Cricket 1914

i88 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. M a y 30, 1914. days the rank and file have asserted their rights to enjoy and to destroy. In many cases destruction is preferred to enjoyment. This has driven clubs to find fresh quarters where the careful watering, rolling, and cutting of a pitch are not rendered null and void by the hob-nailed boots of those who don’t care for the game. The clubs have to p ay more, but they enjoy some protection against spoil-sports. In the old days the local club was dear to the hearts of most of the inhabitants. Nowadays this is no longer the case. Weedy youths who have never learned the fascina­ tion of willow and leather trample the erstwhile sacred pitch while they discourse volubly, w ith the cocksureness bred of fathomless ignorance, of how A ston V illa have parted w ith Bill Smith for some fabulous sum, or, perchance, moved b y the genius loci to some small extent, of “ Jack ‘Obbs’s ” form (which they are quite incapable of judging even if they ever saw him play) or “ Tom ’A yw ard’s centuries.” “ ‘Tis true, ’tis p ity— p ity 'tis, ’tis true.” D id the Derbyshire Committee recall a little incident of a few years ago the other day, when the bowling of Derby­ shire’s former skipper, A. E . Lawton, was the principal factor in a narrow victory achieved b y his new side over his old one ? H ow long is it since two bowlers bowled unchanged for Somerset through th at part of a match in which it was possible for them to do so (bowling unchanged through a match doesn’t seem quite a correct expression), as J. C. W hite and Robson did the other day against Surrey at B a th ? Though it does look as though the professional (one for 58) m ight have been relieved w ith possible advan­ tage to his side’s chance in the second innings. R o b s o n distinguished himself on Saturday by taking all ten wickets in a local match. Such are the vagaries of luck ! If there had not been too much grass on the B ath wicket-—or if it had not been watered too freely— or any­ w ay if something had not gone wrong w ith it— quite probably he would not have had the chance. A Y o r k s h i r e m a n b y birth, Robson played a season or two for Cheshire before he went south. He is a veteran now, and was never quite in the first flig h t; but he has done real yeoman service for Somerset. C. B. F r y , it is said, w ill play in a few matches ior Hampshire this season. A ll through last summer, when he did not once turn out, he got plenty of practice, and he is always fit, so there is no reason at all why he should not score as largely as ever. I t s e e m s rather early to be speculating on the probable team for Australia some fifteen or sixteen months hence ; b u t a writer in the Athletic News suggests : C. B. F ry (captain), the Hon. L. H. Tennyson, R. H. Spooner, R. B. Lagden, D. J. Knight, R. A. Boddington, Bames, Hobbs, Mead, Booth, Woolley, Hearne (J. W.), Kennedy, Tarrant, Dolphin, H itch, and a right-hand medium pace bowler. S o m e of these proposed selections are a trifle in advance of justification. The Hearne meant is clearly indicated, though J. T. would scarcely be likely to. visit Australia again eighteen years after his one trip there. Not so the Woolley. W h at are the odds against the elder brother (the Northants man) being in the running when the time comes ? I f there is any real doubt as to whether Lthe H o n . H. G. H. Mulholland is eligible to play for Cambridge v. Oxford this year, w hy should the matter not be settled at .<nee ? The ruling on the point is clear, and the evidence needed such as need present no difficulty. It is not a case for the alibi upon which the elder Mr. Weller pinned his hopes, surely ! R e f e r e n c e was made last week to Philip Mead’s figures v. Leicestershire. He has since made over 200 against Yorkshire, and a summary of his doings in matches against that county shows th at he has played 28 innings, 4 not out, for 1058 runs— average over 44— which is quite good, to say the least of it. O b it u a r y . T h o u g h Rugger was the game which he wrote about most ably, cricket claimed M r . H a m ish S t u a r t in the summer, and his thoughtful articles will be remembered by readers of this paper’s predecessor as well as by those of the Daily Chronicle , a member of whose staff he was. He was a keen, if not a great, player too, and the last time I saw him (in the Press-box at Horsham in 1912) expressed his intense regret that, through illness and pressure of work, he had scarcely touched a bat up to that period of the season. I was shocked to hear a year later that he had been obliged to betake himself to a Scottish sanatorium, owing to the ravages of that fell disease, consumption. His letters were not very hopeful, though he wrote bravely of buckling to harness once more as soon as he was a bit better. I fear he got back into harness too soon ; football grounds were not the best of places for a man in his state of ill-health. When I heard a little while back that he had been obliged to go on a sea-voyage, I guessed it was the beginning of the end. He would not have left his work if he could have held on. He never came home ; he died at sea near Gibraltar on the s.s. Costello, and was buried on the Rock. He was bom at Wick in 1863, was educated at George Watson’s Academy, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Academy, held the degrees of M.A. of Glasgow and Q.C., LL.B. of Edinburgh, and was a member of the Scottish Bar. In his youth he was a good exponent of the game he loved best, and in 1882, when only 19, was first reserve for Scotland v. Ireland. Before coming to Fleet Street, he had had journalistic experience in Yorkshire. A. member of the Surrey C.C., he often played in the club’s minor matches,, and was a familiar figure to all frequenters of the Oval. In his work,, alike when dealing with football and with cricket, he was intensely serious, inclined sometimes to labour his points in a manner that some considered pedantic; but it was sound, good stuff he wrote,, always on the side of fair play and the true spirit of the game. A man worthy of all esteem has gone from among us, and the ranks of those who write on sport are the poorer for the loss of him. J.N.P. Mr. R e g in a l d J a f f r a y L u c a s died by his own hand in distressing circumstances at his residence, The Albany, Piccadilly, London, on May 9. He was in consumption, and before shooting himself wrote a letter in which he stated that the pain he suffered was unbearable, and that he felt himself to be merely a burden on others. He was bom- on December 28, 1865, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He played in the Eton Eleven four seasons (1881-1884),. an unusual record, being captain in the last two years. In his eight Public School matches Mr. Lucas scored 151 runs in 13 completed innings, his best scores being made in 1881. In 1883 he headed the Eton averages with an aggregate of 405 and an average of 36, his average being a very genuine one, as his highest score was only 62. His 82 in the Freshmen’s Match at Cambridge in 1885 was the biggest in the match, but he never obtained a trial in the ’Varsity XI. Mr. Lucas was M.P. for Portsmouth 1900-1906, and the author of several works of fiction. A.C.D. ESTABLISHED 1847. PHOTOGRAPHERS ROYAL AND CRICKET SPECIALISTS. E. Hawkins & Co., The Pioneer Cricket Photographers, Have the largest and most unique collection of Portraits and Cricket Groups— P ast and Present. Cabinets, Is. each ; 10s. per dozen assorted. Post Cards 3d. each. C o u n t y X I ’ s a n d C o l o n ia l T e a m s f o r m a n y y e a r s p a s t . General Portraiture, Groups, etc., in all the latest and most up-to-date styles. 32, Preston Street, Brighton.