Cricket 1885

NOV.26,1885. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 468 AN OLD CR ICKETER ’S TALE . “ As it fell upon a day, ” or rather an evening in tin early part of the month of July in this present year, sitting underneath a pleasant shadein a garden in the Brompton- ciim-Chelsea neighbourhood, enjoying the calumet of peace in the cool of the evening, a hale and hearty old gentlemen arrived at the house of a friend with whom I was Bpending the evening and was introduced to me as a well-known actor of the past and an ardent cricketer al o. The name of this gentleman is Mr. William Woclgar, the father of the oelebrated Miss Woolgar (Mrs, Alfred Mellon), who was the favourite actress at the Adelphi for many years, and certainly one of the finest artistes in melodrama in any generation of playgoers, and it seemed like talking to a ghost of the past when the venerable ex-actor told me that he had made his bow from behind the footlights sixty-five years ago, and had constantly acted with Edmund Kean, and also with Edmund Kean’s nearest relative, Mr 3 . Carey, to say nothing of Maoready and other theatrical managers, who produced Shakespeare’s plays in later days. Understanding that I was very fond of cricket and cricket lore of all kinds, Mr. Woolgar informed me that his grandfather, who resided close to Hambledon, and whowas married in 1760, was one of the members of the club a hundred and thirty years ago—as was his father, who was born at Wickham (the birth-plaoe of William de Wykeham) a neighbouring village to Hambledon, and died forty years ago in his eighty-sixth year, playing a century aga; and that he—the speaker—played his first match seventy years ago in the Gosport distriot, and played his last match when over sixty years of age. Jj am fond of old men’s tales, especially when those who tell them take a lively interest in the doings of the present day, and can talk with much interest about the per­ formances of modem cricketers. In this paper I am simply recapitulatingthe evidence of my informer, and making oxtracts from a number of notes which he was good enough to lend me, and which are before me, and whioh are recollections of family traditions before his own personal experience. So I am only Mr. Woolgar’s parrot. The pioneers of cricket were young men following rustic employments, such as farmers, thatchers, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, &o ., who used to beguile their Sunday evenings after afternoon church on the common (now probably Hambledon racecourse) before the institution of the Hambledon Club at Broadhalfpenny Down; and it is pretty certain that crioket was a Sunday game mostly in the early days of George IH. Mr. Woolgar says that when he was young they always played on a Sunday evening, and that the Bector of his parish, the Rev. Mr. North, a son of Bishop North, did not object iu any way. This exactly tallies with Miss Mitford’s “ Tales of Our Village,” in whioh she describes the Sunday afternoon’s practice before the « rand match, so admirably described therein, t also is thoroughly confirmed by the fact that the ground in front of the “ Old Bat and Ball” was enolosed, and the land was exchanged for some other land near the village, because the Sunday cricket matches were played there about thirty year.-; ago, whioh fact occasioned the exchange, as large crowds assembled, and the cricket became a rough and troublesome kind of business and a very noisy meeting. I remember when at school getting hold of a very old-fashioned aiovel, an eooentric passage in which tickled the boys’ fancy and was often quoted. A practical joke had been played on the heroine, who appeared to have been of a violent temper. Belinda (or whatever her name was) was left to her fate, and was dis­ covered by a lot of young farmers who had ridden over early, it being Sundaymorning, to play a set of cricket with the young sparks of a neighbouring town. Guess their sur­ prise when they saw the damsel suspended in a sheet like a hammock hanging outside the bedroom window. In this rude village cricket, two stumps only were first used pretty near together, wide enough to let a ball pass easily though, there was no bail at first. The stumps were two sticks cut out of the hedge, twenty-four inches long, and they were sunk two inches firmly in the ground. It was easy enough to tell when the ball touched the inside of either stump, but doubts arose about its touching the outside, and the bail wa3 invented to prevent doubt3, and was called the “ tell-tale.” These stumps of twenty-two inches out of the ground belong to the second era of cricket. At Lord’s, in the paviliou, is the celebrated picture of cricket in 1743, the wicket being a skeleton hurdle, probably about two feet wide by a foot high. The second era is represented by a picture in the pavilion opposite the committee room door, near the exit from the pavilion into the reading and writing room, in which a game of eleven a side is being played, the players attired in silver lace hats, and silk shirtings, and the wicket consisting of two stumps of twenty-two inches (probably) near together, and a single bail. The late Rev. A. R. Ward, of Cambridge, was looking at that picture with myself a year or two back (the Mr. Ward whose father was the walking dictionary and historian of the game), and we put that picture down to about 1760 or thereabouts. The ball was commonly made by the village cobbler, much more neatly finished than anyone would suppose, and would be soaked in water to make it heavier if under weight. No doubt this custom pre­ vailed in other things, as our footballs were soaked in water at Winchester to make them heavy. The original bat used in this country was much longer than present bats, and at the end took the shape of a nautilus, and was flat like a cutlet, about an inch and a half in thickness. It must have been some­ thing like aNew Zealand war club. Accord­ ing to Mr. Woolgar’s narrative, which was written only two years ago, a Mr.