Cricket 1914

A ugu st i , 1914. THE WORLD OF CRICKET. N o t A l t o g e t h e r a n E a s y S e a t ! (As the others are aware.) O x f o r d s h i r e has twice at least been organised, but has lapsed. A year or two ago a revival of the county club was talked about, but did not materialise. Both Hunts and Rutland had county clubs in the eighties. They used to meet one another, and the former played Lincolnshire, Suffolk, and Bedfordshire now and then, while the latter met Northants. The first county match the present writer ever saw was Huntingdonshire v. Rutland, on the County Ground a t Huntingdon, where F . R. Beart, the old Chel- tonian and Oxonian, used to hit fivers and sixers to leg, favoured b y the downward slope towards the gate at the town end. W o r c e s t e r s h i r e ought not to be allowed to sink to the level of these seven. I t is not strange th at counties like Hunts, Rutland, Westmorland, Herefordshire, and Shrop- shore, w ith sparse populations and no really big towns, should not be able to stand the ra ck e t; but Worcestershire has a far bigger population, and will go on, it is to be hoped. 5 for 49 v. Oxford ; in 1908 twice— v. Middlesex and Sussex, w ith 5 for 91 in the Sussex match ; in 1909 in six matches, scoring 49 v. Sussex a t the Oval, and taking 8 for 68 v. Somerset. H e had quite a good trial in 1910, playing in as many as 14 matches. Doing nothing of note w ith the bat, he bowled w ith quite a fair amount of success, his 51 wickets costing under 18 each. His best performances were 10 for 176 v. Hants at Southampton, 9 for 93 v. Leicestershire at Leicester, and 8 for 68. v. Oxford University. S in c e then he has appeared only a few times, making 47 and taking 4 for 71 in his one match, v. Oxford in 1911, playing in those matches in 1912, and not getting a chance at all last year. P l a t t , who bowled so well for Surrey a t Portsmouth, is being written up as a promising colt and quite a new discovery in some quarters ; but seeing that he is on the wrong side of thirty, played for the first eleven eight years ago, and has done a lot of useful work for the second, he must be reckoned out of his colthood days, if not yet exactly a veteran. In the Westminster Gazette, P. F . Warner chooses an England team, as follows, in the order of going in : R. H. Spooner, Hobbs, Hearne, Tarrant, Mead, J. W. H. T. Douglas, Woolley, F. R. Foster, Hitch, Barnes, and Strud­ wick. I n 1906 he played three times for the county— v. Derby­ shire, Warwickshire, and Scotland ; in 1907 once, taking H e admits a doubt as to whether S. G. Smith should not be preferred to Mead, and hesitates between Bames and Jeeves, whom he regards as the coming medium-pace right-hander. He would have Blythe in reserve to sub­ stitute for Hitch should the w icket be sticky.