Cricket 1913

M arch 15, 1913. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 75 i , o i o runs, with an average of 37-40, during the season ; but Collins headed him in the averages as set out, and the addition of the latter’s first-class figures (9— 0— 213) to those in the report (21— 2— 809) gives this very promising young player 1,022 runs at an average of 36-50 as his full season’s record. Jennings, including his first-class games, totalled 926, and averaged 35-61. Clinch took 97 wickets at 11-25 each, Freeman 94 at 10-57, H ickmott 71 at 12-74, Draper 68 at 8-oo, Smith 57 at 11-37, ar)d Preston 50 at 10-22. Morfee (who bowled 47 no balls in 1912) has resigned, and his place on the staff will be filled b y C. W ycherley. T h e report of the general committee pays eloquent tribute to Captain W. McCanlis, the wonderful veteran who has done such splendid work at the Tonbridge Nursery as cricket-tutor. “ There cometh an end to all things, A season to every man------ ” but the captain, who was playing first-class cricket before some of us now with grey hairs only too evident were born, can ill be spared by Kent. He will still give his advice when sought for, and there is small doubt that it will be sought for. W a r w ic k s h ir e made a bigger profit than Ken t— nearly £420, after writing off £190 odd for depreciation on buildings, etc. There was an increase of £426 in subscriptions, the number of subscribers (2,100) in 1912 constituting a record. Field’ s benefit realised about £620, better figures than those of that given to Jayes by Leicestershire, which brought in £370. The ground staff at Edgbaston consists of Baker, Bates (L.), Brown (J.), Charlesworth, Field, Jeeves, Kinneir, Luckin, Parsons, Quaife, and Santall, the last-named having been appointed coach to the young players. Smith and Bates (H.) are on the staff at Lord’s. I t m ay be of some interest to compare the gate receipts of three counties, Kent, Notts and Sussex, which m ay be taken as representatives of the three divisions into which one might group the first-class counties— the prosperous, the struggling, and the desperately struggling. Ken t took £2,693 in 15 home matches— average nearly £153 ; Notts £1,620 in n — average over £147 ; Sussex £1,774 in 20 (including the two of the Hastings Festival, which the county club ran) — average under £89. As to membership, K en t has nearly 4,400 subscribers, Notts over 2,400, Sussex about 2,000. U n d e r date of February 9, Mr. A. F . Somerset writes me a welcome letter anent the doings of his team j in the first three matches of the West Indian tour. The ! scores are given elsewhere, with accounts of the g am es; but the captain of the M.C.C. Team has some comments to make which cannot fail to be of interest. The side had a hard task at Bridgetown. Short of practice, they played three three-day matches in immediate succes­ sion, and the long spell of fielding on a hard ground which Barbados ran up 520 for 6 (7 hours, 45 minutes | of i t !) knocked them about. The hours of play in | Barbados are i i to 1.30, 2.15 to 4.15, and 4.30 to 5.45, Mr. Somerset tells me. Several of the men were suffering from strains when the second match began. The wicket, spoiled b y ra in ,'w a s atrocious at first, but improved later, and the home side had all the best of it. This time Barbados batted 6 hours 25 minutes for 447. T a r il t o n and Ince, who put up a record for the West Indies by adding 100 for the last w icket of Barbados, would not have been together at that stage bu t for the fact that the real tail-end batsmen had been^sent in earlier to tide over luncheon and give the cracks a better pitch. B u t the tenth w icket partnership of the M.C.C. skipper and Surrey’ s Sm ith next d a y, which made a new record, was owing to no such fortuitous fact. Mr. Somerset says : “ Razor played a beautiful innings.” For his own part, he merely strove to keep up an end— “ .to, weary them out for the Test match next d a y ” -^- which reminds one of Alec Bannerman’ s tactics. (I don’ t mean the stonewalling, bu t the tiring-out theory.) He kept up an end for 135 minutes— good w o r k ! I n the first match the English team nearly saved the game, as it was within ten minutes of time when the end came. In the second, though there was more time to spare, they came near to averting the innings’ defeat. The third match— v. West Indies— they won quite easily. Mr. Somerset thinks the Barbados players would generally prove too good for a team landing short of practice, with bowlers lacking sting owing to their bowling muscles being out of condition. The pros., he says, were m ightily surprised at the strength of the Barbadian batting. “ Team all well, except for strains.” S in c e then, the team has beaten Trinidad on the matting wicket at Port of Spain, where they expected to go under. A t the M.C.C. captain’ s request the second |match with Trinidad— -particulars not to hand at time |of writing— was played before the second test instead of j after, as originally arranged. There should be little |doubt about the side winning the matches in Demerara, for British Guiana is not very strong just now. C. A. Browne, H. W. Ince and W . O. Gibbs were to represent Barbados in the Port of Spain test, and the latter two, w ith J. M. K idney (Browne being obliged to return earlier) at Bourda. Tarilton and the Challenors were not available, it would seem. B y the way, Kenneth Mason could not play for Barbados owing to appendicitis. C r ic k e t wishes him well through his illness. F o r the third time in twenty-one seasons South Australia has won the Sheffield Shield. The other two campaigns in which the wheatfield state came out on top were 1893-4, when George Giffen, J. J. Lyons and A. H. Jarvis were the cracks of the side, and Joseph Darling and Ernest Jones were just coming into promin­ ence, and 1909-10. V ic t o r ia stood first in 1892-3, 1894-5, 1897-8, 1898- 9, 1900-1, and 1907-8. New South Wales have taken premier place twelve times— six seasons in succession from 1901-2 to 1906-7 inclusive. I f South Australia had lost to V ictoria at Adelaide in the match ended on March 4, there would have arisen a complication that has not as y et chanced, for each State will have had two wins and two losses. Bu t South Australia won, and most worthily regains pos