CRICKET.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2728, 10 July 1925, Page 9

CRICKET.

HOBBS’ FOURTH CENTURY OF THE SEASON. [From Our Own Correspondent.] LONDON, May 21. Jack Hobbs is hot on the trail of W. G. Grace’s record of 126 centuries. Starting with three hundreds in his first three matches, he followed by going to Leyton, and making 129 against Essex. This brought his total up to 117, and he is batting, such wonderful form that it seems likely he will be very near W. G.’s record at the end of the season. Unfortunately, during the play at Leyton, Hobbs strained a muscle in his foot, and was unable to bat in the second innings. It is not thought that the injury is serious, though it is likely to keep him out of the field for a few days. He has now scored over five hundred runs in four games, and he has an average of eighty-seven. Curiously enough, when he first declined the invitation to go fo Australia, Hobbs did so owing to the fear that the arduous tour would affect his play this summer at Home. As a matter of fact, he has not played so well since 'his operation. The bad weather has produced several fine bowling performances, as well as changes in the championship table. For instance, (hough Surrey were in a strong position against Essex, they were a few runs behind on the "first innings, and so wore penalised, their percentage dropping to ninety-two. The only counties who have not lost grounu are Kent and Yorkshire, and they have been very lucky, inasmuch as the games which they have not completed ended without two innings being played. Thus these fixtures are ignored in the reckoning of the percentages. One of the best bowling performances so far recorded was the taking of nine wickets for nineteen runs by Richmond, the Notts man. The Leicestershire batsmen foun r i him almost unplayable. Richmond for the most part is a leg-break bowler, but he has Ihe ability also to conceal an off-bneak. In fact, he mixes them artfully in the stylo of the googlie bowler. He has been several times considered for a place in the England team without being chosen. J. W. Hearne, a bowler of a similar typo, has also been very successful this season. Indeed, he has been more valuable to Middlesex as a bowler" than as a batsman. It was chiefly to him that the county owed their victory over Warwickshire, for he bowled splendidly in the second innings, when every run was of the utmost importance. and captured five -wickets for ten runs each. Only five of the counties have avoided defeat. These are Yorkshire, Kent, Surrey, Lancashire and Notts, but though the table of records makes a distinction between them, (hey deserve at present to be on ,the same mark.