NOTES BY LONG SLIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 8 July 1903, Page 57

NOTES BY LONG SLIP.

William Ho well, the well-known New South Wales cricketer, met with an acoide-nt the other day while cut quail-shooting with hie brother-ia-law. James Hunter. The dog roused quail, and Hunter fired, the charge grazing and cutting Howell on tho left thigh. Th© injury, though painful, is not dangerous. Oxford University unexupcto-dly dt feated Cambridge University on July 4 br 263 runs.

Victor Trumper, tho Australian crack batsman, has taken to baseball as a winter pastime. As baseball is really winter encke-t Victor is keeping his hand in.

In discussing the extraordinary letter rereived by the Victorian Crick-et Association from Jamc-s Phillips, th© well-known umpire, in which ho threatens to no-ball Sauudors if tlLa«t bowler visrta Enaland again, a member of ihe Victorian Crifke-t Association said: — I never had much opinion of Phillips as an iimpire after I saw him give W. G. Graco not-out leg-before when Grace fitood in jh© middle of his wicket on tho Sydney crirket ground." Tho suicide of Arthur Shrewsbury may well raise the question "Does constant cricket eauae insanity?" His death follows hard upon the upws of the veteran Yorkehireinan Tom Kminett's mental breakdown, and it is scarcely a year ago that Johnny Briggs made so mournful an ending in an asylum. All were- great cricketers of thoir day and generation, and it is this which renders their common fate th© more striking. The mental strain involved in constant participation in first-class cricket is not small, as Mr C. B. Fry has pointed out. There is also a heavy toll upon the physique. Th© list of cricketers, -fine athl&tcs all, who have died in their prime during th© la»t few y©ar3 is sad reading. Lohraa-nn, P-eate, Batec, George Davidson, Mr li. H. Gwynn, Barnes, and Shilton are a few of the names that come to mind, and all these prominent cricketers wer-o- bowled out by death before reaching thoir fiftieth year.

Bosanquet. or '"Boz," as lie was popularly called by the members of Lord Hawke's team in Ne-w Zealand, scored in a terrific manner for the Gentlemen of England against Oxford University. In 70 minutes he compiled 108 by faultless inckct, his principal strokes being two 6's, skbeen Vs, and a 3. The Marylcbone Club ne-.it London County by nine wickets. J. T. Hearne took eight London wickets for 51, and Trott disposed of seven fpr 37. Th© match wa3 remarkable in that it began and ended on ■the samo day, Ranjitsinhji and C. B. Fry scored eenturios for Sussex (485) against Lancashire ou May 25. Ronji. compiled 105, and Iry 181 In the cricket match at Lords on May 25 between Middlesex and Gloucestershire, tue

former county, thanks mainly to Warner (139), Moon (122), and Trott (103) compiled 502 runs, and won by mi innings and 118 runs.

Pelham Werner settled down early after his colonial tour to make runs for his county, and succe-eded in hitting up 139 for Middlesex against Gloucestershire ou May 25. A young Australian, named Cuffe. readied England on the R.M.S. Oroya, which has brought Lord Hawker's team of cricketers safely back to England. Cuffe is a left-arm, medium-paoo bowlor, and a r-ight-hand batsman, who is about to qualify for Worcestershire. He played again9t A. X, Sfcoddxrt's last team at Toowoomba, and bowled well. He is only 23 years of age. For the last two years he has assisted the Sydney Club, and w© may say that the Now South Welshmen think very highly of his powers a.s an allround player. After coming so far (says Athletic N»ws) we wish him well.

Albert Trott is not only in good bowling form this season, but that h© is kitting t-o 6ome purpose is proved Ky his score of 103 out of Middlesex's total of 502 against Gloucestershire on May 25.

