CRICKET CURIOSITIES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 192, 18 September 1914, Page 5

CRICKET CURIOSITIES.

BOWLERS' GREAT FEATS. In a recent match between the Northamptonshire and Warwickshire cricket elevens, at. Edgbaston, S. G. Smith, of the former team, took the wickets of Baker, A. W. Foster, Howell, and Field with consecutive balls —the last three of one over and the first of the next —and it was a genuine curiosity that the three batsmen named first should all have been caught by George Thompson at short-slip. It was also strange that the feat of taking four wickets in four balls, a very rare occurrence in great matches, should have been performed twice within the- space of four days, for on the previous Saturday Drake had met with a similarly effective success, save that in his case all four wickets were taken in one and the same over, and that no fieldsman brought off three catches in succession'; The list of bowlers who have obtained four wickets with consecutive deliveries in important cricket is now as follows: —

J. Wells, Kent v. Sussex, at Brighton, 1862. Ulyett, England v. New South Wales, at Sydney, 1878-9. Nash, Lancashire v. Somerset, at Manchester, 1882. Shelton, Warwickshire v. Leicestershire, at 'Edgbaston, 1888. Jesse Hide, Sussex v. M.C.C. and Ground, at Lords', 1890. Lockwood, Surrey v. Warwickshire, at the Oval, 1891. Shacklock, Notts v. Somerset, at Nottingham, 1893. Martin, M.C.C. and Ground v. Derbyshire, at Lords', 1895. Mold, Lancashire v. Notts, at " Nottingham, 1895. W. Brearley, Lancashire v. Somerset, at Manchester, 1905 (not all in the same inw nings.) -. . A. E. Trott, Middlesex v. Somerset, at Lords', 1907 (his benefit match. He also did the hat trick in the same innings). Tarrant, Middlesex v. Gloucestershire, at Bristol;' 1907. Drake, Yorkshire v. Derbyshire,- at Chester-' field, 1914. S. G. Smith, Northants v. Warwickshire, at Edgbaston, 1914. ■"* Joseph Wells, whose name appears first in the list, was the father of H. G. Wells, the novelist. We believe we are correct (says the " Athletic News") in suggesting that on no previous occasion in first-class cricket had Thompson's feat in taking three catches off consecutive balls, and thereby crediting the bowler with the hat-trick, been paralleled. .We are, of course, not unmindful of the fact that W. H. Brain finished off the Gloucestershire v. Somerset match, at Cheltenham, in 1893, by stumping A. E. Newton, Nicholls, and Tyler off successive deliveries from Charles Townsend. EEMAKKABLE RECORDS. Tilery have been outstanding feats with the ball in minor cricket since the days When good St. Patrick did the hat trick, And Nicodemus saved the follow-on. and we propose to refer to some of the most curious. The greatest number of wickets taken with consecutive balls is eight—by James Walker, for Ashcombe Park v. Tunstall, in Staffordshire, in' 1882, and by James Stebbing for Frindsbury v. Raiuham, in Kent,-in 1902. W. Clark, a youth of 15,' who bowled left 1 hand fast, did the hat-trick three times in the first innings and twice in the second for St. Augustine's College, Ashford (Kent) against Ashford Church Choir in June, 1912; and George Neale, a veteran, who had - played for over thirty seasons, did the hat-trick three times in three overs (taking four wickets with successive balls on the last occasion), bowling down every wicket for Menangle v. Picton, in New South Wales, in 1893. On more than one occasion a wicketkeeper has stumped three, and even four, men off the reel, thus crediting the bowler with the hat-trick, and for Matfield v. Horsjemonden Rangers, in Kent, four years ,ago, W.-Lark-in made four catches off consecutive balls; three, of them were at mid-on off G. Castley, and the other at third-man. CURIOUS TRIPLETS.

-.0. Broad obtained three leg-before-wickets decisions in three balls for Nelson College against .the Wanderers, at Nelson, New Zealand, in 1894; ejarly in -1906 a son of Tom Horan, the wellknown Australian cricketer, bowled -three no-balls in succession, and obtained a wickeC with each; in August of the same year, in the match at Finchley between Leytqn and Finchley, . three men on the former side were run out from consecutive balls; Mr Nourse, for Herbert Institute v. Depot Trumpeters, at Woolwich, in 1892, made three catches at long-on from successive balls, and amongst the many:,other fieldsmen who have similarly credited a bowler with the hat-trick may be mentioned: — J. C. Lowe (first-slip), for Oxted v. Old Wykehamists; at Oxted, in 1908; John H. Mason (short-slip), for Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia v. InterState Cricket League, at Philadelphia (U.S.A.), in 1909; and A. Johnson (sec-ond-slip), for Meltham Mills v. St. "Andrew's, in a Kenyon-Lockwood Cup tie, in 1911." For National Provincial Bank 2nd XI. against Northern Assurance, in 1910, J. H. Williams performed the .hat-trick, each of the victims in it playirig-on. S. M. J. WOODS'S EXPERIENCE. Charles Absolon, who died in January, 1908, did the hat-trick 59 times between J. 871 and 1893, 1 when he was 76 years of age, and it is probable that during the seventy years he played he credited himself with the performance on more than a hundred occasions. .Weaver, of the Ilford C.C., of Essex, has done it about eighty times. How not to do the hat-trick was exemplified on one occasion by S. M. J. Woods, for, according to tradition, at Brighton College, he Once hit the wicket eight times in an over without performing the feat. The first three deliveries were no-balls, and each hit the stumps; the fourth bowled a man; the fifth went for byes after touching the wicket; the sixth'and seventh bowled men; and the eighth, which also hit the stumps without removing a bail, went for more byes. , '