Cricket 1912

D ec . 14, 1912. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 599 Still another sensational success remains to be recorded, but the circum stances were somewhat different. A single player will sometimes carry a team on his shoulders ; and no better exemplifica­ tion o f this could be shown than in the case of R . A. Thom pson and the E ast R and Union eleven. It has been said that South Africa does n ot possess a first-class fast bowler. This is not quite true, for in R . A . Thom pson we have such a man ; but, unfortunately both for him self and South African cricket in general, he is afflicted with a groggy knee, which cannot be relied on to stand continual strain. The E ast R and Union, like the V .M .R ., are a newly-elected side, and at the comm encem ent o f their match against the E .R .P.M . (league cham pions) were actually leading all the other clubs by a point. F or this honourable position they were solely indebted to Thom p­ son, who had taken 15 wickets for 130, besides displaying a previously unsuspected ability with the bat, having scored 100 runs in two com pleted innings. Against the E .R .P.M . the U nion totalled 104, and at the close o f the first afternoon had dismissed eight opponents for 95. Of these eight, six were victim s to Thom pson’s expresses. N ot a man in Johannesburg gave the batting side a chance of scoring the additional 70 necessary to win the first innings, though it was admitted that they m ight possibly dismiss the Union cheaply in their second innings, and so win on the final result. As events turned out, the E .R .P .M . found Thom pson a cripple on the second afternoon, and though they had to rely on tw o untried youngsters, these two— J. H. Laurence (42*) and C. Saunders (49)— behaved so well that they carried the score to 100, whilst the last man in— R . O. Saunders (10)— helped Laurence to such an extent that 200 was reached. The two last wickets thus more than doubled the total. In the second innings the Union failed badly against Sibley Snooke, who performed the hat trick, only totalling 97, and in the end they were com fortably beaten by five wickets. So far in Johannesburg we have seen very little of the Rand members of the South African team. S. J. Snooke has been the most regular p erform er; but his batting has been far from convincing. For the E .R.P.M . he opened with 25 against Germiston Callies, follow ed by 58 against the Pirates, and 20 (run out) and 29 not out against the E .R .U . Bowling, he has taken 12 wickets for 127. Louis Tancred has had three knocks : 35 against the Pirates and 4 and 2 against the E.R.LT. Sid Pegler has made but a single appearance ; the Pirates dismissed him for a duck and only allowed him one of their wickets for 66 runs. M. J. Susskind has reached the twenties in each of his two innings for the Wanderers A : 22 v. the V .M .R. and 29 v. Germiston Callies. For the other W anderers’ eleven E. C. Moses has been singularly unfortunate in batting, as 0 v. S.A .R . and 0 and 2 v. Randfontein will show ; but he has bowled well. Against the S.A .R . his two wickets for 91 in no way represents his merit, for m any catches were dropped off him. A t Randfontein he took six wickets for 58 in an innings in which only eight wickets fell for 187. Cricket in Cape Tow n promises to be very interesting this season. Six teams arc com peting in the league— Cape Town, W est­ ern Province C.C., Alm a, South African College, Claremont and Green Point. Fred Bowley, the Worcestershire professional, is assisting the Alm a, and has opened strongly with 34 against the Sacs and 155 at the expense of Claremont. So delighted were the spectators at this latter exhibition that a collection, amounting to £3 odd, was made for him. The am ount m ay not seem large, but in no part of South Africa do dense crowds gather to watch club matches. The W estern Province authorities have adopted the English County Championship m ethod of reckoning points. There they are fortunate in enjoying longer hours of play than in any other centre. W e have a standard time in South A frica based on longitude 30° E., which practically passes through Durban, and the sun sets some twenty-seven minutes later at Cape Town than it does here and in N atal, whilst they also enjoy a longer twilight. The result is that in the tw o Saturday afternoons devoted to each match they are able in the m ajority of cases to com plete the two innings. The Clarem ont-Alma match was a big scoring affair. Clare­ m ont, batting first, rattled up 278, J. Carstens contributing 152 to this total. A lm a easily capped it, however, for when they declared with tw o wickets in hand they had aggregated 408. An effort was made to win the m ajor p oin ts; but in this they failed, Claremont scoring 75 for 5. Cape Town, thanks