Cricket 1885

966 CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. s e p t , io , ms. 13 a great favourite in the Colonies—de­ servedly papular, off as well as on tho cricket field. ’ T IS S IX T Y Y E A R S S IN C E .” S ome M i / sings bt a M ember op the M.C.C. who join si) the C lub in 1825. Br L oud C h a m . es J. F. R ussell . T o attempt proof of cricket being our one popular pastime would be “ ridiculous and excessive; ” granted that our climate is eminently adapt id for robust out-door exercise, and that Englishmen are earnest, then it will follow that the game most to their taste would be one having scope for strength, activity, and endurance, and for the moral virtues of patience, pluck, and temper, all bound together by skill of hand and head, forming a medium of straight­ forward friendly competition based upon fair play. In a meditative walk in Brompton Cemetery one is struck not a little by two pieces of monumental sculpture of life, or rather of heroic,size to the memories of Coombs and Jackson, a champion sculler and a retired pugilist; but when one reaches grave and staid Scotland and visits St. Andrew’s, rich in its peculiar beauty and traditions, one may well be startled by seeing in the grave­ yard adjoining the ruins of the splendid cathedral a stone requiring no aid from “ Old Mortality ’’ to tell of the memory of the “ best golfer in all Scotland.” Did John Knox golf ? He can hardly have resisted on the inspiriting s^a-girt St. Andrew’s Links, the head-quarters of golf and the constant scene of the deep enthusiasm which Scotch­ men have but do not care to exhibit, except perhaps on a tombstone. Another weakness that the Scot is free from is dispensable haste ; “ fairly and hooly ” is his motto, lienca his affinity with golf, which demands strength and skill and perseverance, all of which he has and gives, not on demand, but at his pleasure, and this it is that makes golf the national game of Scotchmen. When we come to Ireland aball is again the centre of the system of the national game of hurling, in which there is never any re3t, all motion and excitement from beginning to end, at times not very dissimilar to a faction fight. Whether any lives have been lost in the amusement is uncertain, as their fate would hardly be recorded in a nation so regardless of human life. Let Englishmen be thankful for England’s happy medium. Having glanced at the national origin of our one great popular game, it will hardly be germane to the scope of this paper to trace its evolution beyond the memory of living m en; the derivation of its name may be left to archaeologists and the forms of its early implements to the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, with Lubbock, an honoured cr:cket name, at its bead. What man cannot recollect, but knows for a certainty, is, that in the very year in which the poet Cowper was in at the death of the fox in his garden, during his “ winter walk at noon” at Olney, the renowned llambledon Club, the lineal ancestor of this day’s cricket, as Nyren its historian teaches us, beat all En 'land in t.vo matohe*. B it tin players then were retainers of men of fortune, who backed them for heavy st ikes paid them, and dressed them in nmkeen breeches and white stockings, and this costume leads onto the time of Lord Frederic Beauclerc, who is thus admirably portrayed in “ Baily” by !* Octognnavian,” supposed to bo a Royal Academician equally able with his pen as with his pencil: here is a portrait fit to be hung “ on the line ”— “ Lord Frederic Beauclerc, in his neat nankeen breeches and white silk stockings with another pair rolled over his instep, a scarlet sash round his waist and a white beaver hat, which he would dash to the ground, if things did not go to his liking; he always walked with a slight limp, yet no one was quicker between the wickets.” The last time that this pretty dress was exhibited was at Lord’s, by Redgate, long after the establishment of flannels ; bets were quickly made as to the substance of the Nottingham hose, and silk won. “ The oldest inhabitant ” of Lcrd’s must now stretch his memory, and tell how ill his years of childhood, about 1815 or 1816, his wise-hearted schoolmaster, Dr. Hooker, of Rottingdean (who mounted his monitors with the Brookside Harriers), took all his school to a grand cricket match at Brighton, and induced hero-worship in the persons of Lord F. Beauclerc, Mr. Osbaldeston, Lambert, and others, and impressed upon the young minds James Broadbridge, in a scarlet jacket, nursing the new-born round arm bowling, or bowling quite unfairly, as the whole school said : so fully did this new­ fangled system establish itself in Sussex, that in the year 1827, three matches were made under protest with All England to test its merits. They were played at Sheffield, Lord’s, and Brighton. Sussex won the two first, and when at Brighton England went down for 27 runs in their first innings, 10 to 1 was betted on Sussex. England, though, won by 20 runs, amidst a scene of great excitement and evident anger, when, but for the intervention of a strong stone wall between the populace