CRICKET CHAT.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10108, 6 August 1898, Page 3

CRICKET CHAT.

[Eγ Dauk Bi.ce.] «' Weekly Tress ami Referee." Mc How's engagement as ground man to the- H,i-!t>.v lark ground terminated last month, and li« lias now returned to Sydney. S.unple of a full day's cricket, vide report in Knglixh daily paper:—•• After one over had been bowled rain drove the players to the pavilion." At the annual meeting of the Australian Cricket Cu.icil in Melbourne on Ftiday, the chairman Raid that attempts ha.l been made on the part of players to induce two colonies to withdraw from the Council, for the alleged reason that the Council failed to carry out its objects. The Council desired to work in perfect harmony with the players, and had no desire to inteifere or reap a pecuniary ben-efit from the toura of Australian teams. All it wished was to appoint a manager and place him in a position to meet the preliminary expenses of the tours. Other delegates exptessed similar views. The following resolutions were adopted :—The side which goes in second shall follow on if it scores 200 runs less than the opposite side ; that in the seasons when English teame visit Australia, the Home and Intercolonial matches bo restricted to mi? match between each colony with tlia Kii-tish and one be- j tween colony and colony. It was decided to alter the constitution of the Council by giving intercolonial players direct- representation. A committee was appointed to confer with the Melbourne 'Jlub with regard to the visit of a team to England next year. A legal case of great interest to cricketers generally was recently decided in the Court of (Juecu's Bench, London, by Justice Grantham and a special jury, wherein the plaintiff brought an action to make the County Council responsible in dam.iges for personal injuries. She was on the road near a cricket ground when she received a violent blow on the eye from a cricket bill vhich some one had hit, and the blow jirodm-ed concussion jf the brain. It was proved that some cricketers were practising with the usual aack winii and stop nets and a ball glanced an the bat of a player and went over the net. The judge said he could find no evidence of negligence to go to the jury, and was of the opinion that the regulations issued by the County Council were rea onable. Judgment was consequently entered •gains! the plaintiff without costs. Mr t>. Lacy writes to " Cricket" :—"ln addition to records abeady noticed, the seaBon has produced others which have escaped the eai;le eye of the record hunters :—l. Tunnicliffe made the top score in rive consecutive matches for his county. Even Grace never accomplished tbis feat. 2. In five consecutive matches Surrey only lost twenty-eight wiekett ! 3. In four coneecutive matches the Surrey captain never went to the wicket at all ! " From the report of an interview with Lord Hawke appearing in the " Pall Moll Gazette," it is clear that his lordship is quite satisfied that his idea with regard to the M.C.C. managing test matches will be carried out, and from statements of J. A. Dixon, as well as of Arthur Shrewsbury and A. E. Stoddart, it may be judged that the representative men of the Notts and Middlesex Clubs are of the same opinion. The question whether the M.C.C. should also take in hand the sending of teams to Australia has not yet been brought formally on the tapis, but it is not improbable that a decision favourable to this course will also be arrived at by the leading cricketers. The latest information on the subject is embodied in the following paragraph :—" On June 9th, »t Hudderstield, the representative of the ' Sportsman' was informed by Lord Hawke that he had already received eleven favourable replies to the circular he issued recently with regard to the England v. Australia test matches on the occasion of the forthcoming tour of the Australian Cricketers in the season of 1900." Walter Hearne relates in an interview published in London '•Cricket" the result of an experiment tried by bin*self and Martin, another Kent trundler, of establishing a winter school of cricket. "From the point of view of cricket it was undoubtedly a success," he saicl; " and we hope to reopen the school next winter. The ball is about 150 ft by 50ft, with a glasa roof. We had top nets as well as side nets, and put matting on the boards. The practice lasted for three hours a day. 'I he light was good; there was never any glare, and even when the glass was covered with snow we were still able to see as clearly as possible. There aro two or three peculiarities about playing on a covered wicket. For one thing," tho noise made by the ball is so peculiar that at first it is almost startling, though you very soon get used to it. When we came to play in the open again it seemed for a time quite odd not to hear the ball rattle. Another peculiarity is that oven in the coldest weather you soon get exceedingly warm. We are pleased to sec that nearly all our members have made runs this year, despite the slow \riekets. That S. M. J. Woods has lost none of that pluck which caused C. B. Fry to write of him us "Lion-hearted Sammy"' is shown by his wonderful achievements for Somerset against Sussex early in June. Entering upon the final stage of the match only two things seemed possible!— Somerset might either lose or draw. But "the little boy from Manly" played phenomenal allround cricket. First hebatted with so much .skill and brilliancy that all chance of his county's defeat was obliterated before he was dismissed, and then when Sussex went in with an apparently light tnsk set them to draw, he bowled with such determination that lie fairly frightened the Sussex "toil," and won the match, amid great excitement, within ten minutes of time. His batting in many respects resembled that of George Brann, for Sussex, the previous day. Brann scored 118 out of 190 in less than three hours. Woods contributed an even greater proportion in far less time, for he nitido 143 out of 17.5 in two hours and a quarter. "Sammy's" three wickets in the bussex second iunings only cost 10 runs.