Cricket 1913

360 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J uly 5, 1913 Cr i cke t ; A W E E K L Y RECORD OF THE GAME. 125 , STRAND, LONDON, W.C. S A T U R D A Y , J U L Y 5 , 19 13 . Letters for the Editor should be addressed to M r. J. N. 1 ’ e n t e l o w , Malvern, Steyning, Sussex. Advertisements, Subscriptions, &e., should be sent to : The Manager of C r i c k e t , 1 2 5 , Strand, W .C. The following are the subscription rates :— United Kingdom. Abroad. One Year ... ... ... 6s. 3 d. ... 7 s. 6d. The 24 Slimmer Numbers 5 s. Od. ... 6s. Od. The 6 Winter Numbers ... Is. 3 d. ... Is. 6d. lP>av>Uton (Bossip. But for an hour to watch them play, Those heroes dead and gone, And pit our batsmen of to-day W ith those of Hambledon ! Our Graces, Nyrens, Studds, and Wards, In weeks of sunny weather, Somewhere upon;Elysian swards, ^ To see them matched together! A. H. J. C o ch r an e . T om H a y w a r d ’ s hundredth first-class century ! Not yet, after the passage o f a week since it was made, will folk have ceased to talk o f it. Fo r this is no common feat. Only the m ighty Master o f them all has surpassed it. H e made 126 o f them. H ayw ard w ill scarcely equal that record. T h e list o f the Surrey veteran’s three-figure scores appears on another page. I take it that the statisticians have accepted the Launceston centurv. I f they have not the list is still incomplete, fo r the hundred v. Leicester­ shire in 1893 certainly cannot rank. I f it is held to, there must be more rectifications in the century ledger, for Maurice Read made 108 fo r Surrey v. Derbyshire that year, and Chatterton 10 1* for Derbyshire v. Yorkshire, and Barnes 130* fo r Notts v. Warw ickshire, and Peel 121 for Yorkshire v. Leicestershire, and Tom lin 105 for Leicestershire v. N o tts; and all o f these would have equal claims to place. W i l l any other present-day player reach the hundred centuries? C. B . F ry (92) should be a certainty if he ever plays at all regularly a g a in ; but one gets no clue as to his real intentions. John T yld esley is a possible— 77 to date, not 78, as has been stated in some quarters. About some o f the younger men— Mead and Woolley, for instance— it would •hardly do to prophesy. They may last long enough ; they might not. Hobbs— yes, I think Hobbs w ill get there! Forty-two to d a te; likely enough 50 by the end o f the season. But Hobbs seems to regard centuries more ligh tly than most men— the which is no bad thing for his side. T h e eight first-class matches in progress between June 26 and 28 (two days only at Leyton, one day at Chester­ field) produced the nice little crop o f 15 centuries. Is this a record ? M y memory w ill not serve for matters o f this sort. But a little research goes to show that it is a long way off record. A s recently as 19 11 nineteen centuries were registered in three days (June 12 to 14). Absolute record, I believe, is the 20 o f July 14, 15, and 16, 1902, when 5 centuries were scored at Hastings (by C . B . F ry , K . S. Ranjitsinhji, Abel, H ayw ard, and M ajor H . S. Bush), 4 at the Crystal Palace (by W . G ., C. J. B . Wood, L . O. S. Poidevin, and Raw lin), 3 at B radford (by Denton, H irst, and F . L . Fane), 3 at Bristol (by C. H ill, M. A . Noble, and A . J. Hopkins), 2 at Tonbridge Wells (by C. J. Burnup and E . W . D illon), 2 at Derby (by Iremonger and W illiam Gunn), and one at Worcester (by Bow ley). E i g h t e e n were made during the three days July 18 to 20, 1904, 18 on August 8, 9, and 10, 1901, and again on August 22, 23, and 24 o f the same year. Seventeen were put on the books on June 6, 7, and 8, 1904; 16 on July 23, 24, and 25, 1900; and 15 on August 5, 6, and 7, 1901, June 16, 17, and 18, 1904, and July 20, 21, and 22, 1905. O f all the fifteen centuries o f last week-end perhaps the best intrinsically was John T y ld esley ’s. T h e most momentous was Tom H a yw a rd ’s. The highest was, o f course, B raund’s. T h e most surprising? W ell, that is not so easily answered. L e e ’ s ? N o ; one expected Lee to make a century before very long, though scarcely to come within measur­ able distance o f 200. Chester’s? This was quite unex­ pected ; it revealed this mere lad— Herts-born, by the way — as a really capable batsman as well as a promising bowler. But I think, on the whole, one must plump for De T rafford’s. T h e old Leicestershire skipper practically retired from first-class cricket in 1906, when he had an average o f 17, with a highest score o f 65. H e was then 42. Since, he has played in a few o f the M .C .C .’s big matches with no success, and has toured in New Zealand and the A rgen­ tine. N ow , at nearly 50, he comes back to his side, plays a fine uphill game in the follow-on v. Lancashire, and three days later goes in with 4 wickets down fo r 11 and hits up 137 in a couple o f hours ! “ Pro-deeegious ! ” as Dominie Sampson was wont to say. T h a t Leicestershire should have made 356 and 351 in successive innings seems remarkable when one notes that Whitehead contributed only one run and K in g only 22 to these totals. Here are the men who have hitherto borne the brunt failin g and others coming gallantly to the rescue. There is good hope for Leicestershire in this. Shipman seems to be training on into a dauntless hitter o f rare value, and A still has improved out o f knowledge. On the other hand, Mounteney and Lord have been dis­ appointing. They may still redeem themselves, however. T h e Leicestershire fo lk would probably rather see Shipman getting a harvest o f wickets. But one cannot have everything. Young Geary ought to go f a r ; his a ll­ round ability seems to be joined with courage and coolness. S u s s e x v. Notts at Hove was the biggest scoring match o f the week-end— 1,149 f ° r 31 wickets. But this game very frequently has been one o f big scores. During