Cricket 1883

114 CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. may 24, issb . way from Portsmouth. Doubtless most of the readers of C ricket haye read Miss Mit- ford’s charming cricket match in “ Tales of our Village, ” “ Nyren’s Cricketers’ Guide, ” “ Pycroft’s Cricket Field,” and other manuals of the game. Nyren’s account of the old Hambledon helped me more than anything else to re-people in imagination “ the holy land,” in which I passed a long warm Sunday in May, with the ghosts of the patriarchs of the game, many of whom are at rest in the beautiful old church yard at the foot of the downs, which is well worthy of a visit also. Probably the old Ham­ bledon club, in its earliest days, knew the game only in its infancy, when the skeleton hurdle, two feet wide by one foot high, was the wicket, and the spoon-shaped club was the bat, as delineated in the grand old picture in the M.C.C. Pavilion, dated 1748, but it lived on and flourished down to, and after, the inauguration of the M.C.C. in 1787, when, with the exception of the wicket being smaller (22 inches by 6 inches), and the bat more clumsy, cricket was identical in principle with the game of to-day. For in the honest exercise of the great trust which seems by universal consent to have been confided to the M.C.C. nearly a century ago, that grand club has preserved the old laws in their purity and simplicity, with the exception of a few changes in detail from time to time, and those few and far between. Another most interesting old picture at Lord’s (date probably 1760-70), shows the change in the game to the wickets, two in number, six inches wide, with one bail, and off-hitting must have come in those days, as four men onthe off-side are standing ready “ making the cup” with their hands, which the late Hon. F. Cavendish was always addressing the spectators about when not on the subject of Free Trade. How we miss him, as a landmark on cricket fields. Cricket had a home in London, and many of the Club are found at the Artillery Ground, White Conduit Club, and in Kent and Surrey off and on, and when the M.C.C. settled down in Dorset Square in 1787, where the immortal Bill Beldham made his debut at Lord’s, the great heroes were as well known in London as in their country home. Still the Hambledon Club existed on Windmill Downs, near Hambledon, after the rise of the M.C.C., and I don’t believe that any one knows exactly when it died out. The fact was that the early patrons of the sport, Lord Tankerville, the Duke of Dorset, Sir Horace Mann, and Lord Winchelsea, drew the good piayers to them wherever they were. I don’t dare look at “ Nyren ” or I should twaddle for an hour, but speaking from memory, I have before my mind the same spot to which I made my pilgrimage, and people it with the crowd which Nyren describes at a match. “ Little Hambledon (he writes, pitted against all England, with half the county looking on and all their hearts with u s; why ! defeat in such a struggle was a glory, and victory made us little lower than the angels.” And he tells how those brawn-faced fellows of farmers would strike dismay into a round of beef, and drink to their success, not Ponche a la Groselle or Ponche a la Itomaine —modern cat­ lap punch be-devilled — but punch that would stand on end — punch that would make a cat speak — sixpence a bottle ; and he speaks of the ale — genuine boniface ale that would flare like turpentine, ale that would put the souls of three butchers into one weaver, and he adds that that immortal “ viand,” for it was more than liquor, was sold for twopence a pint, and concludes by remarking that the scenes of th3 past are to him as things of yesterday and the smell of that ale comes o’er him like the new May flowers. As I said before, I am quoting from memory. He also tells of the admirable fair play which the club would give to theiropponents, and would never stop a ball which came into the crowd, for be it remembered runs were run out in those days, and there were no boundaries. There are two names of the Hambledon Club to be mentioned with special gratitude, those of William Beldham aud William Fennex. The former, who lived 54 years in the reign of George III., and 25 years in the reign of her present Majesty, died eetat 96 in 1862. He played at Hambledon though a Farnham man, and must have commenced his play about the time of the Gordon riots in 1780, though he first appeared at Lords in 1787, and played there last in 1821 (in Gentlemen v. Players, when he made 23 not outjone year after Fuller Pilch’s first appearance. He was by all accounts, in cricket talent, ahead and shoulders above every man of his day, as Dr. Gilbert Grace has been in this generation. He appeared constantly at Lords for 35 years, and no doubt taught two generations at least the science of the game. It must be a great matter of congratulation [to the older members of the M.C.C. that they received him in their Pavilion with much kindness and respect in 1857, when the old man was ninety-one years old, and that they did not forget most unobtrusively to mark his visit by a substantial acknowledgment. He came there in his old smock frock and country hat, and brought his bat with him, and attracted no little attention. And turning to Fennex, be it remembered that he inaugurated the free forward play, and taught it to Fuller Pileh, and Fuller Pilch taught the world ; for I feel con­ fident, in my own mind, that all the fine forward play which one sees now sometimes, is simply the reflex of what Fuller Pilch developed in a manner which has never been surpassed by any living