Page:EB1911 - Volume 07.djvu/468

Rh team under Mr Leveson Gower went to South Africa, and played test matches.

West Indies.—West Indian cricketers toured in England in 1900, winning 5 matches and losing 8. The best batsman was C. A. Olivierre (b. 1876), who subsequently qualified for Derbyshire. The brunt of the bowling devolved on S. Woods and T. Burton (b. 1878). In 1897 teams under Lord Hawke and A. Priestly (b. 1865) both visited West Indies, Trinidad defeating both powerful combinations. R. S. Lucas (b. 1867) had in 1895 taken out a successful side. A much weaker combination in 1902 suffered five defeats but won 13 matches. B. J. T. Bosanquet, E. R. Wilson (b. 1879) and E. M. Dowson (b. 1880) were the chief performers. In 1906 another West Indian side visited England, but were not particularly successful.

America.—In the United States cricket has always had to contend with the popularity of baseball, and in Canada with the rival attractions of lacrosse. Nevertheless it has grown in popularity, Philadelphia being the headquarters of the game in the New World.

The Germantown, Belmont, Merion and Philadelphia Clubs play annually for the Halifax Cup, and the game is controlled by the Associated Cricket clubs of Philadelphia. In the neighbourhood of New York matches are arranged by the Metropolitan District Cricket League and the New York Cricket Association; similar organizations are the Northwestern, the California and the Massachusetts associations, while the Intercollegiate Cricket League consists of college teams representing Harvard, Pennsylvania and Haverford. R. S. Newhall (b. 1852) and D. S. Newhall (b. 1849) may almost claim to be the fathers of cricket in the United States; while D. W. Saunders (b. 1862) did much for the game in Canada. Other eminent names in American cricket are A. M. Wood; H. Livingston, of the Pittsburg Club, who scored three centuries in one week in 1907; H. V. Hordern, University of Pennsylvania, a very successful bowler; J. B. King, who in 1906 made 344 not out for Belmont v. Merion, and who as a fast bowler proved most effective during two tours in England. At San Francisco in 1894 W. Robertson and A. G. Sheath compiled a total of 340 without the loss of a wicket, the former scoring 206 not out, and the latter 118 not out. A large number of English cricket teams have visited the United States and Canada. The first county to do so was Kent in 1904, in which year the Philadelphians also made a tour in England, in the course of which J. B. King (b. 1873) took 93 wickets at an average cost of 14 runs, and proved himself the best all-round man on the side. P. H. Clark (b. 1873), a clever fast bowler, and J. A. Lester (b. 1872), the captain of the team, also showed themselves to be cricketers of merit, while N. Z. Graves (b. 1880) and F. H. Bohlen (b. 1868) were quite up to English county form. The team did not, however, include G. S. Patterson (b. 1868), one of the best batsmen in America. The Philadelphians again visited Great Britain in 1908, when they won 7 out of 14 matches, one being drawn. On this tour King surpassed his former English record by taking 115 wickets, and Wood, who played one fine innings of 132, was the most successful of the American batsmen.

Other Countries.—The English residents of Portugal support the game, but were no match for a moderate English team that visited them in 1898. In Holland, chiefly at the Hague and Haarlem, cricket is played to a limited extent on matting wickets. Dutch elevens have visited England, and English elevens have crossed to Holland, the most important visit being that of the gentlemen of the M.C.C. in 1902, the Englishmen winning all the matches.

Professionalism.—The remuneration of the first-class English professionals is £6 per match, out of which expenses have to be paid; a man engaged on a ground to bowl receives from £2, 10s. to £3, 10s. a week when not away playing matches. A professional player generally receives extra reward for good batting or bowling, the amount being sometimes a fixed sum of £1 for every fifty runs, more frequently a sum awarded by the committee on the recommendation of the captain. Some counties give their men winter pay, others try to provide them with suitable work when cricket is over. A few get cricket in other countries during the English winter. For international matches professional players and “reserves” receive £20 each, though before 1896 the fee was only £10; players (and reserves) in Gentlemen v. Players at Lord’s are paid £10. A good county professional generally receives a “benefit” after about ten years’ service; but the amount of the proceeds varies capriciously with the weather, the duration of the match, and the attendance. In the populous northern counties of England benefits are far more lucrative than in the south, but £800 to £1000 may be regarded as a good average result. County clubs generally exercise some control over the sums received. Umpires are paid £6 a match; in minor games they receive about £1 a day.

