Cricket 1883

NOV. 29, 1883. CRICKET; C U R I O S I T I E S O F C R I C K E T . Cbicket itself is a curiosity to most foreigners. French, Spanish, and Portuguese writers, besides those of other countries, have described it with bewildering vagueness and misleading exaggera­ tions. A Spaniard, who desired to make his fellow-countrymen familiar with the game, said : “ Two posts are placed at a great distance from one another. The player close to one of these posts throws &large ball to the other party, who awaits the ball, to send it far with a small stick with which he is armed; the other players then run to look for the ball, and while the search is going on, the party who struck it runs inces­ santly from post to post.” This is only part of the description, but the rest is much like it. If we did not know that cricket was the subject of the sketch, we should think the writer was ex­ plaining some game with which we are not familiar in this country. Bat cricket has its curiosities, and scarcely a season passes without something happening which adds to the list of novelties. The frontis­ piece to Parry’s “ Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage ” represents a cricket match being played on the ice between the crews of the Hecla and the Fury. This was in March, 1823, a month when it is not customary to play cricket in England. Cricket has also been played where grass would not grow, and where sand or gravel has been a substitute for the green turf which the cricketer loves. It must have been very hot at Hong-kong in October, 1874, when, during a match, the middle stump was bowled out, but the two bails remained in their original position. The varnish had glued the bails together. This has happened even in milder latitudes. Matches betweenwomen are not very common, but a number of them have been played. They have generally been either for sums of money or on behalf of public charities. In 1823, a match was played in Norfolk between eleven married women and eleven single ones. The stakes were a pair of gloves each, and the married women won. Among peculiar sides, the family elevens may be mentioned. Some families are very famous for their cricketing abilities, but it does not often happen that eleven of their members are prepared to take the field against opponents. In 1867, eleven of Lord Lyttelton’s family played the Bromsgrove Grammar School. The family was victorious by ten -wickets. The Cssars, the Lubbocks, and others with well-known names, have played family matches. At one time the famous B. eleven were able to meet the best of England. These players all had names -which began with B. From 1805 to 1837 twelve matches were played by the B’s. Players came and players went, but the pre­ eminence of the celebrated initial continued. Such names as Beauclerk, Budd, Beldham, Beagley and Broadbridge, will suggest the strength of the side. When matches were played for money, single wicket was far more common than it is now. Sometimes a celebrated player would have two or three opponents, and occasionally one man would play an eleven. This happened in 1836, at Nottingham, when S. Bedgate met and de­ feated eleven of the Kensington club. Bedgate made 24 in his two innings, but the other side made only 10 . There have been many expedients tried for the purpose of equalising the chances of two side3, when one set of players were known to be superior to the others. Matches against odds are well-known. At one time the All-England eleven were constantly meeting eighteens and twenty-twos. This custom is fast passing away. County cricket is taking its place. In the year 1831, a novel expedient was tried at Nottingham. Eleven of that town met thirteen of Bingham. Nottingham was to have the ordinary two inn- W e e k l y r e c o r d o f ings, and Bingham was to have four. Notting­ ham won by eight wickets It is said that this and the return match were the only ones ever played in which the odds were four innings to two. Some years ago, there were two wandering elevens, consisting of one-armed and one-legged men. ^The first match between cricketers of this kind took place in 1811. It was for one thousand guineas, and all the men were pen­ sioners of Greenwich Hospital. The one-arm side won. Their opponents were continually breaking or losing their wooden supports. Sometimes the matches for money were genuine ; but frequently the money was only pretended to be staked, in order to increase the interest in the public mind. Old advertisements of cricket matches often state that a great deal of money depends upon the game. It was thought that players would be more likely to do their best if they were playing for money. This, however, was a great mistake. Matches are now contested as keenly as possible, when nothing but honour is played for. At the present time, Left-arm would have a poor chance against the best Bight-arm Eleven which could be put in the field. The Left-arm would do very well for bowling, but the batting would be weak. But the match has been played, and the full strength of the country has been divided between the two elevens. Another distinction between sides is Married and Single. The beginning of the alphabet has been pitted against the latter part—A to K against L to Z. During the last few years, a good match was made between over thirty and under thirty. In 1810, a similar match was played, but it was between over thirty-eight and under thirty-eight. Single counties have played the rest of Eng­ land ; j ust as in the early days of cricket, a single club would, hold its own against everyDody else. Hambledon