Cricket 1890

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. B e g is to e d ta^anamSion^broad. MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1890. LORD H ARR IS . B e fo r e many weeks are gone English cricketers will be bidding a hearty farewell, for a time, at least, to one of the most dis­ tinguished personalities in the world of cricket during the last few years. The selection of Lord Harris to ocoupy one of the highest posts in the government of our great Indian Empire has, it is needless to say, given unmixed satisfaction to all who have had an opportunity of knowing the energy of his char­ acter andthe power of his personal influence. To those interested in our great national sport, the honours which have been con­ ferred on him could hardly fail to be specially gratifying, if only for the reason that in marking him out for distinction credit is re­ flected on the fraternity of cricketers of which he has always been an aotive and prominent representative. Just at this time, when he is about to undertake a position entailing the highest responsibilities, and involving all the fine arts of statecraft, a brief memoir of Lord Harris’s career will, we venture to think, be of particular interest to the thou­ sands who have known him, not only as a first-class exponent of the game, but a true friend to all who have striven in their degree to uphold the dignity of cricket. Though one of the first to appear in ourgallery of notable cricketers nearly seven years have passed since his counterfeit presentment adorned the front page of this paper. Under the circumstances, therefore, we shall count with confidence on absolution, even if contrary to our general rule, more especially as it is at the express solicitation of large number of CRicKET-readers"jwe have to tell an old tale. George Robert Canning’Harris, Baron of Seringa- patam and Mysore in the East Indies, and of Belmont, in the county of Kent, is the fourth holder of the title. Born at Trinidad on February 22, 1851, a few weeks will see the completion of his thirty-ninth year. Lord Harris began his public career as a cricketer at Lord’s as a member of the Eton eleven in 1868, and*with fair success, scoring 23 in the first innings against Harrow. Two summers later, just as he had left Eton, he played Jhis opening match for the Kent County Club, of which his father was at the time president. It was at Canterbury fittingly, too, that he made his debut , and the match (Kent v. M.C.C.) could hardly have been a more appropriate one, considering how closely he has been identified with both clubs. Having entered at Christ Church in the winter of 1870, he secured a place in the Oxford eleven in the following year as a freshman. So far he had been known as the Hon. George Harris, but the death of his father in 1872 gave him the title by which he has been familiarised to cricketers all over the globe. Though generally successful as a bats­ man during his four years in the Oxford eleven, he was comparatively unfortunate on the very occasion in which University men are most anxious to do well, and, indeed, in 1873, owing to a bad hand, he was unable to take part in the Oxford and Cambridge match at Lord’s. His best score against Cambridge was 43 in his last year (1874), and generally that season he was in a run-getting vein, having in addition an aggregate of 125 runs as the result of the three innings in which he was able to assist Kent. The retirement of Mr. W. de Chair Baker from the office he had held formany years, left the Kent County Club without an Honorary-Secretary, but Lord Harris, although already with a double responsibility as President as well as Captain of the county eleven, under­ took the third office with readiness, carrying out its duties until a few years ago, when the claims of more important work necessitated its transfer to other hands. It was just about this time (1875) that he took up the active management of Kent cricket in real earnest. He was then, too, in the heyday of his career as a batsman. It was in 1875 that he was first chosen to represent the Gentlemen at Lord’s, though he did not figure against the Players at the Oval until a year later, when he was in particularly good form. Mean­ while (in 1872) while he was still at Oxford, he had formed one of the English amateur team which visited America and Canada under the leadership of Mr. R. A. Fitzgerald, the then secretary of the Marylebone Club. The winter of 1878, too, saw him still further afield, and he captained a mixed team of amateurs and pro­ fessionals, the fifth which set sail in the autumn from England to Anstralia, with conspicuous suc­ cess. During the last ten years, with the exception of one summer, that of 1881, when he was absent from England, Lord Harris has been one of the foremost figures in English cricket. Though Parliamentary work has during the last season or two reduced his active participation in the game ractically to a few of the later xtures, he has never ceased to keep in close touch with cricketers, and his influence has consequently never been lost. In a very great measure to his personal efforts was due the institution of the Counoil, established in 1887 at Lord’s, for the management of County cricket, and it was only the important mission with which the Government has recently entrusted him that necessitated his vacation of the. pres-