Cricket 1912

S ept . 21, 1912. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. 519 District League’s first division, which Burslem leads, with Porthill Park close runners-up. Plyd. Won. Lost. Tied. Drwn. Pts. B u rslem .......................... 22 .... 11 ,. 2 .,.. 0 9 ..,. 42 Porthill Park .. 22 .... 10 ..,. 2 ., . 0 .., 10 , 40 Fenton ............................ 22 .. . 10 .... 3 ... 0 ..,. 9 , 39 Stoke ................ 22 .... 6 .. . 3 . .. 0 .... 13 , 31 Stone .......................... 22 .,.. 6 .,.. 7 .... 0 ., 9 .... 27 T unstall........................... 22 .,.. 7 .. 10 ... 0 .... 5 .... 25 Pilverdale ............... 22 .. 4 .. 5 .. 0 .... 13 .... 25 K nypersley .............. 22 .... 4 ..,. 6 ... 0 .. 12 .... 24 Crewe Alexandra 22 .. 4 .,.. 7 ... 0 .,.. 11 .... 23 L ongton.......................... 22 .. 3 ... 6 ... 0 .,.. 13 .... 22 N o r t o n ........................... 22 .,.. 3 ... 9 ... 0 .. 10 .. . 19 Leek ........................... 22 ., 4 .,.. 12 .. 0 . 6 ... . 18 A Sm ith (Longton) heads the batting averages, with an aggre­ gate of 529 and 48 09 per innings. N ichols (Stoke) averages 42-33. Percy Briggs (Stoke) has the highest aggregate (645), and is third with 37’94. Then follows Barnes (Porthill) with 33-57, and (all between 30 and 25) J. Ankers, H. F. W ood, Brown (W .), W ilson, A. G. Jones, and W . D. Kirby. Between 25 and 20 tom e Deyes, H. E. Brown, L . Evans, Sedgwick, A . H ollowood, J. C. Cooper, W . H . W ood, F. Ellam s, H . Dearing, C. E . Gresty, and B. C. Montagnon. All of these played in 10 or more innings, as did 15 others who average between 15 and 20. Morgan, the ex-Somerset man, took most wickets (104 at 7-97 each), and comes second to the m ighty Barnes (66 at 5-98) in the table. W ilson (84 at 8 47), Sedgwick (71 at 10-94), E . Groom (63 at 10-96), Deyes (71 at 11-35), Nichols (60 at 12-18), Robinson (Dan) 55 at 12-69), Smith (T.) (69 at 13 20), and A. Cook (51 at 13-92) were the others who took 50 wickets or more. The Cricket Tournament at Victoria, British Columbia. (A u g u s t 19 t o 2 6 ) In Canada people do not believe in wasting time. This spirit is carried into games, as well as into the sterner affairs of life; and a good instance in point is the Tournament recently held in British Columbia. Eleven teams were com peting : Victoria, the Garrison, Burrard, Saanich, Oak Bay, Cowichan, Esquimalt, Vancouver, University Masters, Albion, and Portland (Oregon). The last-named was the only one from outside British Columbia. Six grounds in all were utilised, five matohes being played each day. D . M. Grant, the big hitter of the Albion (Victoria) club took the honours of the first day, although his side was beaten. They could only make 72 in the first innings v. Viotoria, the brothers J. W. D. and L . S. V . York taking 5 wickets each. Victoria replied with 152— J. H. Gillespie 35, L . H . Major 28, L . S. V. York 21. Then the Albion went in again. Their only chance was to make runs fast. Grant hit m agnificently, and ran up 109* (two 6’s, fifteen 4’s). The innings was declared at 191 for 5 ; but Victoria could not be got out again, though 4 wickets fell for only 42. L. S. V. York had his hand split— a heavy m isfortune for him and his team. H e is probably the best all-ounder in the province. Burrard beat Esquim alt in an innings, W . Ivam y (9 for 34 in the tw o innings) and R. S. Beatson (6 for 20 in the second) bowling with great effect. Vancouver defeated Cowichan by 29 runs, C. A. L . Payne, the old Oxonian, being missed four times while making 59 for the winners. And all the time Cowichan’s ground fielding was excellen t! Gilbert Curgenven, the ex-Derbyshire player, bowled capitally for Cowichan, taking 6 for 35 in Vancouver’s first, and 5 m ore in their second, when F. J. Peers made 43 and Payne 33. T he closest game of the day was that between Oak Bay and Portland (the team for the States having the help of V. A. McKillop, the Seattle crack), which the form er won by only 6 runs. C. P. W . Schwengers and H . A. Yeoman batted well for them, and W . Speak bowled splendidly. H e took 9 wickets, and the tenth man was run out. M cKillop (48) and L . G . Patterllo (41) made a capital stand for Portland’s second w icket; but the rest did very little. The University Masters, F . A. Sparks (94) slamming ferociously, ran up 206 after Saanich had been dism issed for 60. H. J. H orton played right through the losers’ first innings for 2 8 ; in their second, when they did m uch better, H. T. Coton and E . J. M cGuire made good scores. McGuire hit two 6’s. A . G. Tracey, who took 6 for 25 in Saanich’s first was the most effective bowler for t h e ’Varsity Masters, who were captained by F. H . B . Champain, of Gloucestershire fame, and also included R . H . H incks, who T believe has played for Leicestershire. On the second day Cowichan had a bye, and the Garrison played and won their first match. Their opponents were Oak Bay, who bad on M onday beaten Portland so narrowly. C. Illingworth’s 45 for the winners was the highest score of the game, and this player and Q.