against England, with Ham­ bledon victorious, is recorded in the early annals of cricket, The time has gone when any single county is strong enough to contend against all the others. Some wonderful scores have been made at cricket; but in 1882. the Orleans Club beat all previous records. Against Bickling Green, they scored 920 in one innings. There are many cases known in which nothing has been scored in an innings ; so that is a record which cannot be beaten. * 0 ne of the highest individual inn­ ings ever played is that of Mr. W. N. Koe, 415 for Emmanuel Long Vacation Club, against Caius Long Vacation Club, on July 12th, 1881. There are peculiar ways in which a man can be “ out ” at cricket. In a match between Eng­ land and Sussex, J. Broadbridge threw his bat at an off ball; he hit the ball and was caught. This is said to have lost the match for Sussex. Several times it has happened that batsmen have played the ball into their own pockets. Batsmen have been out because their hats or caps fell upon the wicket and knocked the bails off. But batsmen have been in as wonderfully as they have been out. The ball has been seen to go between the stumps without removing the bails, and yet when the ball has been placed between them it has seemed impossible for this to happen. Bails have been known to be knocked off, and to have fallen back upon the wickets. But this is an event which very seldom happens. A long list of extras does not look well in a cricket score. Some years ago, in a match at Chatham, between the Boyal Engineers and the Establishment, there were 101 extras. In 1842, the Gentlemen of Kent played the Gentlemen of England at Canterbury, and there were 159 extras in the match. In Australia it is common to adjourn matches over Sunday, and play them out during the * The highest.—E d . THE GAME. 435 following week. This has seldom been done in England. In country matches there is some­ times an adjournment from Saturday to Satur­ day. But perhaps the longest adjournment ever known was at Stoke Down, in Hampshire. A match was commenced on July 23rd, and ad­ journed, after three days’ playing, till June 28th of the following year. This was in the last century. One of the most remarkable matches ever played took place at Shillinglee Park in 1843. On one side were the Earl of Winterton’s eleven, and thirty-seven labourers on the other. The eleven won by five wickets. But this match was outdone three years later, when the same eleven contended against fifty-six labourers. This time, however, the match was not finished.— Chambers’ Journal. C O U N T R Y C R I C K E T . T h e k e is a story told of a country umpire who, on being appealed to in a moment of doubt, unhesitatingly replied, “ Out! ” adding with a chuckle of profound simplicity, “ Hurray ! I ’ve won five bob ! ”—the same authoiity, I believe, who later in the day gave marked evidence of the wavering of his judgment by the following ex­ traordinary decision, “ No-ball—wide-ball—no, by Jove! He’s caught it. Out. Over.” T o those accustomed to the game in its highest form at Lord’s or the Oval, su: h an instance of venality and instability must appear in the highest degree incredible ; but to anyone whose powers do not entitle him to play for his county, and who has had experience of cricket in out- of-the-way provincial corners, nothing .however seemingly far-fetched, will be judged impossible, or even improbable. It was only the other day that, in that remote spot, Bolesford, on the ap­ pearance for the first time of a noted University bat, who had the misfortune to place his leg in front of the wicket very early in his innings, Mr. Baggs, the miller and umpire, gave it as his opinion, with great firmness, that it was not out, appending for the satisfaction of the astonished and angry field the explanation: “ I want to see the young gentleman bat.” At Bolesford, on great match days, play begins at eleven o’clock, and long before that hour the geese are driven off the common, and the pegs driven in for the ladies’ tent. Half an hour later the ostler of the “ Jolly Gardeners ” marks out the crease as near as may be, and the first stragglers put in their appearance; Mr. Stebbings, the butcher, who bowls a desperate pace, Mr. Brown, the sadler, much esteemed for his underhand, and Mr. Stinch, the groom, especially renowned for the impartiality with which he whips all sorts of balls round to square-leg. At the “ Jolly Gardeners,” on the edge of the common, preparations are being made on a large scale ; the long room over the stable entrance has been swept for luncheon, and the tinkling piano dusted, the stone ehina, with the blue and white flowers, descends from the shelves to the uses of common life once more, and, in accordance with express request, vast numbers of spring onions have been torn up for the cold beef, not without some observa­ tions, however, from the genteel Mr. Brown, who warmly questions the propriety of eating onions with ladies so near in the tent at long- leg ; an objection met by Mr. Stinch in almost the precise words of a famous comedian, ‘ ‘ I don’t care a dem for the ladies, I will have bread and inions!” By this time the rest of the eleven have arrived, and are engaged in a lively exchange of compliments with Annie, the barmaid, who, as she is in the habit of seeing most of them at least once a day, is familiar with all their weaknesses, and plays upon them with complete facility ; even to going the length of opening and reading aloud a mysterious note pushed across the counter by Mr. Gill, cab proprietor, in which (he himself being a notorious