Cricket 1914

M a r c h , 1914. THE WORLD OF CRICKET. 47 £b e Morlfc of Cricket. E d it o r : Mr. A. C. M a c L a r e n . A s s is t a n t E d it o r a n d M a n a g e r : M r. J. N. P e n t e l o w . 01 , TEMPLE CHAMBERS, TEMPLE AVENUE, EMBANKMENT, LONDON, E.C. Correspondence should be addressed to the E d ito r; sub­ scriptions, advertisements, and all communications on business matters to the Manager. Subscription ra te s: Inland, six shillings and sixpence per annum ; Overseas, seven shillings and sixpence. Thirty issues will be published during the year— one in each of the winter months, with a weekly issue from the middle of April to September. T h e n e x t is s u e w il l b e o u t b y A p r il 18. Pavilion Gossip. One must attribute it to luck— The day things go awry in : When bowlers bowl you for a duck, Before you’ve got your eye in ; When in the crisis of the match (The sting of it stills lingers) You let, alas ! an easy catch Elude your futile fingers. — C h arles P la ir r e . T h e r e seems no d o u b t th a t Charles K ellew ay is a greatly im proved bow ler. H e w as rath er disappointing in England in 1912, a fte r th e early prom ise he had shown a t home ; b u t this season down under he has been doing big things. A capable critic— K a rl Q uist, of Adelaide, who has played for three A u stralian states— says th a t he has more pace and more dash, and is flighting the b all cleverly. Three times du rin g the season he to ok as m an y as seven w ickets in an innings in big m atches. B u t a ll of these perform ances were done in Massie’s absence. W hen the ta ll U n iversity man cam e in to the team , K ellew ay , good as he is, had to p la y second fiddle. Massie’s analyses in the fou r Sheffield Shield m atches were 5 for 165, 6 for 108, 10, for 125, and 10 for 168— total, 31 for 566. In these fou r m atches K ellew ay had 18 for 318, his average being sligh tly b etter th an M assie’s, it will be seen, b u t th e destru ction he w orked less. In the m atches v. Queensland (two) and N ew Zealand Massie was n ot p layin g, and in these K ellew ay to ok 27 for 253, b u t again st batsm en of sligh tly inferior class to those against w h om Massie w as bowling. A n A u stralian p la yer of the earlier team s— a right popular and good player, too— has la tely been appointed to a high p ost in th e N .S .W . C ivil Service. Mr. T . W . G arrett is now P u b lic T rustee in S yd n ey a t a sa la ry of £1,000 p er annum . Good lu ck to him ! M e n t i o n of T om G arrett rem inds me th a t on one occasion th e sp ectators a t S yd n ey treated him v e ry bad ly when he w as cap tain ing N .S. W ales again st us— in ’97, I think it w as. W e were gettin g too m an y runs, from the spectators’ poin t of view , and th e y were loud in their advice as to w h at bow lers could get us out. T om G arrett paid no atten tion , b u t th a t he found it disconcerting was p retty evid en t w hen he th ou gh t he cau ght A . E . S tod dart off a bum p ball a t m id-off. Our skipper w alked aw ay and th en cam e b ack on appeal. T om G arrett w as the last to jo ck ey one out, and w e were all delighted when he came in later to kn ock up a jo lly good seven ty. I remember w ell th a t he to ok exception to a rem ark let drop b y me in conversation w ith a friend who was con gratu latin g me on m y cen tury. H owell bow led me even tu ally, and to turn h im from his con gratu latory oratory I mentioned th a t I w as lu ck y in not gettin g th e fa ta l b all sooner. M y friend told a reporter th a t I said H ow ell w ould have bow led me m uch earlier had be been brought on sooner. T . G. had a dig a t me later, and he w as reported to h a ve said, “ M acLaren wondered w h at on earth I was a b o u t in n ot bringing on H ow ell sooner a t S yd n ey. N ow I w a n t to kn ow w h at he was th in king abou t in n ot bow ling So and So m o re.” I t is more th an lik ely th a t he never said an yth in g of the sort, for A u stralian reporters, or a fair proportion of them , are known to exaggerate, to sa y the least. H e r e are a few titb its th a t appeared from tim e to tim e in A ustralian papers abou t the E d ito r :— M acLaren has again been givin g him self airs, and this tim e G eorge H irst has given him a good hiding. On another occasion I was too unw ell to b a t before the fall of the eighth w icket, the reason bein g th a t the irre­ pressible G eorge had this tim e closed b o th m y eyes— la, l a ! W hen, h avin g alighted from our trap , I w alked behind th e stands to our dressing room du rin g the Adelaide T est while S tod dart and Prince R a n ji proceeded in front, it w as considered qu ite good enough to cable home th a t there w as dissension am ongst us. B u t the gem of the lot was a p aragrap h th a t cau gh t m y eye in a periodical a t the L an gh am H o tel ju st after our return. I t w as one of those L a d y ’s letters from A ustralia, and it read som ething like th is— “ So the En glish cricketers have now le ft us, and in spite of th e m an y wiles of the A ustralian girls none of th em h ave even go t engaged. IVracLaren was far too fond of him self to spare a n y of his affection for anyone else,” etc. T he joke was th a t a t the period m entioned, 1895, I was the o n ly one who was engaged, and th a t too to a dau gh ter of the senior stew ard of the Jo ckey C lub o u t there. O n e more and the E d ito r has finished. D uring the final o f our so-called T est m atches in the A rgen tin e tw o w inters ago, we looked uncomm on ly like losing. On m y going in h alf w a y dow n in the second innings, one of our boys rem arked to a la d y su p p orter : “ N ow if A rchie can on ly g e t someone to s ta y w ith him we m igh t w in y e t.” T he la d y ’s innocent q u ery w as immense. “ Is he as unpopular w ith the team as all t h a t ! ” H ow ever, we did w in after I had hit the local hero in, sh all we say, the chest a t mid off, b u t he was “ too round, b o y s,” to grasp sw ift catches. T h e A u stralian B oard of C ontrol w ould not refuse the applications of the cricketers who w anted to to u r N ew Zealand under A rth u r S im s’s m anagem ent, bu t declined to h ave a n y dealings w ith Mr. Sims direct, and are tak in g up w ith th e N ew Zealand C ricket C ouncil the action of the la tter b o d y in m akin g th e prelim in ary arrangem ents w ith o u t first approaching th e Board. A s to th e p rojected Am erican tour, the attitu d e of the B oard was qu ite u nm istakable. Its chairm an is reported as sayin g : “ N o p la yer w ill be given san ction to accom p an y the team to Am erica, and if a n y A ustralian cricketer proceeds to Am erica w ith o u t our consent he w ill never p la y cricket in A u stralia again .” B ut the air has been cleared in rath er an unexpected m anner. T here w ill be no con flict; for Mr. B enjam in, h a v in g turned his atten tion from crick et to billiards, has abandoned all arrangem ents m ade for the tour.