Cricket 1914

39 ° THE WORLD OF CRICKET. A ugu st i , 1914. H is arguments for the inclusion of Tarrant are reasonable. Many will agree w ith these— not all. T arrant’s right to a place on the score o f form alone could not be questioned. B u t somehow it would not be very satisfactory to defeat Australia in a match in which Tarrant played a big part, even though he did get most of his cricket education in England. T h e Australian Team for South A frica has now been definitely made up, and consists of W . W . Armstrong (captain), W . Bardsley (vice*captain), T. J. E. Andrews, F. Baring, G. C. Campbell, W . Carkeek, B. J. Folkard, C. Kelleway, C. G. Macartney, E. R. Mayne, A . G. Moyes, R . L. Park, J. Ryder, and W. J. W h itty. E. P. B a r bo u r and G. R. H azlitt dropped out of the original selection, P ark and Folkard being chosen to replace them. Clem Hill, Victor Trumper, Vernon Ransford, and R. J. A. Massie were not available for selection. C am pb ell , who had some experience in the managerial line in America, will act as manager. A member of the Board of Control advanced the proposition that the second wicket-keeper, usually a gentleman of leisure, could find time for the necessary work. Well, Alfred Johns, A. H. Jarvis, and Philip Newland m ight agree as to the gentleman of leisure business ; whether any one of the three would have cared for managerial duties is another matter. S e v e n of the fourteen have been in England, Armstrong w ith three teams, Bardsley, Carkeek, Macartney, and W h itty twice, K ellew ay and Mayne once. Campbell has toured America. The other six are all new to the hard work of a tour, not one of them having even visited New Zealand. Folkard is rather a mature cricketer to be making his first trip ; but Baring, Ryder, Moyes, Park and Andrews are all young, of high promise, and more than likely to be members of the team to England in 1916, if they do even tolerably well in South Africa. T h e r e is said to be practically no friction between the Board of Control and the players on the active list now. A sign of this is the acceptance b y Armstrong of the cap­ taincy. The absence of Hill, Ransford, and Trumper from the team is due to business reasons. A n o th er sign of the times is th at Mr. W . P. McElhone is retiring from the Board. He would never do this while there were battles still to be fought, cricketing De Wets to be rounded up, and the like. Mr. D. R e e se , the New Zealand captain, resents strongly the statement made b y the manager of the New Zealand Team to Australia, Mr. Sydney Orchard, to the effect th at the players were all on the make. For his part, Reese told the New Zealand Cricket Council that he did not need and did not want the 5s. per d ay allowance which has caused so much trouble, and other members of the team shared his views. B u t the Council considered it best that all should take it, just as the Yorkshire Committee in years past insisted th at all amateurs playing for Yorkshire should accept their expenses. W e are glad to hear that Robert Relf is going on well, though, of course, there is no hope of his playing again this year. A lbert T ro tt left St. M ary’s Hospital on Tuesday, but whether he will be able to bear the long hours of standing which is an umpire’s lot is very doubtful. “ B e tt in g S t r ic t l y P r o h ib it e d . Anyone infringing will be ejected.” Such, a correspondent tells us, is the correct wording of notices on the Southchurch Park Cricket ground at Southend-on-Sea. T he visitor from New England, some of whose stories o f the game were recently told in these columns, points out one or two minor slips of memory on the part of the narrator. The ground which has a river for one of its boundaries is not at Providence, whose ground, he says, is probably one of the most arid cricket grounds in the whole world. And as a m atter of fact cricket balls no longer cost quite so much in the States as they did when three were hit into the Slough of Despond outside another ground, owing to a reduction in the tariff. T he Orange Free State intend to engage a professional for the season of 1914-5. There will be plenty of men available, and the move is distinctly one in the right direction. The Free State has a number of young players of promise, and if these men get good coaching no reason exists why it should not go ahead in the cricket world. T hat D rake’s four wickets in four balls should so speedily be followed b y a parallel feat b y S. G. Smith is quite a cricket curiosity, for on an average this sort of thing does not chance in first-class cricket more than once in five years. I n the Evening Standard E. W . B. notes th a t this is the twenty-third hat trick performed for Yorkshire in first- class cricket, Haigh (thrice), Booth, Drake, A llan Hill, Hirst, atid Peate (twice each) having been among the bowlers who did it. George Freeman (v. Lancashire in 1868) was the first to do it for the White Rose team. E. W . B . relates an interesting reminiscence of a Second League intertown match between Durban and Pietermaritz­ burg years ago. The capital needed 5 runs to tie when Cyril Sewell (left hand medium) put himself on and clean bowled the last 5 wickets in 5 balls, the port thus winning. Sewell, by the way, was not related to C. O. H. of Gloucestershire, though he is a Natalian. A co r r e spo n d en t — to whom thanks— points out th at Jennings made his third, not his second, century for Kent in scoring 106 v. Essex. He made 104 not out v. Somerset at Tunbridge Wells in 1911, and 100 v. Hants a t South­ ampton in 1912. E le v e n batsmen had reached the thousand when our last number went to press. Since then the following have qualified for inclusion in the list :— 12.— Humphreys (July 23) : 13.— Gunn (G.) (July 23) ; 14.— K ing (July 23) ; 15.— Wilson (B. B.) (July 24) ; 16.— Bow ley (F. L.) (July 24) ; 17.— Jupp (July 27) ; 18.— Rhodes (July 27) ; 19.— Hubble (July 27) ; 20.— Sharp (J.) (July 27) ; 21.— Russell (July 27) ; 22.-—Tyldesley (E.) (July 28). H itch took his hundredth w icket on July 27, J. W . H . T. Douglas his on July 28, and Drake his later in the same day. T h e four wickets in four balls performance has cropped up again. R. Waad did it for Philadelphia v. New Y o rk on July 16— a match which cannot be reckoned quite first-class, but must be considered above the ordinary run of club games. ----- +----- P u t n e y put out West Wimbledon for 108 (Gregory 3 3 ), and lost 8 for 92 ; but at this stage Ward (29*) and Payn (44*) not only won the match but carried the score to 168 and were unseparated at the finish. Porter hit hard for 25.