Cricket 1887

MAY 5, 1887. CRICKET: A WEEKLY EECORD OF THE GAME. 109 side. If we want proof that cricket is better than of old, look at the long scores, and look at the bowling and wicket-keeping. So straight is the swiftest bowling, and so good the wicket-keeping, that longstop’s occupa­ tion is gone, and he can be placed wherever he is wanted in the field. It must be ad­ mitted that the number of byes on this system is occasionally excessive. For example, in the dull weather-spoiled match between the Australians and England, played at Man­ chester on July 11 and 12,1884, the byes were too many in the second innings of England, namely, 18 out of 180, But, in the 182 of the Australian innings, there were no byes at all. Considering that Ulyett was one of the bowlers, this speaks very highly for the wicket-keeping of Pilling. Tom Sueter, with his sweet tenor voice and honourable heart, could not have rivalled Pilling’s performance, I presume. There were only five byes in. the innings of 403, when Aylward made 167 for Hambledon against England, but then Eng­ land must have had a long-stop ; they never dreamed of playing without one. The great attention now p a id to th e state of the w ick et, of co'irse, makes the labours of th e w ick e t­ keeper more easy, and com­ pels the bowler to get as much work as possi­ ble on to his balls. Nyren marvelled at L a m b e r t ’ s break back as a k in d of miracle; now a bowler will often make the ball twist from either side at will, as some b ow lers do with remark­ able success. It is impos­ sible to speak of the cricket of to-day with­ out thinking at on ce of the Australians. They give the game an inter­ est which it used to lack in e t o n a n : m ost cases. Who cares very much whether Surrey beats Middlesex, or Middlesex beats Surrey? We are not depressed, such of us as bear the grand old name of gentleman, if the players lower the proud banners of our Order at Lord’s. But we do care, and we are depressed, when the Kangaroo defeats the British Lion, and drives him, as in the nursery rhyme, “ all through the town ; ” or, at least, all over the ground. Australia v. England is even more exciting than Oxford v. Cambridge, or Eton v. Harrow. I daresay the old boys who are designed here, and who occupy the best seats at the public school matches, would rather see their school defeated than their country vanquished. When one’s University beats both Cambridge and the Colonists, then a man can hold his head up. But, of the two, I would rather be beaten by Cambridge, if only England can cause wailing by the banks of the Yarra Yarra and Murrumbidgee. The real strength of the Australians lies in a department where no labour will enable us to equal them. The bowler is born, not made, and the Australians are born bowlers. Bowling is in the air of the land Of the spear and the boomerang, their native missile weapons. Englishtnen who have played there say that a good style and plenty of twist are qualities common to all the bowlers, even in obscure country towns. These qualities, with endurance and hard work, are extremely remarkable in men like Mr. Spofforth, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Giffen, and Mr. Boyle. We have nothing quite like them in England. Our amateur fast bowlers are seldomvery difficult. Mr. Christopherson, who is still very young, seems the best and most promising. Our professional fast bowlers have their day, but you never can depend so absolutely on them as on Mr. Spofforth and Mr. Palmer. Now we can no more make bowlers than we can make poets: to be sure, our bowlers are better than our modern poets, but they are not quite good enough. Again, the Australians can all bat. Now if we except Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, who scarcely ever finds time to play, and Mr. Kemp, what wicket-keeper have we to win a match by stubborn defence and hard hit­ ting, as Mr. Blackham can do ? Can we expect a long score in an emergency from Pilling or Sherwin, or, among bowlers, from HARROW AT LORD’ S— SOME BOYS WHO HAVE LE! From a Drawing by H u g h T h o m so n . Peate, though none of these men are bad bats ? Such are the advantages of the Aus­ tralians, They have the pull in bowling, and in the universal power of run-getting which pervades the team. In fielding they are nearly on our own level, certainly not better, though we naturally howl out when our own men drop catches, and only feel relieved when th® Australians do so. In batting, I venture to think that our representatives excel. Their style is more finished. In McDonnell and Bonner the Australians have fine hitters; in Bannerman and Murdoch stubborn defence. Moreover, the hitters do not lack defence, nor the “ strikers” power to hit. But, for a brilliant combination of all a batsman’s best points, with pluck and judgment, perhaps no Colonial player can equal Mr. Steel, as we have seen him on several important occasions; or Mr. Grace, or Ulyett on his day, though that day, [somehow, does not dawn when it is most desired. But cricket must always be very much a game of chance, depending on weather, on umpire’s decision, on the accidents of light and wind, of health and digestion. So let us say farewell to cricket in the words of the old song of the old Hambledon Club, a somewhat stoical and pagan song for a olergyman to hav written:— “ And when the games’s o’er, and our fate shall draw nigh, (For the heroes of cricket, like others, must die), Our bats we’ll resign, neither troubled nor vexed, And give up our wickets to those that come next. Derry down, &c.” (T h e la ter p ortion o f this a rticle has been om itted , as the references are chiefly to crick et current, at th e tim e the article w as p u b ­ lished, and n ow ou t of date.) THE ISL INGTON ALB ION CLUB , B y an O l d M e m b e r . It will be news perhaps to Cricket readers generally that the Islington Albion Club is, with the one exception of the Marylebone Club, the oldest existing—that is with a continuous existence — club in the neighbourhood of London, one of the veryoldest, too, in Eng­ la n d . The A lb io n can boast an unin- t e r r u p t e d career of over eighty years, having been formed in the year1805. Like most clubs, it took its name partly from the district where­ in it was first e sta b lis h e d Islington was its birthplace, and the Albion, a well-known tavern which furnished, to use an Ameri­ canism, the hind part of its title, the home of its early days. The first ground on w h ic h th e founders of the Albion disport­ ed themselves adjoined what was formerly t s c h o o l . known as the White Conduit Fields. It was not very far distant from the ground of the White Conduit Club, the source from which sprang the M.C.C., whose centenary cricketers will celebrate this summer. It is not a little singular that the two oldest metropolitan clubs should not only have been such near neighbours in their infancy, but have started into existence within such a short period of each other. The Albion Tavern with its surroundings still remains almost in its original state as it was when built, now nearly acentury ago. To find a tavern not modernised, with tea-gardens, not more than two-and-a- half miles from St. Paul’s, is unique. Islington, though, is generally believed to have more historical associations than any other district in or around London. Within some fifty yards of the ground the Albion had in Camden Road, is still to be found a small portion of the old Roman highway, which, with another part, about half-a-mile away, are supposed to be the only remnants still in existence within several miles of the metropolis. The first President of the old Albion, as the club is now generally termed, was Mr. John Goldham. For many years Clerk of BillingsgateMarket,Mr.Goldham resided at the time in Thornhill Road, Isling­ ton, immediately opposite the club ground^