Cricket 1883

420 CMCKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. OCT. 25, 1883. the shoulder. Some of his remarks are well worth quoting:—■ The superiority of the batting to the bowling has been for years a theme of universal complaint, and has never been checked, except when it has been met by the straight- armed bowling (erroneously called throwing), which It is my wish to restore. I say restore, because the system is none of mine, nor is it a new one; but, on tho contrary about twenty years ago it prevailed in a considerable degree, especially in the county of Kent. About that time when the leading object of interest among cricketers was to devise some method of putting tho batting and bowling more upon a par, the straight-armed delivery was invented and introduced by an eminent player (Willes) in Kent, and practised by him and a few others so successfully, that their county, not otherwise powerful, was in a short time able to cope with all England, which was then at tho zenith of its streugth. . . . The straight-armed bowling being thus introduced, was practised for a period of eight or ten years with perfect success, and without any interruption being offered to it; nor is it prolablo that any would have been (although from the difficulty of playing it, it hud many enemies) had it boen kept within those bounds which at first confined it. But this, unfortunately, was not the case: ether bowlers arose, who quickly adopted the new system; and observing the effect of delivering the ball with the hand extended horizontally, they thought to become more formidable still the more they got their h i nds up ; and thus leading each ether on, there being no law to restrain them, they raised them higher and higher, till at length in a great match at Brighton one of the new prac­ titioners raised his hand se Very high above his head, that it was thought quite time for the Marylebone Club to in­ terpose. lustead, however, of going deliberately to work; instead of endeavouring to restrain anil regulate the new system, by discarding what was bad and retaining what was good ; they immediately determined that all was evil; and, with that feeling, hastened to pass the law under which cricket has so long suffered, and wnich it is my object to repeal. I confess I do not believe myself that the straiglit-arm bowling introduced by Willes was a very radical change from that which preceded it; for the celebrated bowler, David Harris, who played about the year 1740, is described as delivering the ball “ nearly as high as his arm­ p it” ; but that there was some difference is manifest, or such an outcry would not have been raised against the innovation. Years after Mr. Knight's memorandum an attempt was made to stop the over-shoulder delivery when John Lilly- white ‘ -no-balled” Edgar Willsher at the Oval. This proved futile. Grounds, with closer attention and heavier rollers, became better, and it was found necessary to check long scores by allowing the bowler to raise his hand as high as he chose. When I first looked on at first-class cricket about twenty years ago, Willsher was the only bowler I can remem­ ber whose hand was distinctly above the shoulder, though they always say of the old Lillywhite—the nonpareil, a very small man— that if you were on the other side of a wallwhen he was bowling, you could see his hand, but not his head. Now I should find difficulty in naming many whose hands are as low as Willsher’s was at the time I spead of. In Australia every bowler, without exception, has a high delivery, and to encourage this, and to accustom the muscles to the action, I am told that acelebrated English cricketer makes the boys of the school, where he is engaged as “ coach,” bowl parallel to and so near a high wall that they must either keep theii- hands up or bark their knuckles. At the present day the great question is what means should be adopted to stop a tendency to throw which is becoming apparent, the great difficulty being to decide what is aud what is not a throw. Mr. Knight, in his memorandum, evades the difficulty of defining a throw by say­ ing that everyone knows what a throw is, even if it cannot be closely defined; but it is apparent to cricketers that at the present time it is not every umpire who knows what a throw is. The changes that have taken place in batting since the day when the old spoon-shaped bat was given up for the present shape, have not been very material, though it has doubtless, in succeeding generations, adapted itself to the different styles of bowling. “ Keep your left shoulder forward,” has been an instruction given to the young cricketer from the earliest times, and for the best of reasons that it entails a per- Ipendicular bat, and a perpendicular bat covers Imore of the wicket than a horizontal. It has remained for the present generation to carry the art of batting to perfection. I doubt myself if the world will ever see another “ all round ” cricketer to equal William Gilbert Grace, Besides getting for several years as many wickets as any professional bowler; being always a magnificent field anywhere ; being untiring alike in his devotion to the game and his efforts to win whatever match he may be taking part in ; having ever a kind word for a young or unsuc­ cessful cricketer, he has proved himself the most finished batsman on any ground, and against all kinds of bowling, that the annals of cricket record. I know there are some, who have seen both players, and are thoroughly competent judges of the game, who assert that if Fuller Pilch had had the advantage of playing on the same perfect wickets as Mr. Grace, he would have got as many runs; and, furthermore, they maintain that some'of the bowlers Pilch had to contend against were more difficult to score off than the best of the present day. That the wickets were not as good in Fuller Pilch's day is an undoubted fact, and their unevenness un- doubt ‘illy would tend to make balls shoot, rise, and break unexpectedly ; but that the bowlers of those times were more accurate I cannot be­ lieve : for if we turn to the scores of matches in which such celebrities as Lillywhite, Hillyer, Redgate, Cobbett, and Alfred Mynn were the bowlers, we find as many as from five to ten wides no uncommon item, whereas