Cricket 1913

August 2, 1913. CRICKET: \ WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 477 Cricket Chirps. (B y E. H. D. S e w e l l .) I suppose the K ent v. M iddlesex match at the M ete would be regarded by the m ajority of follow ers of the game as the ch ief gam e of last. week. C ertain ly either tai! or short scoring attracts most notice. From the moment it was to be a case o f scratching for runs, it was 5 to i on K ent, for they had three left-arm s to-the one of M iddlesex for a pitch on which an in d ivid u al 50 is an impossibility, bar abnormal luck, against good left-arm bowling. T he wonder of the game w as the 6 for 21 by popular old Jack when T arran t could not do anythin g lik e it. T h e cricket vocabulary 01 praise has long been exhausted in old Jack ’s case, lie ’s like good wine. I am not at a ll sure th at the palm for last week should not be giv en to Jessop. S ix w ickets and a hundred runs make a pretty good m atch for anyone, but a very great deal hangs on when those runs and w ickets arrived. Jessop’s 2 for 3 is the best clin ch er there has been in big cricket for a long time. He and F . R. F oster and A. R. Litteljohn and D. R. Osborne should make the E a lin g X I. even more form idable than it has been for years in London club cricket. T h e on ly tie m atch I have ever played in was on the E a lin g ground, and C. B. G race was, I think, the man who w as cau ght off what w ould have been the w inn ing hit. Is there any gam e to equal cricket- in a match th at matters - for excitem ent when it comes to. a close th in g? Only R ugger, in m y view , approaches it, though fo lk have per­ spired ere now on the 18th green in various parts of the world. I am asked at least once a day : “ W h at am ateurs are going to South A frica ?” Inasm uch as I am given to under­ stand that the selectors would lik e to h ave the correct answer to that query, it is not much use askin g me ! A s a shaft drawn at a venture, I should set down B ird, D ou glas, and F oster as the lik e lie st; but, to tell the truth, goodness only know s ! T he Incogniti seem lik e ly to have a usefu l side for their trip to the States. T h e Hon. H. G. M ulh olland, M. F alcon, and B. G. Von B. M elle have recently been elected to the fam ous club, and are of the party. Philadelphian cricket w ill have to be as strong as ever it was to win. A dropped catch settled Lan cashire at Horsham .- A. H. L an g thanked them by m akin g 71 in not very much over an hour. T h is is L a n g ’s first score since he got that nasty smack on the right cheekbone from a “ ju m p e r” sent down by P eat at Stoke P oges a fortnight before the ’V arsity match, in which it w as a m istake, on form , to p lay him as stumper. T h e E ssex bow lin g got into trouble at Leyton on Satur­ day, and I am sure nobody laughed more than the bow ler, if he read it, at the profound criticism that Perrin w as the only one to cause the batsmen any trouble. S till, they got 8 byes off his first over. T hree centuries for Hants does not m ake it seem quite a ll right that O., C. B rislow e, the young O ld E ton ian disciple of Y o u n g Jack H earne, w ill plav fo r the Gentlem en before long for his bow ling. T hey collected 91 off his 15 overs for no wicket. U xb rid ge v. M .C .C . was one of the rumm iest of matches recently. U xbrid ge put together 328, then R. O. Schwarz took 7 for 15, and M .C .C . were out for 37. T here was no discussion as to the ad visab ility of m akin g the C lub follow - on, and n ext time B. J. T . Bosanquet had 6 for 15. But M .C .C ., who made 25 this tim e, had not quite fathomed Schw arz yet, as he took 4 for 9. T h is must be one of the most extraordinary results ever seen in M .C .C . club games. It is a trifle am using to read week a fte r w eek of the deeds of club cricketers in and about London who m ake centuries and take 7 for 25 and 6 for 14, and so on. On the b^ength of these perform ances on inadequate pitches again st im per­ fect batsmen or bow lers devoid of real sting, each man is in his turn held up as a certain success “ if only he could spare the time for county crick et.” W h a t a farce it a ll is ! T ria ls given to such men gen erally p tove them quite incapable in first-class company. In batting they p lay back on fast w ickets and forw ard on slow . In bow lin g they never find a length, or the w icket isn ’t to their lik in g , and in fielding they in variab ly fling hard to the w rong end. Ah ! it’s a very w ide g u lf between London club cricket and the first-class game. N obody know s the w idth of it better than the cricketers them selves, and nobody disregards it w ith more persistent naivHe than the w ell-m ean ing but uninform ed w riters who make it their w eekly task to w rite up the heroes o f Suburbia. It happened once that the F ates presented me w ith a cen­ tury in a match against a club not a hundred m iles from C harin g Cross. A club to breathe o f which as anythin g but a lead in g first-class club w ould be to comm it high treason and court furious letters to the e d ito r.' I take no pleasure in recording the fact that throughout the two hours I was perm itted to stay at the w icket the field w as never properly- set, no m atter who bowled. H ow some club teams ever win a match is a positive enigm a— and, at the same tim e, per­ haps one of the ch ief charm s of the gam e, and the raison d'etre of its long and health y life. Club Cricket in the North. M itchell and B u tler’s put up 301 for 5, declared, v. M oseley in a B irm ingham L eagu e m atch on Saturday, W il­ kinson, form erly of the Y orksh ire team , hittin g up 143 in a couple of hours (three 6’s, tw enty-two 4’s included). A. O. Parsons scored 76, and he and the pro. added 147 to­ geth er in an hour. But the brew ery team did not win. Steady batting by G. H. T y le r and splendid hitting by F. G. Stephens (117 in an hour !) resulted in a stand of 130'for the first M oseley w icket, and at draw ing of stumps the score w as 204 for 5, over 500 runs h avin g been made during the afternoon. Sm ethw ick easily beat Stourbridge, Buclcnell’s 8 w ickets for the winners being the most notable perform ance of the gam e. A ston U n ity still more easily defeated W est B rom ­ w ich D artm outh, who could only m ake 116, to which the U n ity replied w ith 311. It was curious that no one should reach 50 in so big a total. W a ls a ll jeopardised their chances of the championship by gettin g beaten at D udley. H andsworth W ood declared at 247 for 9 (A. E . M ainw aring 89), and beat K idderm in ster by 76 ju st on time. T . S. H asw ell took 5 for 24 for the winners. Scarborough had 6 w ickets down for a single v. H u ll, but u ltim ately to talled 133, a result h igh ly creditable to the tail-end men. H u ll won easily. R ad ley took 4 w ickets with 4 successive b a lls for Ossett v. C hickenley. G eorge Leach made an adm irable 103 (fifteen 4’s) for R aw ten stall v. Church, and afterw ards took 4 fo r 40, F. Haworth takin g 6 for 64. H. Cudw orth (96*) played right through for B u rn ley v. N elson— at least, as far as the inn­ ings went, for the closure was applied at 185 for g. He did not get his cen tu ry; but he got a collection of £o> tos.— which is the sort of thing they do for amateurs in L an ca­ shire L eagu e circles ! F or B acup v. Ramsbottom , Kerm ode