Cricket 1912

A p r i l 20, 1912. CRICKET : A WEEKLY Cricket: A WEEKLY KF.CORD OF THE GAME. 33 and 35, MOOR LANE, LONDON, E.C. SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1911. Communications to the Editor should be addressed to him at 33 &35, Moor Lane. E.C. Advertisements, Subscriptions, &c., should be Fent to the Manager, at the same address. The following are the rates of subscription to C r ic k e t :— Great Britain. Abroad. One Year ......................... Gs. 3d. ... 7s. 6d. The 24 Summer Numbers ... 5s. Od. ... 6s. Od. The fi Winter Numbers ... Is. 3d. ... Is. 6d. pavilion (Sossip. The abstract and brief chronicle of the" time. — Hamlet. T h e b e was no possible room for doubt as to the enthusiasm with which the M.C.C. Team was welcomed home. Their return was scarcely expected so early as the 7th inst. ; but they chose the overland route from Toulon. A t Dover they were met b y a little band of friends, including Mr. John Mason, who had motored over from Hythe, and “ Wanderer,” without whose lengthy figure parting or greeting groups under such conditions would scarcely seem complete. At Charing Cross there was quite a big crowd, which demonstrated freely. Mr. W a r n e r was looking thoroughly fit and well. That was the item of news that interested one most. I hope the popular Middlesex leader will not imagine for a moment that he was forgotten while John Douglas led the team to victory. I don’t think any of us forgot the man in the background, or doubted that his sage counsel helped the younger man so unexpectedly called upon to take the reins. We should all have felt that our rejoic­ ings were dimmed if it had turned out, as was feared as one time, that Warner would never play again. The loss to Middlesex and to cricket generally would have been as nearly irreparable as a loss ever is. M a y one reckon Pelham Warner a typical Rugbeian ? He lacks the roughness which one somehow associates with the Rugby of Tom Brown’s day. But it is not to be supposed that such roughness still obtains at Rugby, any more than at other public schools ; and in his keenness, his straightness, his chivalry, Warner might have stepped out of “ Tom Brown’s Schooldays.” May he lead Middlesex for years to come, wield the same straight bat as of old, and make many another century ! J o h n H o b b s and Ernest Smith were not in the pink of condition when they landed. But they are both going to be before the season begins, one hopes. T h e other M.C.C. team, that from the Argentine— or, to be precise, nine members of it, for Mr. Findlay had returned eaTlier, Mr. De Trafford has gone to the West Indies, and Lord Hawke has remained in South America for a month or so— reached home a day before the Aus­ tralian tourists, but naturally without the same flourish of trumpets. They had the best of good times, found the cricket around Buenos Aires much better in quality than they had expected, spoke a good word for the grounds and a bad one for the climate, and expressed admiration of the bowling of Foy, the old B.G.S. boy, who did great things against them. In future we shall all know that there is cricket—■ and good cricket too— in the Argentine. But I fancy few of us were aware that the game is played to any extent in Mexico. There has just reached me, via the States, a most interesting little volume dealing with the history of the Reforma Athletic Club ,of Mexico City. The com­ prehensiveness of the club’s activities may be gauged EECOED OF THE GAME. 59 from the fact that lawn tennis, golf, football, cricket, sports, croquet, quoits, polo, hockey, and lacrosse all figure on the index page. C r i c k e t put after lawn tennis and g o lf! This is scarcely the thing, surely. But the indignity of following croquet or quoits is spared it, and probably no slight upon the game of games was intended. T he Reforma Club was founded in 1894. It was a cricket match between the Puebla club and a scratch eleven from Mexico City which was chiefly responsible for its formation; but not until three years later was much done in the cricket line. Then in 1897, the Mexican National Athletic C.C. put up a challenge cup, and the Reforma Club figured in the first match for the trophy. In July, 1899, the club won it ; but in October of the same year, after defending it twice, they could not raise a team for a third match, and it passed from them by default. I n 1900 a league was formed, the members being the Reforma, Pachuca, Mexico, and Puebla clubs. With some changes in membership, including the accession of the Orizaba team in 1901, the league went on until 1909, though at times its vitality flickered low. In 1904, for instance, Mexico and Reforma were its only members. Now it has lapsed ; but the Reforma Club hopes to fan the smouldering embers of cricket enthusiasm into a fresh blaze before long. C e n t u r i e s have been recorded in Mexican cricket. For the Reforma C .C . in Championship matches five have been made by C . M. Butlin, and one each by H. E. Brooke, O. Kennedy, and E. Ingram Johnson. The club’s record total is 304 for 9 v. Puebla in 1903. T h e four centurions— hateful word, eh ?— are all bowlers of parts, it seems. Butlin has to his credit such achievements as 13 wickets for 20, 5 for 1, 6 -for 2, Johnson has twice done the hat trick. Kennedy has taken 6 for 5, Brooke 7 for 8. One hopes that before long they will be making centuries and skittling wickets again. Buck up, M exico! From Australia to the Argentine— from the Argentine to Mexico— from Mexico to Caledonia, stern and w ild ! It is good news that Perthshire and Forfarshire have now buried the hatchet, and will meet as of old in 1912. This should be what our friends across the big drink call “ a banner year ” for Scotland, with the Australians and South Africans each playing two matches there. Scottish cricket will have full attention in the pages of this paper during the coming season, be it noted. N o t very much was done at the meeting of the Advisory County Committee at Lord’s on the 1st instant. The Worcestershire motion, which was passed, is only a slight extension of the rule which gives perpetual qualification to a man who has played for a county for five seasons. In future a county player who happens to be abroad, even though he has only played one season, will retain his qualification, provided he does not play for a British Colony Dependency or State meanwhile. I shall return to this clause presently. T h e Lancashire motion was shelved. Yet that something must be done in the interests of county cricket before long becomes more certain each year. The question is—what ? B r i s t l i n g with difficulties, the subject is one that cannot be dealt with adequately in a paragraph or two. Pooling of gates ? The richer counties will never consent to that. Two divisions— a first and second ? But those counties placed in the second would lose nearly all their most attractive matches, and could hardly continue under such conditions. It is hard work for them to keep going now. Automatic promotion ? But that means automatic relegation, and automatic relegation spells ruin for the unfortunate county which has to submit to it.