man (except W. G.), and that, too, in days when grounds were less true, and pads and gloves were unknown. And I say of my friend W. G., that he has simply perfected the art which Pileh taught, though Pilch was never such an all-round man as our present champion, to whose wonderful cricket powers have been added the activity of a cat, and the constitution of a rhinoceros, and the light-heartedness of a schoolboy. I have seen the original scores of the Old Hambledon pasted on the back of a screen, which Colonel Butler kindly showed to me at his country house at Hambledon, and they were all headed, “ Grand Match for 1,000 guineas a-side,” but one of the greatest living authorities on cricket, who was related to the Duke of Dorset’s family, tells me that if the Duke of Dorset had made the Hambledon matches for large stakes, there must have been a record of it, and none exists, and the family refute the evidence, and imagine “ the thousand guineas” to have been, “ public house gag.” There was a groat deal of heavy betting ; and Mr. Pycroft tells us that he has indisputable testimony that matches were sometimes sold. On the same principle I reject the fact that Bishop Ken played cricket at Winchester, simply on the evidence that it is so stated in a life of him. He was one of the seven Bishops who were persecuted by James II. and he was so distinguished and his name was so reverenced by Wykehamists of all generations, that all records of his doings from boyhood have been treasured up, and if such a game had existed, it would have been known ; and there is no such record as far as I can learn in the annals of the school. A very old friend of mine, Mr. George Bichmond, R.A., who has been a regular frequenter of Lord’s for seventy years, since he was a boy of nine years old, and still an excellent judge of cricket, assures me that the play of Lord F. Beauclerck (as a batsman only), Mr. E. H. Budd. Beldham, and Lambert at all points of the game, were so far superior to the ordinary run of cricketers of their days, that they would not be much “ out of it” after adapting tnemselves to modern style for a day or two, in a match of to day; for their excellence in quickness of hand, eye, nerve, pluck, and real English courage, has never been surpassed. Lord Frederick suffered from temper sometimes. The late Mr. William Ward, whom I had the honour of knowing very well, often told me the same, and so did old John Bowyer, who went to Lord’s in 1810 when twenty years of age, and who died only three years since astat ninety; and he not only knew all of the four, but frequently played with them, as did Mr. William Ward, who played first at Lord’s in the same match with Bowyer, in 1810. Let the Bev. Mr. Cotton tell us in his celebrated poem how they played cricket in 1775 (the date of his poem), the year of the introduction of the third stump, and at the time when the Hambledon Club was in its glory :— “ Ye bowlers take heed, to my precepts attend, On you the whole fate of the game must depend; Spare your vigour at first, now exert all your strength, But measure each step, and be sure pitch a length. Ye fieldsmen look sharp, lest your pains you beguile, Move close like an army in rank and in file; When the ball is returned, back it well for I trow Whole states have been ruined by one over­ throw. Ye strikers observe when tho foe shall draw nigh, Mark the bowler advancing with vigilant eye ; Your skill all depends upon distance aud sight, Stand firm to your scratch, let your bat bo upright.” Could all the teachers who ever lived improve on this advice ? And I suppose the last verse is for the benefit of Sir Wilfred Lawson, by anticipation:— “ Now fill up your glass, he’s the best who drinks most, Here’s the Hambledon Club! who refuses the toast ? Let’s join in the praise of the bat and the wicket And sing in full chorus the patrons of cricket.” It has been a great pleasure to act as show­ man to so old a subject, and I trust I have kept clear of my old hobbies in writing this, and have not bothered the reader, as I only profess to be a simple Englishman, who believes in cricket as a noble English game, and who believes also in the good and brave men who left us so many grand examples to follow ; and I profess to be one who despises it when converted into a fussy business, and especially when guaged by that hateful standard of unknown quantity called “ County Form.” F red erick G a l e . %* Perhaps it is not generally known, but any respectable person who has a reference can get a reading order for the British Museum, where he can read “ Nyren’s Cricketer’s Guide,” “ W. Denison’s Cricketers of my Time,” and W. Bolland’s books on Cricket—books now out of print—but the keys to the game. I n a match between Gregory’s Club and Robin Hood, on Saturday, in the Meadows, nt Not­ tingham, each side scored 24. Y orkshire C olts ’ M atch . —The following are the youngsters for the Colts’ match to be played at Bramall-lane Grounds, Sheffield, on Monday and Tuesday n e x t:—Thomas Burgess (Harro­ gate), Edwin Bowman (York), W. H. Bower (Keighley), John Bates (Huddersfield). B. C. Bolton (Hull), S. Crossland (Wakefield), G Cooper (Sheffield), James \ A. Dutroit' (Leeds), Harry Hailey (Wakefield), W. Harris (Parkgate), G. P. Harrison (Scarborough), J. M . Preston (Rawdon), T. B. Pullan (Bees- ton), Joe Redfern (Lascelles Hall), W . H. Ramsbottom (Wakefield), Charlie Smith (Cal- verley), E. Skillbeck (Hovingham), James Sykes (Straithwaite), J. E. Shilton (Waldfield), John Wadsworth (Rawdon), Thomas Waltear (Mid­ dlesbrough), and S. F. Yeoman (Scarborough).