Records.—Records other than those already cited may be added for reference. A schoolboy named A. E. J. Collins, at Clifton College in 1899, excited some interest by scoring 628 not out in a boy’s match, being about seven hours at the wicket. C. J. Eady (b. 1870) scored 566 for Break o’ Day v. Wellington in eight hours in 1902, the total being 911. A. E. Stoddart made 485 for Hampstead v. Stoics in 1886. In first-class cricket the highest individual score for a batsman is A. C. MacLaren’s 424 for Lancashire v. Somerset at Taunton in 1895. Melbourne University scored 1094 against Essendon in March 1898, this being the highest authenticated total on record. M.C.C. and Ground made 735 v. Wiltshire in 1888, the highest total at Lord’s. In the match between A. E. Stoddart’s team and New South Wales at Sydney in 1898, 1739 runs were scored, an aggregate unparalleled in first-class cricket. The highest total for an innings in a first-class match is 918 for N.S.W. v. South Australia in January 1901. Yorkshire scored 887 v. Warwickshire at Birmingham in May 1896. The lowest total in a first-class match is 12 by Northamptonshire v. Gloucestershire in June 1907. The record for first wicket is 472 by S. Colman and P. Coles at Eastbourne in 1892. The longest partnership on record is 623 by Captain Oates and Fitzgerald at the Curragh in 1895. The best stand that has been made for the last wicket in a first-class match is 230 runs, which was run up by R. W. Nicholls and Roche playing for Middlesex v. Kent at Lord’s in 1899.

The “averages” of individual players for batting and bowling annually excite a good deal of interest, and there is a danger that some players may think too much of their averages and too little of the sporting side of the game. Any comparison of the highest averages during a series of years would be misleading, owing to improvements in grounds, difference of weather, and the variations in the number of innings.

The following table of aggregates, compiled from the figures to the end of 1905, affords a summary of the records of a select list of historic cricketers; it will serve to supplement some details already given above about them and others.

Batting.

Bowling.

—The chief works on cricket are, apart from well-known annuals:—H. Bentley’s Scores from 1786 to 1822 (published in 1823); John Nyren’s Young Cricketer’s Tutor (1833); N. Wanostrocht’s Felix on the Bat (various editions, 1845–1855); F. Lillywhite’s Cricket Scores and Biographies, 1746 to 1840 (1862); Rev. J. Pycroft’s Cricket Field (various editions, 1862–1873); C. Box’s Theory and Practice of Cricket (1868); F. Gale’s Echoes from Old Cricket Fields (1871, new ed. 1896); Marylebone Cricket Club Scores and Biographies (1876), a continuation of Lillywhite’s Scores and Biographies; C. Box’s English Game of Cricket (1877); History of a Hundred Centuries, by W. G. Grace (1895); History of the Middlesex County Cricket Club, by W. J. Ford (1900); History of the Cambridge University Cricket Club, by W. J. Ford (1902); History of Yorkshire County Cricket, by R. S. Holmes (1904); History of Kent County Cricket, ed. by Lord Harris, (1907); Annals of Lord’s, by A. D. Taylor (1903); Curiosities of Cricket, by F. S. Ashley Cooper (1901); “Cricket,” by Lord Hawke, in English Sport, by A. E. T. Watson (1903); Cricket, edited by H. G. Hutchinson (1903); Cricket Form at a Glance, by Home Gordon (1903); Cricket (Badminton Library), by A. G. Steel and Hon. R. H. Lyttleton (1904); Old English Cricketers, by Old Ebor (1900); Cricket in Many Climes, by P. F. Warner (1903); How We Recovered the Ashes, by P. F. Warner (1904); England v. Australia, by J. N. Pentelow (records from 1877 to 1904) (1904); The Jubilee Book of Cricket, by K. S. Ranjitsinhji (1897).