Cricket 1888

sept. 13, 1888 . CRIOKET 5 A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME, 409 Christian Victor, the elder, was, as cricketers know, captain of the Welling­ ton College eleven in 1885, and after two summers at Oxford, spent a year at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, acting as captain of the cricket eleven this season. T h e Longwood Cricket team of Boston, Mass., which has a deservedly high repu­ tation among American Clubs, has been making history recently, in the shape of a best on record for America. On Satur­ day, August 25th, the Longwoods played the Thorntons of Thornton, It.I., and the latter, who were unwise enough to put their opponents in, paid the penalty of their rashness with a long spell of leather- hunting. Most of the homo team scored well, and when the tenth wicket fell, the total was 412, of which George Wright, who was over here with the American base-ball players in 1874, was responsible for 120. This total, according to a Montreal paper, is the highest score ever made on the American Continent, the previous record being, July 1880, at Ottawa, Can., Montreals, 402. T h e Grand Old Man of cricket has been apparently giving plenty of employ- msnt to the artists just latterly. The Illustrated London News of Saturday last contained an excellent portrait of Mr. W . G. Grace, though, perhaps, it erred in making him look older than he really is. Cricketers desirous, however, of having a really life-like representa­ tion of W. G. in cricket costume cannot do better than invest in the August issue of Men and Women o f the Day , the eighth number of a picture gallery of contemporary portraiture. This con­ tains, in addition to an admirable per­ manent photograph of the great cricketer with accompanying biographical notice, photographs and biographies of the authoress of “Coming thro’ the Bye,” and Lord Justice Cotton. T h e fo llo w in g speaks fo r itself:—- Shaftesbury Home Club and Institute 162, Stamford Street. S.E. ’ T o t h e E d it o r o f “ C r ic k e t.” My Dear Sir,— Two seasons ago you kindly inserted an appeal from me requesting the gift of any cast-off cricket materials that your readers might want to get rid of. Although I met with a fair response, I was told I should have been more successful had I appealed at the end, instead of at the commencement of the season. Would you allow me permission to act ou this hint, and to ask through the medium of your valuable paper, the kindly gift of any bats, balls, or other cricketing materials, that your readers may have done with, but which will be thankfully and grate­ fully received by the lads of our Home, as the funds are not available for the purchase of the same. Any flannels or blazers that have been cast aside, will also be of the greatest service to us. Hoping I am not trespassing on your kind­ ness, bjlieve me, my dear sir, yours faithfully, C. A. S t e in . T h e following amusing references to cricket are taken from the Pall Mall Budget of Thursday last:— CRICKET AS SHE WAS PLAYED. The history of cricket has recently received ablo treatment, but it is rather strange that none of its chroniclers have paid the least attention to the references to the good old game that may be found scattered throughout the classical authors. It will be evident from the followingpassagesthat the ancient Romans were so familiar with crioket that they were well acquainted with its technical terms. Forma excellente (Liv. I, 9).—In capital form. Postes inducti pice (Plaut. Most. 3, 2, 140.) —The wickets were pitched. Domitius lusit Appium (Cic. 2., Fr. 2,15).— Domitius played Appius. Emissus lapsu (Cio. de Div., 1,44 100).— Missed by slip. Omne tulit punctual (Hor. A. P. 343).— Point caught everything. Vadimonia differre (Cio. Att. 2, V, 2).—To scatter the bails. Puro campo (Liv. 24,14).—Clean fielding. Quis unquam tam brevi tempore tantos oursus conficere potuit ? (Cic. Manil. 12, 34).— What man could ever make so many runs in such a short time ? Regressio maturata (Appuleius Metamor­ phoses, 2 ).—A quick return. Pratorum viriditas (Cio. de Sen. 16).