to M. Commaille (128 and 42*), beat Green Point by 9 wickets. Y oung George Hearne, son o f Frank o f that illustrious fam ily, waded in with 13 and 40 for the winners. H e was unfortunate in being run out in the second innings, when his side was within an ace of victory. Centuries were the fashion in the games finished last Saturday, for P. Hands helped himself to 103 ou t of a total of 276 for the Western Province Club against the Sacs, who, like Green Point, suffered defeat by 9 wickets. The W estern Province have lost three representative cricketers by reason of the R ugby tour in England : R . R . L uyt, F. Luyt, G. M. W rentm ore ; whilst Basil Melle’s absence will also be felt. Melle has gone to O xford, where his friends are confident a blue awaits him. The only other m ember of the R u gb y team who has played in first-class cricket in this country is A. S. Knight, who, as was men­ tioned in a recent issue of C r ic k e t , played for the Rest of South Africa v. The Wanderers, but the E ditor was n ot quite correct when he stated K night had had little opportunity of advancem ent; for he has assisted the Pirates here since 1909-10, and last year captained the club both in the cricket and the Rugger field. Keen disappointment has been felt in Bloem fontein ow ing to the failure to secure a professional coach from England. The O. F.S. authorities deputed Messrs. Mitchell and A llsop to make the neces­ sary arrangements ; but a hitch arose somewhere ; evidently the gentlemen named did not understand exactly what was expected of them, for nothing was done. This is not the only set-back Bloem ­ fontein has received. The m ilitary are under orders to leave, so in a few weeks’ time Bloem fontein will be a soldierless town, and the cricket will suffer accordingly. Captain H. S. Poyntz, the old Somer­ set player, has been indulging in heavy run-getting. It is the exam ­ ple which players such as he have set which has spurred the civilians to im prove their play. W ithout the soldier element, the Free State outlook is scarcely auspicious. “ C y p h e r .” - ........- ■ ■— ------------------------------- Cricket in Natal. Durban , Sunday , October 20, 1912. Rain interfered with Senior League matches here yesterday. There was only play for about two and a half hours ; but in that brief time some really good cricket was seen. H erbert Taylor, newly home from great deeds in England, made a fine start. Captaining Queen’s Park v. Casuals he went in first with H . W . Chapman, and the pair put on 141 before they were separated. Runs cam e fast— at least tw o a minute on the average— and boundaries were frequent. Taylor was great, with a trem endously hard square-leg stroke and excellent driving both to on and off. The batsmen ran nearly neck and neck, and when the century went up T aylor was 52 to Chapman’s 48. Just before this the latter had given a hard chance to L. V. Collins, the Casuals’ skipper, in the country. Chapman was first to go, playing on to Lum sden, a slow bowler. H e had then got ahead of Taylor— 7 1 to 62. The international took his score to 74 and then ran nearly halfway down the pitch to Lum sden, missed the ball, and was bowled. Each player hit a six and they were very smart between wickets. H erbert Taylor told me that he had lost his wicket several times in England in very similar fashion when well set, getting a mad idea into his head, as he put it, and realising its madness too late. When rain stopped play Q.P. had made 247 for 6 (J. P. Howden 37). The Casuals tried eight bowlers, and Lum sden had 4 for 30. Taylor said he thought this player bowled very well indeed, and much after the style of some of the English slow bowlers. Both Nourse and Cox turned out for Greyville v. W anderers ; and the latter also had full strength, except for Cooley, kept out by an abscess in the jaw. Greyville scored 154 for 9. D ave Nourse made only 10, and a besetting weakness of his got him out, as it so often does. H e tried to pull a straight one from Easterbrook, missed it, and was lbw. L. Field saved his side from disaster. H e was very slow, batting 2 hours 25 minutes for his 64 ; but he deserved heaps of credit for his patience while others were failing. H. Morley (21) and E. Field (19) were the only others to make double figures. Easterbrook bowled capitally. Wanderers II. made 137 for 9 v. Escombes— quite a respectable total, for the fielding side were at full strength, including George Cox, who bowled very well and took 4 wickets. H. S. W ood (32), H arry W ood (24), and M. Faux (21) were chief scorers. Claude Carter should arrive to-day on the Walmer Castle with Tom Campbell. Gerald Hartigan left the boat at East London. He told an interviewer that the accident to his arm would certainly keep him out of the field this season.