on the heights and the Players, fears might have been entertained for fair play and the peaceful termination of the match. The main feature of these matches was the recognition of the claims of Fuller Pilch to play in an All England Eleven. His first appearance at Sheffield was brilliant, but his play at Lord’s and Brighton was less success­ ful, still they formed the inauguration of a grand cricket career. Mr. H. Kingscote, who played in the England eleven, subsequently well known for his evangelistic labours in London, standing six feet five inches high, proved the power of reach with slow bowling by hitting Lillywhite, the Nonpariel, out of the grounds and ovei a 30- feet road and garden wall, a hit to be re­ membered, and not effaced by those of Mr. Bonnor, the Australian, equally well made and equally good looking, and six feet seven to six feet five. Themerits of the new bowling were acknowledged, and the hand as high as the elbowjlegalised; the shoulder followed,and next the only limit was the length of the arm. Now throwing is creeping in, but it must be checked in tho interests of cricket and fail play. The President of I Zingari, writing in 1851, says—“ Since the above was written we have seen with pleasure the resolution of the M.C.C. Committee calling the attention of their players to the duties of an umpire in respect of unfair bowling.” Mav these words soon be repeated! The next great epoch in modern cricket is intimately as^o dated with the name of W. Clark of Nottingham, a slow under-hand bowler, with a good northern head on his shou'ders, as may be seen in his “ Practical Hints on Cricket ” Clark became tho great revolutionist, not of the game but of its status and practice ; the game had long been well played fit Nottingham and was spreading in Yorkshire and Lancashire, while the railway system was developing. He had known the discomfort and disad­ vantages of long journeys on the outside of coaches in the pursuit of cricket, and his good northern brains soon saw an opening for increased and more remunerative cricket in the new facilities of locomotion, and he organised the best eleven he could and not inaptly called it the All-England Eleven, ready andwilling to play any parties anywhere for a moderate sum to be secured on the gate-money. The system was attractive by its review of heroes and by a social instinct gratified by seeing sons, brothers or cousins playing against All-England. The success of the venture was so great, as soon to call into existence another itinerant eleven named the United Eleven of England. They fared equally well, and great was the gate money when the two met together by common consent and divided the spoil. By-and-by both elevens had done their work and departed in peace, lookers-on began to be tired of paying, while those who studied under them soon preferred playing to paying, perhaps with a hope of some day being paid themselves. Under this impetus most of the principal counties formed County Clubs, and the time of their players throughout the season was fully occupied in their County matches. And thus cricket was developed as a game; and as a poor man’s profession or calling was fully established. Some keen observers among theGentlemenearlyseeingtheuse of railways to cricket, in 1845 established the now time- honored I Zingari, the Amateur Dramatic Club being prominent among them as they were in the Canterbury Week, when Mr. Felix led the orchestra on his violin, and Lillywhite declined following, his motto being, “ Second to none.” The president wrote that tho club was formed on the lines of a school for the bowling of gentlemen and mutual cricket accommodation, hoping thus to advance the interests of the game, and this carried out by its subsequent resolution not to purchase or hire a ground, but make all England its cricket-field, and never to employ a paid bowler. The club besides being groundless and homeless, yet was many homed, hence its title of I Zingari. Thus cricket gained both in the advance of its profession, and in the attempt to keep pace with it. To be continued. CLIFTON v. ST. GEORGE’S UNITED. Played at Tufnell Park on August 22. St. G eorge ' s U n ited . H.Fisher, b Davenport 2 i\Freeman,bDavenpott 2 Hammond, o J. W. Dann, b Whitehead 1 J. Cochrane, c Pother- bridge, b Whitehead 0 O. Buxt n, 1 b vr, b Davenp ft.................. 5 H. Bailey, b Davenport 13 F. Bailey, run out .. 3 E. Bailey, b Whitehead 4 A. Cronin, run out .. 1 T. Bell, not out .. .. 1 Brien, b Whitehead.. 0 B ...........................4 T tal , 86 CUFTON. 0. Davenport, b Coch­ rane ..........................10 G.Petheibridge.iun out 0 J. W. Dann.b E. Bailey 4 W .H . Dann,not out. 103 F. Whitehead, o E. Bailey, b Cochrane .. 0 R K. Flynn, b ( ronln 7 C. J. Cubitt, run out .. 0 A. W . Cox, b Cronin.. 0 E. A. Lee.h w, b Brien 2 E. J. Lyne, c . F. Bailey, b Brien .. 2 A.A.Cubitt,c E.Bailey, b Brien .................. IB B 1, 1b 4 .. .. 5 T o la !..................1IS I n a match playid between the Y.M.C.A. and Earlswood Asylum, on Saturday last, F. Nice clean bowled 0 wickets in seven overs (six >nai4?ns) for 4 flips.