—The inexperience of the fields. It may be added that there are many refer­ ences in Latin authors to a olass of officials called “ Vigintiviri,” obviously “ Scorers.” M r . E. H . P ic k e r in g , of 20, Magdalen Boad, St. Leonards, writes me as follows: What I believe to be an unprecedented occurrence in the history of the noble game of cricket happened last week in a match played at Shortlands, Kent, between the Short­ lands Valley and St. Mary Cray Clubs. The first named team were batting, and with the last ball—five balls to the over—of an over W. Hawes secured a wicket. It was then the tur» of P. Townend to bowl, and with five succes­ sive balls he bowled out five batsmen. I can not recollect any such performance having ever previously taken place, and should be pleased if any of your numerous readers would supply a parallel. I s e e in one fof the "sporting papers, too, that this is also cited as an un­ paralleled achievement, thougn I can hardly believe in these days of sensational feats of all kinds that it can be so. There have been many instances of six wickets with successive balls, and on April 25, 1884, one of seven wickets, a feat performed at Bangalore, by Bone for S.R.A. v. Troop 12th Royal Lancers: Whether, though, in any of these, the bats­ men all were clean bowled, I cannot say. Last year, as many will remember, playing for Mr. A. N. Hornby’s Eleven v. Fourteen of Church Minshull, Briggs, the Lancashire bowler, got six wickets with following balls. It is worthy of remark that Mr.Arthur Haygarth only enumerates in the thirteen volumes of “ Scores and Biographies ” two casesofthe kind, though he mentions the report of another by Charles Brown, without giving any par­ ticulars. The two records given by Mr. Haygarth were, the first by John Wisden playing for the English team, and bowling lobs, against twenty-two of Rochester, Upper Canada, in 1859, with the last two balls of an over, and the four balls forming the next over. A more curious case was the other, which took place on Aug. 4, 1874, on the Magdalen Ground at Oxford, when Franklin, playing for th e Merton College against the New College Servants, got a wicket with each of the six balls of an over. C r ic k e t e r s , as a rule, or, at all events, the more enthusiastic of the fraternity, are generally disinclined to give up active pursuit of the game as long as there is a chance of making anything like a credit­ able show at the wickets. The veteran, Charles Absolon—not to be confounded, as many are in the habit of doing, with the old Cantab, the final letter of whose name is m not n —however, is the noblest Roman of them all. Though seventy- one years of age, he still follows the game with a zeal which would do credit to youthful aspirants. Only recently, play­ ing in a match at Putney for Eleven Players against Twenty-two Amateurs, he not only took nine wickets for twenty- seven runs, but going in first to bat stopped in till the end of the day, having been at the wickets about an hour and three-quarters for his score of twenty-two. Few cricketers ( H)Ab so Ion -g a career to boast of, it may with safety be urged. T h e Parsee cricketers (who did a very good performance at the Oval yesterday, in getting a fairly strong eleven of the Gentlemen of Surrey out for 49—the second smallest total made against them during the tour, I believe) leave Victoria Station to morrow night at eight o’clock, en route via Paris and Turin for Trieste, where they are to embark on Tuesday for Bombay. Some of the members of the team, among them Messrs. Eranee, Cooper and Mehta, are staying behind in London tor a time. The two last are stopping with a view to pursue their medical studies, and Mr. Mehta, I hear, will in all probability remain in England for some little time with this object. THE CRICKET MATCH OF LIFE. A match at cricket in its varied strife, Resembles much the graver game of life ; Each batsman that emerges on the plain Knows in brief time he must re-cross again, Cross with some total figured to his name That shews his power and science at the game. ’Tis thus in life, the innings score of one May close at once without a single run, While by another’s aptitude, the score Mounts steadily to seventy or more. Howevergreatthe batsman’s skill and strength, Fatigue must incapacitate at length, And age diminish the resisting chaim Of that once ever strong and steady arm. Death grasps the ball, his best man Time keeps wicket, These are the chieftains at Life’s game of cricket, Diseases are the fieldsmen, who surround The hapless batsmen on all sides the ground. ’Ihe striker oft but hits the ball to land ’t he curling teaser in the fieldsman’s hand, While accidents of every kind cut short His loug career, and bring his skill to nought. Perchance again, when running to and fro,