the same address. The following are the rates of subscription to C ricket :— Great Britain. Abroad. One Year ............................... 6 s. 3d. ... 7s. 6 d. The 24 Summer Numbers ... 5s. Od. ... 6 s. Od. The 6 W inter Numbers ... Is. 3d. ... Is. 6 d. N O T IC E . Messrs. WRIGHT & CO., of 7, Temple Lane, Tudor Street, E.C ., are Advertisement Contractors for C R ICKET , and will be glad to give their best attention to any Firms desiring to advertise in the paper. 5 cale of Charges will be sent on application. pavilion (Sossip. The abstract and brief chronicle of the time. —Hamlet. A w f u l August! Never in the whole history of the game has cricket been so much interfered with by the weather as during August, 1912. Leaving out of account any day on which play took place at all, there have been blank days in first class matches at Hull on the 1st; at Hull again on the 2nd ; at Bristol, Canterbury, and Leicester on the 6th ; at Birmingham, Bristol, Canterbury, Derby, and Nottingham on the 7 th ; at Taunton on the 8 th ; at Birmingham and Taunton on the 10th ; at Eastbourne on the 12th ; at Worcester on the 14th ; at Liverpool on the 15th; at Birmingham, Liverpool, and Southampton on the 17th ; at Cheltenham and Liverpool on the 19th ; at Cheltenham, Liverpool, and Sheffield on the 20th ; at Cheltenham and Liverpool on the 21st; at Dover, Hastings, Hinckley, Leyton, Lord’s, Manchester, Swansea, and Worcester on the 23rd ; at Dover, Hastings, Hinckley, Leyton, Lord’s, Manchester, Swansea, and Worcester again on the 24th ; at Blackwell, Bournemouth, Bristol, Leicester, Leyton, Lord’s, Norwich, and Taunton on the 26th; at Bournemouth, Bristol, Canterbury, and Lord’s on the 29th ; and at Canterbury and Hove on the 30th. Fifty-six days’ cricket spoiled completely! A n d this list does not include such days as that on which there was 20 minutes’/piay’ at Hove, that on which there was the same period at Derby, a 40 minutes’ spell at Bristol, an hour at the Oval, and the like. But scarcely a day without interruptions from rain was passed at any ground. T h e minor counties had four matches abandoned entirely, and there were also days wholly blank at Cardiff, Stoke, Dorchester, Stockport, Swansea, and Hitchin. B e sid e s the members of the two Colonial teams, there have been quite a number of cricketers who have earned fame overseas in England during 1912. Rupert Minnett came over with the Australians. He is Boy’s elder brother, and a really first-class bat. John Hutcheon, of Queensland, another excellent batsman, has been here for some considerable time, and will not return yet. By the way, I hear that Claude Jennings is not going back for six months or so after the rest of the team. Arthur Sims, the Canterbury (N.Z.) batsman, is making a long stay in England, and will in all probability be here during the next summer, if not in 1914 also. N. O. Norton, captain of the Border team, for which Gerald Hartigan plays, H. V. Baumgartner, the old Bedford boy, who has repre­ sented both the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, and H. A. Rayner, a prominent Durban player, are among the South African cricketers now or recently ip this country. Victor McKillop, of Seattle, probably the finest batsman in the Western States of the Union, was in Scotland on a brief visit to his home earlier on. Harold Doming and C. H. Whaley, Argentine Republic cracks, have been playing a lot of cricket around Liverpool ; and J. O. Anderson, who has also made many runs in the Argentine—though ho scarcely counts in this connection, as he has played for Herts so many seasons—has done well in tho minor county competition. S t a ff o r d s h ir e batting form has been wonderfully consistent this season. Not once has the team slumped. I t has made low scores, but only on bad wickets and when its opponents’ scores have been lower. The leading batsmen—Percy Briggs, L. F. Taylor, W. H. Twigg, Nichols, Hollowood, Barnes, and Wilson, with averages ranging from nearly 40 to 21—have only had two ducks recorded against them (leaving out of account a 0 not out by the old Worcestershire man) ir tho course of an aggregate of over 70 innings. Briggs (who tops the averages) and Barnes were responsible for these. Taylor made the only century for the side, and also played an innings of 80 ; the Stoke captain put up innings of '85, 71, and 60 ; Wilson hit 73 not, 56 and 50 ; the only other scores of 50 or over were made by W. H. Twigg, E. H. Bourne, and Nichols. The last-named has an average of over 26 with 52 as his highest and only one not out to help him ; Hollowood, with two not outs, averages 25, and his highest was only 48. B ar n e s only bowled in 8 matches for the county ; but in them he took as many as 70 wickets at a cost of 5.41 each ! He has now taken 740 wickets for his native county at an average cost of only a trifle over 8 runs each. I AM not very keen on argument ; but some remarks by my good friend “ Wanderer ” in last Thursday’s Sportsman appear to me to call for a reply. And first of all I should like to make it clear that I value highly “ Wanderer’s ” work, and have for a goodly number of years looked upon the Sportsman as coming nearer absolute exactitude in cricket matters than any other paper—a result largely due to tho guiding hand of H.V.L.S. I keep all statistics independently ; but I use the Sportsman as a check upon them, and towards the end of each season “ Wanderer ” is apt to get from me a few postcards pointing out what seem to me errors in the first class-averages as given therein. Seven times out of ten the Sportsman is right and I am wrong ; but I know that the Sportsman’s cricket Editor is glad to have the corrections in cases where his aides have slipped up. “ W anderer ” says : “ C ricket is somewhat satiri­ cal at the expense of the M.C.C., and scarcely with justice. The M.C.C. has always been ready promptly to give a decision on any point as to the status of matches which may bo submitted to them.” I did not mean to be satirical. My view is that, as the M.C.C. decides what matches are to be reckoned first- class, there is no necessity for their waiting to bo asked for decisions. In former years the matches between the Free Foresters and the two Universities and between the Army and Navy have not been reckoned first-class. This year they are so reckoned. Could not this have been made clear beforehand ? It does not seem worth while to wait until some time after the matches were over. “ Up to date the two-day contest above alluded to ” — (Durham v. Australians)—“ can alone be discarded, and it was surely not advisable to compile a further set of figures, ignoring that game,” says “ Wanderer.” But the Australian and South African averages (as far as the leading players are concerned) are already given twice in the Sportsman’s tables, and the Durham match figures were included in the column headed “ First-Class Averages ” as well as in the separate Australian tables. To me it does not seem worth while to have included them thus—if the match is not to rank as first-class, seeing'ithftt they were given with the rest below.