Cricket 1914

256 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. J une 20, 1914. W ho would have suspected C. J. B . Wood of an attack upon F ield’s record of 6 for 2— an absolute record as far as first-class county cricket is concerned ? The Leicestershire skipper has never been reckoned more than a moderate change bowler ; and probably no one was more surprised than himself at his bag on the Loughborough ground. T o say th a t he has never before done anything approach­ ing this is a mere platitude. Looking back over his past performances, one finds that he only appears some five or six times in the full averages of the year— which is in itself an argument for the presentation of complete averages, instead of the present system of a qualification of 8 innings for batting and 10 w ickets for bowling. When such a feat as W ood’s at Loughborough is accomplished b y a bowler of the third or fourth change type, one naturally wants to know w hat he has done before ; b u t in m any cases Wisden will not show this w ithout more research than most people have patience for. W ood has only once taken more than 20 w ickets in one season. He took th a t number in 1910, at between 28 and 29 each, and in 1911, a t over 45 each. In 1899 he had 22, a t a cost of over 900 runs ; in 1906 17 a t a trifle over 22 each, and in 1909 12 a t a little under 25. F or what it m ay be worth, one notes the fact that he headed his county’s bowling averages in 1903 and 1906. In all he had taken up to the end of last season 151 wickets in first-class cricket, but at a high cost— over 41 each. O n c e before he did a somewhat sensational feat, taking 3 w ickets for a single run v. Northants at Leicester in 1910. Among his other best performances have been 6 for 79 v. Warwickshire at Coventry (1910), 4 for 43 v. Northants (1906), 4 for 62 v. Yorkshire (1906), 4 for 64 (two innings) ». N otts (1903), 4 for 65 v. Worcestershire (1899), 3 for 2 yv. Derbyshire (1909), 3 for 32 v: K en t (1909), and 3 for 39 v. Hants (1906). A chronicle of small beer, some may s a y ; but a double strike of malt went to the old Wellingburian’s latest performance ! T h e r e was no official pronouncement as to the result of the meeting held a t Lord’s to decide the question of Satur­ day starts, w ith Mr. F . E . Lacey, whom everyone is glad to see back in harness, in the chair. B ut it is understood th a t the scheme w ill be adopted, though exceptions will probably be made as to the B ank Holiday matches, and the fashionable games at Lord’s— Oxford v. Cambridge and E ton v. Harrow— will not be affected. K e n t alone opposed the scheme strongly ; but one or two other counties are lukewarm. Sussex this year make no Saturday starts at home. R o b e r t R e l f has now made three centuries in three matches, though not in three successive . innings. He infuses somewhat more caution into his play now than he was doing till quite recently ; bu t he does not— and it is to be hoped he never will— make a practice of pottering about. Q u it e without any set intention, we have come some­ where near making the round of the first-class counties, not touching any county twice, in the course of our first page portraits thus far. Lancashire was represented in No. 1, in the person of the Editor of the W . of C., Gloucestershire (Gange) in No. 2, K en t (L. H. W . Troughton) in No. 3, Essex (J. W . H. T. Douglas) in No. 4, Northants (Woolley) in No. 6, Yorkshire (Lord Hawke) in No. 7, Worcestershire (the late R . E. Foster) in No. 8, Sussex (Cox) in No. 9, Notts (Lee) in No. 10, and Hants (Major Greig) in No. n . T his week Leicestershire has its turn. There now remain Derbyshire, Middlesex, Somerset, Surrey, and Warwickshire ; and it w ill not be lpng before each of these will be dealt w ith in the person of one of its prominent players. A C r ic k e t P h ilo so ph er . — From the Evening News of June 10. “ ' I t ’s a bit uncomfortable,’ said a man in the street at Manchester last night, during the downpour, ‘ but if the sun comes out in the morning K e n t’ll be beaten.’ ” A philosopher and a prophet ! W e are not of the prophetic band ; but as observers of the game we are struck b y the manner in which the other counties are making smooth Middlesex’s path to the championship. Before this is read something m ay have happened to make the comment out of date ; bu t the defeat of Surrey b y Middlesex, and of K en t b y Lancashire, coupled w ith Gloucestershire’s taking first innings’ points out of Hampshire, and the determined refusal of N otts to let Hampshire take more than first innings’ points out of them, all tend to the establishment of the metropolitan county as hot favourites in the race. B u t there is a long w ay to go before the end of August, and Tarrant and young Hearne m ay be needing some help in the attack before long. Not th at Middlesex lack reserve men. Apart from “ Old Jack,” b y no means done y e t— give him a w icket that suits him, and see !— Clarke, the googly-man, is in waiting— and may be wanted. T he South African press is worrying itself— quite un­ necessarily, as one believes— about the Australian team due in South A frica next November, and whether the Board of Control will be able to get together anything like a representative team. T h er e is little doubt of this, if it be true that Armstrong has accepted. No one was a more determined opponent of the Board than he. Ransford cannot go ; Noble and Hill certainly will n o t ; but Trumper is quite a possible starter. T h e statement in a daily paper th at the Board is asking too much in requiring £200 per man plus all expenses arises from a complete misconception of the true state of affairs. The Board did not ask any such thing ; the South African Cricket Association offered it as one of two alternatives. I f the proposals for a reconstruction of the S.A .C .A . on lines that will make it more closely resemble the Board of Control in Australia come into effect, the new body is likely to begin its work a t the end of the 1914-5 season. There has been a good deal of very plain speaking abou t what is styled the wanton waste of money b y the present authorities over'the recent M.C.C. tour. - O n c e more a suggestion has been made to amalgamate the five Currie Cup centres in the big Cape Province so as to form only two. This could be accomplished by Griqualand W est (Kimberley) and the South-Western Districts (Mossel B ay, Robertson, and Oudtshoorn) throwing in their lo t w ith Western Province (Cape Town) ; and Eastern Province (Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, etc) joining forces w ith the Border (King Williamstown, East London, and Queenstown). B u t there are big distances to make such junctions difficult in practice, and the centres concerned do not at all favour the scheme. To bring South African cricket into fine w ith the Australian state system, the five centres would all have to suffer extinction, and Cape Province p lay as a whole— as it did against the M.C.C. at Port Elizabeth recently.