CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11280, 9 August 1930, Page 11

CRICKET.

THE GENTLER SEX,

OLD HANDS AT CRICKET.

Will the visit of the Australian cricketers to England do much to encourage the formation of more clubs -for ladies? asks a correspondent. As a matter of fact cricket as a pastime for the gentler sex is by no means iu new thing. There were lady cricketers 150 years ago. In the “Morning Post” of January 22,1778, there appeared the following paragraph:—

“The intended match between the

Duke of Hamilton and. Miss Bur- • roll was first, thought of at tlie happy meeting of the numerous nobility at the grand cricket match at the Oaks (the seat of the Earl of Derby) last summer, where his Grace was observed to pay an uncommon degree of’ attention to this lady during the whole entertainment, but probably, when she took th© ‘bat’ in hand, then her Diana-like air communicated .an irrisistible impression. /She got more ‘notches’ (runs) in the first and second innings, than any other lady in the game, and at last ‘bowled’ the Duke himself fairly out.”

In Lillywliite Scores, Volume I, there appears a letter written by the Duke of Dorset to a circle of ladies describing this famous cricket match. In the course of it the, Duke defends cricked as a pastime for uonion. He says:— 1

“I shall’not pass any censure on the ladies usurping a game which custom, that cruel tyrant, has hitherto confined to the opposite sex. Methinks I hear some little macaroni youth, some trifling apology for the figure of a man, exclaiming. “How can the ladies hurt their delicate hands with holding a nasty dirty bat? Are they not afraid lest a ball should misplac© an ivory tooth, or extinguish the fire of an eye which has long been considered a meteor in the horizon of beauty?’ Mind not, dear ladies, the impertinent interrogations of silly coxcombs. . . .Let your sex go on and assert your right to every pursuit that does not degrade the mind. Go on and attach yourselves to the athletic, and 1 by that convince your neighbours, the French, .that you despise thejr washes, their paint, and their pomatum, and that you are now determined to convince all. Europe how worthy you are of being considered the wives of plain, generous and native Englishmen.”

NOTES AND ’ NEWS. Talk about, the South Africans objecting to England playing K. S. Duleepsinliji in a Test match last year makes the following extract from a letter received by an English writer from D. P. B. IVXofktl, of South Africa) most interesting: “Not one member : of the , side was against. “Buleep” playing. As a matter of fact, we were all'very sorry indeed that he was not played in more of the Tests. In a way his omission ’ suited us, because ho would probably hav© scored many runs. ’t: \ : : When J. B. Hobbs scored two separate hundreds in one match for the fifth successive time recently at THo Oval, ’he' equalled' the record of C. B. Fry. This famous old Oxford

batsman in three county games, for Sussex at Brighton obtained two separate hundreds, and his fourth success of the kind ; ’was for Sussex aginst the M. C. C. at Lord’s, while the last occasion was tor. Hampshire against Kent, at Canterbury, in 1911, when Fry was 39 years old. SOME TEST RECORDS. A Sydney “Referee’ correspondent ‘wrote as follows after the second test match between England and Australia! with respect to records ho considered had been overlooked:— “(1) When Duleepsinhji scored his century; lie was the first'.amateur to make a century since Iv. L. Hutchings scored. 126 at Melbourne in ■January 1908.’’ ■ “(2) In the second innings Duleepsinhji carried liis aggregate to 221 His uncle and R. E. Poster are the only; others playing for England, scored oyer 200 in their first "test match. “When Archie Jackson made his aggregate of 200 in Adelaide lie was the only Australian to do so in his ; first test. No English professional has ever done so, George Gunn, 193 for twice put, in 1907-8, and W. Leyland, 193 for once out, in 1928-9, just failing. “(3) When C. C’. Macartney mado a -test match aggregate of 473 in 1926 he was the first Australian to score over 400 iu an English test series, F. S. Jackson holding the record with 492 in 1905. Bradman has made 394 in this series, and requires, in tlireo tests, to score 106 to reach 500 in England—a feat never yet done. He requires only 175 to complete 1000 runs, in test cricket.” The performance of McCabe in capturing three wickets on the final day’s play of the fourth Test in'England must have been a fine one, for the special correspondent of the Australian Broadcasting stations says' that McCabe gave one of tlie finest displays of bowling on a wet wicket lie had ever seen. Wall evidently had a difficult time, for h 6 found it hard to get a good run, and liis feet slithered from under him. The same critic says that the English newspapers are beginning to waken up to the fact that the Australians are developing into a solid combination, and no more is heard about- the) twoman team. For some time past, he went on, the toast at thq hotel had been Bradnian, Grimmett, and Woodfull, but after tho fourth Test it became Ponsford, Wall and McCabe. A. C- McLaren was impressed with the form of the visitors, and praised McCabe especially as a- young cricketer full of the greatest promise as aii all-rounder.

For keenness, English cricket crowds are on a par with New Zealand football crowds. On the third day of the fourth Test there were 25,000 people present, thousands of whom sat all day throughout the rain soaked to the skin. They were orderly enough until lunch. When the groundsman appeared at one o’clock and shovelled water off the pitch he was given a cheer, and a cry went round th© ground for play to begin. Something like revival meetings were held, and the position became ’so had that policemen were lined up. to prevent a rush to the wicket. On that day £2,798 was taken for fifty minutes’ play, and most of those who paid were soaked. On the last day .when it was decided to abandon tlie game the wisest course was taken, according to a. critic, as if play had not gone on' and people had paid for admission, the demonstration of tlie previous day would have been like a “baby’s rattle” compared with what would have followed.