Cricket 1913

J u l y 26, 11)13. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 437 Cricket Chirps. (B y E . H . D . S e w e l l .) W e have had some top-hole cricket since my last, and I cannot do more than hope cord ially that many of the seriously-ill people who spent the first four months of this year grousin g and grum blin g at the gam e and a ll its works were present at L o rd ’s when the P layers got home almost on the stroke of time. Barnes w as at his b e st; so was Simm s; and Sm ith at last justified the extraordinary pre­ ference th at has been shown for him over Strudw ick, Oates, Huish, D olphin , Stone, and M urrell in the past. He had a great day on W ed n esd ay; but I must say I have never seen him as good as either of the first-named three as a wicket-keeper, and there’s not rea lly much in it as regards batting. O n ly, Sm ith has the great good lu ck to be sent in first, the best of a ll places, and the easiest in which to make runs, w hile the other three have to go in gen erally when the bow lers are on top, to make the runs the real run- getters have failed to g e t ! T here’s a vast difference. © ^ © On the strength o f this match, P. F . W arn er has stated that, in his opinion, Barnes is the greatest bow ler he has ever p layed in just on 20 years’ experience of first-class cricket. W e ll, each man to his taste. Barnes w ould have been a poor bow ler not to have taken several w ickets on that pitch. And, when it comes to comparisons, the fact is gen erally lost sight of that Lockwood, Richardson, Jack Hearne, W a lter M ead, B riggs, Rhodes, and Co. had to bowl fou r days a w eek, whether they liked it or not. I con­ sider it inadm issible to compare B arnes with other great ones, sim ply because his muscles are not worked to excess, as theirs gen erally w ere, or are. O f course, some kind reader w ill glean from this that I don’t think B arnes is a good b ow 'ler! I th in k he is the best in the world on most wickets, but I also think that what W arn er has said of him, con scientiously enough and with first-hand kn ow ledge not possessed by your hum ble servant, is a ta ll order. B u t it is one of the p rivileges of greatness to be speedily forgotten. For one th in g, B arnes was not confronted in this p articular match by within 75 per cent, as difficult a problem as that which faced the bow lers who had to get rid of M acLaren, Jackson, F ry , and R an jitsin h ji, in one and the same eleven. I question if the G entlem en had one w icket so difficult to get as an y of the fou r nam ed, or one man to dism iss who, once he had got a view o f the b a ll, was so lik e ly to get anything from a 150 to 250 in dividu al total as were those four ever-fam ous run-getters. I f it comes to a com pari­ son, B arn es’s job at L o rd ’s last w eek was child’s p lay to what other great professional bow lers have had to take on on the same stretch o f turf. © * © Bucks had a cap ital, if rain-spoilt, gam e at B letch ley P ark w ith W ilts last week. B attin g one short, they did fairly w e ll to get 75 on a “ turner.” W e collected 102 on a sligh tly im proving, but still helpin g one. T hey got to 169 for eight by close of p lay, leavin g us an interesting sort of “ sitter,” if the w eather held, a certain defeat if it didn’t-. And, o f course, it didn’t ! W e had ten m inutes before lunch, w ith a much-dried one to get 180 on after lunch, A ll E n glan d against the same bow lin g might have got the runs. W e got barely go after the resumption, and did w ell to get so far, against a side containing two left-handers, on a w icket made for the true left-hander’s ball. M itch ell’s 14 w ickets surprised nobody. He said at lunch-time he expected something like the second seven. He did not take all ten, sim ply because, no matter who bowled the other end, w ickets were sure to fall. It was a most enjoyable gam e, and Sir Herbert and Lady Leon were u ntirin g in their efforts to m ake everyone com fortable. T h a t K ent and Yorksh ire should draw tw ice is annoying to everybody concerned. W e m ay now aw ait the letter .to the papers suggestin g a third m atch, played at F alm outh, | C ardiff, Aberdeen, or B asingstoke, according to the situa­ tion of the home of the w riter, to decide which is the better side. P erson ally, I think it w ill be safer to let a sleeping dog lie. © ifc © T he 47 of H erts for the benefit o f the bow ling analyses of N o rfo lk wears on paper som ething of a sad look as the sum total of a side which, righ tly or w ron gly, is credited w ith aspiring to first-class rank. B u t quite a lot of elevens m ight be sent home for such a score by F alco n , W atson , and F alcon er and not be disgraced. And if w ind and w icket helped them in this gam e, the 47 was probably a jo lly good total. A fter a ll, first-class elevens have made fewer. Bucks cross swords with the yeomen of H erts on Monday and T u esd ay at Broxbourne, and w ith those of B edfordshire the follow in g two days. Both should be as keen and close gam es as any in the competition, for rea lly there’s precious little in it between the contesting elevens. © efc © I am able only to w rite something’ about the first day’ s play in the M iddlesex m atch at the Oval. It served to show that Sm ith and R u sh by were not what they were as bowlers. Few im agined that they were. Rheum atism and lum bago have played their usual part. Enough. © ^ © T h e pitch was not H itch’ s, and had not enough life or turn in it for B ird or H ayes, by which time Surrey’ s attack is pretty well done, bar the useful G oatly. T h u s, M iddle­ sex’ s score is fairly well accounted for. But, for all that, there was some rare good batting by T arran t, Y o u n g Jack of the W rists, and, as usual, Warner. T h e O val recovers qu ickly, we all know , but 300 up by 5 o ’clock, when it is not hard and dry, is a fine perform ance. On paper, the m atch, when I left it, was a certain draw. A fine specimen of a negative for those who want two-day matches in first- class c ric k e t! © % © I hear that Walter Mead, in the old phrase, bowled “ as well as ever ” at Portsmouth. He m ay have to turn his arm for some years to come yet, with a likely you n g one in the Etonian, O. C. B ristow e, who, still in his teens, has any amount of spin and the true groogly. T h e rumour I heard that the shunters were g o in g up at Leyton is, happily, very likely to be falsified. The Next South African Eleven. I T h e re is alread y m uch talk in S outh A frica o f the visit o f I th e M .C .C . team next season, and m u ch speculation as to how it w ill be com posed. E veryon e out here says : “ I hop e the M .C .C . w ill send a strong team .’’ I am sure th ey will. B ut w ill our side be strong ? A n d who w ill be in it ? T h e se are two question s which cricketers are asking them selves. T h e first question will be effectually answered by what South A frica does again st the M .C .C . B u t a little anticip atory criticism may not, even now, be out of p lace with sp ecial reference to the secon d question— who w ill be in the S outh A frica n side ? In the first p la ce it m ay be said with som e certainty that the S outh A frica n side which w ill take the field will look very different from an y other side which has as yet p layed for South A frica. N early a ll the old b lo o d has gone. T a k e the S ou th A frica n team in the T rian gu lar T ourn am en t. M itch ell, Schw arz, Llew ellyn , and F aulkn er