-M .-S. Askey bowled well for their side, as did W . Speak (6 for 44) for Oak Bay. Esquimalt went down heavily before the strong Victoria team, for whom J. H . Gillespie hit up 146* and T . R. Leonard 54. Burrard defeated Saanich easily. They had.7 down for 73; but L . T. Dwelley played up gallantly for his 57*, and the innings realised 171. No one did m uch in the batting line for Saanich. Albion and University Masters put in a very full day. Forty wickets fell ; 560 runs were scored ; and Albion won by 38. H . A. Ismay (51 and 26), Barrington Foote (46 and 19), G. W ilson (10 and 38), and E. W . Ism ay (7 for 28, 1st innings) were their outstanding performers. At the finish the Masters wanted 168 to win in an hour, and went for the runs, and actually made 129 of them— Lt. A . Moore 44, Champain 43. Portland and Vancouver played a great game. Portland went out for 108, F . J. Peers taking 6 for 36. Vancouver, expected to top this with ease, lost 6 for 37, aud were all out 67, C. W . Lawrence and E . Fenwick each taking 5 for 33. They were not yet beaten, how ever; and ultimately C. A. L. Payne, the old Carthusian, pulled them through to victory. H e took 5 for 27 with his lobs, and when his side went in to get runs against the clock slashed up 69. Other batsmen hit at everything, and Vancouver won by 4 wickets just on time. On the W ednesday Vancouver stood out. V ictoria, badly missing L . S. V. York’s full aid (he played, but under difficulties, going in last), suffered another stroke of ill-luck their wicket­ keeper, H . Aiken, having his cheek cut open by a ball which struck him just under the eve. R . J. Beecham (6 for 33) was tbe main factor in the crack club’s dism issal by Burrard for the small score of 103. Burrard had 7 down for 60, J. W . D. York having taken .6 of them (5 clean bowled). But again L . T. Dwelley came to the rescue. He mastered the bowling, and scored a splendid century. So Burrard won a great victory by 114 runs. Grant hit up 59 in very short time in Victoria’s uncom pleted second innings. Cowichan owed it m ainly to Gilbert Curgenven and Brooke- Smith that they beat Oak Bay. The latter bad scored 131. Five Cowichan wickets went very cheaply, all to W . Speak (who has played for Notts), but the two batsmen nam ed made a determined stand, and hit off the runs needed before they were parted. Speak had 8 for 88. The Garrison supporters were highly elated by their side’s capital win over Portland. T he Am erican team declared their second innings in a vain attempt to snatch a victory, after being 52 behind on the first; but the garrison hit off the runs required for the loss of only 3 wiokets. Fenwiok (7 for 52,1st innings) again bowled well for Portland; and Thom as played a good innings of 56. Capt. Foulkes was the Garrison's chief scorer. Saanich went under to Albion by 109 runs. H . Jepson hit well fo r 66, aud took 7 for 20 in the losers’ second, when Carew Martin and R . J. H orton made a fine first-wicket stand. E. W . Ism ay’s 6 for 20 in Saanich’s first was a big factor in his side’s success. For Saanich W . D. Coton had 6 for 52. University Masters only led Esquimalt by 3 runs on the first innings, W elch taking 8 for 21 for the latter ; but in the end, thanks to F , A. Spark’s well-hit 40, the Masters won by 9 wickets. W ith three days’ play over, Burrard led the first division, having won all 3 m atches, and Vancouver and the Garrison each had two wins, no loss in the second division. T he other clubs in the first were V ictoria, Albion, University Masters, Esquim alt, and S aaw ich; in the second, Cowichan, Oak Bay, and Portland. But the divisions were only due to the impossibility of eleven sides all playing each other within a week— that is to say, there was no notion of grading the teams. Wednesday had been largely a bowlers’ day, wickets averaging under 14 each. Thursday— except for one m atch— saw the batsmen in the ascendant. In four of the games the average per wicket worked out at over 22 each. In the fifth it was only 10. This small scoring match was a ding-dong struggle between Portland and Cowicban. Victor M cKillop (38 and 20), and E . Fenwick and C. W . Lawrence in the bowling line did well for the Oregon team ; but Cowichan pulled through by 2 wickets after being headed by 61 runs on the first innings, tbauks to a wonderful piece of bowling by Curgenven (7 ror 8 !) and good batting by D . W . Taylor and Brooke- Smith. For Vancouver F. J. Peers hit up 200* (a British Columbian record, I believe ; certainly a tournament record in B. C.). H is side’s innings was declared at 352 for 6 directly he had reached the second century, and then N. H. Peters (5 for 26) bowled so well that the Garrison were all out for 65. Saanich did very well to make 188 v. V ictoria; but the crack team of the province bit up 393 for 9 in return. S. Gillespie made all haste for his hundred; sixes were frequent in his innings, and m ost of the other runs were made by