THE CRICKET FIELD.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11748, 24 November 1903, Page 10

THE CRICKET FIELD.

("Weekly Press and Referee") . LONDON, September 21. The cricket season of 1903, which came to an end with the Middlesex and Rest of England match at the Oval hurt Wednesday afternoon, wa*, to a great extent, interfered with by the' tremendous rainfalls; but, despite many disappointments in' the shape of drawn and in some cases totally abandoned gomes, there are several features worth calling attention to. First,

there has been a change in the leadership! of the County Clnlmpioaship. Yorkshire, j after three wumiriers of continued and w«li-.j deserved triumph, hjiving had to yield their! proud position to Middlesex-—an ambition never previously obtained by tho __etropolitan county since tbe present system of tearing paints woe adopted, though as far back as 1866, when the distinguished family of Walkers were, at tbe height ot their fame, and again in 1678, Middlesex were generally considered to be the strongest side amougst the counties. There was no star in our eleven of the. iihmiinstiug brilliancy of Mr C. B. Fry, K. S. Ranjitsinhji. Mr A. C. MacLaren, or George Hirst, but just » very level lot of hard-working and determined cricketers, who never knew what fear was, and whose one object- from first man to tho lost was td ploy for the general well-being and good of the" side. Mr MacGregor, who ought »o know, tells mc that this year's eleven was the best Middlesex; team he ha* ever played for, and certainly during a ten years' experience I cannot remember our ever having a more evenly-balanced lot. There were no batsmen of tbe pre-emi-nence of Mr A. B. Stoddart or Sir T. C. O'Brien when those great amateurs were at their best; but a team which included seven men, any ono of whom might make a hundred runs, and three otliei- who were quite likely to, and more thsn once did, make fifty* runs, with Jack Hearne bringing up the rear, could not be considered anything else than an extremely powerful batting combination. Moreover, we were not. merely a hard-wicket eleven—we should never have won the championship in a season such as this had we been so—and those who cure to look into the details af our cricket will find tliat more than one of our best performances were achieved when the weather was in its moit annoying mood. Nor was the manner in which we made our runs •altogether unattractive to the spectator; for thero was Mr Moon, ever ready to deal forcibly, with those huge shoulders and strong "wrists of his, with any loose ball that came along, and then 'Mr G. W. Beldam, with his strong defence and neat timing of the ball, and a great lover of the Surrey bowline and the Surrey ground. And if, as often happened, a bad start was made, there was Mr Bosanquet coming in number five, just to show us what could be done with the best bowling by a determined and powerful hitter; and to" follow him was Mr C. M. Wells, equally determined, and an extraordinarily hard man to bowl out. And so on through the unique peinonality of Albert Trott; Mr E. A. Beldam, a young batsman and fielder of high promise; Mr MacGregor himself, very nearly as good as ever he was behind the stamps, and to whose leadership those who really know these things are aware how much we owe; Mr J. H. Hunt, a fieldsman worthy to rank with the best in the world; down to Jack Hearne. who, through many long years, has rendered great service to the county of.'-Middlesex.' -- And then, .with Albert Trott, Mr C. .M. Wells, Mr J. H. Hunt, Mr B. J* T. Bosanquet, and Mr G. W. Beldam, and | Hearne, we had *ix bowlem, all of tiiem ! differing in method, and so producing an attack which, intrinsically strong, was made doubly so by a variety of styles. But when all is said and done, our fielding really won us our position, for throughout the season the catching has not been unusually rafe, but there lias been a dash and _ life about the whole thing wbich | was. delightful to take part in. There | were no "slackers" in our eleven; every man had his whole mind and being on one object, viz., tlie dismissal of the opposing ! side, and there was a consequent energy i and keenness about our .work which it was ! delightful to play a modest part in.

No aide, I venture to think, ever took the field more of an eleven—as opposed to a collection of individuals—and one felt that, if one foiled to get runs, or make a mistake in the field, there were always ton men who sorrowed with him in his misfortune, and who, when fortune smiled, were the first to rejoice. And in each a feeling as that there breathes, ac it seems to mc, the greatest and true spirit of the game; so that if we have done nothing cisc, - we have given the cricket world'&n example of what great, results mutual cooperation and playing together can achieve. Whether we were a better side than our friends the Yorkshiremen is beside ihe question; the fact remain* that our record \ya indisputably better, and that I**do not think the,most enthusiastic Tyke can dispute.

We allowed bur best cricket in London, and on no ground more t» than at the Ova), in the games against Surrey and the Rest of England. The last match wo* indeed a sharp answer to some of our critic*, far \ against an eleven which, except; for.-the .absence of C. B. Fry; and A. C. MacLaren, might well have represented ;.thiH'countoy»n a. test match, we marched out with all the honours: of war. Had the match been extended to'four or five days, we might well have'" *'on, a* we. should then,have been able to play our second innings right through in a seriousi manner, .instead of having, to forte the gome with the idea of declaring. ...

Next to the Country Championehip, the roost remarkable point about the _ea*c__ cricket ;ha* i been' the wonderful batting of MrO. B. Fry, who in each a.wet summer haa an absolutely phenomenal record. 'He played magnificently throughout, whatever the condition of tlie ground, and. three time* scored 200 and over—hia greatest triumph being in the Gentlemen v Pl4yer_. ■match at Lord's, when, together with Mr MooLoren, he gave a display of oattirig which has never been _urpn_sed in the history of the game. • Next to 'G B. Fry is Ranjitsinhji, and then come* Hirstone of the grandest all-round cricketers England has ever had. In such a wet season it is quite extraordinary that there should be thirteen averages of over 40,, and ten othem of between 35 and 40, and there can be little doubt that, -peaking collectively, we are better jdS for batsmen than we have ever been before. .

Turning to the bowling, it is interesting to find four left-handers—Biythe, Rhodes, Hargreave, and Hirst—amongst the first six names. As to who is the best bowler of the year.opinions differ considerably; but, for myself, I am inclined to give the preference to Hirst, on all days and all wicket*, though better bowling than that of Hargreave in the Gentlemen v Playerj match at Lord's I have not played. Biythe, too, has done remarkably wen, and there are many who consider him tlie best lefthander we have on a hard, true wicket; while Rhodes has again hod a splendid season, and would hove had a better had he not been particularly unfortunate in the matter of dropped catches. The Middlesex v Rest of England match was played for the joint benefit of the Cricketers' Fund Friendly Society and the. London Playing Fields Society, ffcThere is no need to tell of the good* work which is being done by both institutions, and 1 would Yiere appeal to readens of the "Referee" who take an interest in cricket— I do not mean first-class cricket only, but the game as a national institution—to send some small sum to either, or, better still, both societies. Mr H. Luff, 21 Cranbourn street, Leicester square, W.C., is the secretary of tbe Cricketers* Fund Friendly Society, and Mr G. J. Mcrdaunt—whom many will remember a* the Oxford captain of eight years ago, and than whom no more brilliant fielder ever lived—is the secretary of tlie Playing Field*.

Many of us have our lot cast in pleasant place*, and it is well not to forget those who, Jhcmgh equally keen on the game which has done so much for England and Englishmen, have to live their lives under conditions jn which an occasional game of cricket is a real relaxation of mind mid body.