Cricket 1913

Jun e 14, 1913. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 291 A r u m o u r has reached me that one o f the most prominent o f the second-class counties is likely io have the help this season o f a famous player who has not o f late appeared much in public cricket. C o n g r a t u la t i o n s — sincere though belated— to J. R. M. Mackay (“ Sunny Jim ” ), who was married in Sydney on March 22 to Miss Catherine Craw ford. What a bats­ man was lost to Australia when that blundering motor­ cyclist in Jo’burg ran down Mackay ! H is eyesight never fu lly recovered from the effects o f the accident, and though once or twice he played in something resembling his old form first-class cricket knew him no more. In “ From a Club Window ” in the Athletic News :— - “ There is, of course, a tremendous lot of luck in cap­ taincy, as w as shown when England won that memorable Test at Nottingham in 1905. 1 believe the true story of that case has never been told. A committee composed of ‘ General ’ Hewett, L. C. H. Palairet, and J. H. J. Hornsby had watched every ball bowled. On the third day one of them ‘ smelt rain ’ and began to fidget, what time ‘ Jacker ’ went on batting long after they, who felt the day’s play would be curtailed by an hour or two, thought it was neces­ sary he should. So they passed a resolution that MacLaren should be invited to carry out a drink that had not been signalled for, and while handing it to Jackson to whisper honeyed words. The plot succeeded so well that even the Australians forgot later on to appeal against the light. “ That was the match in which MacLaren sat on his bat and watched Armstrong’s ‘ width ’ theory rubbish g o by the leg-side, with the utmost contempt. Not long after­ wards, at Lord’s, he played a glorious innings, chasing M 'Leod’s off theory on the off-s:de and Armstrong’s best time-wasters on the leg-side, and banging all and sundry all over Lord’s. This dashing treatment of much the same bowling he had treated with disdain at Trent Bridge evoked from ‘ Joe ’ Darling a chaffing : ‘ Hullo! Archie, why didn’t you do that at Nottingham? ’ The prompt response was, ‘ Because the conditions aren’t the same. We want runs here at any cost. There you wanted wickets, and you weren’t go in g to have mine with that muck, anyw ay.’ “ That was MacLaren all over, a born tactician, one of the greatest cricketers, if unluckiest leaders, that ever put on a cricket boot. I see he gathered 150 in one innings the other day, and I wish he was playing regularly, for the first-class cricket field has never been quite the same without him. I have heard him called a misunderstood man, and other things, but if you understand cricket you understand MacLaren. For he played the gam e to the hilt. “ How well I remember his disgust at the action of the Australians at Birmingham when it was everything in their favour that the wicket should dry. It was the understood thing that if nine wickets were down when the time came for the tea interval there should be no interval. But when the ninth English wicket fell off trooped the 1 Cornstalks ’ with measured tread and slow. The next ball was not bowled ten minutes later, I can certify, but nearer twenty. And the tenth w icket fell a little less quickly than at its face value. So that, what with the illegal tea-interval, the continuation of the English innings, and the interval between the innings, that wicket got a great deal more time to dry than it might have done had the Australians played the game as Macl-aren would have played it.” J. R y d e r , the Victorian all-rounder, was carried shoulder high to the pavilion after bowling finely in the deciding match o f the Melbourne Pennant Competition (Collingwood v. Fitzroy), and was photographed in that position. “ Good boy, Jack ! ” roared the crowd when three wickets fell to him in five balls. A t the annual general meeting o f the Staffordshire C .C . on June 2, a deficit o f about .£300 on the yea r’s working was announced; but a fund to meet this had more than covered the amount. T h e 'Earl o f Lichfield and Col. A . H . Heath made urgent pleas for a longer sub­ scription list, and Mr. J. K en t appealed for bigger gates. The gate in 1912 realised only ^ 2 2 7 . T h e resignation o f Mr. W . C . Hancock was received with the greatest regret. H e has done splendid work for the county, as everyone acknow ledges; and some glowing tributes were paid to his efforts. Personality counts for m uch ; and the ex-secretary o f Staffordshire is a man who wins not only respect but affection. I know many men who have a big fund o f knowledge as to their own county’s cricket, and some whose memory for all kinds o f cricket is wonderful, but who are not sp ecialists ; I don’t think I know another quite like Hancock, so deeply versed 'n Staffordshire lore, yet with so wide an interest in cricket el sewhere. H e becomes the first honorary life member o f the club, and was presented at the meeting with a souvenir in the form o f a gold pendant compass, inscribed :— “ Staffordshire County Cricket Club. W . C . Hancock, Esq. Elected honorary life member, June 2nd, 1913.” T h e new Hon. Sec., Mr. Percival Briggs, said that he knew that hard work as well as honour attached to the office he was taking up. H e welcomed it from both aspects. T h a t’s good 1 Nowadays too many people fail to realise that in hard work one may find more happiness than in loafing. But they are not loafers Stoke way. “ P o l e a x e the man who says H itch throws or was no­ balled fo r i t ! ” says Mr. E . H . D . Sewell in a letter accompanying a batch o f “ Cricket C h irp s.” H e has something to say about it in “ Chirps ” too. W e l l , if I am guaranteed against unpleasant conse­ quences, I should have no very great reluctance to see my chief informant poleaxed— for private and personal reasons. Someone who was dropping his subscription after many years told me the other day that if I would hand him the head o f a certain prominent politician on a charger he would renew glad ly. I offered to provide the ch a rg er; if anybody will undertake the gory deed to which my friend Sewell incites me I don’t mind going to Ed in ­ burgh— at the public expense, bieti entendu — and borrow­ ing, or trying to borrow, one o f those very h efty Lochaber axes which one sees in the castle armoury there. I ’ m sorry. Apologies to H itch. I ought not to have printed this gossip. I accept fu lly the disclaimer made on H itch ’s beh alf— though doubtless without H itch ’s knowledge— and would only add that I did not give the statement my support. It should not have been given publicity, however. T h e y say that the bread and cheese at the refreshment bar at L ord ’s is the best to be had anywhere. T h is is something worth noting. I don’t know o f another cricket ground refreshment bar where anything sold is o f the “ can’t-be-beat ” type. C r ick e t S ecr e ta r ies should obtain Mr. A. W . Somerset’s Unioue Score Book, 150 openings, Records and Curiosities, 5s.— A. J.Gaston, “ Argus ” Cffice, Brighton. For Sale: Cricket Annuals, over 2,000 Books on Cricket, Cricket Prints <k Engravings. A. J. Gaston, “ Argus ”, Office, Brighton.