Cricket 1885

4Q2 CRICKET; A WEEKLY EECORD OF THE GAME. sept . 24, isss. W ORKERS AND TH E IR WORK . From the Daily News of Sept. 22. L ord H a r r is . Industrious at the India Office, Lord Harris is far better known to the great army of Englishmen as an almost typical cricketer, a sometime devotee to the practice, not unusual among Englishmen, of making sport a pursuit. A very few instances will convey my meaning exactly. Lord de Grey, the heir apparent to the Marquisate of Ripon, is known as the premier game-shot in England. Mr. W. G. Grace, a clever doctor, is the most famous all - round cricketer in the world. Mr. W. Yardley, despite his neat hand at a song, parody, or Burlesque, is best known as a cricketer, just as Mr. John Edwards-Moss is known as aa oarsman, that aspiring statesmanMr.Chaplin as a hunter of big game in India and the winner of the Derby, Mr. Archie Wortley as a crack shot as well as artist, and Dr.Warre, head-master of Eton, rather as a crack oars­ man and aquatic coach, than by the scholar­ ship which he undoubtedly possesses. In youth, at some public schools, physical per­ fection decidedly towers over mental supre­ macy. Hence, Lord Harris, who hasworked hard at many pursuits, has come to be known mainly as a representative cricketer, having views and ideas of his own upon his favourite game—its past, present, and future. Into tbe last he peers but cauti­ ously, being a traveller and having regard to the American warning as to exercising the gift of prophecy. In his library at Hunting- field are numerous photographs of Kentish elevens, of Mr. Ivo Bligh’s team, and of the English cricketers whom Lord Harris him- Belf led to Australia. Intermingled with these are Chinese and Japanese curios— yellow and pink medallion vases, as they are called—bronzes, and pieces of lacquer representing strange beasts and birds. Traces of travel are visible in photographs of Japanese scenery, of the great temple of Angkor Wat, constructed by a forgotten race sometimes inhabiting Cambodia, near Saigon, in French Cochin-Cfliina; and of other remote corners of the world visited by Lord and Lady Harris. Lord Harris’s experience of cricket is wide. His visit to Australia at the head of an English team gives exceptional value to his views on English and Australian cricket, the latter of which he holds to owe some of its excellence to the difficulties under which it was originally played. English cricket again has disadvantages inherent in its constitu­ tion as a popular game. Thus, the very per­ sons who have most leisure to devote to it for a while are, withresponsibililies increas­ ing every year, at last obliged to relinquish it altogether, or look upon its most stirring cpntests from afar. The enormous spread of aricket in this country and in Australia Lord Harris takes to be of excellent omen. It brings different people and classes together,” he continues, as we stroll through the nut-woods around Belmont and Hunt- ingfield. “ Some time ago there used to be a great deal of talk in Australia about ‘ cut­ ting the painter,’ as they called separating from the Old Country. I never hear any­ thing about it now. So far as I can see, the Australian penple care more about cricket and racing than even wo do; and these two sports bring the two countries into keen sympathy with one another, just as cricket brings all classes of Englishmen together, to understand and like each other. Foxhunt­ ing when conducted on a liberal scale has somewhat the same effect, but not so uni­ versally as cricket, which interferes with nobody’s interest or prejudice. Nobody has a bad wordfor cricket, whereas pheasant preservers, fox-hunters, and farmers do not always get on together quite harmoniously.” “ Do you think cricket is improving or the reverse ?” 1 ‘ I think bowling is very much improved of late, owing to a variety of causes. One of these is that the wickets are muoh better than they used to be.” “ Has not the deadliness of the Australian bowling aroused our people and improved their style ?” “ In a certain way, undoubtedly. It is curiou3, however, to note that the excellence of the Australian bowling has arisen from the defects of Australia as a cricketing country. This sounds paradoxical, but it is true nevertheless. In a country subject to prolonged drought like Australia turf in a fit condition for a wicket can only be main­ tained by watering it regularly. Hence Australian wickets are artificially made and tended instead of being the best pitch pro­ curable in an average field. Few natural wickets can equal one artificially made, watered, and rolled. Now the better the wicket the better must the bowling be to produce any effect. Plain, straightforward bowling of the fast old-fashioned sort would be hit all over the field if practised on aper­ fect wicket. Hence the “ break’’ from the off or from the leg—now executed by some bowlers with beautiful precision. Bowling has so much improved in this country that we now have left-handed bowlers who can make the ball break from tbe off as well as from leg. As in Australia so it becomes here. The excellence of the wicket compels the bowler to learn to make the ball break.” To such readers