CRICKET CHAT.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9162, 20 July 1895, Page 4

CRICKET CHAT.

[By Dark Blub.] «• Weekly Piesjs and Referee." ; The New Zealand Cricket Council (says a Sydney paper) have sent an invitation to the NewSeath Wales Cricket Association to send a team to New Zealand in January next. The New Zealand Council are prepared to pay all the travelling and hotel expenses of twelve piayere and a manager, and they offer, moreover, to pay allowance* to players who, through lo«» of salary and 83 forth, may be out of pocket by reason of

the. trip. The cfier may be snl to be a generous one, for the Nt-w ZeaJauders have been iufuraicd that, although a strong eleven may be sent ffom here, ifc will be impossible to make it a representative one, aa many prominent players will prefer to stay on this side to keep themselves in eviderc3 aaainst the selection of a team to leave for England in March. A* some New Zealand papers are republMiiug the list of W. Q. Grace's hundred centuries from the London Sportsman it would be as well to point out ■hat it contains a few inaccuracies. In 1576 '.Y. G. scored 177 for Gloucestershire against Notjs. being caught at long-on by Barnes off Selby, and noc 117 as incorrectly given by our London contemporary. In the match Kent, at Cliftou in 18S7. when Grace scored a century in each innings, he was " not out" the second time, noc the first, and his score for the Gentlemen aeainefc the Australians iv 1883 was 105 not 169. I may state that the correct list of Grace's threefigure innings was published in this journal on May 30tb, with the. exception that his 103 agaiust Sussex in his first match of the season was not ii.c'uded, the news not having been cabled out at the time. The English sporting papers to hand by the last mail are full of the marvellous doings of W. G. Grace during the latter part of the month of May, brief details of which were cabled out at the time. In the match between Gloucestershire and Kent at Gravesend the champion went in first for the former and was last man out, having compiled 257 out of a total of 443. He was at the wickets altogether for seven hours and thirty-five minutes. In the second innings Gloucestershire had to moke 103 to win and they had a lit tie mere than an hour to play. Owing principally, however, to Grace's efforts the game was won within the hour, " W.G." chiming 73 not out, which made his total 330 for the match. Kent's totals were 470 and 70, this being the first time on record in a big match that a side making so many runs in their first innings has sustained defeat. Murch, who usually goes on to bowl first for Gloucestershire, was called away before Kent's second venture started, so Painter, who was not pat on to bowl at all for hi* county last season, was given a chance, with remarkable results, as he took seven wickcte for only 25 runs. It is worthy of note that Grace wta in the field the whole of the throe days, and when he was not batting he was fielding. At the end of the game he journeyed from Grave-s----end to Bristol, spent Sunday (May 25th) at home and next morning travelled to London to play iv the testimonial match for W. W. Read. Ha only had one innings, scoring 13 (b. Richardson). On May 30th a much was cotmner.ceri at Lord's between Gloucestershire and Middlesex, and the former going iv first ran up 333. Grace went in first and remained iv until within ten minutes to the time of calling stumps, when he was bowled for 169, which brought his total for the season up to 1016 runs, made up as follows :— Ist 2nd iun?. inns. May 9M C.U. v. Sussex ~ _ 13 103 .. 116 May IS— M.C.O. v. Yortohire » 18 25 .. 43 M»iy 16GSoncesterehire v. Somerset.. 253 —.. 253 Mny 20Wobbe'e XL v. Cambridge ..52 —.- 51 May 23— Gloucester v. Kent -. - 257 73' .. 330 May 27Kujriand v. Surrey .. ~ 18 — ..IS May 30 - Giouc3Bter v. Middlessr "... IC9 —.. *69 Total .. ~ « 161<» ♦not out It will thus be seen that his average for nine completed inninge for May was 112.8 per inning-*. This is the first time on record that a batsman has scored 1000 runs in first-class matches in the firat month of the season. The match between England and Surrey at the Oval on May 27th and two following days pays proved very disappointing to the supporters of the champion county, England winning by an innings and 89 runs. Scores :—Surrey 85 and 203 (Lockwood 56 and Key 49); England 363 (A. Ward 163 and F. S. Jackson 57). In the losers' first venture Pougher took nine wickets for 34, and iv the second he took three for 43, and Mold five for 92, while Richardson trundled best for Surrey, for whom W. W. Read only scored 3 and 1, while Absl, whose average up to the srart cf the match was SS - SO for five completed innings, was dis-' missed to 0 aud 1.