now-a-days it is a most unusual thing for a first-class bowler, gentleman or professional, to bowl one in a month’s cricket. Another, and perhaps the most important, epoch in the game was produced by the intro­ duction of steam. Before the first lines of that network of railways which now covers the country had been drawn, the getting to and from a distant match must have been such an undertaking as would now-a-days appal the keenest cricketer, not to mention those who, ■with the rail to help them, cannot find their way to a cricket-ground before noon, and insist on leaving it at five or six for fear of missing their dinner. The old Hambledon eleven had a special van to take them about. Fancy starting from some trysting place in Hampshire to drive all the way to Sevenoaks, or Bishopsbourne, or the Artillery Ground in Bunhill Fields ; for at all these places did the Hambledonians, with Bichard Nyren, their subsequent historian, at their head, play and distinguish themselves more than a century back. I may point out, with reference to what I have said above as to straight - arm bowling, that Nyren mentions several of the Hambledon heroes as having “ high actions.” Perhaps old Clarke, the slow bowler, saw as soon as anyone what a difference steam would make to cricketers and how to turn an honest penny by it ; for we may take his to be the first cricket eleven that really “ starred ” the pro­ vinces, and may date from his time that firm hold which cricket has taken on the hearts of the people of England; No greater interest was taken in the Hambledon eleven by the country side, wherever they went,* than was taken in Clarke’s team by those who paid their sixpences to see the celebrities they had often heard of, but whom, for the first time, the iron horse brought into their midst. Nothing is so essential for the production of a good cricketer as that he should see good cricket. It was seeing those eleven good cricketers that has developed the numberless good cricketers the country can now boast. The development will continue, for the train ca-n land in a few hours, and at a small expense, the devotee of cricket on the Metro* Nyren tells us, “ So renowned a f:ot were the men of Hambledon, that the whole country round would flock to see one of their trial matches.” politan grounds, where, almost every day for three months, one may be certain of seeing a first-class match. That those who look on at the great first-class matches in London do most thoroughly understand the game wras, I thought, shown this year in the match between the Gentlemen and Players at Lord’s, where, during three days’ hard cricket, I cannot recall more than one instance of a mistake in judgment made by the on-lookers. The opposite, I have particularly noticed in oneortwoof thenortliern towns where the “ gate,” as wo call it in the south—the “ coompany,” as they call it in the north—is immense. For instance, at Man­ chester, where they sometimes take £ 1 , 000 , chiefly in threepences and sixpences, in three days, the ring is not so highly educated— I am only alluding, to cricket—as it is at “ Lord’s. ’ Thirteen years ago I played in a Kent v. Lan­ cashire match on the Old Trafford ground— perhaps, take it all round, the best in England— and I do not suppose there were fifty pounds on the ground in the two days. Three years ago, in the same match about £600 was taken. Now, these spectators are as eager and excitable as Lon­ doners, but their education in cricket has only recently commenced, and one hears frequent mistakes, such as cheers at the supposed fall of a wicket when a visitor plays a ball hard on to the ground to point or the bowler. The wish has been father to the thought, and an excitable imagination has persuaded observation against itself; but we wise ones, though we may smile, are very willing to excuse the mistake, for we know it arises from zeal. That same zeal, how­ ever, is a terrible fellow to run away with one ; and I feel compelled to utter one wrarning note— to the fully quite as much as to the partially- educated—not to be so far carried away as to indulge in outspoken disapprobation of an umpire’s decision. There is not one member of a ring of spectators so advantageously situated to decide an appeal as their umpire. The umpires are closer to the game, and it is reason­ able to suppose, their attention is fixed on it, and it alone. Their task is sufficiently hard to exempt them from being blamed by those who cannot possibly see equally well, however zeal­ ous they may be. One of the most zealous b.ut indifferent cricketers I can call to mind, used to be in such a state of excitement when he was bowling, that every time a ball was not hit for runs—those balls were very few and far between —he appealed to the umpire, until one day, on appealing for a ball that the batsman had played at, but not touched, the umpire turned the tables on him by calling “ wide.” Remarkable decisions always have and always will furnish conversation for the cricketer’s fireside; but, for audacity, I know of none to beat the following, which was given in a country match in which I was playing with a friend of mine, a very celebrated cricketer- He had been tempting the fieldsmen to throw at his wicket, until at last one did throw and hit it- “ Not out,” said the umpire, and coming up t* my friend at the end of the over added, in a' undertone, “ You really must be more careful Sir, you was clean out that time. ” Such a case however, is the exception: umpires must mat mistakes: but I am convinced that, as a rule they gi\ e their decisions without bias. The next epoch—I think I must call it on* for though only a consequence of the introduc tion of steam it has had a most marked effect one part of England—was the formation of tbj first amateur wandering club—“ I Zingari-' Acknowledging no fixed spot as their home, b» making themselves at home on every crick? ground, with good-fellowship and good crick 6 as their object and their bond of union, themem bers of this club did for love of the game wha Clarke’s team did for money as well as lov< I Zingari unfolded the black, red, and g°l banner everywhere; neither could the s« restrain them, for on the one side they tested til strength of Ireland, on the other they visite|