Cricket 1888

JULY 19, 1886. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 275 THE BADMINTON LIBRARY. When the happy inoeption of this series of treatises npon our manly sports first entered the mind of the coble editor, there is no doubt that some a v v o c a t o d e l d ia v o lo or other, ex­ ternally or internally, must have insinuated that uniform success would hardly be possible for a number of such varied topics handled by so many different writers. If such an idea suggested itself, and there is a degree of sound sense in the instinct from which it would spring, the present volume is certainly not the one to mark with a black coal amid its suc­ cessful brethren. This arises, no doubt, in some degree, from the greater popularity of the sport with which it deals. A friend of ours wrote, a short time since, three articles in a well-known periodical, upon Archery, Crioket, and Boating, The cricket paper was pronounced by the c o g n o s c e n ti the worst of the three, but it was the one which received most favourable attention at the handsof the public. But the labours of Messrs. Steel and Lyttelton will bear the test of critioism of amore search­ ing nature than that to which they will generally be subjected. In style and matter alike their work far transcends any previous publicationonthepopulargame, The blemishes are very small, the merits very considerable. Perhaps the only really feeble portion of the book is the chapter entitled “ Border Cricket,” a kind of fly in amber— “ The thing, we know, is neither rich nor rare, But wonder howthe dickens it got there.” Mr. Andrew Lang is seen to much more ad­ vantage in the preliminary chapter on the history of cricket, in which his light touch and soundjudgment enable him to instruot without being tiresome. Some trifling errors might be noted, Lambert for Lamborn for instance; and he might, perhaps, have added with ad­ vantage one or two anecdotes of early cricket; such, for example, as the decision of Chief Justice Pratt, in 1719, determining the law-suit between the Kent eleven and that of England for a wager on a matoh at cricket, when, after a ldng hearing and many witnesses examined, the learned judge, pleading want of time and ignorance of the game, orderedit to be “ played over again.” But his r e s u m e of early cricket is very exhaustive and satisfactory. His con­ jecture at page 12 as to the tossing, which side should pitoh the wicket, is a correct one. In many country places still, where they play on open downs orvillage greens, the choice of inn­ ings carries with it the choice of pitch, and, as he observes, a bowlerwould take advantage, on unprepared ground, of some inequality which would help his delivery. Without disparage­ ment to Mr. Lang, however, it may be said that the contributions of Bishop Wordsworth, the father of Oxford Cricket, are what give to this introduction an unique value. The per­ sonal reminiscences of a veteran who can re­ member the crease being cut instead of marked are worth any amount of research or second­ hand evidenoe. For one reader who poruses the chapter on the history of cricket, the book will have at least a dozen who will study the portions re­ lating to the theory and practice of the game, and we congratulate the Editors upon the careful judgment with which these chapters are compiled. Mr. Steel has undertaken Bowling, Captaincy, and Umpires, Mr. Lyttel­ ton Batting, Fielding, and Cricket Reform, and these six treatises are the bone and sinew of the volume. Taking the chapter on bowling first, for, as Mr. Lang justly observes at page 24, “ the batsman must necessarily adapt his style to the bowling, not v ic e v e r s a ” we must note with the highest approbation the remarks— page 99-105—upon the professional bowling of England. Without injustice to the many ex­ cellent professional cricketers who retain and deserve the respect of their critics and em­ ployers, Mr. Steel points out with great force and truth the drawbacks to their employment, and the reason we have to fear that cricket may get to o m u c h into the hands of pro­ fessional players. He traces the evil to the gate-money character of many of our best matches, the fruitful cause of “ ills un­ numbered” to the game; in the identical strain in which years ago thelate Secretary of M.C.C. protested against cricket being reduced to the level of a gladiatorial exhibition—“ the paid contestant and the pampered spectator.” His analysis of the various styles of bowling is most instructive, illustrated, as it is, by useful diagrams of the disposition of the field, and the direction of the ball. We may feel inclined to say that he is, perhaps, premature in his state­ ment that lob bowlinghas disappeared for ever from first-class cricket, but he shows a true appreciation of the value of that too-much neglected art, by his recommendation that the captain of every school eleven should insist on one of his team devoting himself to lob bowling (page 161). The rules on the same page, to­ gether with those on pages 126-130, and those for fast bowlers, pages 187 to 190, present a complete and almost perfect summary of the bowlers’ science in every variety of trundling. Not less exhaustive and well reasoned is the summary of batting in Chapter II., with each kind of stroke illustrated by the figur# of some well-known proficient' More has beenwritten in books of reference on batting than on the other departments of the game, but each point is clearly and lucidly stated, whether old or new. In Chapters III. and IV.