Cricket 1914

1 86 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. M a y 30, 1914. there too. I enquired about his son Charlie, and from what I could gather from our boys in the dressing-room C. L. T .’s w icket is very rarely obtained up north, where he plays for Norton-on-Tees in the North Yorkshire and South Durham League. T h e hymns sung at the funeral of Mr. R. E . Foster, which was very largely attended, were “ F ight the good fight ” and “ On the resurrection morning.” The officiating clergy were the R ev. Canon Herbert Foster, Rector of Groombridge, and the Rev. B. K . Foster, Vicar of Taynton, both uncles of the Foster brotherhood. T h e r e were several pulpit references to R. E. on the n ext day. In the college chapel at Malvern the Rev. T . Spear paid an eloquent tribute to the great batsman’s character. He told how keen was R. E .’s interest in the School Mission, of which he was Hon. Sec., and finished thus : “ A s we think of him, we see conspicuously his manly energy and keenness in whatever he was doing, his cheerful help and kindness to all he came across in need, and his perfect self-control, which enabled him to keep himself unspotted from the world. W hat better heritage could be left us than the memory of a life of such whole-heartedness and singleness of purpose ? There is something very sad about the passing aw ay of one so young, and so full of promise. It is a m ystery which we are utterly unable to explain. Bu t we are quite sure of one thing, and that is, th a t it is the will of a Father Who loves us, Whose very name is Love, and though our hearts are filled with grief, we can still say, ‘ T h y will, not ours, be done.’ May his great example stimulate us all in this place, to a higher and keener sense of duty, and to strive our hardest to attain th a t character of high Christian manliness of which he was so good a typ e.” A t the Priory Church the Vicar of Malvern, the Rev. A Linzee Giles, spoke feelingly of the grief-stricken family. “ Another member of this renowned clan, famous far and wide for his keen eye and his skill in games, has been removed to another sphere in the very prime of life,” he said. T o the Manchester Guardian Bishop Welldon wrote of his friendship w ith Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Foster, w ith whom he made the voyage to Australia in the autumn of 1903. “ He will live in m y thoughts,” he said, “ as being almost the ideal representative of English cricket, in his grace, his skill, his modesty, his good humour, his unselfishness, his manly character, and his constant preference of life’s highest duties and interests to athletic distinction.” F i v e of the Minor Counties’ batsmen in the second innings v. M.C.C. last week were out for obstruction. Is this crime more prevalent in the second class than in the first ? L o r d C o v e n t r y opened the pavilion which old Harro­ vians have had erected at Harrow to the memory of a distinguished son of the school on the hill, described in the inscription beneath his photograph in the new edifice as “ the best cover-point and finest horseman of his d ay.” T h i s was Mr. John Maunsell Richardson, a member of the Harrow X I ’s of 1864 and ’65 and of the Cambridge teams of 1866, ’67, and ’68. He trained and rode the Grand National winners of ’73 and ’74. A fter his Cam­ bridge career was over he played comparatively little cricket, seldom appearing in class matches. The inscrip­ tion says of him : “ A charm of manner and a simplicity of character as rare as his athletic record endeared him to a very wide circle of friends.” “ F e l i x , ” of the Australasian, states definitely th at J. N. Crawford is not going to Dunedin, but will stay in South Australia. But advices from New Zealand are to the contrary effect. They say th at he will go to Dunedin at a salary of ^350 per year, w ith a three years’ engagement. W a r w i c k A r m s t r o n g is of opinion that in selecting their coaches the New Zealand cricket associations are too much concerned with the player’s ability in the field, and too little with his teaching capacity. Possibly— but Albert Relf taught the Auckland folk a good deal, and George Thompson, who succeeded him, was employed lately by his county’s authorities in coaching his fellow-members of the eleven. John Board, Pearson, and Humphreys are the other English pros, who have done coaching work in New Zealand and represented provinces, and among Australians C. G. Macartney, J. V. Saunders, the late Harry Graham, and W illiam Carlton may be mentioned. A c o n t e m p o r a r y came rather a b'oomer when it headed a match between Worcestershire Gentlemen and St. John’s “ University Cricket.” Which was the ’Varsity side ? St. John’s is the well-known Worcester club, on whose ground the county used to p lay its matches in the old second-class days. D id " a tear bedim the bright blue eye ” of M clver when he took off the bails at Lord’s on F riday last what time C. H. Titchmar’sh was striving vainly to elongate his arm sufficiently to get the end of his bat over the crease while he lay sprawling ? (Vide the story of the soft­ hearted South African wicket-keeper last week.) B y the way, M clver’s bright blue eye must be considered poetic licence if his eyes don’t happen to be blue. Anyw ay, one can imagine his saying that the pang of regret was “ all m y eye ” as far as he was concerned. One does these brutal things quite callously after a season or two of playing Aunt Sally behind the stumps. T h e Weekly Press and Referee of Christchurch says th at A. S. MacLaren has lately been writing some quite good things in a paper for boys. One recognises the quotations which follow, and hence is able to identify the writer and the paper. Is inexactitude a virtue in New Zealand ? There are two Dunedin players named Alloo ; both repre­ sented Otago during the season just ended, but which in which matches it was impossible to tell till the averages appeared. Whether Brooke-Smith should have the “ e,” Olliff the double “ 1 ,” Sneddon and Hiddleston two “ e’s ” each, no one seems to know. Y e t these men have been playing for years ! T h e 3 12 partnership of Denton and Hirst for the fourth w icket of Yorkshire at Southampton sets up a new record for the county, Drake and Hirst (259 v. Sussex at Hastings in 1 9 1 1 ) having previously had to their conjoint credit the highest stand for that particular wicket. O t h e r protracted stands for the White Rose county have been the 554 of the late J. T. Brown and John Tunnicliffe (first wicket) v. Derbyshire at Chesterfield in ’98 ; the 378 of the same pair v. Sussex at Sheffield in ’97 ; the 340 (fifth wicket) of Hirst and Wainwright v. Surrey at the Oval in ’99 ; the 329 (fifth) of Frank Mitchell and Wainwright v. Leicestershire at Leicester in ’99 ; and the 305 (second) of Denton and Rothery v. Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1910. Two Yorkshire batsmen hold the eighth w icket record stand in big cricket in this country— the 292 of Lord Hawke and Peel v. Warwickshire in 1896.