Cricket 1913

J u ly 12, 1913. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 3S7 very quick, and took the ball on both sides with equal ease and certainty ” (W. G. again). He played in four test matches A t the Oval in 1880— scores, 11* and 13. A t the Oval in 1882— scores, 2 and 12— caught Blackham* in 2nd innings. A t Lord’s in 188 j— score, 31*. A t the Oval in 1884— scores, 8 and 17— caught Scott, and with lobs took the wickets of Midwinter, Blackham, Spofforth and Boyle for 19 runs. Off the cricket field he won high honours in the world of sport. He was a multiple blue— athletics, racquets, tennis and Associa­ tion football as well as cricket. He played for England v. Scot­ land at socker in 1877. He won the M.C.C. Gold Tennis Prize in 1822, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’87, ’90, ’88, 91, ’92, ’93, ’94, and ’95, and the Silver Prize in 1880, ’81, '83 and ’gS. He was twice a member of the M.C.C. Committee, 1881-1885 and 1899-1903, and was President of the club in 1898. It should be mentioned that he represented Worcestershire as well as Middlesex at crick et; but in those days Worcestershire had no very high stat :s among the counties, and played only a few Gentlemen’s matches each year. Bom on February 7, 1857, he was the youngest of eight brothers, all cricketers, and a t least four of them of first-class ability. He was called to the Bar in 1881, became a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1899, and Q.C. in 1900, was successively Legal Private Secretary to Sir Henry James, Attorney-General, Recorder of Hereford, Recorder of Oxford, and Chancellor of the Diocese of Rochester. He entered Parliament in 1895 as Mem­ ber for Leamington, and was Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1903 to 1905. J. N. P. D r . E d w a r d R u s s e l l O g d e n , whose death occurred on May 15, a t Chicago, was born at Oakville, Canada, June 17, 1862. He was educated a t Upper Canada College, Toronto, found a place in the first eleven in 1876, and was captain of the College during his last three years. He played for X X II of Canada against D aft’s team in 1879, and secured two wickets for 11 runs. In 1881, 1883, and 1884 he took part in the Inter­ national fixtures, and in the latter year had the satisfaction of captaining the Canadian eleven on the occasion of the first victory Canada had gained over the United States in twenty-eight years. His own share too in this success was by no means a small one, for he scored 30 and 49. Since 1880 he has resided in Chicago and acted as captain of the Chicago Cricket Club. He was also a member of the suc­ cessful Western Association team of 1882, which visited Phila­ delphia and New York. In 1885 against E. Sanders’s team he secured five wickets for 59 runs. In 1887 he captained the Cana­ dian team which visited England, and was third in the batting and first in the bowling averages, scoring 701 runs and securing 91 wickets during the tour. His principal scores were 60 v. Gentlemen of Ireland, 98 v. Durham, 133 v. Gentlemen of Hamp­ shire, 56 v. Gentlemen of Warwickshire, and 54 v. Gentlemen of Leicestershire; and his chief feats with the ball were 9 wickets for 83 v. M.C.C. and 8 wickets for 27 runs against Gentlemen of Warwickshire, on each occasion in the second innings. In 1896 and again in 1897 he topped the batting averages in the Chicago Cricket Association. His centuries were 103* for Chicago v. Pastimes of St. Louis in 1893, and 106* for Chicago v. St. George in 1897. He was a left-handed bat, with excellent defence and (this is quite unusual) a right-handed bowler, possessing considerable command over the b a ll; moreover a fine field in any position. Dr. Ogden was undoubtedly the finest all-round player in Canada, and must be classed with J. B. King, G. S. Patterson, and J. A. Lester as among the best players the Western Continent has ever produced. Unfortunately for the game he gave it up for golf fifteen years ago. F. F. K e l l y . M r . F r a n c is B r e r e t o n N e w e t x was bom a t Belfast, Feb­ ruary 7, 1875 ; and died at Port Arthur, Ontario, September 13, 1912. He played in the Rossall School X I. 1892-94, being cap­ tain in his last year. Third in 1892, in 1893 he headed the batting averages with an aggregate of 495 runs and an average of 26-1, his highest score being 137 against Liverpool. In 1894 he stood second in the averages, having scored 426 runs with an average of 20 6. A fter leaving school he played regularly for the North of Ireland C.C., which he captained for some years; and in 1897 and 1899 he won the cup for the greatest batting