Cricket 1913

F eb . 15, 1013. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 67 At Sydney, after heavy scoring, N.S.W. won by 84 runs. They started with 513 (Trumper 201*, Macartney 125), to which the visitors replied with 331 (Clem Hill 138).' N.S.W. then made 314 (Macartney 96, Bardsley 90), and S.A. 412 (Moyes 95, Hill 77). Thus 1,570 runs were made in the game— the seventh highest total on record in first-class cricket. The N.S.W. v. Victoria match, a fortnight or so later, was won by the former by 8 wickets. Victoria made 274 (Armstrong 118*, Matthews 74) and 365 (Matthews 8i, Ryder 53), N.S.W. 477 (Barbour 146, Trumper 138, Macartney 94) and 163 for 2 (Macartney 76*). Massie had 11 wickets for 195 in the match, and Cannon, of Victoria, j who is, I believe, a police constable, took 6 for 107 in N .S.W .’s first. In the West Indies the M.C.C. Team went down heavily in its first match, Barbados making 520 for 6 in response to a score of 306, and dismissing the visitors for 185 in their second innings. Except that Humphreys made 106 at the start, no individual scores are given. Barbados also won the second match in an innings—447 to 65 and 372. The Library. “ When I get my copy of Wisden," wrote a friend the other day, “ I always feel that the season is not far off— that the worst of the long, dull period when no cricket is to be had has been tided over.” “ Can’t spare much time even to write to you," are the words of another. “ Have just got Wisden, and must devour it. There’s a splendid reproduction of a painting of old John Wisden himself in it.” ; The hold that J o h n W is d e n ’ s C r ic k e t e r s ’ A l m a n a c k ,* to give it its full title, has over the enthusiast is wonderful— or would be wonderful if it were not such excellent value. Here, for a shilling, one has the score of every first-class match played in England during 1912, with all the other features that have made past issues so enthralling, and some new ones to boot. A shilling for 800 pages of cricket matter! What more could the cricketer ask ? If any one should read this to whom Wisden is unknown, let him go and buy a copy at once, before it is sold out— as it ought to be within a few weeks. There are spots on the sun, we know ; but we don’t make ourselves unpleasant about them, and errors in the yellow-covered one are always to me matters of sorrow rather than of anger. Absolute accuracy cannot be attained as I know w e ll; but IVisden’s has a very high standard, which renders the few obvious errors in it all the more noticeable. On p. 312 P. R. Johnson is stated to have made two centuries for Somerset v. Warwickshire at Coventry. But Somerset and Warwickshire did not meet in 1912 ; the old Etonian did not score a century for his county at all ; and the feat referred to is obviously that of A. C. Johnston, for Hants, v. Warwickshire. On p. 564 W. Eason (Tas.) is down as taking 6 wickets for 78 v. the M.C.C. team. But no Tasmanian bowler had such an analysis, and Eason played for 15 of Geelong (see p. 552), and should not come into the eleven-a-side averages at all. J. Fitzgerald’s wickets were takfen for Toowoomba, not for Queensland— a very different matter. The Too­ woomba match was eleven-a-side, but certainly not first- class. On p. 26 (part II.) it is stated that Emery can “ bowl a very different bowl.” I have heard this expression before, but not with such authority behind it as that of Mr. Sydney Pardon. Some one blundered over the bowling figures of H. L. Simms and E. L. Kidd at the end of the season. Nowhere but in C r ic k e t were they correctly given, and it is with John Wisden’s Cricketers' Almanack (Jubilee Number), pace is. net. Publishers : Messrs. John Wisden Co., 21 and ~ 3 >Cranbourn Street, London, W.C. regret that I see the errors perpetuated in Wisden, for we are all apt to take the averages therein as the correct thing. Simms took n o wickets, not 107 ; Kidd 60, not 57. The correctness of these statements can be proved from the pages of the yellow one itself. Thus : Simms took 66 wickets in the championship games (p. 270)— correct ; 4 v. Oxford University at Horsham, 1 v. Cambridge University at Cambridge, 3 and 7 in Gentlemen v. Players’ matches, 4 for Sussex v. Australians, 7 for South v. Australians, 5 for Sussex v. South Africans, 6 for Mr. Lionel Robinson’s XI. v. South Africans, 4 for Gentlemen v. South Africans, and 3 for M.C.C. v. Yorkshire at Scar­ borough— total n o . Kidd took 35 wickets for Cambridge (p. 395)— correct ; 17 for Middlesex (p. 181)— correct; 5 for Gentlemen v. Players (Lord’s), 1 for Gentlemen v. South Africans, and 2 for South v. Australians— total 60. Stone’s name is James, and Hardy’s initials are F. P. ; Warren has no second Christian name, though Arnold, I Bowley, Haywood, Cox, Hitch, Parker (three initials— C. W. L.), Burrows, Root, Bracey, and Dennett all have such ; Dipper’s initials are A. E., not A. G. Spots on the sun— that’s all ! A splendid shillingsworth — if it were twelve shillings instead of as many pence it would be full value for the money. It is neariy twenty- five years ago since I bought my first Wisden ; I have never missed one ; but the fast-growing row on the special shelf must stop some day. It will scarcely be because Wisden comes to an end. Wisden is immortal ; but I am not. Do not assume that because you have the Almanack you can afford to do without J o h n W is d e n ’ s C r ic k e t e r s ’ N o t e - B o o k , which will slip into your waistcoat pocket (the yellow-back would spoil the set of any coat), and yet has in it, besides diary space and the laws, a quantity of interesting information not to be found anywhere else. Mr. F. S. Ashley-Cooper, facile princeps among those who make it their pleasure to collect items of interest about the game, is the editor ; and his Century List (overseas matches included) and Cricket Notabilia are worth careful preservation long after the diary section has served its turn. Here also, however, I have a criticism or two to make. I notice that he includes among first-class matches that between Southern Nigeria and the Gold Coast at Accra, but excludes all the M.C.C.’s Argentine matches except the three “ tests ” and those with the North and the South of Argentina, as also the third trial match at Johannes- burg early in 1912 (Mr. P. T. Lewis’s X I. v. Mr. L. J . Tancred’s XI.). Snooke and Nourse made centuries in this ; but these do not figure in the century list, though Le Roux’s, Tapscott’s, and Hartigan’s in the two Transvaal v. South Africa matches do. As a matter of fact, the thin} trial game was generally regarded as the most important o the three. Mayne’s century at Sunderland is included rightly, to my mind, in spite of the M.C.C.’s decision as to the class of the match ; but MacLaren’s and Tufnell’s v. Argentine-Born are riot. I should have included all the matches in the Argehtine, but not the one-day game between the Australian Team and Western Australia (Kelleway’s hat-trick therein is ranked first-class on p. 169), which must have been more or less of a scramble. But such differences of opinion apart, pages 124-207 of the Note-Book are great value. Geo. G. Bussey &■ Co’s C r ic k e t e r s ’ D ia r y T is in its twenty-second year, and that fact is enough to establish * John Wisden's Cricketers’ Note-Book, 1913. Edited by F. S. Asldey-Cooper, Price Sixpence. Publishers : As Almanack. J Cricketers' Diary , 1913. Price Sixpence. Publishers : Messrs. Geo. G. 1 ’iussev it Co., Ltd., 36 and 38, C)ueen Victoria Street, London, K C.