-Rogers, surgeon of Westmeon, near Hambledon, still retains as family relics two of the stumps, a ball, and a bat of the oldest period. The bats which have been preserved and the oil picture at Lord’s of the date of 1743 belong to the “ swells ” who were adopting the game with better materials than those used in purely oountiy districts for village cricket. It is clear that the swells first joined with the yokels about that date, as the celebrated article in the Gentlemen’s Magazine was written thenagainst noblemen and gentlemen mixing with the common herd and gamblers in cricket. John Small, the younger son of the Small recorded by Nyren, who was ball maker to the old Hambledon Club, lived at Petersfield, and exhibited a rough notiee on his premises, “ Here lives John Small, Sells bats and ball, And will play any man in England.” The younger Small had the credit of inventing the first bats with a shoulder, much of the present form as regards the face, and the bat became so popular that the orders poured in upon him, and he could hardly make them fast enough. In the earlier cricket,before the publication of any law which we now possess, the “ mat s ” were changed every twelve balls, which formed an over, and the over was sub­ sequently reduced to six balls and afterwards to four balls. Sometimes the bowling was a “ swift troll ” close to the ground, sometimes a ball was pitched a length so that the bats­ man had to fall back and stop it with a perfectly upright bat. Sometimes he ad­ vanced a pace or two to meet it, which was the origin of the crease being substituted for the hole cut in the ground behind, and stumping came into fashion. In full practice which was conducted with the same solem­ nity as a match, all notches had to be run, and anyone who did not score six notches paid twopence fine towards the expenses of bats, balls, &c., and the man who was out took the place in the field of the man whose turn it was to come in. The twopenny fine excited the wicket-keeper and his mates to be very sharp and active, as all had an eye to a place in the eleven for a grand match, and they were always selected according to their smartness in practice. [How are they selected now in some of the clubs, and what is the qualification for the judges beyoid money, vulgarity, and “ cheek ? ” ] The pleasant, healthy pastime of cricket became a great source of amusement to the families and friends of the players, and children and sons of old cricketers looked forward to the day when they might be chosen a mate in a match. The localities in the neighbourhood of Hambledon caught the spirit of the game, and cricket took deep root in the parishes of West Meon, Horndean, Wickham, South- wick, Fareham, Botley, Odiham, Liphook, Petersfield, Porchester, Droxford, Titchfield, and spread to the towns of Southampton, Winchester, Portsmouth, Gosport, in the neighbouring Counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, through Sussex into Kent. It was in Berkshire that the scene of Miss Mitford’s “ Tales of our Village ” is laid. Mr. Woolgar writes:—“ The advantages of the game as conducive to health and vigour soon introduced it in schools and colleges. Various modes of delivering,the ball were used, sometimes with a slight jump as the ball left the hand, whioh occasionally caused it to shoot into the wicket, instead of rising from the pitch ; sometimes an entire pitch was made at the wicket which might fairly lead to a catch if struck, and sometimes a slow bowler was placed at one end in contrasted change with a fast one at the other. In my younger days there was a famous Sussex bowler named Brown, of Emsworth (of course the well- known Brown of Brighton, of Sussex history), so fast and swift that he was the terror of batsmen. An opinion was formed that the ball was jerked, so closely did his arm appear to reach his side in delivery, and instances are recorded of their marking his arm to ascertain if the colouring left an impression on his side. [This custom prevailed when I was at school, as when promoted to the junior’s eleven, I was suspected of jerking and my arm was chalked, and I was declared ‘ fair.’] As Emsworth in Sussex adjoined the county of Hampshire with its capital cricket ground called ‘ Cold Harbour Lawn,’ this terrific bowler Brown frequently wrenched the victory from the popular Hampshire eleven, and this rapid delivery besoming more common, caused the intro­ duction of paddings and gauntlets, though I never saw such things in my younger days.’ Next Issue December 24-