Cricket 1882
100 CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. JUNE 22, 1882. C R I C K E T ! L A W N T E N N I S ! ! F O O T B A L L ! ! ! First Prize Medal at Melbourne Exhibition, 1880. JAMES LILLYWHITE, FROWD & CO., Manufacturers of all articles used in the above and other Athletic Sports. Speciality for the highest class Goods. Bats specially seasoned for hot climates. Price Lists and all parti culars may be had post free. Shippers supplied at wholesale prices. J. L., F. and Co. are the sole Manufacturers of Frowd’s new patent “ Special Driver ” Bat, which drives better, jars less, and averages ounces lighter than any other Bat; universally allowed to be the greatest improvement made in Bats since cane handles were introduced. Publishers of JAMES LILLY- WHITE’S CRICKETER’S ANNUAL. Manufactory and Ware house :—4and 6, Newington Causeway and 73 aud 74, Borough Road, London. AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS, 1882. Group of this celebrated Team, with key, taken hy permission at the Orleans Club, sent post-free on receipt of stamps. 8J by 6J inches, 2 s.; Cabinet I s .; Carte-de-Visite, 6d. LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY, 304, R egent S t ee et , W. C E I C K E T . A W e e l d y R e c o r d of th e G am e . THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1882. 1 ‘ C rick et ” this week consists of sixteen pages and a wrapper. This is the second enlargement since the institution of the paper. “ C ricket ” can be had at W. H. Smith & Son’s Book Stalls. The first number is out of print, but we propose to arrange for a re-issue, if a sufficient number of subscribers can be obtained. Due notice will be given of this. • > ¥ E T O - :-0 F -:- S t I B g C I ^ I P ¥ J 0 ] ^ “ C r i c k e t ” is published at 17, Paternoster Square, London, B.C., and will be forwarded to any ad dress inGreat Britain,for the Season of 17 weeks , including piesent issue, for 3/2 in time for first post on Thursday Morning. It isrequested that Postal Orders (not Stamps) be sent for Sub scriptions and Scores. They can be made payable to W . R . W r ig h t, at the head office, and crossed London and County , Holbom. “ C r ic k e t ” is r e g is t e r e d f o r t r a n s m is s io n a b r o a d a n d ca/n be s e n t , p o s t f r e e , a t th e r e g u l a r n e w s p a p e r r a t e s o f p o s t a g e to a n y p a r t o f th e w o r ld . Reading Gases for holding four numbers of “ C r ic k e t ” can now be had at the Office , price 2/-. TO ADVERTISERS. “ C ricket " presents an unequalled medium fo r announcements in connection with the game , as the circulation is already in advance of any newspaper of the kind. The scores o f most of the. vrincipal Clubs w ill appear exclusively in its columns , and there is already a large number of subtcribers , including most o f the leading players o f the day. “ C r ic k e t ” will be filed too for reference in the Pavilions o f all the principal Clubs, and it will thus appeal directly to every class o f cricketer. A limited number of high-class Advertisements will betaken on terms to be obtained o f the Manager. For ordinary Advertisements the charge will b e3 /-an inch narrow column. THE DECADENCE OF CRICKET. S he writer who would choose the above ;:il3 for an article, written in the height of 1? bn iest cricket season of which we yet have record, and to a newspaper specially devoted to the service of the game, must indeed have the courage of his opinions. And yet we doubt whether a little considera tion will not show that such a statement is not in some measure justified. At present, perhaps, there is no direct evidence of any serious decline in the popu larity of our most national game; but it is much to be feared that there are influences which must,' slowly but surely, sap the foun dations upon which, for more than a cen tury, that popularity has been based. Cricket is to-day, it must be admitted, threatened by enemies within as well as from without. The advent of the first Aus tralian team in 1878 did, without doubt, lend a very important stimulus to the interest generally taken in the game. Crowds who t before had not affected cricket were in that year drawn to the playing fields, attracted by the unwonted spectacle of an eleven from over the seas more than able to hold its own with the picked champions of the mother country, in the sport which had been hitherto deemed the peculiar birth-right of an Englishman. In many ways the visit ofthe first Australian team gave a fillip to English cricket. Unfortunately, however, the extra ordinary success of this to;ir taught another lesson, that cricket