Cricket 1913

J u l y 26, 191B. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. The O ld R ossallian s, who have visited Lincolnshire before, and are alw ays welcome, had a very successful week, beating in turn G rantham , Lincoln Lindum , and Sleaford. T h e last match was a very pronounced victory— by an inning's and 174 runs. A. S. E d ge played a great fjame for 139; Colin Sm ith made 69*, J. D. D aly 40, and the total was 373 for 8, dec. In North Staffordshire and D istrict L eagu e gam es, the chief event was the figh t given to the Porthill P ark leaders by Silverdale, the one club of the combine to m anage w ith­ out the help of a professional. T he prospective champions were not at full strength, the brothers Heath and W. H. Wood bein g absentees; but the side fielded was considered Rood enough to account for the opposition without much trouble, and when Silverdale were got rid of for 56, that idea seemed justified. B ut the men of the colliery village have a w ay of excelling them selves when ' pitted again st their more fashionable neighbours, and Porthill had to struggle m ig h ty hard to win by a couple of runs. W ith J. Poole disabled, the last pair were at the crease before the game was won. T h e match— played on a bad w icket— pro­ duced but three double-figure scores, and the chief of these was C. F. R ushton ’ s 24*. T h is youn gster played rare cricket throughout, and the manner in which he stood up to Barnes w as the feature of the gam e. B arnes had 6 victims for 19, and H. E ard ley 4 for 30; for the losers, E. Groom go t 4 for 17, J. C. Cooper 3 for 26, and Rushton - for 7. T he grea t feature of the match at Burslem was the all­ round cricket of D ay, the Leek professional. T h e visitors were dreadfully short of bowlers, and it was a fortunate matter for them that D ay w as in such fine fettle. No B urs­ lem player reached the 20 m ark, but there were five double­ figure contributors to their total of h i . D ay had 8 for 51. Burslem put their opponents in a tig h t corner when they had 6 of them down for 28, and they had their shocking fielding to blam e that L eek ultim ately reached 99. D ay was one of the batsmen to be let off, but he made but the one m istake, and his 50* was the reward of some rare skilful batting. M ills accounted for five batsmen for 38, and A. C ook had 3 for 33. C rewe A lexandra upset the idea that they would be ready victim s for Stoke, and for the first time this season they passed the 200 mark,’ declaring at 210 for 8. But their score would have fallen much short of this if Stoke could have held catches, some half-score of which went un­ accepted. F ive A lexandra players scoreu freely, F. Walker getting 57, C. E. G resty 48, Fielder 31, A. Cope 24, and G. H. Jackson 23*. Stoke’s best batsmen failed to show to ad­ vantage, but the situation was saved by J. L. B ag g u le y (21) and J. D yk e (28), time bein g up with 107 scored for 7 wickets. Another drawn gam e resulted from the m eeting of 1 unstall and Fenton, though the latter were unlucky in having to be content with a moral victory, for nine of the opposition were out for 152, as again st their own 197 for 8 (declared). T un stall seemed a beaten side when their last man went to the w ickets with thirteen m inutes left for play; hut the forlorn hope succeeded for once, and the last man, with S. Lockett (38*), played out time. T u n stall’s other chief scorers were: F. G. Beech (44) and G. T . Skellam ' 35 ). F en ton ’s venture w as mainly a one-man affair, H. D earin g’ s brilliant b attin g b rin g in g him 109*, in cluding as many as 22 4’ s. He gave one easy chance, and two 'hat were excusably m issed; but these were only slight flaws in a gran d, free display. D eyes and M organ had a had match, scorin g a sin gle between them , while the 5 tic k e ts they go t cost 86 runs. T h e best bow ling figures of the game were J. J. Awty’ s 4 for 48 for Fenton. Longton were badly outplayed by their Stone hosts, who dism issed them for 117, and then passed their score with nine w ickets standing, eventually leavin g off with 186 for 6. T h e leading run-getter of the gam e was D an Robin­ son, who earned 66 by some spirited batting; but he was m issed from an easy return early in his innin gs. P. C. Dutton (37) and F. C. Johnson (27) were other men to do well for Stone,-and for Lon gton, W. B radbury and A. B rad ­ bury scored 32 and 28 respectively. T h e best bow ling w as on behalf of the winners, E. J. Johnson tak in g 4 for 59, Robinson 3 for 36, and F. C. Johnson 2 for 6. Keen rivals were in antagonism at K nypersley, and a g'ood fight ended in a four-w ickets victory for the home side. N orton's score of 135 was not a bad one; but they took two hours and forty m inutes to g e t their runs, E. Fatton, their chief scorer, b ein g at the crease 110 m inutes for his 47, while F. Crump (27*) was equally sedate. K n y ­ persley’s five bowlers all got w ickets, S ed gw ick (5 for 42) com ing out best. T h e home side had to play again st the clock, but J. E. G ibson (53), Sed gw ick (36*), and H. S im p ­ son (20) gave them a clever win. V o gler took his benefit at L lan elly on Saturday, and had induced Braund to turn out for the local team. T here was a crowd of 3,000 or so, which was not so bad; but the result was disappointing. Sw ansea were the visitors, and the pitch seems to have suited Creber, who took 9 for 64 and did the hat trick. A t one penny to each of his four youngsters for each w icket— this is his invariable custom , says a writer in the “ A thletic N ew s ” — C ocker would have to shell out three sh illin gs for this afternoon’ s work; and he ought certainly to have added a bonus for the hat trick ! While others failed, Percy Rees kept up his end, and played righ t through the L lan elly in nin gs of 143 for 60. Braund only scored 2. Swansea hit off the runs with 6 to go , P. M orris scoring 45, E. A. B illing's 34, B ancroft, sen., 25, and B ancroft, ju n ., 24. Neath and Newport drew— rain the cause. Silverlock made 79 of N ewport’ s 146 for 7, dec.; N eath’ s score was 119 for 7. Plym outh M erthyr made too m any runs again st C ardiff to giv e them selves a chance of victory, pu ttin g up 307 (K. H arris 77, E. A. Watts 58, J. W illiam s 51, J. Murray 48). A t call of time, 8 Cardiff w ickets were down for 137 (J. R. T ait 52, T . R. M organ 50*). St. F a g a n ’ s (174 for 5, dec.— C. E. C ordin g 39, W. Hunter 35) beat C ardiff St. M ary’ s (84), Birch (4 for 35) I doing the hat trick for the winners. P an teg easily beat T re d e ga r P ark, g e ttin g them out for 82, and running up 112 for 6 (H. J. W illiam s 36*, Sm ith 31). On the previous Thursday Panteg accomplished a feat which deserves a paragraph to itself. At Abergavenny they got the home side out for 150, and had an hour left to beat them in. They managed this in the last over, Smith, who was tried for Monmouthshire a few days earlier, making 79*. In the Durham Senior Leagu e, Sunderland only just m anaged to g e t the better of Eppleton. T h ey made the fair total of 191 (Hubert B rooks 55), and Eppleton lost 4 for 40. Then W. Wood (27) and N. Andrew s (71) added 57. Andrew s stayed and batted finely, and w ith 160 for 6 up Sunderland looked in the cart. But here B roo ks’s googlies turned the gam e; he had 3 for 15, in clu din g Andrews, and, after all, the Champions won by 8 runs. T h e match was for M orris’s benefit; but the ga te was p ooi, and Morris had an off day. S. W. Smith bowled really well, his figures (4 for 52) not doing him justice.