Cricket 1914

J u l y 4, 19 14 . THE WORLD OF CRICKET. 307 cathedrally inside, as he can attest after two visits— one as witness in a trivial case at p etty sessions, and another as a member of the grand jury at quarter sessions. T h e C a u s e w a y , as the street b y which one reaches the charming ground a t Horsham is called, is rather like a cathedral close, w ith an air of prim neatness and cleanli­ ness. Somehow it reminds one of Mrs. Henry Wood's novels, read many years ago and but dim ly remembered now. B u t the ground’s the thing. Capital wickets are to be had th e re ; that last week was all too fast for the Cantabs, fresh from Eastbourne, where there had been more rain than in North Sussex. A t Horsham the joke about John Douglas and the trains that pass the Melbourne ground m ight be given a new setting, with Joe Vine in the Essex skipper’s role. One fancies Job— sorry ! one’s pencil slipped— would win, for though trains run into Horsham on three lines (Guildford, Shoreham, and Portsmouth) from the south they are not quite as frequent as those at Melbourne. N e x t to one of the cricket columns in the Evening News on Saturday appeared the headline : “ Mr. Thornton gets going.” One thought of C. I. at once ; but his day for that sort of thing is long since over, and ‘*Parson ’’ Thornton and his brother A. J., and W. A. also, are memories of the past. And after all it was only Mr. Thornton, the new G .E .R . manager from the States ! T h e Star on Saturday stated th at H .H .th e Jamsaheb of Nawanagar would have paid England a surprise visit this year but for a throat illness and a consequent operation. He had booked his passage, but found it quite inpossible to come. T h e H o n . H. G. H. M u l h o l l a n d is entering the field political. He is likely to stand in the Unionist interest for a Lancashire constituency a t the next election. O n e more man tired of waiting on the fringe of a county team is going north, like others to whom the same weary experience came, more who found themselves getting near the end of their tether, and two or three who apparently prefer half-day to three-day cricket if only there is enough money in it. W il l i a m C o o k and Llewellyn are among the last class. Leach, Newstead, Wilson, Lees, Hallam, and Buckenham are among those who went after they had somewhat passed their best in big cricket. Preston and Morfee, like Spring now, grew tired of waiting. T h e counties cannot help it. They can only play' eleven men in a team. The men are not to be blamed. " Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” Spring has had rough luck. A fter years of struggling he found himself playing pretty regularly for Surrey last season, and did well enough to justify his place. B u t there are younger men, more finished players, or likely to become so— Harrison, Sandham, W illiam Abel— and the return of Ducat and the acquisition of Fender helped to make Spring’s cake dough. T h en there are the amateurs who may be playing in July and August— Donald Knight, Miles and John Howell, R. B. Lagden, I. P. F . Campbell, to say nothing of M. C. Bird and E. C. K irk on occasion. No wonder an invitation to sign on for Colne was sprung at by Spring ! W ith the eleven and some seven or eight others ahead of him there was small chance of the winter of his discontent being turned to a glorious summer. “ W h a t ’ s in a name ? ” asked Shakespeare. A good deal, in some cases. Royal N a vy v. A rm y failed to attract many' people to Lord’s. W hy ? N ot because there was any reasonable doubt of good cricket. The men of the services play the game as keenly as anyone could desire to have it played, and the standard of their play is high. Bu t the majority of the twenty-two players do not figure in the limelight of first-class cricket, so the crowd stayed away. O n paper the Arm y was much the stronger side. In the eleven of the senior service was only one man, Harrison (his correct rank would appear to be Lieutenant-Commander, by' the way, though in Hampshire score-sheets he has always been set down Lieutenant), who has played county cricket. The Arm y had Tennyson (an England man), Johnston (Gentlemen of England), Yates, W y a tt (all of Hampshire). Bush (Surrey), Wilson (Suffolk), and Lawrence (Kent and Suffolk). T h e y lacked, however, Major Greig (Hants), Major A. J. and Capt. W . M. Turner (Essex), P. Pearson-Gregory (getting some of the best for Notts on the same days), F. R. R. Brooke, D. C. Robinson, and Capt. H. S. Poyntz, to name only seven who m ight have been included. B u t the comparatively unknown players who represented our first line of defence played up in great style. Nearly all of them made runs, and while their fielding was excellent their bowling was b y no means to be despised. N a t u r a l l y few men in the N a vy get a chance of playing county cricket. Hampshire and Devon have had help from some of them, however. A t the tea interval a t Eastbourne on Wednesday in last week S. H. Saville apologised to Leveson-Gower for the poor game his team had given the old W ykeham ist’s side. Half-an-hour later he was back in the pavilion, w ith the match won. Such is c r ic k e t! S a r e l was the last man out, and at least seven or eight voices were raised in appeal against him for l.b.w. I t was partly fun, though it showed keenness. If it had happened in a county game, however, there m ight have been some hostile criticism. B o w l e y ’ s big score against Hampshire was his thirty- third century in first-class cricket, every one of the 33 made for Worcestershire. Seven were against Hants, 6 against Warwickshire, 5 against Leicestershire, 3 against Lancashire, 2 each against Derbyshire, Kent, Middlesex, and Yorkshire, and one each against Gloucestershire, Somerset, Surrey, and Cambridge University. T h is is his third 200. He made 217 v. Leicestershire a t Stourbridge in 1905, and 201 v. Gloucestershire at Worcester last year. H e has made more centuries for the county in first- class cricket than any other batsman, H. K . Foster coming second, w ith 28. ----- +.----- W it h reference to the article about Mr. E. M. Sprot, Mr. A. C. Denham points out an error. Sprot’s first match for Hampshire was against Cambridge University in 1898, when he scored 21 and 56*. He did not play again that season. His absence from the county team in the latter part of 1899was not due to his military duties, as suggested, for he had then sent in his papers and gone abroad. Colonel (now General) Spens was Colonel of the Shropshire Regiment, and to him (an old Hampshire player) the present Hampshire captain owes many useful hints in the way of coaching. Mr. Sprot was at Sandhurst after leaving Harrow, but played no cricket there.