Cricket 1890

a CRICKET: A WEEKLY EECORD OP THE GAME. JAN. 27, 1890. dential chair of that im portant body in favour of L ord Lyttelton. Great as have been his services in every cause connected w ith the game, still it will be m ainly by reason of his long and unwearying efforts to resuscitate the ancient glories of K ent that his name will be best remembered. The restoration of K ent to the fore-front of County cricket may fairly be ascribed in a great measure to his untiring devotion. N othing that could con­ duce to the well being of Kent has indeed been a toil to him , and the testim onial presentedto him during the Canterbury W eek of 1882 was only a slight expression of the gratitude every one interested in |the C ounty’ s prosperity could hardly fail to feel to one who has always had its advancement prom inently before him . As a cricketer, L ord Harris at his best had very few superiors. AVith great powers of hitting he had at the same tim e good defence, and as he never lost heart but always played up pluckily no m atter how hopeless the game was, his example had always a m ost encouraging influence on those with whom he was playing. In the field, too, he was always brilliant, and in any place he was equally at home. As a captain, too, his judgm ent was rarely atfault, and his estimate of cricketers was generally accurate. The Australian players who have been in England, we m ay add, always found in him a hearty supporter, and it will be well to recall here that it was essentially to him that was due the rem oval of the friction which existed here in 1880 on the occasion of the visit of the second Australian team , and which was dis- ersed by the arrangement of the first match etween England and Australia, played at the O val in August of that year. Though L~>rd Harris’s political career has not been so lengthy, it has not been without its distinctions. His first im portant office was the Under-Secretaryship for India in 1885 and ’86. From this he passed to the Under- Secretaryship for W ar, which he has held for the last three years, and was still holding when gazetted to the Governorship of B om bay. His selection to an Indian appointm ent would seem to be especially fitting, considering that his interests in the dependency have been inherited through three generations. The title was given in 1815 to his great grandfather, for eminent m ilitary services as Comm andant in Chief, at the siege and capture of Seringapatam . H is grandfather, too, made a name for him ­ self as a soldier, and his father,|if we are not m istaken, was at one time Governor of Madras, so that the fam ily will have been closely identified with India in some way or other almost, if not entirely, without a break. In taking farewell of the County Cricket Counoil, at L ord’s last month, L ord Harris said that though his cricket book was closed, it contained nothing but the m ost agreeable recollections. Englishm en, it is equally safe to say, will never forget that Lord Harris has always had at heart the highest interests of cricket, and that in the field at all times he has set a worthy example in carrying on the game in a broad and sportsmanlike spirit, befitting its dignity as a truly national sport. M. F l a n a g a n , who has been engaged as a ground bowler at L ord’s since 1870, and played several years for M iddlesex, died in St. M ary’s H ospital, on the 14th inst. U p p e r C la pto n C l u b . —The A nnual Smoking Concert of this Club will take place at the Great Eastern H otel, Liverpool Street, E .C . on Thursday next, when Sir W . Guyer H unter,K.C.M .G., M .P ., will take the Chair at 8 o’clock precisely. ‘ I n t e r -U n iv e r s it y R e c o r d s .” —Full particu­ lars of all Competitions in Athletics, Bicycling, Bil­ liards, Chess, Cricket, Cross Country, Lawn Tennis, Polo, Racquets, Rifle Contests, Rowing, and Tennis, between Oxford and Cambridge, from 1827 to 1887. Most valuable as a reference. Sent post-free on receipt of l/2in stamps, by Wright & Co.. 41, St. Andrew’s Gill, DoctorB’Qommons.E.C. A NEW CEICKET. (From the Pioneer Newspaper). “ Thinkers are as scarce as gold; but he whose thought embraces all his subject, who pursues it uninterruptedly and fearless of consequences, is a diamond of enormous size.” — L a v a t e r . I t was while thinking over the victory that Mr. V ernon’s team of English cricketers achieved over the Ceylon team—and great was m y grief thereat—that the discovery, the brilliant inspiration, which I will here set to words entered and quite took possession of my soul. Cricket, I must here remark, had always appeared to me a m ost one-sided game : one side always in and the other side always o u t! Now, I ask, is that fair ? “ W hy should not both sides be playing at the same tim e,” I suddenly said to m yself ? “ H e that talks to him self,” says a German proverb, “ talks to a fo o l; ” but that is not so in m y case, I can assure you, as I frequently do with the best possible results, as you shall see happened on this occasion. The stone thus set rolling gathered m oss. I took a walk round canton­ ments and thought the matter out. If your subject is a great one, always think it out in an open place: and m y bungalow was too small for it. Now imagine a cricket field of ordinary size and character— or of good size and good character, but it really does not make m uch difference — and in that field you see tw enty-tw o players, wickets, two bats and a ball. V ery well then. Now suppose that Captain A has won the toss and elects to go in first, with an eye to luncheon and Pilenser, and therefore sends in Jones and Robinson. Captain B ’s team now go out to field of course, but Captain A ’s team (with the exception of Jones and R obinson afore­ mentioned) are also bent on fielding, but it is of a slightly different kind to what we are usually accustom ed. F or each of Captain B’s m en—barring the bowler and wicket­ keeper—has one of Captain A ’s