As a mark of re-pect to Arthur Shrewsbury, the news of whose, doa.'h naturally gave a great shock to his brother cricketers, the match at Brighton between Sussex and Notts wa? abandoned. This course was suggested in a telegram from Nottingham, and the Sussex authorities, on l>eing ccm-f-ulted by Mr A. O Jones, at once agreed that the game thould b© given up. There had been promise of a kceu fight, Notts at the drawing of th© stumps on tlse Tuesday 1/oing 207 runs ahe-ad with four wickets to fall m their second uiiiiugs. It m,ty be interesting to record tho fact that at Manchester in 18£4 a match between Lancashire and Gloucestershire was abandoned on *ue news reaching the ground of the death of Mrs Grace, the mother of the famous Gloucestershire- ci lcWo-tor*.

I'liiuiDjl feature of the match Warwick Jure a"d Leieei-'T'Oiins won by flw former by an inning and 43 runs, was tlio bowline; of e\-H:iwkc'.< team left-hander Harftieave. who bagged 12 Leicester wickets for 79 runs, and rho batting of Quaife, who ac cumulated 130

Allxrt Trutt ixM-formr-d a gr^at feat on May 20 at Lord's ground, which was the fcceno of sonic sensational enrket. Tho match between M.C.C and London County was started at 11 o'c'ock nnd finished by 6, 31 wickets falling throughout tho. day. The club won by nine wickeU, and although th© finishing of a match in one day is no new thing, yot it occur* feufficip-ntly .seldom to merit mention. The meat sensational p*.rfi>rinanrM> of tho day was the man nor in which Trott finished off the second in-nings of London County, for with six balh> he took four wicke-ts without a run being hit from him. This compares with M-ead's recent feat at th© Oval in taking six Surrey wickets for two runs.

Tho London Sporting Life publicist* an interesting article on the recent tour of Lord Hawke's Eleven in New Zea'aud and Australia. It contains the following quotable criticisms of tho Englishmen :- -"Dowson was bril'iant in the extreme, and added greatly to his reputation both as a batsman and ac a bowler. He also bowled better than he has done for the last two or three years. Buruup, although he scored a rcutury, was not in hi& best form, the very fast wic-keU beiuq unsuiteJ to his back play. Bosanquot has quite i ©turned to his boat form, so that supporters of Middlesex have cause to be pleased. In Now Zealand our bowling was quit© strong enough, Thompson running through the weaker sides as he liked, and frequently doing the «,ame against the stronger hides. In Australia he bowled retlly well, and is a splendid man to have on a sido. as ho does his beet under all conditions. His record of 199 wickcte for the tour is a great one. Haigreaves was the disappointment of th© team. Beyond a few good performances against odds, and one against the South Island, ITe did nothing noteworthy. In Australia ho was not at homo on the fatt wickets, and seem-od to loso heart. The incessant travelling about seemed to up-^et him, and he logt all his spin. I 6oe that hf> ha.s quite returned to his bc-tt form, v,hkh. k \uy gratifyu^'

The addition of Trott to the team in Australia was more valuable than in appears. He bowled really well, but beyond his great success at Sydney against New South Wales had hard luck. Bosanquet and Dowson both did excellently at times when the bowling got at all collared, and Burnup accomplished feveral sensational performances, notably against New Zealand in the second test game, when he got five wickets for 8 runs against a very strong wind. The fielding was not brilliant, except on the part of Burnup. whose dash so pleased the Australians; they vhink him as good as Jcssop — high compliment. Fane was safe, and Lc-atham worked his hardest at mid-off, and was one of our bc-st men in the fie'd. Whatman and Taylor both kept wicket well, although the former did not get many chances in the big games. During the tour two reputations have been made-, or rather increased, Dowson as a batsman, and Warner as a captain, both on and off the field. It was off the field that Warner shone most. He had a tremendous amount; of business to settle with a ratheT slipshod council, and did it well, and with great tect. He arranged our movements and controlled our affair 3 with tho utmost precision and accuracy, so that we had veryfew worries while- he had many, which, however, he took good-naturedly."