Cricket 1913

M ay 24 , 1913. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 219 Cricket Chirps. (B y E. H. D. S e w e l l . ) Some of the good people who enjoy themselves running down cricket and slating everything connected with it at any and every opportunity would be doing themselves no harm if they read A Few Overs, the latest add:tion to the cricket library. It is from the pen of Digby Jephson, the old Surrey captain, and a better sixpenn’orth on the game hasn’t seen the light since my Cricket Points was published a couple of seasons' ago. From cover to cover it breathes the spirit of true cricket in every line, as witness the opening words :— “ And so, my hibernating friend, you wake, Full fresh from out your winter hours of rest! And they that wept to lose one single day O f your brave company— now laugh.—now jest; As you return. Your call is heard throughout The land, and English hearts and English eyes Go out to you, and English hands stretch forth To show their love for you, that never dies.” That’s the sort of stuff your true cricketer thinks, if he cannot express it so well as my o’d friend “ the Lobster,” whose cartoon by “ Spy ” adorns the light-blue cover, has done. There are many things within those covers that should be read and remembered these days, when folk are gibbering about brightening up the game and publishing the reasons why they— the almost almighty They— have given up going to watch cricket. One, at least, of the things the game is suffering from is the lack of more writers of Jephson's ability. He could not in this instance have found a better Foreword than that from the pen of C. B. Fry, in which I like particularly this : “ To some people cricket is a circus show upon which they may or may not find it worth while to spend sixpence; to others it is a pleasant means of livelihood; to others a physical fine art full of plot-interest and enlivened by diffi­ culties ; to others in some sort this game is a cult and a philosophy, and these last will never be understood by the profanum valgus, nor by the merchant-minded, nor by the unphysically intellectual.” I like the “merchant-minded,” for ’tis they, if any one sect, who would ruin this glorious open-air sport of ours. They who look more to the ledger than the cricket aspect of a given performance. A Few Overs will be among the best bowled this season, or I ’m no judge. Curiously enough, the actual best so far come from the brain and arm of another and younger Cambridge slow bowler, to wit, the Cambridge captain. His 4.5 overs, 1 maiden, 9 runs, 5 wickets is good enough to win any match, and it did so for Middlesex right enough. And a pretty useful Middlesex side too. From the ring Mulholland’s bowling is the toshiest of tosh. There is no advantage in beating about the bush, and if it is tosh—from the ring—why not say so? But when you come to try to get runs off it, and certain conditions exist, it is very far indeed from being tosh, the origin of which word I have never heard, but which needs no explanation, for there is nothing else quite like it. The fact is that M ulholland has that precious property “ flight.” Flight is not always observable from the ring. Rhodes had it to a marked degree; Blythe always had it and has it still; so did, and has, Dennett. Astill and Hazlitt owe most of their wickets to flight, to which the last-named added, by the aid °f a doubtful action (in which I could detect little difference at the end of last year’s tour), a very quick break. But in certain circumstances Mulholland’s bowling acquires addi­ tional deadliness, and that is when the ball is a “ swervable ” one and the wind suitable (from the long or square leg quarter). There are— it may not be generally known— some cricket balls that swerve more than others. There is one particular make on the market just now which swerves so little as to almost justify one in stating that it won’t swerve at all. This particular make is a leaden sort of missile, and when you get a fairly hard-hit ball it stings like the very mischief, never mind if the weather is cold or not. Get Mu'.holland on at one end with a ball of the swerving type and a suitable wind, and he will worry the best of batsmen. I a the Middlesex match he did not go on until the ball was no longer new, so that very likely swerve had little to do with one of the best analyses— if not the best—we shall see in first-class cricket this season. Obviously some of his victims last week will never head the batting averages; but 5 for 9 wants doing. And the point is that he has done it. It is up to Oxford to do something as soon as their team has been dug out of the mud, for what with Lagden’s excel­ lent hundred and Mulholland’s bowling performance the honours are at the moment very plainly with Cambridge. Lagden’s game is generally not without its risk, and I notice he has come in for some criticism because his defence was not, at the beginning of his innings, exactly Scottonian. Fact is, he was never a defensive player. His wristiness almost precludes the possibility of this. Attack is his chief defence, and I hope it always wi'l be, for we don’t want any more stodginess brought into the game, or any of our youngsters who are inclined to have a jolly good dip at her restrained from playing the cricket that is in them. I could wish habitues of the Oval no better sight than a day’s cricket with Hobbs, Hayes, Bird, R. B. and R. O. Lagden all getting about 60 notches each. That would be Heidseick if you like! Unfortunately there is not a very rosy chance of the big Lagden, R. O. to wit, taking his place in the Surrey side; but R . B. is another matter. Surrey are indeed rich in rasping fine amateurs once we get to the third week in July. M. C. Bird, D. J. Knight, H. G. Altham, R. B. Lagden, C. T. A. Wilkinson, E. M. Dowson, J. H. Naumann. Why, what with Struddy and two or three bow'ers, there’s scarcely room for Hobbs, Hayes, and Hayward ! Make no mistake about it, this man Clarke is going to make things uncomfy for opponents of Middlesex! These days nothing under a 7 for 18 on a first appearance satisfies some folk, so that Clarke’s 4 for 66, and “ onlv against Cam­ bridge too” (!) will be voted very small beer in certain quarters. But he has probably come to make more than a short stay. Murrell had the usual difficulty with him that all “ keepers ” have during their first sight of a good googlv bowler in action. Accustomed to deciding the break from the delivery, Murrell will have to begin anew, and “ find ” the ball after it has pitched, for it was perfectly plain at Cambridge that which is the off and which the leg turner was not readily discernib’e in Clarke’s case from the range of twenty-two .yards. Whether one can spot it more easily from the pavilion, as in the case with Carr and Faulkner, I do not vet know. The Cambridge eleven may easily make historv this year. This is not a case of jumping to conclusions on the form of one match. Most of those who will be playing v. Oxford were playing v. Middlesex, bar accidents. And, having had a good season whether the wickets rule fast or slow, I sup­ pose Cambridge will lose to Oxford through Fraser, or some e'eventh-hour discovery ! The glorious uncertainty again. THE AMERICAN CRICKETER. Founded 1877. • Published b y the A ssociated C rick et Clubs of P h ila d elp h ia . An Illustrated Journal of Cricket, Association Football, Tennis, G olf, a Kindred Pastimes. No. 114, South 18th Street, Philadelphia, Pa-» U.S.A. p rice — IBs. per annum , post paid a n yw h ere. Specim en copies m ailed on request.