Cricket 1885

“ T o g e t h e r j o i n e d in c r i c k e t ’s m a n l y t o il.”— Byron. for over forty years. For several seasons after this he was one of the most successful batsmen in matches against suburban and country clubs, and there were few better all-round cricketers at that time in the neighbourhood of London. His reputation among metropolitan players must have been high, for a few years later (in June, 1850), he was selected as one of the Fourteen of Middlesex to oppose the Marylebone Club and Ground, at Lord’s. On this occasion he Bhowed to great advantage with the bat, and he had the satisfaction of being the highest scorer with one and forty-three not out, the latter a per­ formance of great merit, made as the runs were against such a formidable quartette of bowlers as Hillyer, Wis- den, Lillywhite and Clarke. This in­ nings so far established his name that he was chosen a month later to repre­ sent the Young against the Old of Eng­ land, a great distinction, considering the combination of talent arrayed on the two sides. Here, again, his all­ round cricket impressed the best judges most favourably, and his batting and fielding were alike so good that old Clarke, always on the look-out for a promising youngster, offered him an engagement to travel with the All- England eleven the following season. The opportunity for improving his cricket furnished by Clarke was eagerly seized by Thoms, and thus, like Bichard Daft subsequently, he changed from the amateur to the professional. The spring of 1851, though, found his luck as a batsman dead out in the few matches that he played, and though still shining as a fieldsman—for Clarke has handed it down that Thoms was as good a mid-wicket as he had ever seen —he was not satisfied that he was really doing justice to the All-England Eleven. As a consequence resigning his place he return* d to London, where he was shortly afterwards called upon by his staunch friend in every sense of the word, Mr. James Henry Dark, and offered an engagement to assist him in the management of Lord’s, which did not pass till some years after into the hands of the MJSSuEiu. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1885. PRICE 2d. ROBERT ARTHUR THOMS. T e e lot of an umpire on the cricket-field cannot, at the best, be a very happy one. It is human to err, and the most irreproachable of men must make mistakes in the occupation of a position whioh necessitates, above all things, prompitude and readiness of decision. In contrast, too, with the active cricketer who has all the excitement of actual participation in the play, the umpire’Bplace is a dull round of routine work. His whole attention must be given to the game itself, the game, the whole game, and nothing but the game. Then, again, his decisions can not give satisfaction to everyone, and there are some few, very few we are thankful to say, who resent even the rulings of the most capable and conscientious arbiter whenever they do not happen to be in accordance with their own interests. At the same time the difficulties inci­ dental to the post must be an additional ibcentive to fill it in a way to secure th e general approval whioh those who do their duty honestly on the cricket- field invariably earn. And, among those who have done real credit to the onerous position of the umpire, a very high place m a y fairly be awarded to Robert Thom B . Born in Lisson Grove, St. John’s Wood, on May 19, 1825, his whole life has been spent within mea- turable distance of the head-quarters of the game. His father, by trade a baker, was an intimate friend of Mr. James Henry Dark, then the proprietor of Lord’s Cricket Ground, and it was to this relation that Thoms owed his connection with the game. Mr. Dark having called to borrow some weights to put on the roller, a very different article in those days to the ponderous machine now in use, took youog Thoms, who then fifteen years old, had justleft Willesden School, back with him in his gig to Lord’s. Fitting him out with a new bat and ball Thoms, the younger, was planted in Knatchbull’s corner to play with Mr. Dark’s nephews, and from that day forward his sum­ mers have been almost entirely spent on cricket grounds. In the following year, when but six­ teen, he became a member of the then popular St. John’s Wood Club, and as we gather from “ Scores and Biographies,” the great work of Mr. Arthur Hayg&rth, to whom Thoms was per­ sonally well-known, it was to that Club that he owed his debut on the classic soil of Lord’s. H# was just nineteen when he made his first appearance there in May, 1844, for St. John’s Wood Club against M.C.C. and Ground, so that he may be said to have had an active andpractical acquaintance with the head quarters of cricket Next Issue January 28-