Cricket 1912

528 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t . 28, 1912. Blake thought that “ if he could only get a few off like that . . . ” “ W h e n play was resumed, Fry seemed to have been carefully coaching his men, for they hung about the wicket like flies.” (They must have been carefully coached !) “ The tail came on.” (Like “ and get a few off into boun­ dary,” this scarcely sounds cricketwise.) Darvell “ played because he loved the feel of the tense, stout blade in his hands.” (Marginal note—“ evidently played with his bat upside down.” ) B u t the most amazing thing is still to come. “ The South African innings came to an end for a total of 236, of which the young nobleman (Darvell), carrjing his bat, had contributed 169.” Now, according to the text, Tancred made 56, Faulkner 39. Snooke, with his two innings, ought to have mado a few ; but we will put him, and the other batsmen, and extras, all down blank. Deduct 95 from 236 and you have 141—of which Darvell made 169. But it is distinctly stated that he came in at 103. Therefore he made 169 out of 133 while in. Either way, I give it up ! T h e case against Edward Mignon, of Middlesex and the M.C.O. staff, who was brought up on a warrant before the Aldershot Bench on Monday, charged with embezzle­ ment, was dismissed after a hearing extending over four hours. Mignon goes to India with Tarrant on Friday, under engagement to the Maharajah of Patiala. On Saturday the lirst detachment, of the South African Team left England by the Kildonan Castle. They num­ bered seven—Louis Tancred, Dave Nourse, Gordon White, Herbert Taylor, Joe Cox, S. J. Pegler, and T. A. Ward. On the same ship travelled George Cox, the Sussex cricketer, bound for Durban, M. J. Susskind, the Cantab, returning to Johannesburg, where he was bom, and Mrs. Frank Mitchell. The S. A. skipper is not going back just y e t ; but next week those left behind, except Mitchell and R. Beaumont, will be off. The loss on the tour is said to be about £2,000. T h e four members of the Australian Team who accepted the Board of Control’s offer of a lump sum of £400 each may be congratulated on their luck. The rest will get nothing like that amount, one fears. T h e nine matches of the Triangular Tournament and the two Test Trials realised £12,463 4s. 2d.—gate money £9,004 8s., stands and enclosures £3,458 16s. 2d. (That odd twopence puzzles one—was there a twopenny stand anywhere, or perchanct an eightpenny one ? By the way, Mr. E. W. Ballantine, in The Latest (Durban), says that if the man selling the 5s. stand tickets at the Trent Bridge had sold another ticket he would have sold one !) T h e ninth match produced the best results— £2,236 12s. in gate money, £1,192 6s. 8d. from stands and enclosures. (The lurking twopence seems to be accounted for here.) The England v. Australia match at Lord’s in June was good for a total of £2,713 15s. 6d. ; England v. South Africa at Lord’s worked out at £1,696 13s. Tho Trent Bridge game yielded only £253 13s. 6d. T h e fu ll s u m is th u s a c c o u n t e d fo r :— Expenses swallowed Australian Team t a k e s ........................................................... South African Team takes ............................................. M .C.C. take four-elevenths of 30 per cent, of re­ mainder, shared among clubs on whose grounds the m atches were played ............................................. Surrey C.C.C. takes three-elevenths ............................... Lancashire C.C. takes two-elevenths ... Yorkshire C.C. takes one-eleventh N otts C.C. takes o n e -e le v e n th ............................................. The M.C C. and each first-class county (16) takes £157 12s. 4d............................................................................ The m inor counties (18) each takes £24 16s. 2d. £ s. d. 2,890 1 4 2,986 0 0 1,878 10 0 487 3 7 365 7 8 243 11 9 121 15 11 121 15 11 2,521 17 4 446 11 0 O w in g to the fact that I have as yet been unable to procure the full bowling averages of two or three sides, the Minor Counties averages, with an article on the soason, is held over till the next issue. W h ic h issue, by the way, will be out in a fortnight. I have decided to bring out the monthly issues earlier than has been the case in past winters. See notice at the head of “ Pavilion Gossip.” And please pay good heed to it, if you wish C r ic k e t well. The Failure of the South African Team. By A. E . E . V ogler . Now that the Triangular Tournament is over, it seems worth while to consider the failure of the South Africans in the Test matches— a failure the more marked as in general they did well in their other games. Everyone knows that Sir Abe Bailey was the originator of the Triangular Tournament. In Australia the idea was never received with any general enthusiasm. Now it is admitted on all hands that the tournament was, taken altogether, a failure. Perhaps the biggest factor in this was the weather. Another cause was the split in Australia, which deprived the Australian side of the services of such great players as Hill, Trumper, Armstrong, and Ransford. Tbe young players substituted for these were good men, but they could not fill the shoes of such giants of the game. But perhaps the chief cause of all was the poor form shown by the South African side in most of the matches. T his made people feel that the tournament was in no way better than a series of matches such as England and Australia have played in other years ; that, in fact, South Africa was not in the running at all, and would have been better away. I put the South African failure down as largely due to the absence of Percy Sherwell. One man cannot make a side, it is true; but the material was there, and it is astonishing what an influence a captain of the real “ lifting ” type can exert. Only one captain here and there is of this type. Sherwell was. But Sherwell’s capacity did not stop short with his leadership. H e was a good batsman, at his best when runs were wanted, and a splendid wicket­ keeper— the Australians said the best in the world. T o replace such a man is impossible. Tom Campbell is a really good stum per; but injuries and illness limited his usefulness during the tour. Ward, the second wicket-keeper, is quite a young player, capable, but with much to learn at the outset of the tour, as he had had no previous experience of turf wickets. Frank M itchell was appointed captain when Sherwell refused. The appointment was not generally popular in South Africa, owing to the fact that the Yorkshireman had been out of big cricket so long. I think that most will now agree that he did not justify his selection. It was very disappointing that no efficient fast bowler could be found. As tbe season turned out so wet, however, this mattered less. Cox is fairly fa s t; but he got few chances. I am sure that if he had been played oftener he could have relieved Pegler of some of the extra work thrust upon him through Faulkner being below par during the earlier part of the tour ; and that would have t»iven Cox the chance he wanted of proving him self. Faulkner got back his bowling form , and if he had only batted as he did in Australia the side would have been much more like a real test match one. Except for Dave Nourse, the older and more experienced members of the team seldom gave it a good start, and the younger men were overweighted by a sense of responsibility. Gordon W hite, recognised as the m ost stylish bat of the last two teams, did not do himself anything like justice, and Sibley Snooke was also a partial failure. Pegler trained on into a very fine bowler indeed ; but I believe he will be better yet. Nourse was very solid and usually dependable. Herbert Taylor came on wonderfully. Apart from the absence of Sherwell, I consider that the chief cause of failure was the presence in the team of too many young and inexperienced players. Of course they have learned many lessons; but it was disastrous that they should have them to learn at such a time. If the advice of a good judge had been taken by the S. A. Cricket Association in 1910, before the South African team’s tour in Australia, more players of the younger brigade would have been included in that team, and these would have gained valuable experience for the great tournament of 191*2. W eather conditions were all against these younger men. Yet, on the whole, the team did so well in matches outside the tests that weather cannot be held wholly accountable. The fact of the matter