—Captaincy and Umpires—Mr. Steel has to descant upon well worn themes, for every one fancies that he can oriticise a captain, and no one ever is satisfied with an umpire. In the five and twenty pages which he has devoted to the former position, he has seasoned a very fair quantum of good advice with as much Attio salt as the theme would admit of; and it is to be hoped that by the time those of his readers who may have had captaincy honours thrust upon them, have reached the end of his very humorous and elaborate description of how to choose an England eleven, they will have for­ gotten his opening words—“ It is a strange faot connected with cricket, that a good captain is but seldom met with.” Consider­ ing the judicial mind, expanded knowledge, and suavity of temper, which go to make up his ideal, the wonder is that there should be such a thing as a good captain at all. As to umpires, the author of “ Jerks-in from Short- leg ” has told us that they are “ mostly old women,” and now they are put into pinafores they look the part. Who has not some funny story to tell at the expense of an umpire ? Pro­ bably much of the ridicule which attaches to the post is due to the utter recklessness with which the selection is made. Anybody will do to umpire. We can recall one country umpire who always gave two wrong decisions in the course of a match, and sometimes more; for his conscience was active, and his . observation faulty, yet he was the stock umpire of the neighbourhood, for he kept a conveyance, and would always drive three players to an out-match in which he was engaged. Amateur umpires are truly dangerous, whether they are of the positive or the squeezable order, and it is possible to the recollection of some such fact as one which occurs to our memory just now, is due the reluctance to entrust them with the potential verdict in case of leg-before, which so many players wish them to have, and which, in fact, was carried (though irregularly) at an M.C.C. meeting many years ago. The scene was a rough country ground, and the umpire no less a person than the late Jack Mytton, the ounger. A ball bumped up and struck the atsman ( 6 ft. 4in. in height) on the head. “ How’s that ? ” said the bowler, more in chaff than earnest. “ Out!”—and out came the batsman, without a word : but being a near relative of Mvtton’s, he' thought he might breathe a gentle remonstrance at luncheon time. The umpire was equal to the occasion. “ A h ! Charley, Charley,” he replied, slowly shaking his head, “ Don’t your conscience tell you your leg was before the wicket all the time ? ” Clubs ought not to grudge paying fairly for an umpire who understands the game, and should keep him up to his duty. There are very few complaints now in really important matches, because umpires are not afraid, as in the case of Mr. Leslie in 1881 (see age 241), to say frankly that they are, like am Weller, sometimes subject to the draw­ backs which the possessors of ordinary eyes feel when miraculous vision is expected from them. If country clubs would renounce the practice of playing their paid bowler, and make him stand umpire, it would have a good effect upon the game in all regards. The chapter upon fielding is perhaps the best written of the whole, for it gives in terse and nervous language the result of the experience of the author, and of those with whom he has had many a suggestive chat during thej pro­ gress of a match. But it is not easyto abridge the salient features of the chapter, and we must content otirfielves with old Abernethy’e prescription—“ Read my book.” One hint as to reckless throwing in we must select as most desirable to inculcate on the youthful fieldsman, there is no trick to which such disastrous consequences are attaohed as the attempt to bo over smart in the return. The sentence, “ thrown out so and so,” always seems to us to be something alien to first-clasjs cricket. The judgment whitfh gives the wicket-keeper his due, and does not selfishly attempt to annjex tho distinction of getting into print, will induce a fieldsman to make his return as prompt, but as careful as possible. Mr. Lyttelton’s last chapter is on Crioket Reform, that “ contentious business ” which, no doubt, will have to be faced, but which there is quite admittedly an indisposition to taokle. Some careful observers of the game, as it was and as it is, are of opinion that the panic with regard to the number of matches drawn, is scarcely justified by facts. No doubt 1887 was an exceptional season—wickets were true, weatherfine, andcenturies plentiful. But take three years instead of one, and compare themwiththree dry years in the last decade, or theonebeforethat; and, in comparisonwiththe increased and increasing number of matches played, is there a larger average of matohes arawn for lackof time ? We think not; at any rate, in first-rate contests. What some old and sincere lovers of the game dread is that which Mr. Lyttelton, by a strange mistake, calls the “ new rule of the M.C.C.” (whereas it is merely a postponed notice of motion), giving the power to the captain of the in-side to terminate the innings of his side, will strengthen a certain section of so-called cricketers who are no friends in reality to the best interests of the game. He bases his approbation on the supposed case of the third day of a great match when at 4 p.m. one side is 250 ahead; but the rule proposedwent much further than this, and emancipated captains of elevens from playing out the first innings in half-day matches. In the case of a great manufacturing town where thereis a “ charity cup competition,” for instance, the Saturday afternoon^matches, which usually decide the superiority, are seldom begun until 3 p.m., and stumps are frequently drawn at 6 p.m. This is hardly the class of cricket to encourage. The tendency of the game is, strangelyenough, year by year, in favour of individual innings, and these matches would increase that ten­ dency to a great extent. The main object of the real cricketer is not to show a good result on paper, but to play the game, and to make the most of even the less prominent members of his side. In saying this, we are not desirous to find fault with Mr, Lyttelton’s arguments : the two suggestions with which he closes his volume, as to the enforcement of greater punc­ tuality, have our heartiest sympathy, and the substitution of five for four balls an over is quite unobjectionable, but before the M.C.C. proceed for the first time to legislate upon the management of a match, we hope they will make sure that the occasion is urgent, and that the result will be such as the best school of cricketers will have no occasion to deplore. We have left ourselves no space to treat of the interesting chapters on “ Country Cricket,” by Mr. Gale; on “ How to Score,” by Mr. W.