Cricket 1883

OCT. 25, 1883. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 421 Paris, and tried to impart to our lively neigh­ bours some love for “ cc ------ jeu de cricket If imitation be the sincerest form of flattery, I Zingari may well be proud : for on nearly the same lines has risen club after club, until “ their name is legion,” their colours as innumerable as the sand on the sea-shore. Far be it from me to find fault with a movement which has had the effect of producing so many amateur cricketers, and so improving their play: but as an anxious searcher after professional talent in a southern county, I cannot blink the effect that peripatetic cricket has had on the village eleven. In the old coaching days, young Hopeful, the squire’s son, was at home for most of the summers of his cricketing career after he had left college; and having seen good cricket there and at school, and perhaps taken a glimpse at headquarters on his way down for the vacation, his style was one which it did the village cricketers good to copy. So it would now—to a greater degree probably—but the village cricketers, the butcher, the baker, the policeman, the schoolmaster, and the more promising of the schoolmaster’s pupils, never see young master play, unless it be for three or four days after the London season is over, when the great house is filled with his friends and they contend agaainst a neighbour's eleven, or the clubs of the nearest town. He is always away playing with one or other of the dozen wandering clubs, whose gorgeous colours he has permission to wear. The squire does all he can to encourage cricket —having a notion that if the young ’uns are employed at cricket or other athletic sports for a few hours out of their leisure time, there is so much less time for them to be getting into mis­ chief—and he cannot understand why, when the village eleven does play a match against a team possessing a bowler whose only merit is that he can bowl straight, the sticks go tumbling down, one after the other, like a row of wooden soldiers. My dear sir, it is simply that they are trying to play a correct game in very inferior style— almost an impossibilitv; your lads would get ever so many more runs if they tried to get every ball round to the “ on ” wiih a cross-bat. I consider, therefore, that peripatetic cricket has done much harm to village cricket in the South , and has helped to cause a dearth of professional talent iu that half of England. Prospects are brightening, I admit. One county, thanks to the possession of a metropolitan ground, and, consequently, a well-filled purse, and another, thanks to the generosity of an enthusiast, are enabled to spend large sums of money on the search after and the tuition of promising youngsters, with undoubtedly gratifying results. I may be asked why has not peripatetic cricket had the effect of withering professional talent in the North ? For this very simple reason : the Northerner is, as a rule, a townsman. Working hard all day, he is only too glad to get out on to the cricket-ground for a breath of fresh air, and to stretch his cramped limbs with a game; whereas the Southerner ismore often an out-door worker, and when his work is done, unless urged on to it by ambition or pure love of the game, would, as a rule, prefer to sit in his cottage-porch with his pipe, or tend his garden, than take part in a game the effects of which he would probably feel the next day. But cannot peripatetic cricket-clubs help towards the improvement of style in villages ? I think they certainly can by making tours through the counties to which they, or the members who get up the elevens, ore more particularly attached. This has been done in the case of one or two clubs, and I trust the practice may extend itself to most of the south­ ern counties. It is only by these means that we can hope to see an improvement in the style of cricket played by professionals, and it must be remembered that professional cricketers are absolutely essential if cricket is to maintained at its present high standard of excellence. I remember an Australian gentlemen once saying to me that he hoped to see the professional cricketer eradicated from the cricket-field. He had but a slight acquaintance with the class, and on that ground, and that only, was his remark excusable. A more deserving body of men it would be difficult to find. Their work, especially among those who do not rise to the top of the tree, is very hard; they are always expected to be in a good temper; they are always expected to be keen. They are keen, very remarkably so, in my opinion. A very good proof of this was given the other day by a little friend of mine who, on being congratu­ lated on a long score he had recently made, replied : “ Thank you, sir, but I can’t get them for the county.” He always did his best for whatever, club he might be playing; but, his heart being in the right place, he would, if he could have made the choice, have preferred being successful for his county. So it is with all the professionals I ever met. It would be a most distinct loss to cricket if such a body of men were withdrawn from our cricket-fields. There are but fow gentlemen who have the time, the money, and the inclination to continue playing first-class cricket after five-and-twenty. They choose and follow their professions, and the claims of these and their homes withdraw them from the battlefield, except when on occa­ sions they are induced to don their armour for the good of the club or the county. Pro­ fessional cricketers we must have, therefore; and therefore, also, let us by all means encourage them to persevere in their profession, so that, having a not unworthy object in life—for to be honest and hard-working, to strive for success oneself but to suppress jealous