Cricket 1913

CR ICKE T : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. August l'Jlo. always pay . E specia lly at cricket.” A nd on another occasion, when R a n ji:s team defeated A ll Philadelphia, a local rhymester thus burst into s o n g : “ W hen K in g was bow led fo r nothing, A n d Thayer fo llow e d suit, There wasn’t le ft a *rooter ’ W ith strength enough to ‘ root.’ ” Transatlantic methods o f reporting— h a ! That reminds me. I have had a d ig at Canadian and Philadelphian scribes. It is now the turn o f New York. Here are some choice extracts from the New York Times. “ A form idable aggregation o f w illow wielders (this was the N . Y . X V . ) ..................... Hart, who has a record o f tw o centuries against the West Indians at T rin idad ........................Norm (W orm ) was in sp lend id form , and defied the Antipodean bowlers until the score was carried to the century mark. Campbell and Dunn form ed an effective partnership, and a b ig score appeared imminent. The New Yorkers’ wickets tumbling like saplings in a tornado. . . . . A splendid stand by J. S. Bretz (he made 15 — creditable, but hard ly s p le n d id !)........................Their analysis was virtually torn to shreds and scattered to the four w inds....................... Mayne had three six hits, which means that he carried clean out o f the field or be­ y on d the boundary line with these w a llop s.” There is nothing here to equal either o f the reports previously dealt with. One even sfispects the N. Y. reporter o f know ing something about the game. But it all reads— well, very Amurrican! One o f the principal mourners at the funeral o f W . H. B. Evans was his uncle, A . H . Evans, the famous fast bow ler o f C lifton and O x fo r d in the seventies and early eighties. It is curious to recall that fo r M .C .C . v. the Australian Team o f 1882 -— some say the greatest o f all Australian teams— A. H . Evans, who, though 110 mean hitter, was assuredly not p layed fo r his batting, never bow led a ball. C. T . S tudd , A . G. Steel, W . G. Barnes, and F lowers shared the w ork ; and five bowlers were enough, too, seeing that the Antipodeans on ly made 138. T a lk in g o f Somerset, A . E . Newton’s wicket- keeping the other day— five catches in Kent’s first— was pretty h e fty for a man o f fifty. Somerset has rather specialised 111 veteran wicket-keepers. The Rev. A . P. W ickham and F . T . Welman are other instances. A nd , talking o f Somerset and o f wicket-keepers, has Butt’s feat o f not allow ing a single bye for Sussex in a week o f first-class cricket (v. Gloucester­ shire and Somerset in 1895 ) been equalled yet? Somerset made 465 and 118 fo r 3 in the second match, and the on ly extras allowed them were 3 leg- byes and a wide. Gloucestershire (151 and 146 ) had not a single extra. A new firm o f grand stand makers seems to have started operations— A . W . Carr and Lee. It may not have a long partnership, fo r I understand that the old Shirburnian will not be able to play county cricket at all regularly. But that 333 fo r the second wicket v. Leicestershire was a b ig performance. Nottinghamshire batsmen have always been prone to this sort o f thing, however. The pages o f W is d e n (140 and 141 , current issue) tell o f 398 by W illiam Gunn and Shrewsbury; 367 by W illiam and his nephew John; 361 by that same John and the man the side has missed so much this year, A . O . Jones; 330 b y Barnes and W illiam Gunn (fo r M .C .C ., th is); 312 b y W illiam Gunn and Shrewsbury; 310 (in Aus­ tralia) by the same great p a ir ; and there have been others, there unrecorded — 266 b y W illiam Gunn and Shrewsbury v. Sussex at H ove in i 8 g i is one I can recall. This year, besides the stand o f Carr and Lee, there have been 13 other Notts partnerships o f 100 or more, including 231 b y John Gunn and Lee, 184 by George Gunn and Hardstaff, and 175 b y George Gunn and Lee. George Gunn has shared in nine o f the fourteen, his brother in six, Hardstaff in four, Lee in three, W h ysa ll in two, and A lletson, A . W . Carr, Iremonger, and Payton in one each. In South A frica generally the feeling in regard to the com ing M.C.C. tour appears to be one o f despondency. F or the life o f me I cannot see why this should be so. South A frica has more young players o f promise to-day than at any previous time. I believe Plerbert T a y lo r to be likely to train on into as g o o d a batsman as she has ever had. I f Gerald Hartigan’s arm is all right, the Border representa­ tive may do b ig things. A n d what’s the matter with George Hearne, P. A. M. Hands, Lancelot Tapscott, Ormerod and D ud ley Pearce, Michael Commaille, Neville Lindsay, Fred Le Roux, H. V. Baumgartner, J. L. C ox, R o llan d Beaumont, and others that they should be written down failures in advance ? O f the older hands, on ly Nourse and Carter seem in the running fo r places. But what o f that ? The heroes o f o ld g o ; are there n o m ighty men to replace them? Australia’s Warren Bardsley and C. G. Macartney step into the places le ft vacant b y Joe Darling and M. A . N oble. E n g land has a H obbs, a W o o lle y , a Philip Mead to fill the shoes o f those gone into retirement. Let not South A frica despair o f its young b r ig a d e ! Th ey have to be tried and tempered; but some o f them w ill come out the true steel, capable o f taking the finest edge. The M.C.C. Team looks like being a really strong one. A ll the professionals except Barnes (still doub tfu l at time o f writing) have accepted; and a beginning has been made with the amateur con