Cricket 1914

208 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. J u n e 6, 19 14 . T h e old Warwickshire bowler, Pallett, has fallen on evil times, stricken w ith paralysis and penniless. It is proposed to p lay a benefit match for him. F o r a few years P allett and Shilton (the latter now dead) did great things for the county. That two slow bowlers should get most of the wickets in match after match was surprising enough then, and would be more so now. In 1888 Pallett had 68 wickets, Shilton 50, no one else more than a dozen or so. In 1889 Shilton had 100, Pallett 91 ; in 1890 Pallett 125, Shilton 106 ; in 1891 Pallett 96, Shilton 77 ; in 1892 Shilton 76, Pallett 61 ; in 1893 Shilton 79, P allett 55 ; in 1894 Pallett 99, Shilton 66. After ’94 Shilton practically dropped out ; but Pallett took 108 w ickets in ’95, 84 in ’96, and 53 in ’97. These figures are from Santall’s History of Warwickshire Cricket, and are for all matches ; those in Wisden usually give second-class matches only. A l t o g e t h e r Pallett took between 900 and iooo wickets for the count}', and Santall is the only man who has taken more. T h e H o n . G. J. A. M . M u l h o l l a n d , a member of the E ton team of 1911, who was up at Cambridge in 1912 and 1913, and did very well in some of the trial matches, is now private secretary to Sir Henry Galway, D.S.O., the new' Governor of South Australia. The old Etonian is, like his elder brother, last year’s Cambridge captain, a son of Anak, standing something like 6 ft. 6 ins. T h e Rest of England team v. the M.C.C.’s South African X I at Lord’s will probably be captained b y C. B. Fry, who would have played in T arrant’s benefit match but for a leg injur}'. The selectors of the England team are Sir Archibald White, C. B. Fry, and H. K . Foster. T h e M.C.C. decision in the E . L. Kidd case is on the lines anticipated by the critics. A Scottish county is not a county, but only a club. D itto an Irish county. Nothing is said about the Principality, two of whose counties— Glamorgan and Carmarthen— have played in the Second Division Championship. It would be rather a queer ruling that a man m ight p lay for Anglesey and Kent, but another man m ight not play for Glamorgan and Surrey, providing their qualifications for the English counties were equally good ; y et logically the line must be drawn below the recognised minor counties, and could scarcely be drawn below Anglesey and above Perthshire ! T h i r t y - s e v e n centuries were scored in first-class cricket during May. L ast year 34 were m a d e ; in 1912 there were 51, and in 1911 the number was 42. N e w names in the list, as far as English first-class cricket is concerned, are those of M. K . Foster, M. Howell, D. J. Knight, A. D. E. Rippon, L. H. W . Troughton, and Whysall. T h r e e totals of 500 and over, and seven of 400 and over, were recorded during the month. A c o in c id e n c e : J. W . H. T. Douglas, 1). Middlesex at Leyton, 25 and 63 ; v. Lancashire a t .Old Trafford, 63 and 2 5 - A n o t h e r : Douglas, second innings v. Middlesex, 63, Perrin, ditto, 60 ; Douglas, first innings v. Lancashire, 03, Perrin, ditto, 60 not out. T a r r a n t had 830 runs to his credit b y the end of May, and had outdistanced the field, the only others over 500 (none of them 600) being Hearne (J. W.), Hirst, Hobbs, and Mead. T h e Anglo-Australian had also taken most w ickets (47), and here again was well ahead. No one else reached 40, those w ith 30 or more being Booth, Drake, Gear}', Hearne (J. W.), Hitch, A. Jaques, and Kennedy. It is a pleasure to see an amateur’s name in the list. T a r r a n t ’ s two successive 200’s is not an absolute record, of course. Walter Read scored for Surrey in 1887 in the course of a week 247 v. Lancashire a t Old Trafford and 244 not out v. Cambridge University at the O val W . G., in August, 1876, made 344 for M.C.C. v. K ent, 177 for Gloucestershire v. Notts, and 318 not out v. Yorkshire, though this is not quite a parallel. C. B . F ry for Sussex in 1901 made 241 v. Cambridge University a t Hove on June 25 and 219 not out v. Oxford University a t Eastbourne on June 28 and 29. Bu t between the two 200’s he went for a duck. Prince Ranjitsinhji played successive innings of 285 not out (his highest) v. Somerset a t Taunton and 204 v. Lanacshire at Hove in the same season, and in the one prior to it made 222 v. Somerset a t Hove and 215 not out v. Cambridge University at Fenner’s consecutively. P l a y i n g for averages is generally reckoned a modern sin. But is this view correct ? “ Thomsonby’s ” once popular book, “ Cricketers in Council,” refers to the practice as being general (vide p. 79). And “ Cricketers in Council ” is over forty years old ! “ W h a t I detest ” (says Branson), “ is the abominable practice, which is so prevalent nowadays, of playing for averages. . . . You have the greatest difficulty in getting men to go in a t the end of a match, when there are only a few runs to be made, because they are afraid of spoiling their average.” F r o m the same volume : “ Throughout the summer, a t least half-a-dozen sporting papers depend for a large pro­ portion of their contents on the reports of matches played not in England alone, but in every p art of the world, to which our countrymen have penetrated. . . . It is with some satisfaction that we recognise the name of Tomkins, our old schoolfellow at Rugby, among the eleven of Columbo (sic), who beat the All-Ceylon team, or that we find the hand of Jones, who used to hit those sixes in the E ton playing fields, but who has since taken to bullocks in South America, has not lost its cunning from using the lasso more often than the bat, but is still equal to making the best score for Buenos Ayres against the rest of the Argentine Republic.” S u r e l y these instances are imaginary ? Cricket was played both in Ceylon and the Argentine in 1871, doubtless ; but if any such matches as these were contested it would be interesting to hear more about them. “ T h o m s o n b y ’ s ” real name appears to have been^H. B. Thomas. See Mr. A. D. Taylor’s “ Catalogue of Cricket Literature.” Perhaps he is still alive. “ Births •' and Deaths ” in Wisden contains no record of him. T h e A merican Cricketer says th at A rthur Boddington, an English professional, who for the last five years has been going out to the States at the beginning of each season, disappeared from the “ Haverford ” on the vovage from Philadelphia to England about November last. T h e ship was within three hours’ sail from Queenstown when the bugle sounded for dinner. Boddington, then in the smoke-room, got up, telling a friend he was going for a wash. His friend went with him, but seems to have left him in the lavatory. His seat at dinner was vacant, and nothing was seen of him afterwards. He was not known to have any troubles likely to cause him to take his own life, yet that he did so seems almost the onlv possible solution.