Cricket 1885

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1885. reioa h. REV . V E RN O N F A N SH AW E ROYLE . R ossall S chool during a short career has sent out not a few cricketers who have taken high posi­ tions among amateur players. I'. W . Wright, W. Townshend, and V. Royle, of Oxford, <1 Savile, and P. H. Morton, of Cambridge, the Rowleys, of Lancashire, and G. Nixon, of Middlesex, may be cited as prominent instances of the success which has at- attendedRossallians as exponents of our national game. Mr. Royle has by his brilliant all-round play helpedmaterially to keep alive the reputation of his old school as a nursery for amateur cricket. Though always associated with Lan­ cashire, he cannot claim to play for that County by the right of birth. He was born at Vernon Lodge, Brook- lands, Cheshire, on Jan. 29, 1854, and is now consequently in his thirty- second year. He learned his cricket at Bossall, and was in the eleven there in 1870 at the early age of sixteen. Details of his school cricket are rather scanty, but the following remarks con­ tributed by an old Captain of the Club at Rossall will be read with interest. “ For a long time,” writes the Captain, “ he failed to score, but I recollect a very pretty and useful innings of 23 against Preston, when Mr. Appleby, then at his hest, was taking the wickets fast. I can not recall any very large score by Mr. Royle even in 1872, when hewasCaptain of the School eleven. When first known at Rossall he was a fast bowler, very wide, and I well recollect the one occa­ sion on which the late Mr. B. Paunce- fote, of Rugby and Oxford, went in on the Rossall Ground. Royle bowled one of his widest balls, Pauncefote stepped out and sent it terribly hard to forward cover point about two feet from the ground, and cover point somehowheld it. I never saw any one so disgusted as the batsman. I remember, even in that year, some stranger yelling out from the pavilion, ‘ Take care of that little coverpoint.’ Royle was then about sixteen, I should think. He was, of course, in consequence very popular among the School generally, who howled as only Rossall boys can He had, meanwhile, made his first appearance in the Lancashire eleven, and, unless we are mistaken, his connection with the county dates from June 30, 1873, when he represented it against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane. In the following year in a match at Chelford between Cheshire and the Staffordshire Bor­ derers, he scored 205 ruiis for the former, a feat of note at the time. That season he was evidently in very fair form with the bat, and his success for Lancashire, for whom he scored 224 runs; in seven completed innings, no doubt had a great influence in bringing him before the notice of the authorities at Oxford for the following summer. Though he was not very successful for the county in 1876, he was of great use to Oxford. He contributed 67 not out to the famous innings of 612 against Middlesex at Prince’s, and his fielding in the Inter-University match of that year at Lord’s brought him into special prominence. It was so brilliant, indeed, as to elicit the follow­ ing eulogium from the writer of “ Cricket Gossip ” in Land and Water : “ Those who witnessed this match,” he said, 1 are not likely to forget one of its special features, the very brilliant fielding of Royle at coverpoint for Oxford: his picking up and returns occasionally being among the best things I ever saw.” “ Mr. Royle’s slow bowling after 1876 seems to have failed him,” to continue the remarks of the old Rossall School Captain, “ or to have degenerated into a throw, but his batting has wonderfully improved since then. I think the finest innings I ever saw him play was for Past v. Present Rossallians at Rossall, in July, 1878. He then scored 137 in absolutely . faultless style.” Since he left Oxford professional duties have prevented his giving more than a portion of the season to active pursuit of the game. For the last ten years, though, he has never failed to take the keenest interest in Lancashire cricket. In 1877, among several good innings, his best per­ formance with the bat was against Notts at Manchester, and here, on a queer wicket, he at every run he made.” In 1872 he developed an extraordinary talent for slow bowling, and in two consecutive innings v. East Lancashire and Dingle obtained 11 wickets for 27 runs. His break was tremendous, and he obtained the best average in a good bowling year, But it was not till he went to Oxford that his cricket developed. He got into the eleven in 1875, and played a useful second innings against Cambridge, besides clean bowling four of the best wickets in the memor­ able match which A. W . Ridley’s howling landed for Oxford with only six runs to spare, j