Cricket Notes.

Evening Star, Issue 7355, 29 October 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Cricket Notes.

The membership roll of the Melbourne Club last season was 2,043, of whom 339 were juniors. The entrance fees and subscriptions were L 4,325 9s 6d. When Major Wardill took the secretaryship in 1878-79 there were only 534 members. W. L. Murdoch bos stated that he will play in the leading matches, and probably some of the cup matches with East Melbourne this season.

As a proof of the great interest taken in the last county match between Notts and Surrey, it will be enough to point to the fact that on the third day no less than 110 telegrams asking for the score or the result of the match were received by the management of the Oval.

W. 6. Grace performed on Saturday, August 27, for the second time in his career, a feat which, in modern days, has been accomplished by no one but himself in first-class matches. ffe scored 101 in his first innings against Kent, on the Thursday, and on the following Saturday, in his second innings, he made 103 not out. It is one of the very rarest things for a batsman to play two innings of over a hundred in the same match ; and the previous occasion of Grace doing it was in the Canterbury Week of 1868. In the present instance he was batting for two hours twenty minntes, and it was only from the last ball bnt one of the afternoon that, with a hit for 4, he completed his 100. A quarter of an hour before drawing stumps he was 18 short of three figures. This was his sixth hundred in first-class matches this season. It is only another instance of his wonderful vitality and unparalleled ability, and it is in the eternal fitness of things that the only similar case in which a batsman has made a hundred or more twice in an important match should have been furnished by himself, None but himself can be his parallel. In strictly first-class matches this year he has scored 1,943 runs, with an average of a little over 57. The season just closed has been a more eventful one than any that has been recorded to him during the last ten

years. Playing for the Surrey Club against the Northern Wanderers, a bowler named Hulrae bowled eight wickets in the first innings, and six times in succession the middle stump was shot clean out of the ground. Notts v. Middlesex.—Some remarkable scoring by the Notts Eleven marked the return match between these counties. The Notts team were in the whole of the first two days, completing their innings for 596, the largest total made in an important match this year, Scotton and Shrewsbury made 167, but this stand was overshadowed by that of the latter and Barnes, who added 214 runs for the third wicket. Bamesi in making his 115, was seen to the very best advantage, and his innings, in which were fifteen fours, was an admirable exhibition of batting. Shrewsbury was the eighth batsman out, having scored 267 of 536—0r just one-half—made during his stay. He was batting altogether ten hours and a-qnarter, and when it is added that he never gave a chance during all this time, the high character of a truly remarkable display of batting can be properly estimated. He was at the wickets nearly two whole days, and while he scored 171 on the first day, on the second he only added 96. score of 267 was made up of twenty-six fonts, twenty-two threes, sixteen twos, and sixtyfive singles. In their first innings Middlesex scored 179, and in their second had lost two wickets for 41 when stumps were drawn. Daring the English season just closed, Notts in two consecutive innings on their own ground made 1,166 —viz., 596 against Middlesex, and 570 against Sussex. E. J. Diver, who, cricketers will remember, used to play Surrey, but who is now settled at Cambridge, scored (between May 22 and August 13) 1,646 runs for fifteen innings; average, 103.1. Below will be found the averages of W. G. Grace, who has participated in first-class cricket for almost a quarter of a century;—

These figures show that in these twenty-four years he had 709 completed innings for aa aggregate of 32,065, and an average of over 45 runs. Of course, these averages are for first-class matches only ; minor matches are not included. A WONDEEFCL BATTING BECOBD. Shrewsbury’s performances with the bat this summer have been so consistently brilliant as to challenge comparison with the doings of the “ great master of cricket,” Dr \V. G. Grace, at his best, than which there can certainly not be higher praise, fils innings of 267 against Middlesex is the fifth score of over two hundred he has made for Notts. From the annexed list it will be seen he can claim an aggregate' of 1,627 runs for eighteen completed innings Ut ins. 2nd ins. ID.

When the season finally closed he had the extraordinary average of 95 per innings.

Cmptd Omptd. Bns. Av. Inns. Bns. Av. Inns. 1861 .. 7 402 67 1876 .. 46 2622 62 1865 .. IS 319 24 1877 .. 37 1474 89 1866 .. 15 640 42 1878 .. 38 1116 28 1867 .. 5 154 30 1879 .. 25 880 1868 .. 9 583 65 1880 .. 24 961 9 1869 .. 28 1320 67 1881 .. 21 792 87 1870 .. 33 18C8 54 1S82 .. 87 976 26 1871 .. 35 2739 78 1883 .. 89 1862 84 1872 .. 26 1485 67 1884 .. 40 1881 81 1873 .. 30 2189 71 1885 ... 89 1688 48 1871 .. 31 1658 63 1880 .. 62 1846 86 1876 .. 30 1814 86 1887 .. 34 1948 67

Notts v. Surrey .. 17 . . 6 .. 88 Notts v. Middlesex ,. .. 119 . • — •• 118 Encland v. M.C.O. acd Ground 158 . • — •• 158 Notts v. Yorkshire .. .. 81 . • — •• 81 Notts v. Lancashire .. .. 180 . . — •• 185 Players v. Gentlemen .. Ill . , — •• 111 Players v. Gentlemen .. 2 . . — •• 8 Notts v. Kent .. 24 . 74* .. 08 Notts v. Sussex .. 101 . a ' — — 201 Notts v. Gloucester .. .. 86 . •• 86 Notts v. Surrey NottsV. Gloucester .. 41 . .. H9» . 6 is 46 110 267 06 68 185 Notts v. Middlesex .. .. 267 . * — .. Notts v. Warwickshire .. 96 . — ~ Notts v. Kent Notts v. Sussex .. 9 . .. 185 .. 58 ••