CRICKET.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12989, 2 June 1904, Page 7

CRICKET.

Br "Lose Svtv."

"How wo ftecovercd: the Ashes" is to be> the- title, of Pelham "Warner's liook on tl:o veeent Australian torn , qi the M.C.C. team. The book is to -be published this month. The captaincy of the Essex County' Cricket Club having beon v resigned by Mr C. J. Korfcright, his nlaco will probably be t-akon this season by Mr F, L. Eano, who toured Now. Zealand with Lord' Havkos team.

In connection with the benefit match which is to be played oa behalf of Georgo Hirst on August 1, 2, and 3, Lord Hawke lias written' a letter to the Yorkshire County C.C., in wWoh he says that Hir.st is ono of tho most inopnlar players who over donned flannels, and one. of tho most brilliant cricketer who over represented England. Lord Hawke concludes his letter as follows:—"I would saj; then, lot tbis benefit be worHiy of a great cricketer, and let Georgie Hirst say, when lie must givxs up tbo ball tnd lay down the wiliow, 'My county did me> proud. , >' Tho manner iu wiiich some of the famous cricketers who are also journalists go for each other affords considerable entertainment to tho outside world. Thus Mr Warner in the Westminster Gazette:—'•The opinions o£ the English papers on the third l test match have just reached us, and I gather from some, of them that my management of tho bonding on that occasion, has been a> good deal criticised, My friend, Mr 0. B. Fry, even went so far as to choose my eleven for mo, and , to haul, me over the coals for not playing a certain member of the tenm on a -wicket p-iiich he folt h0—12,00,0 miles away—was in a bettor position to judge of than I who saw it before I selected my eleven. 'Hard as vulcanite,' you call the Adelaide wicket, Mr Fry. No; you, who always write eo liieol.v, 60 ably, and so truly, and whose criticisms on tin's tour, founded only on tho cablegrams, have been so excellent and full of prophetio instinct, were wrong for once. It was juafc an easy wicket—not so fast as a Sydney or Melbourne wicket in dry weather."

"Will you or one- of your contributors kindly instruct me on the origin of tlio phrase 'yorker'? Sprites a. correspondent to the editor of Cricket). If I remember rightly, tho Rev. ,T. Pycroft in "The Cricket Field," classified all bowling as good length, or length balls, or bad length, or non-length balls, and divided the latter into tho following five tinds:—

1. The toss or full pitch. ' • 2. The tice, a ball which pitches upon or closo to the popping crease. 3. Tlio half-volley. 4. The long hop. 5. The ground hop. All these terms, save the second, are weed or understood nowadays; but I tlu'nk that if n modern cricketer wercoskod the question, "What is the meaning of a tice?" the answer would bo either a modest confusion of ignorance or a supercilious denial of the existeuco of the word, so thoroughly has it lKson superccJcd by tho usurping 'yorker." In reply to the above, I may say that various efforts, more or loss unsatisfactory, have teen made to determine tlio origin of tho word "yorier." Tho only really satisfactory explanation of tho word that has ever been given.is, perhaps, that of tho old player—was it Torn Emmett?— who, on being asked why the word was called "yorkor," replied. ''"Why, what on earth else could you call it?"