Cricket 1887

108 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE CA113. MAY 6,1887. CRICKET. B y A n d r e w L a n g . R ep rod u ced b y kind perm ission o f M essrs. M a c­ m illan & Co., fro m English Illustrated Magazine. (<Continued from page 81.) T h e great authority on the middle period of the game, between the age of “ sneaks ” and curved bats, and the age of round-hand bowling, is Nyren, whose Cricket Tutor is a very amusing and instructive little volume. Richard Nyren was born in 1764, and died in 1837. His father was a Hamp­ shire yeoman, a great player in the old Ham- bledon Club, and Nyren had practical knowledge of the game, as a looker- on or player, from the time of Sir Horace Mann to the youth of George Parr. Nyren was not a highly educated man, but he had a natural gift for writing, a keen eye for character, and a love of w h atever is honest, manly, and good humoured. “ I learned a little Latin when I was a boy, of a worthy old Jesuit,” he says, “ but I was a better hand at the fiddle, and many a time have I taught the gipsies a tune during their annual visits to our village, thereby pur­ chasing the security of our poultry yard." To the historical novelist looking out for a singular characteristic figure of old England, one may recommend the yeo­ man’s son, with his Jesuit tutor, his fiddle, and his gipsy friends. Nyren says vaguely, that the use of the straight bat, with all that it involves, came in “ some years after 1746,” when Lord John Sack- ville captained Kent in a match against England. The scores were very small in these days, when Prince Charles was shaking the throne of the house of Hanover. Kent got 40 and 70, England 53 and 68 . But we have seen even smaller scores made by good men on wet wickets, as when the Australians for the first time played M.C.C. Nyren well remembered the introduction of the third stump. A single-wicket match between the Hambledon Club and England was played on May 22, 1775, and Small went in, the last wicket, to get fourteen runs. These he knocked off, but Lumpy’s balls several times passed between his stumps, and the absurdity of this led to the change. Many feared it would shorten the game, but Nyren said it would make the batter redouble his care, and would improve the defence. Why Nyren was “ consulted by the Hampshire gentle­ men,” when, on his own showing, he was but eleven years of age, it is difficult to guess. Probably the veteran’s memory was a little oonfused. In any case he was right about the third stump. The year after its intro­ duction, Aylward, going in last but one for Hambledon against England, made 167, then considered a prodigious score, against the bowling of the redoubtable Lumpy. Between 1746, then, and 1776, cricket became all that it Gould be without round-hand bowling. Nyren speaks of Tom Sueter, who would stump men even off “ the tremendous bowling of Brett,” and who was the first to “ leave the crease to meet the ball ” when batting. “ He would get in at it, and hit it straight off, and straight on, and egad! it went as if it had been fired.” Tom was “ the pet of all the neigh­ bourhood; so honourable a heart that his word was never questioned by the gentlemen who associated with him, and a voice which, for sweetness, power, and purity of tone (a tenor), would, with proper cultivation, have made him a handsome fortune.” Hambledon must have been a pleasant place in the days of these old worthies, with their cricket, their fiddles, their tenor voices, and honourable hearts. The old “ Bat and Ball” tavern is there still; Nyren’s house, the bricks are alive to testify to it ; but where is the cricket, and where are the fidddles ? “ Many a treat have I had,” says Nyren, “ in hearing Lear and Sueter join in a glee at the ‘ Bat and Ball ’ on Broad Halfpenny,” the old cricket ground. Where is Broad Halfpenny now ? — “ where’s Troy ? and where’s the May Pole in the Strand ? ” When we think of these ancient times we must not suppose that all men played in cocked hats and yellow nankin tights, though Mr. Budd, to the last, clung to these vestments, and disclaimed pads. No. White was the wear as much in the days of the Hambledon Club as in our own. What says the Rev. Mr. Cotton, of Winchester, in his essay, lauding Broad Halfpenny above the plains of Alpheus and the Cronian Hill ? “ T h e parties are m et, and arrayed all inwhite; F am ed E lis n e’er b oasted so pleasing a s ig h t; E a ch nym ph look s askance at h er favou rite sw ain, A n d view s him , h a lf stript, b oth w ith pleasure and pain.” This costume wras more sensible than the tall hats and rolls of flannel which a famous writer, Miss Mitford, derided when she saw them cloth­ ing stiff middle-aged cricketers at Lord’s. But what causedthe emotions of pain in the breasts of the H am bledon ian nymphs when they viewed their admirers ? Probably they trembled for the manly shins exposed, without the pro­ tection of pads, to the tremendous bowling of Brett. In much later days Mr. Budd played Mr. Brand, the swift bowler, a single-wicket match. Budd was so hit about the legs that he twice knocked down his own wicket, lest his wounds should stiffen in the night, if the game were prolonged into the second day. Under-hand bowling can certainly be very fast, and the swiftest amateur I ever knew was even more dangerous to life and limb when he bowled under-hand than when he bowled round hand. But there was little “ work” (except what came from acci­ dents of ground) on the old bowling. Lambert, in his Guide to Cricket , gave directions for twist­ ing the ball, but Nyren did not believe the twist could be communicated intentionally. He admit­ ted, however, that Lam­ bert possessed a twist “ just the reverse way from the off stump into the leg. He was the first, I remember, who introduced this deceitful and teasing style of delivering the ball.” But it is time to turn from these old days, when Sir Horace Mann walked about the ground in great excitement, “ cutting the daisies with hisstick,” and when Lord Frederick“ dashed down his white hat in a rage,” because he could not bowl Tcm Walker. The said Tom Walker “ began the system of throwing instead of bowling, now so much the fashion.” Of course, Nyren thought that all wras over with cricket, that the game would degenerate into horse-play, all slogging on one side, and all swift wide balls on the other. No doubt there was room for apprehension. Most young bowlers aimed only at pace. Length and spin were neglected. But time has proved the best judge. All the d priori arguments were against over-hand. All the facts are on its A YOUNG CRICKETER From a Picture ascribed to G a in s b o r o u g h , belonging to the Marylebone Club.