feelings at the success of others, are surely worthy objects— they may do their part towards the welfare of the community. The last, but not the least important epoch I shall mention, was the first visit of an English eleven to Australia, the precursor of an inter­ change of visits which appear not likely to decrease in frequency. That they should have produced a few bickerings and heart-burnings is only natural. Our Australian brothers are con­ vinced that Australia can hold its own with any known part of the world. With a sincere love and admiration for the old country, they decline to admit thattheir Southern home, its sturdy sons, and its many products are one whit inferior to it. They are quite right. Would England be the mother of nations that she is, the centre of the world’s gaze, if her sons had not always been convinced of one thing, that their own was the greatest country in the world, and could produce everything better than any other ? This inter­ change of visits has done good to cricket in many ways. Lo not let us quarrel with our visitors or our hosts, whichever they may be, if they show an inclination to “ blow” ; we call it “ brag,” and we have done enough of it, in all conscience, in our time. Still, having offered a word of advice to cricket enthusiasts in England, I shall venture to offer one to Australians; I do not say enthusiasts in their case, because every Australian, native or colonist, is one. My advice is that they should discourage any too anxious inclination among amateurs towards turning cricket into a lucrative pro­ fession. If professional cricketers prove to be necessary in Australia, as I say they are in England, encourage their appearance by all means; but do not do anything to encourage the formation of a class of semi-professionals. Cricketing tours round the world are expensive, and it is only fair that those who, for love of the game, leave their professions for a time, should be adequately remunerated; but there is a happy mean capable of attainment, and a too eager stipulation for favourable terms, both at home and abroad, may lead to these visits being J received with indifference rather than welcome. In the foregoing lines I have endeavoured, very shortly, to run through the different changes which have occurred in the game of cricket in the last century and a half, and to show how it has been influenced by concurrent events. It is, perforce, but a cursory glance, but I trust it may not be uninteresting to read how, by slow but sure degrees, the game has so fixed itself in the affections of the English people. In the steadiness of its development, in the moral influence it exercises by bringing together the different classes in socioty, in the important part it has played in strengthening the feelings of friendship between England and her colonies, I think cricket deserves to take a high rank among Conservative institutions, and is, therefore, 'deserving of consideration in the NationalReview. PH IL A D E L P H IA C R IC K E T E R S FOR ENG LAN D . A c o r r espo n d en t o f the Field is responsible for the following :— “ It is now settled that the best gentleman cricketing team that Philadelphia can produce will visit Eugland next year. For a longtime past, ever since Mr. R. A. FitzGerald visited this country, with Mr. W. G. Grace, Lord Harris, Mr. A. N. Hornby, the Messrs. Lubbock, and the rest of that excellent team of 1872, it has been the uppermost wish in the hearts of the Quaker city boys to take a tour of cricketing instruction through England. The brothers Newhall, however, have never given their approval to the project until recently, because they claimed that the younger generation, which was receiving the benefit of English professional coaches, was not thoroughly fitted for so for­ midable a venture. Greatly improved form has recently put a different complexion on a trial cricket trip, so that a visit to England was thought by many just the thing to be done, and it only needed someone to start the ball rolling. This was done about a week ago by a party of Philadelphia gentlemen, who met, as a self-appointed committee, to consider the ways and means. A subscription list was opened, and within a fewdays a guarantee fund of £2,000 has been forthcoming. This will be devoted entirely for necessary travelling expenses and hotel bills. The gate money receipts will be primarily devoted to the sub­ scribers, and, should there be a balance left, it will be turned over to the Cricketer’s Association of the United States, who will expend it in increasing the prosperity of the game in America. Tlie players in no event will accept the surplus, even should there be one. “ Mr. Joseph M. Fox, of the Merion Cricket Club of Philadelphia, is now in England making the necessary arrangements. He will attend the meeting of the county secretaries in Decem­ ber, and the list of fixtures will be arranged to permit matches with the Philadelphians. They will play against amateurs only, and in all cases professionals will be barred. Mr. Fox will en­ deavour, to arrbnge matches with the colleges, public schools, Marylebono Club, county orga­ nisations, and several of the best London Clubs, “ The visiting team will be composed of thirteen players, and will be accompanied to the other side by a very large number of pro­ minent Americans. The following players have already been asked to join the team:—Messrs. D. S. Newhall, C. A. Newhall, R. S. Newhall, F. E. Brewster, Howard MacNutt, and E. W. Clark, of the Young America C.C.; Sutherland Law, J. B. Thayer, jun., and W. C. Lowry, of the Merion C.C.; William Brockie, of the Germantown C.Q.; and J. A. Scott and D. P. Stoever, of the Belmont C.C. It is expected that the cricketers will sail at the latter part of May, and spend two months in England.”