CRICKET.

Otago Witness, Issue 1903, 24 July 1890, Page 29

CRICKET.

NOTES BY SLIP.

A match between the North and South of England played at Lord's for the benefit of the widow and family of John Weßt, for many summers engaged on that ground, presented some noteworthy features. As none of the principal counties were engaged, two strong elevens were collected, though neither side was represented by quite its full strength. The ground at the outßet had not reoovered from the heavy rains of the previous week, and at no point; of the game waa it in favour of rungetting, On the first day, in particular, the bowlers carried everything before them, and an innings was completed on each side with an aggregate of only 199 for the twenty wickets. The South, who went in first, found the bowling of Attewell and Briggs too much for them, and the innings dosed for 109 (W. W. Reed 22), Attewell captured six wioketa for 40 runs. The first innings of the North was in every sense a remarkable one, the team being all put out in two hours and 20 minutes for 90 runs. A remarkable performance by Shrewsbury (not out, 54) redeemed the general display of the Northerners from disoredit. He carried his bat through the innings, and at no time did he seem to be in the least troubled by the bowling which puzzled all the other batsmen, His runs were got in his usual polished style, and without anything like a flaw, A. E. Stoddart accompanied W. G. Grace to the wiokets to start the seoond innings for the South, and Bcored with equal freedom from all the Northern bowlers. When Grace was bowled, the first batsman out, he had only made 29 out of 111. Stoddart was caught at the wicket when ho had got 115, by one of the very beat displays of batting Been for a long time. At one period he made 50 while "W . G." was sooring 3, and during the two hourß and 20 minutes he was batting there was nothing that could be construed into a ohance. He made tho greater number of his runs in front of the wicket, and Mb hitting all round was brilliant in the extreme. The winnings closed for 225, J. Shuter (29) being the only other bateman to trouble the Bcorerß much, and the North were thus left in a deficiency of 245. Despite tho efforts of Shrewsbury (34), A. N. Hornby (23), acd Attewell (18), the total only reached' lo9, leaving the South winners by 135. Lobmann bowled with wonderful buccbsb at the finish. He got eight of the 10 wickets in the socond innings of the North, seven of them clean bowled, at a coßt of 65 runs. The following interesting retrospect is by 11 Mid-off " ia Land and Water :—" Nearly 30 years ago, before the great schism which for several seasons kept the best of the Northern players so much away from London grounds, and there were, of course, comparatively few county matches, the rivalry between the North' and South, aa Buch, waa extremely keen and serious. With Hayward, Carpenter, Tarrant, Jackson, Richard Daft, and George Parr on one side, and Caffyn, Lockyer, Griffith, H. H. Stephenson, Wellsher, aud Bennett on the other, a fine feeling of emulation was engendered, and cricket of a very high class was shown. While recognising the superlative merits of the great playerß of to-day, and believing that the game has in come respects made marked advances, I am by no mor.nfl one of those who think that the last generation could not j lay cricket, My experience has been too long, and I have soen far too much to even for a moment entertain such a heresy, I have ssen Daft and Carpenter at 40 jeara of age make their 90's and 70's in the beat company, and I have no doubt whatever that even »b they were great against tho bowlers of their time, bo would they have been great againßfc thoSpofforths, Palmers, Turners, and Lohmanns of our own day. As evidence of the correctness of my view, I may mention that Mr R, A. H. Mitchell, on the only ocoasion that he had ever faced Spofforth's bowling, Bcored over 30 runs. He was then getting very close to the dignity of 40 years, and I firmly believe that with the advantage of youth that inningß of 30 might easily have been 100. Batting was not learned yesterday, and though the Graceß taught the world a much more rapid and punishing game than was ever played against first-clasß bowling by the giants of old time, those ancient warriors were quite capable of holding their own against all olaeaes of bowling It is not within tho scope of my present letter to Bpeak of the old matohes at Lord'B between the All England and United All England elevens, matches which were of greater interest than the North and South contests, and for which in purely English cricket to-day we have no equivalent. Confining my remarks to North and South matches, I oan yet recall many a notable achievement. Richard Draft's great inningß of 118 at Lord's in 1862 was just before my time, and though I had then bsen seeing publio cricket pretty regularly for several years, the first North aud South matcheß of which I have very vivid recollections were played in 1871. One was the Whit Monday fixture at Lord's and the other the well-earned benefit match of H. H. Stephenson at the Oval, »nd of both Mr W. G. Grace waß the hero. It was the greatest year ho' ever had, and I doubt whether he at any time surpassed for sustained brilliancy the two displays he gave in these encounters. At Lord'c he scored 178, and in Stephenson's xnatoh, after being out leg before wicket ia the first over in his first innings, he scored 268 in his socond. Many other remarkable performances come baok to my mind as I write, It certainly dooß not seem 17 years ago since I saw Martin Mclntyre— a great cricketer when be gave bireself a cbanpe— get eight wickets for 18 runs in the Whit Monday match at Lord's. He went on, I remember, as first change, and.no one could look at him. Again, I recollect a wonderfully olose game at Prince's when the North won by some half a dozen runs, and poor Roger Iddison, who died the other day, appealed three times in one over for led before wicket against Southerton. He was Btanding point, and Bob Thomas, the umpire, was not to be bustled, but Southerton— dead 10 years ago— settled the matter by playing a ball on to his wioket."