might be made a profit able commercial speculation ; and, for the first time in the history of the game, the question of “ gate-money” was made a matter of primary importance. As a natural consequence it was not long before ugly rumours were whispered abroad that matches, which might easily have been con cluded on the second day, were purposely prolonged and local celebrities suffered to score easily that the large takings of the Saturday afternoon might not be sacrificed. The scene at Sydney, too, on the occasion of the visit of Lord Harris’s team to Australia and the more recent Australian scandal, which has even yet not been thoroughly ex plained, are but the natural consequences of the introduction of the greed of gain into the cricket field. Into these ques tions, however, involving, as they do, controversial points of extreme delicacy, we do not at present propose to enter. It is against a dangerous enemy from without, whose influence is, year by year, becoming more generally and more seriously felt, that we would caution cricketers. The universal effeminacy which has attacked every kind of sport has not spared cricket. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, talks of “ city captains and carpet knights whose valour is as much to be found in feasting as in fighting.” It does not require much evidence to prove that the game is in some cases not pursued with that strict attention to details which is necessary to its well being. The carpet knights who now do battle for fashionable clubs are indeed well contented if “ p la y ” is called at half-past twelve in stead of eleven o’clock. Instead of a plain and substantial luncheon of half-an-hour, an interval of twice that time is by no means infrequent for the sumptuous repast which lias now to be prepared, and instead of get ting at once to work another delay has to be made to allow the player the luxury of a pipe or a cigar. But the most serious danger which threatens cricket to-day comes from its latest rival, Lawn Tennis. Honorary secretaries, from one end of the kingdom to the other, can testify but too well to the de moralizing effect which this pastime— a sport it is not—has exercised upon the game. Week after week the difficulty of collecting teams is increasing, as the ranks of the players upon whom ' a local club was once accustomed to rely are thinned by the ravages of Society’s latest mania. Nay more, matches even have, not infrequently, had to be abandonedwhen a lawn tennis party is to be held in the neighbourhood. We may, as loyal cricketers, deplore this state ofthings; but we can do little more than offer forcible protest against the sacrifice of a noble and manly game to the enervating influence of an effeminate amusement. We do not dispute that lawn tennis possesses many claims to con sideration. The secret of its popularity lies in the ease with which it can be pursued. The one or the three players required to complete the set are easily collected. The courts may be marked out in so small a space that no toilsome journey to the ground is involved, there is no risk of an afternoon’ s out field ing, nor of the ignominy of a maiden innings. Then again a game lasts so short a time that there are frequent intervals for rest, as well as for the interchange of those pleasing little social amenities sure to occur when the players happen to be of opposite sexes. Great, however, as is the injury which lawn tennis has already inflicted upon cricket, a still greater danger from this source threatens the game in the future. It is not only that lawn tennis with draws from the.field,cricketers alreadytrained, but it has an increasing tendency to seduce from the practising nets the boys and youths who ought, in years to come, to recruit the ranks of the batsmen and bowlers at our public and other schools. At Harrow, where a long and noble tradition has made cricket the one serious business of life, this danger has been recognized and lawn tennis is strictly forbidden. At Eton, on the other hand, courts abound, and though it may be perhaps rather an unfair inference, there is last year’ s defeat at Lord’s apparently as the inevitable result. The example of Harrow points we think to the true and only remedy for the evils to which we have drawn attention. The authori ties at the Oval, where cricket has always been the first and only thought, have with prudence refused to encourage its rival in any way, and it has been a great surprise to many that the Marylebone Club, the head and front of our national game, has gone so far out of its own sphere as not
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