of the Daily News as are not versed in the later developments of cricket, it may be needful to explain that to make a ball break it must be bowled with a strong spin and great accuracy of pitch ; for it is not aimed directly at the stumps, but at a spot from which it breaks or twists over towards them either from the “ leg ” or from tbe ■' off ” side of the batsman, ^ord Harris continues: “ It is quite clear that bowling must im­ prove with improved wickets, or the batting would completely master it. Such extra­ ordinary cricketers as Mr. W. G. Grace, who in his best form could make almost a cer­ taintyof playingleg stumpballsto square leg, could not be got at on a goodwicket without variation of break and pace. This the Aus­ tralians perfected before we did, and became masters of break as well as of direction.” “ Had pace nothing to do with it ? Does not Mr. Spofforih, the ‘ demon-bowler,’ bowl very fast ?” “ Not as a rule, I think. He can bowl as fast as anybody when he likes, and after a few slowish balls will dash in one like a cannon- shot to catch the batsman unawares. He is a magnificent bowler of course, with per­ fect mastery of spin and direction, making the ball break as he likes ; but his great success was, I think, due to the fact that he in cricket parlance ‘ bowls with his head.’ ” “ How am I to understand that ?” “ In the primitive days of bowling it was customary to put on fast and slow bowlers alternately when a batsman had got well settled to his work. This was the Bimple craft of innocent minds, for the batsman know the bowlers and whereto have them ; the question for him was where to place the ball between the field. W. G. Grace plays cricket as if it were billiards and he were wanting a cannon, not a hazard. He looks on fielders as the pockets, and hits the ball between them with quite marvellous strength and accuracy of direction. At this moment a first-rate bowler must be at least, as Mrs. Malaprop says, ‘ three gentlemen at once.’ He must not only be able to pitch as far up or as short as he likes without sacri­ ficing force and the direction of break, but must be able to vary the speed of his bowl­ ing without letting-on to the batsman. Such a bowler tries, he is not always successful, of course, to get the batsman to play for­ ward at short balls, and back at pitched up ones, in the hope that the ball may take whichever break may have been put on, and so beat the bat. Spofforth has wonderful power over the ball in putting on break, chiefly from the off ; he never works much from leg. Palmer can put on a tremendous leg break, but he is not very successful with it and does not try it often. But with them, as with our best English bowler, their chief excellence is in bowling a good length; neither break or direction of themselves are much use. A good length is everything ; it makes a batsman 1 feel ’ for the ball. When to a good length direction and break are added you have found a first-class bowler. Australian bowlers aim more at the leg stump than ours, I think, and you will find that the most successful batsmen against their bowling—W. G. Grace, A. G. Steel, W. W. Read, Shrewsbury, and others —are very strong on the on-side.’’ “ Was there no other reason to account for tbe amazing success of the Australian team ? ” “ I think I mentioned the skill of the bowlers as to length and break. I might add that they always bowled to hit the sticks. Now, when the Australians first came here, we had got into a slovenly kind of artifice. We did not always bowl dead on the wicket, but bowled a good deal to the off for catches. Good batsmen playing with judgment made fine scores off this kind of bowling, and be­ came a little puzzled when Spofforth and the other Australian bowlers went at their stumps with every ball. This kind of bowling produced at times almost apanic, which may account for some phenomenal victories. It answered very well from 1878 to 1882, when the grounds were very dead, hut now that we are having fine cricket weather and dry grounds, our bowlers are bowling more to hit the wicket ” • “ The Australian fielding, too, was good ?” “ Very good indeed ; but not so wonderful as the bowling. The excellence of the latter gave them, too, an extra man in the field. So good and true was tbe bowling, and so good a wicket-keeper is Blackham, that t' ey did without a long-stop, which gave them the extra man referred to. They lost hardly anj thing for want of a long-stop, and gained in catches. Last year, however, they gave away a lot of extras ; in fact, they overdid it. The groundswere very fast; Blackham’s hand got dreadfully knocke I about; and on several occasions I’m sure they made a great mistake in not having a longstop. It is very difficult to estimate the value of the extra man forward, but we have imitated this plan, and not only long-stop but long-leg are dying out of use. There is cf course a difference in opinion among cricketers as to the value of long-stop. As you recollect, I took an English team to Australia in 1878, and saw a great deal of Australian cricket. I quite agree with them about long-stop. His aboli- ion may give a snick or a bye now and then t Next Issue October 29.