Cricket 1886

JtjliY 29,1886. CEICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 809 The Normanhurst team, which included Messrs. C. Pigg, E. Wigram and Hon. J. Marsham, were beaten by 45 runs. The Parsees made 126, of which Dr. Patell contributed 33, D. Khambatta 17, B. Bala 26, and P. D. Dustoor 13 not out. A c o rre sp o n d e n t located in the Par North West has been good enough to send me a score of a match played at Minne­ apolis on July 5, between an eleven of the Minneapolis Club and an eleven of Chicago. I am glad to learn from him that there is the making of a good Club at Minneapolis, and cricketers will be pleased to hear that the game is progress­ ing steadily in the district. Mr. H. P. Bobinson, who will be remembered as Captain of the Christ Church eleven some four or five years ago, is the Captain and President, and among other Englishmen in the team I notice Messrs. A. E. Knight, a Yorkshireman, H. C. Wright, who was a prominent member of the Liverpool Club at one time, J. C. Saulez, an old Haileyburian, and A. T. Watson, an old Cliitonian. M r. F. W. H e t h e r in s to n has been courteous enough to send me the pro­ gramme of the arrangements made for the English cricketers who are to visit Holland next week under his guidance. The Dutch Clubs, the number of which everyone will be pleased to hear is steadily increasing, have agreed to meet the English players as follows :— Monday, August 2.—Hood en Wit Club, at Haarlem. Tuesday, August 3.—Olympia, at The Hague. Wednesday, August 4.—Concordia, at The Hague. Friday, August G.—B. U. N., at Amsterdam. I am personally ignorant of the meaning of the initials of the Dutch club last named. B.U.N., though, it occurs to me, makes an appropriate combination for the cricket field. The party, which is to be personally conducted, is to leave Har­ wich for Botterdam on Saturday night at 9.45, and is booked to return from Botter­ dam on the evening of the following Friday. There is a verse relative to Dutchmen which, if I remember rightly, runs thus:— In matters of commerce The fault of the Dutch, They give too little And take too much. That they can hardly take too much to our national game will be the unanimous verdict of all C r ick e t readers, at least. I t is not often fortunately that cricket clubs come together under such peculiar circumstances as those which marked the meeting of the Merchant Taylors’ School at Finsbury on Saturday last. These are the facts as they are given to me by the Captain of the Northbrook eleven :— A fixture was made between theNorthbrook Club and the Hon. Artillery Co. to play at Finsbury. On the arrival of the Northbrook team they found that by some misunderstand­ ing the Hon. Artillery Co. had also arranged to meet the Merchant Taylors’ School. At the time for commencing play the majority of the Hon. Artillery Co's, team had not put in an appearance, and the ground being offered to the two disappointed clubs they accordingly availed themselves of the oppor­ tunity. T h e writers to whom is entrusted the management of the cricket columns of the leading Australian newspapers are practical as well as capable men. I can vouch for this of my own personal know­ ledge, and I can also testify that their comments are generally Vary fair and impartial. There are, though, exceptions to this as to every other rule, and the ex­ ception in this case is anything but a creditable one. Some time since a dis­ graceful attack on the Earl of Sheffield and Mr. W. Gr. Grace appeared in one of the most influential Melbourne papers, and subsequently found its way into one of our sporting journals. The subject was the opening match of the Australian tour of 1884, and the remarks made were so unwarrantable as well as so untrue that an expression of regret appeared in each of the papers that publicity had been given to statements which, to say the least of it, had no foundation in fact. L o r d S h e ffie ld , though, has been sub­ jected to considerable annoyance by a repetition of the attack,this time in another paper. The English public may be in­ terested to know the style of writing which is supposed to do duty for cricket criticism in the Melbourne Punch, the leading comic paper, I believe, of Victoria. The following is an extract from an article which appeared in that paper of May 20, on the subject of the initial match of the Fifth Australian team:— Luncheon then took place, and— mirabile dictu—no more cricket was played on the opening day. The adjournment for lunch, which lasted the rest of the afternoon, is certainly a most remarkable bit of business on the part of the Australians. Surely, after making such a wretched stand as they did, it would have been advisable to get the English­ men on the same ground and give them a chance of showing how they could perform on it.- To be entertained and rub shoulders with a real live earl at a banquet must certainly be very nice; but our boys went home to play cricket, and to play cricket with sharpers too at that; and therefore should not have allowed themselves to be got at. Only fancy such old birds as Dave Gregory, Jack Conway or Harry Boyle being had on that racket; they’re rather too old in the horn. I use the word sharpers advisedly. There were men playing in Lord Sheffield’s eleven who would use any means, fair or unfair, to defeat the Australians. We have had ocular proof of that in days gone b y; and the leopard changeth not his spots. If an Australian’s defence of his wicket was im­ pregnable, then his body was aimed at by an infuriated giant, who nearly stumbled every ball he delivered, till the batsman was maimed and had to retire. B e fe r r in g to the match of 1884 at Sheffield Park the same writer con­ tinues :— Their bats were ostentatiously challenged, and a guage produced, but luckily they pas.ed muster, as to being only the regulation width. But surely if such a thing were necessary it might have been done in the pavilion before the men went on to the ground. But that evidently wouldn’t suit some of the Englishmen’s books. With a powerful smiter like M’Donnell or Bonnor it was about a hundred to one that his most trusty bat would be flattened out a little; and the “ sharpers ” traded on that fact, and also on the fact that such a point had never before arisen in an international contest, and trusted to catch the Australians on the hop, and by inciting the passions of the English mob against them, and by having them hooted and jeered at as they left the ground to get their bats planed down, to completely unnerve them for the contest, But the thing didn’t come off (!) I wonder what the English papers would say if a Sir W. J. Clarke or a Daniel Cooper were to have a fine cricket ground laid down on his domain, and some months before the arrival of an English team in Australia were to depute the champion cricketer of Australia to spare no expense (wehave it on the authority of “ Felix ” that the two days’ match in 1884 cost Lord Sheffield .£3,000) in getting the best available talent in Australia to meet them in a friendly game just as they got off tho steamer, and before they had lost their sea legs. Whatever the English papersmight say, I wot of one or two journals on each side of the border that would give the projector some particularly ‘‘ plain English” on the subject. I feel sure that no one will be more thoroughly annoyed at such a gross attack on one of the most munificent patrons cricket has ever had than Major Wardill. and his comrades representing the Melbourne Club in this country. The surprise to me is that a paper of any position can be found to insert such a combination of ignorance and malice. But perhaps it may be urged that the Melbourne Punch is a comic paper, and that the article is a joke. As a joke even it would be a sorry one. T h e following lament, which appeared in the Sheffield D aily Telegraph of Tues­ day last, will be interesting to Yorkshire cricketers. Oh, Yorkshire, county of my birth, In whom are all my hopes and fears, Thy cricket record turns my mirth To tears. Unless some unpropitious star Hathdogged thy luckless coursethrough­ out, Pray tell me what 011e.irth you are About ? When all these broiling summer suns Have made the ground so fast for cricket, Can you not raise a few more runs Per wicket ? Peate, Bates, and Ulyett—men of fame— Still handle bat and trundle ball; Yet the result is not the same At all. Then over-busy bodies jeer, Wanting some better thing to do, And draw up lists: which are I fear Too true. Confound their spiteful summary ! what’s The fun of asking,“ Well,where are we?” Our rival is no longer Notts But Derby. Yet though a licking’s never nice Reverses chequer every strife; “ Variety’s the very spice Of life.” And when another year shall see A record soiled by no defeat, Our season of revenge will be More sweet.