Cricket 1883

436 CEICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. NOV. 29, 1883. gourmet ) the offer is made of his hand and a lobster salad. Punctually at the hour the op­ posing team, selected by the local member of Parliament to dispute the palm with Bolesford, drive up in a wagonette from the house where they have been entertained at breakfast, and, after much exchange of apparent jovial greeting, an adjournment is made to the smoking-room to dress, and thence to the common to find fault with the wicket. Apparent jovial greeting only, for to the acute observer it is plain that the two elevens (this being the conquering match in a succession of six years) are profoundly jealous of each other, and will lose no opportunity that may arise for cheating, if it can be managed without any marked Uagrancy, of which both are fully aware if only from the experience of past contests ; and hence a certain tenderness in relations that otherwise seem frank and un­ constrained. The member of Parliament’s team consists principally of anauetioneer, a veterinary surgeon, and three or four clerks and young farmers, the rest being merely personal friends from London who are staying in the house, the member of Parliament himself performing the office of captain. Each side has provided an umpire, who eye each other disparagingly apart; the one being a waiter, who assists at the neigh­ bouring gentry’s parties, and now appears in his evening trousers and a flannel jacket; the other the only constable of the district, with so com­ plete a confidence in the honour of Bolesford to preserve the peace in his absence that he stands with his tunic unbuttoned, and his helmet so arranged as to exclude the sun from his left eye. “ Play! ” calls the constable, on being assured that all the preliminaries, down even to a trial ball, have been observed, and Bolesford scores the first 6 runs by the ball bumping over the long stop’s shoulder, and losing itself in a furze bush covered with linen. Per the first hour varying fortunes attend the game, and by the time the ladies come down from the house the telegraph board marks that five Bolesford men have gone for 40 runs, among them the school­ master, who, having been run out through want of judgment on the part of Mr. Stebbings, the butcher, threw his spectacles on the. ground and stamped on them. The scene is without doubt picturesque, and, to the ordinary observer who knows nothing of the passions seething beneath, eminently peaceful. South of the common runs the high road, along which passes the traffic of the district; the doctor’s gig, the nobility’s landau, and a long array of hay carts and waggons containing sacks of barley and empty fruit baskets, on which in the hot sunshine, lie stretched the drivers asleep in all the uncouth­ ness of rustic slumber. Further along one or two carriages, full for the most part of children taking their morning drive, are drawn up to watch the game, and beyond them the trades­ men’s carts, the occupants of which thus much delay the delivery of orders that they may report in the village how the Bolesford men are faring. Close by stand a row of ancient cottages, tumble-down and unwholesome, in strong con­ trast to the indigo merchant’s new bright red house, shining with a broad glimmer of con­ servatory, under whose sheltering park walls sits the aged Brummies, who once hit a ball into Lord Nelson’s carriage when he stopped to watch the game with Lady Hamilton, and who has missed no match or luncheon for sixtyyears. It is a pathetic sight to soe him silently eating a scrap of cold meat among the noisy crowd in the longroom of the“Jolly Gardeners,” and with trembling fingers filling and lighting his worn black pipe, few troubling themselves to notice the old man with the large hooked nose, the drawn mouth, and the fallen cheeks, who fought and was wounded at Badajoz. At twelve o’clock the children come shouting out of school, and much increase the difficulty of those fielding out by tumbling up agaiust their legs, and making unpleasant remarks when desired to retire behind the boundary flags. The majority hare brought their luncheons of bread and meat and bread and jam, and these remain till half-past one; when, as the bell rings for their return, with a final whoop of derision they pull down the sheet behind the bowler’s arm, and loosen the tent ropes; not altogether with impunity, however, for the con­ stable, discarding for the moment the character of umpire, swoops down upon them in retreat, and manages to capture a poor little mite with one eye, on whose blind side he made a dashing charge; By two o’clock Bolesford is despatched for 83, not even the efforts of Mr. Stinch, who twice hit the ball amidst enthusiasm into his master’s stable-yard, being successful in further raising the total. A move is now made for lunch; and, all taking oil their cricket shoes out of regard to the landlady’s floor, the member of Parliament carves the cold beef, and the schoolmaster carves the lamb. At first complete silence prevails, broken only by irregular remarks fired from the length of the table at each other by the opposite headi, who differ considerably over the appearance of the hay crop ; but, as the sherry and the malt liquors flow, conversation increases in volume; and, when the veterinary surgeon has satisfied nature by twice to beef and gooseberry tart, he rises in compliance with the general call, and, in avoice inwhich emotion andrepletion struggle for the mastery, sings of “ the miller’s daughter, who has hair of golding hire.” To him succeeds a porter with a comic song, the burden of which we repeat, in the hope that he will remember the second verse : hut, as he informs us, "theline is locked ” and his memory