Cricket 1913

48 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F eb . 15, 1913. don’t think we— er— ought to separate without giving — er— a thought to our ’ost and ’ostess, Mr. and Mrs. Chandos (’ear, ’ear), who are always very kind to us, and make us feel at 'ome and all that, and I ’m sure— er— we are all equally obliged to them. [Amid clattering of table implements indicative of applause, the company breaks up, and (except­ ing the females) returns to the cricket field. The home side goes in to bat and tops its opponents’ score with six wickets down. Play is con­ tinued to allow of all having a turn with the bat, and history repeats itself in the reproduction of several of the above recorded incidents. After the match and certain recriminations attendant on the sorting out of pads and bats, there is a general adjournment to a neighbouring “ pub,” where— the scene closes .] . ■ . -g^g-a----*--------------- Obituary. H e n r y H o l m e s , who died on January 26 at Southampton in his eightieth year (he was born at Romsey on Novem­ ber ir, 1833), was in his day a good free bat, a capita) field, and a useful change bowler. Like others before and since, he suffered from the fact that his county played few matches during his prime; but in the sixties he and C. F. Lucas were quite the best batsmen in the Hants e'even. He appeared for the Colts of England v. the M.C.C. at Lord’s in 1861, and was said to have been the first Hants- born professional to figure there since Beagley had last played on the ground, 22 years earlier. Then 27, he had still his name to make; but during the next few years he did quite enough to show that, with more chances he might have been very -.ear the first flight. In 1864 he made 71 v. Sussex at Brighton, and 17, 38*, 42, and 63 in the two matches w'ith Surrey, in each of which Hants played four­ teen men-—odds which would not have been necessary had they possessed eleven of Holmes’s calibre. Two years later he made 31 and 2b v. Surrey at the Oval, and 57 and 64 v. Bucks (then quite a strong side) at Southampton. Scores of 22 and 46 at Gravesend and 61 at Southampton v. Kent were credited to him in ’67, and in the foflowing year, when Hants had no match, he made his biggest score in first-class cricket— 77 for Players of South v. Gentlemen of South at the Oval. He continued to play in the Hants matches till | 1878, his last score of note (50 v. Derbyshirs at Derby) being j made two years before that. Hampshire lapsed in ’79, and j when the county resumed matches in ’80 doubtless Holmes j was thought too old. He played for the United All England [ Eleven in a few matches, and also for the U.S.E.E., and fulfilled engagements with Brasenose College, Westminster School, and with two or three clubs in his native county. Mr. Henry Holmes, Superintendent of the L. and S.W .li. Co., is his eldest son. A link with the past was broken when Mr. J o h n H a ig h , who died at Rochester, U.S.A., on December 14, was in­ terred at the Huddersfield Cemetery on Christmas Eve, with j every manifestation of regret. A member of the firm of 1 Abbev and Haigh, engineers and surveyors, of Huddersfield, Mr. Haigh, though never playing much, was an enthusiastic lover of cricket, and at the time of his death held the presi­ dency of the Lascelles Hall C.C ., of which his grandfather, | Mr. John Haigh, was practically the founder, while his father, Mr. Walter Haigh, was president for nearly 40 years. From Lascelles Hall—the great nursery of Yorkshire cricket at one time—came William Bates, Ephraim Lock­ wood, Allan H ill, John Thewtis, Luke and Andrew Greenwood, David Eastwood, and some fourteen or fifteen other county players of less note. Though not an active cricketer, John Haigh the younger had been a well-known Rugbv footballer, playing forward for Huddersfield and (while in town studying for his profession) for Lennox. He was liberal in his support of the summer game, and among the many who will miss him will certainly be numbered the members of the Lascelles Hall club of to-day. Born on December 2, 1862, Mr. Haigh was only 40 at the time of his death. At Harrogate on January 23 died Mr. T h o m as E l l io t , head of the firm of T. Elliot and Sons, timber merchants, of Sunderland, and father of four cricketing sons, two of whom, E. W, and H. R., have played for Durham County with great success. H. R. is now, I believe, in California, and E. W. in Chile. They and their two brothers, F. and A., all played at one time or another for the Sunderland C.C., in which, as well as in the county club, their father took the greatest interest. In his younger days he, too, had played for Sunderland, and up to the time of his death was a trustee and governor of the club. He was born at Old Penshaw in 1840, and was educated at Houghton Grammar School and at Ramsgate. When Sunderland banqueted the Australian Team in September, 1878, Mr. Elliot was vice- chairman. H a r o l d W h ic h e l o w , who died in the Royal Berkshire Hospital at Reading, on January 15, at the early age of 23, was quite a promising young player, though he had not done anything particularly striking in county cricket, his full record for Berkshire being 315 runs in 22 completed innings (average 14.31). He had been since 1907 on the ground staff of the Reading Amateur Sports Club. It has been stated that he once carried his bat through the innings for Berks v. Norfolk. This may be correct; but 011 the only occasion when he played against the eastern county his scores were 20'*' and 16*; he went in late in the first innings, and his side’s total was 94 in the second. T h e R e v . A u g u s t u s O r le b a r , for 54 years vicar of Willington, Beds., died on September 30, 1912, aged 88. He was the last survivor of those who played in the Rugby School v. M.C.C. match, told of in “ Tom Brown’s School­ days,” and is said to have been the original of Tom Brown himself. In the School eleven three seasons he was captain the last two (1842-3). He did not win fame at Oxford, but played for Bedfordshire in later years. His estate was sworn at ,£19,545 gross. Surrey v. The World. A correspondent in India— evidently a Surrey partisan— sends me the following lines :— We’ve heard a lot of late about the World’s best team selected; But Surrey well might face the world, with all her best collected.. ‘ Ay-word ” * about this Surrey team— captain, Charles Burgess Fry — Which shows my drift quite plainly, or my wits have gone awry— | With Knox and Hitch, a lusty pair, to send down balls that kick, Strudwick, as stumper quite A i, and Smith, the foe to trick. Add Hayes and Hobbs, both warriors great against the doughtiest foe; Add Hampshire’s Mead, Fred Pearson, and the Crawford boys also. With Keene regret we Rush-by Kirk, en route for Kenning- ton, And Braund must also stand aside, though his day’s work’s not done A Bird’s-eye view may seem to show this team with longish tail; Vet against the world I’d pit them, and I don’t believe they’d fa il! * He must mean Hayward, for he could never think of leaving out Torn. But I don’t know what Dr. Jolinson would have said to a pun as atrocious as this !