men near him whose object is to prevent him from fielding ! A m om ent’s reflection w ill show how that can be done. I cannot illustrate it better than by com paring the game at the wickets to the old- fashioned manner of playing cricket, while everywhere else football under either R ugby or Association rules is carried on con amore ; and the advantages of the new game, com ­ bining as it does the chief characteristics of both these ancient games, must becom e apparent to the dullest understanding. Now take a case in point. R obinson hits Smith to square-1eg. There are two fielders at square-leg, theH on’ble Brown-Titm ouse and Mr. Titmouse-Brown. The form er has set his whole heart on getting hold of the ball to throw it to the wicket-keeper, while the latter is m oving heaven and earth and his legs to prevent the H on’ble B. T . from doing anything of the 1 :nd. W hat results ? V ery naturally a scrim ­ mage, which ends, say, in the H on’ble B. T. lying on the ground with the ball in his right hand, while Mr. T. B. is sitting on his shoulders with the H on’ble B . T .’s head jam ­ med between his, T . B .’s, knees. “ Y ield,” shouts T. B. “ N ever,” cries B. T . hoarsely. “ It matters little how the head lieth,” were the last words of Sir W alter Raleigh, and so thinks B . T., and m aking a final effort dis­ engages his right arm and throws the ball in the direction of the wicket-keeper. Everyone is of course in a great state of excitem ent and bets have been freely laid on B. T. and T . B. The other fielders regard it as a matter of etiquette not to interfere. This game should appeal to non-players and spectators as it is terribly exciting, for so far from it being true that “ men are naturally equal,” no two people like B. T. and T. B. can be half an hour to­ gether but one shall acquire an undoubted superiority over the other. A nd meanwhile the batsmen have been scoring runs as fast as lightning. Or what oould be m ore exciting than when the lstB udm ashis are out and the Bandicoots only want 200 to win, and their last man is in, for the Bandicoot cover-point to get hold of the ball and run round the ground pursued by the rest of the field, one-half trying to collar him , and the other half preventing it doing so, while the batsmen are running a couple of miles between wickets and the figures run up. Think of the exercise 1 The figures in this game would of course attain some magnitude. Just imagine how this would read “ Mr. W G. Grace made 4,540 not o u t; his splendid and faultless score included a 750, a 600, and a 640. H e was very tired when he came out.” E xtras would also form a large item as they frequently do in other accounts, so they would not appear so extraordinary; but I w ill only point out as there are two stops behind the wicket-keeper, or rather one p u cka “ stop,” and his opponent the “ go-bye,” both would have a m erry tim e o f it, and overs would be longer than they are now. The forlorn con ­ dition o f such fields as leg, long-on, &c., has always struck m3 as appearing out of place in a sport which is pursued for pleasure. B ut in the new game, where there are always two fielders on each post, they will be able, when not engaged in mortal com bat with one another, to converse in a friendly mannar or otherwise help one another to get through the tim e. To give m ore opportunities to the batsman (modern cricket being so much in favour of the bowler) it m ight be further laid down that the batsman is not “ out ” after being bowled until the wicket-keeper having collared him touches the batsman’s head “ down ” behind the wicket. That batsman is then “ dead ” (or very nearly) and cannot play again in that innings, but he should make every possible resistance for the sake of his side and not stick at trifles. This wil give the wicket-keeper something to do always bearing in mind that whatever you do, do gracefully, and always prove that “ politeness is as natural to delicate natures as perfume to a flower,” I wish the reader to observe that, however radical m y proposals may be, still I have refrained from interfering in any way with such features as give to cricket its distinctive character, viz., the bat and the ball, but that is chiefly ow ing to the hardened traditions entertained regarding them by the vulgar. But m y suggestions, crude and imperfect, as I am the first to acknowledge that they are, will doubtless be im proved upon, and we m ay possibly live to see even the bat and ball removed from cricket as ancient relics and useless lumber. N ow, in conclusion, I would beg to point out that it is not to the man who m erely proposes a new system that honour is due, but to him who, working that system out, acts upon it Thus, while claiming to m yself a certain amount of credit for the invention, I unsel­ fishly dedicate it to the clubs of this country, without retaining any patent right on its usej or abuses or anything connected with it, to carry out these proposals. Possibly it m ay be so far advanced that, on Mr. V ernon’s arrival in these parts, he m ight adopt it at once and carry it to England, and I am also certain that an enthusiast like Lord Harris, fu lly alive therefore to the defects of the old gam e, will be anxious to see it. A nd if I can be permitted to drop a suggestion, a great m atch under the new rules ought to be played on the 1st April, 1890, to whioh the whole world could be invited. A C a s u a l C r ic k e t e r . V ic t o r ia beat South A ustralia at Adelaide on December 17 by 18 runs S pl e n d id P or tr a its of D r . W. G . G r a c e , M r W. W. R e a d (the Surrey amateur), and Mr. A. N H o r n b y (the Lancashire Captain), Price 6d. each Size 9in. by 6in. Also fac simile of Signatures Sent securely packed on receipt of Seven Stamps. The Three for Is., post free. Wright and Co., 41 St. Andrew’s Hill, Doctors Commons, E.C. Specia photograph of G. G. Hearne, carte size, 3d cabinet, 6d. NEXT ISSUE, FEBRUARY 27.