a blank, so he sits down to give place to a commercial traveller, who, with his hand in the bosom of his flannel shirt, gives us a Christy Minstrel Ballad, with the fitful and melancholy chorus of “ Mother I ” Even the member himself obliges, in his best undergraduate manner, with “ Landlord, fill the flowing bowl.” And then, after a speech or two, the majority go out to smoke and throw at the cocoanuts balanced in front of a dirty cloth on a corner of the common. Some few of the more convivial are left to linger ever the sherry which they employ in patriotic toasts, until the Royal family and the bottle both being, fortu­ nately exhausted together, with three cheers for nobody in particular, they separate, or, in the more delicate phrase ofWilhulm Meister, ‘ 1 glide apart,” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if play for the next half hour is characterised by a certain wildness, or if the ball is thrown and hit with a hearty vagueness dangerous to all concerned; nor is any one astonished when long-slip falls, apparently with a hiccough, in the act of fielding, and long-leg starts at a great pace in the opposite direction to the ball, and in the firm belief that he is pursuing it. The ladies return to their tent to drink tea, without which, indeed, they would not have come near us, and at half past four the children come out of school again and resume their tactics of the morning. By this time there is round the ground what is known as a “ gallery,” consisting of half- a-dozen carriages, a cart or two drawn up in front of the inn, a few haymakers asleep in the sun, and twenty or thirty quidnuncs on benches, who sneer and jeer at the catches occasionally dropped, or balls mist elded. For it must be confessed that the game is going badly for Boles­ ford, a young farmer being chiefly the cause, by the vigour with which he hits all sorts of balls, in all kinds of directions, with lusty impartiality; and, notwithstanding the gallant effort of the constable, who gives him run out, when it is plain to all (including the constable) that he is no such thing, the Bolesford total is passed, and the Bolesford flag is “ tore.” Still, though the match is lost, all excitement has not evaporated, for the other umpire, burning with shame at, or a de3ire to emulate, the constable’s crime (of which he is perfectly well qualified to measure the enormity), triumphantly decides a point in the batsman’s favour which it is quite clear should be against him, and aggravates the wrong by a wag of the head in the constable’s direction, evidently to be interpreted “ You see there are others who can cheat besides you ! ” Then arise murmurs of discontent and cries of derision, which take articulate form from the lips of the schoolmaster, at point, who brands the offender with the fearful epithet of “ unconsholeable raskill! ” a charge about to be repelled by force, did not the member interfere on his man’s behalf with the declaration that it was six of one and half-a-dozen of the other, and that now they were quits. From that time to the drawing of stumps scarcely anything occurs worthy of notice ; the only incident being the withdrawal of the ladies to dress for dinner, and the weariness of Boles­ ford, shown by the increasing lassitude with which they field, and the frequent inquiries as to the time. At seven o’cleck the stumps are returned to the stable of the “ Jolly Gardeners,” and the great match i 3 over, Bolesford magnani­ mously surrounding the wagonette to cheer the victorious eleven, who return to the member’s house to supper. And thence they should have departed to their several homes, but two atleast there were who somehow contrived to go astray; one, a young farmer, who was discovered by a shepherd at five o’clock in the morning fast asleep by the roadside, clasping his cricket bag, with his flannel trousers tied around his neck ; the other the auctioneer, who knocked up half Bolesford, though, providentially, he omitted the constable, in search of his cousin, whom, he declared, resided thereabouts, though, in fact, living many miles away,—a trifling obliviousness never forgotten by Bolesford, who, for some time afterwards, always received his appearance in the cricket-field with ironical cries of “ Have any of ye seen my coz. ? ”—The Graphic. A G R E A T C R I C K E T P E R F O R M A N C E . “ Do you remember the number of the cab we drove up in from the station ? ” I asked my wife the other day. “ No, but I should know the man again. Why ? ” “ Because I gave him my half-crown, and if I can only find him I will give him five shillings to hand it back to me.” “ A profitable transaction for the cabby, if not for you.” “ Well, I wouldn’t lose that half-crown for more than five shillings,” and I put on my hat and set off in search of the cabman. I found him, after a little searching, and asked him if he had changed the half-crown I had given him the day before. He didn’t think he had. Should I know it again ? Kather! I had kept it thirty-five years, amidst many temptations to spend it when “ hard up,” and I would give him five shillings for it now. Thus urged, John rummaged his shabby corduroys till the air was laden with the scent of “ mews ” and ammonia. Amongst the handful of silver which he produced with the straws, pipes, and pigtail, and some other savoury sundries, which were disinterred from his pocket, I beheld my half- crown, an old worn George III. I pounced upon it eagerly, tendering the driver five shillings for its restitution. I did not explain to him the reason why I valued two-and-sixpence at five shillings ; and cabby, after savagely biting each individual coin in the sum I tendered him, to certify that it was not pewter or basemetal, let me go, evidently