aggregate in that club. Mr. Newett was a prominent golf player, and in 1902 he won the Irish Amateur Championship. A. C. D. Correspondence. To the Editor of C r ic k e t . D ear S ir , In his letter to the Daily Mail of yesterday my friend, Mr. Bosanquet, honestly endeavouring to do the right thing by cricket, selects three performances of the week : 296 in 5^ hours at Brighton, W. H. Denton’s 92 in 4 hours 50 minutes at North­ ampton, and Braund's 257 in 2 hours 50 minutes at Worcester. My friend asks for permission to suggest th at the first two per­ formances are of a nature to kill cricket, and th at such things, unless discouraged, will inevitably do so. Too much credit cannot be given to Braund, as the old Oxonian says ; but all cricket cannot possibly be played on simi­ lar lines, as he suggests it should be. I cannot think that Mr. Bosanquet quite realised the importance of so strong a com­ plaint from a cricketer of his great ability. I have gone into these performances, and I presume th at 296 in 5^ hours is a smack at the Notts batsmen, since Sussex only scored 285. Now the Hove visitors’ dashing skipper, A. O. Jones, was not playing, and that did not help to increase the rate of scoring. Lee (180) obtained his first century for his county ; and I read th at he scores in all directions, and is attractive to watch, if not a rapid rungetter. A witness of the performance adds that it was quite like old times to find so large a total scored at Brighton, where the wickets have become more sporting than of old. Y e t Mr. Bosanquet— from his armchair in town, I presume— suggests that this performance is helping to kill crick et! In my opinion, Albert Relf is well qualified to keep the very best batsmen in the land playing, and these Notts men scored almost 60 runs per hour. For a long time the Brighton wicket has been very sporting, and Relf, who is possibly the most diffi­ cult bowler of all to force, wants terribly close watching, I maintain, in a word, that no blame attaches to Notts. Mr. Denton, who opens the innings for Northants against the powerful Yorkshire team, plays his own invaluable game of wearing the bowlers out, to make things easier for those who bat later, just as Barlow, Scotton, Albert Ward, Alec Bannerman, Joe Vine, and many others have done in the past. Result— a total of 305. And this by a county not considered good enough to meet the upper ten of the counties. On the last day Yorkshire are left with 227 to get in 2 hours 25 minutes, and in th at time 141 runs were scored for 3 wickets, about the same rate of scoring as at Brighton, which has so worried m y friend. If I felt in­ clined to blame either side, it would be Yorkshire ; but as I did not see the game I don’t care to censure either. Slow scoring is unavoidable at times, in the interests of one’s side. Batsmen have to cope with difficulties that the average spectator quite fails to realise— such as a wicket over-watered or retaining moisture from heavy dewfall; bowlers keeping a blind length outside the off stump and attempting nothing except to induce the batsman to nibble a t a ball he ought to leave alone, the bowler’s design being sometimes aided by the boos and yells of the rough element of the crowd ! If you happen to be one of the star batsmen of a comparatively weak side, slow and careful play is necessary in such cases as this. The fact should not be overlooked th at very often slow play is due to the bowlers' tac­ tics rather than to those of the batsmen. They find the wicket too good and the men opposed to them in form, and they bowl as nearly wide as may escape calling, on the principle of “ If we can’t bat on this, we are not going to let you show us up ! " The batsman gets booed when it is the bowler who deserves it, because it is he who is not playing cricket. Mr. Bosanquet is to-day one of the finest forcing batsmen in the world. B ut he should not lose sight of the fact that lesser men, who have not his capacity to force the game, are doing their best, each in his own way. Above all things, don’t let us encourage the hooligan whos2 one notion of hostile criticism m ay be expressed in a single word— Yah ! ” We don’t want him at all. And I am afraid some of this type will have derived pleasure from reading Mr. Bosan- quet’s remarks. • Yours truly, A. C. M. July 1, 1913. C r ic k e t S e c r e ta r ie s should obtain Mr. A. W. Somerset’s Unique Score Book, 150 openings, Records and Curiosities, is.— A. J. Gaston, “ Argus” Office, Brighton. For Sale : Cricket Annuals, over 2,000 Books on Cricket, Cricket Prims A Engravings. A. J. Gaston, “ Argus " Office, Brighton.