Cricket 1912

80 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF TIIE GAME. A p r i l 27, 1912. again. Of course,, he may do well, but past records are not encouraging. “ Ip there had been no dispute and all the players were available one would like to see the following side representing Australia in the first of the triangular tests— Messrs. C. Hill, V. Trumper, W . W. Armstrong, W. Bardsley, H. Carter, A. Cotter, H . V. Hordern. V. S. Bansford, C. tt. Macartney, R. B. Minnett and F. Laver. (12th) E. P. ] {arbour. ’ ’ I c a n n o t agree wilh Mr. Fitzpatrick about Syd Gregory. We in England don’t think him a failure, by long chalks. In 1893 he averaged 23’71 per innings, 31 "82 in 1896, and 27'Ki in 1899, his aggregates being 1,102, 1,464, and 1,181. On his last three visits, it is true, he has been less prominent, his combined total for 1902, 1905, and 1909 being 2,400 runs, with average 22"00. (These figures refer to eleven a side matches only). B u t he has never lost his faculty for rising to the occasion—witness the Nottingham test match of 1905, when he nearly saved the game for Australia, the Leeds test of the same year, when he helped to save it, his •43 at Edgbaston, his 46 at Leeds on none too clever a wicket, and his fine 74 (Bardsley and he putting up 180 together for the first wicket) at the Oval, in 1909. No, our belief in S. E. G. is not easily to be shaken. E r ic B ar bo ttr , Charles Dolling, Colin McKenzie, and S. ,T. Fennelly are, beyond doubt, all worth places ; but so are the men who have been chosen. It is difficult to understand the outcry made by some against Mayne’s inclusion. On the form of the last three or four seasons he might well have been among the original selection. A n o t h e r man whose claims to a place were strongly urged in some quarters was that excellent all-rounder, Arthur Christian of Westralia, who played for Victoria before migrating to the west. A forcing bat and a most capable left-hand bowler, Christian has done fine work in both state and club cricket. But he is no longer quite a young man, and youth will be served. One would have liked, however, to see Western Australia represented in the team. Ernest Parker, the State’s best bat, and a rare good one too, does not appear to have received con­ sideration. A m o n g those who came alive out of the terrible Atlantic disaster was Mr. J. B. Thayer, junr., in former days one of the most prominent cricketers in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Philadelphian team which toured England in 1884. One feels that this is no time for con­ gratulations ; to all the survivors the memory of that catastrophe must be to their lives’ end a memory of enduring horror, yet one is glad to note Mr. Thayer’s escape. It was a narrow one ; he did not get off in a lifeboat, but had to swim for it, and was picked up by a raft. A n d among those who went down with the ship was Mr. William Thomas Stead, one of the greatest journal­ ists of any day. There was much in Mr. Stead’s manifold activities with which some of us had little sympathy ; yet I think that every brother of the pen will pay his memory the tribute due to a man utterly honest, utterly fearless, and a genius in his own line. In his younger days Mr. Stead was very keen indeed on cricket, and though his interest diminished with the passage of the years it did not wholly die. Before me as I write lies a bound volume of the Review of Reviews , open at a page which bears portraits of eleven Australian cricketers, and on the opposite page are these words : “ People are inter­ ested in what they can understand, and while the colonial politics are unintelligible to the public at home, every man and boy, and a considerable number of women, know all about cricket. Sport is one of those things before which frontiers disappear, and the many leagues of rolling ocean are as if they were n ot.” The rolling ocean b n claimed as prey him who wrote those lines ; but tlier truth is still manifest. C r ic k e t e r s are bound in a goodly fellowship which makes common action possible. Some clubs begin their season this Saturday, nearly all the rest next week-end. Would it not be possible for every secretary to organise a subscription on his club’s ground, during the first home match, in aid of the Mansion House Fund for the widows and orphans ? Players and spectators alike would give gladly, I feel sure. Anyway, for what it is worth, here is the suggestion. I don’t ask or want any subscriptions sent here ; they can be forwarded direct to the Lord Mayor, of course. The suggestion is not an advertising one, but is the outcome of a sincere wish to help, if by ever so little, the cause of those left behind by the men who went down to a glorious death with the “ Titanic.” I wish I could write as Mr. Stead could and would have written had he been spared ! PLAY ING THE GAME. Journalist, novelist, millionaire, Astor and Futrelle and Stead, Playing the game with the noblest there, Calm in that hour of dread ! Butt and Case— on their deeds we dwell— Smith, who went down with his ship— Phillips, who stuck to his post right well—■' Their names are on every lip ! They played the game on that wave-washed deck. We, who play it on fair green meads, Were smitten hard when we read of the wreck, Were thrilled when we read of their deeds ! For the sake of the heroes whose names all know— For the sake of the brave few can name— For the widows and orphans whose tears fast flow— Pass the hat, men, and, play the game ! T h o s e who remember the late Major F. 1*'. Crawford will be interested in the announcement which follows : OALLINGHAM— CRAWFORD .— On the 10th inst., at St. Peter’s, Belsize Park, N .W ., by the Rev. F. Hugh Lacey, Roland Robert Callingham, eldest son of the late Robert Callingham, 22, Sussex Place, Regent’s Park, and of Mrs. Callingham, 132, Fellows Road, N.W., to Loris, only daughter of the late Major F. F. Crawford, A.Y.C. T h e exigencies of his profession kept Major Crawford from playing much first-class cricket, though he appeared a few times for Kent in the seventies. He was a man who might have done big things, for if he had not a great variety of strokes he possessed a very strong defence, and was the master of a flashing cut. H e made a good many long scores while on foreign service and in Ireland ; but perhaps his biggest run- getting was done during three years of the live lie spent in garrison at Pietermaritzburg. Then, in all matches, his figures were: 1885-6,25 innings— 7 n otou ts— 715 runs— average 39’72 ; 1886-7, 36-11-1346-53\H4 ; 1887-8, 21-8- 683-52’53. In 1885-6 he and Major Booth put on 183 runs for the ninth wicket of the Garrison v. 82nd Regiment ; in 1886-7 he and R. MeComb set up a record for a partner­ ship in Natal, making 198 together for the first wicket for Maritzburg v. Volunteers ; in 1887-8 he and S. Robinson, for Home-Born v. Colonial, made 10 runs in the first hour— F.F.C.’s share being two ! Major Crawford took part in the Kimberley Tournament of 1886-7, and he and Don Davey, who died only a few months ago, made a long stand v. Bechuanaland, their respective scores being 90 and 82. W h e n the Major left Maritzburg the South African Cricketers’ Annual said of him : “ No one has done more than he to foster and further the interests of cricket in Natal, and it will be difficult to fill the unique position which he holds in the cricket world here.” A n d it was to Maritzburg that Major Crawford came back to die, of dysentery, during the war ! A t least he died among friends, and in a place where his name had been a household word. He was—as most readers will