Cricket 1891

MAY 14,1891 C B IO K E T : A W E E K L Y RECORD OP T H E GAM E ; 10g member of [the City oricket clubs, did a very notable performance in taking seven wickets o f the latter for no runs. The achievement is the more remarkable con­ sidering that Mr. Wigley has now heen playing for upwards of 37 years. He nas always taken a very prominent part in City cricket, and has been actively iden­ tified since its institution with the City Ramblers, now called the London Ram­ blers Club. T hough the announcement of the elec­ tion of Mr. Kenelm Edward Digby as a Bencher of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn will not, perhaps, recall any cricket associations to the younger genera­ tion of players, the name will be familiar to many as that of an old time exponent of the game, and one who figured pro­ minently in Public School cricket in the middle of the fifties. Mr. K. E. Digby was captain of the Harrow School eleven in or about 1865, and will be well remem­ bered by Old Harrovians of that time. His name, unless I am in error, figures among those from whom the Bar Com­ mittee is to be selected at the forthcoming election for that body .3 T he Morning Post of Monday last is my authority for the announcement that the Hon. Sir Spencer Ponsonby Fane, K.C.B., has accepted the office of Presi­ dent of the Somersetshire Society for the present year. The new President will be easily recognised in another, and to C ricket readers, a more important capa city, as the Treasurer of the Marylebone Club, and one of the most ardent sup­ porters the game has had for nearly half- a-century. To many it may, perhaps, be news that he played for Surrey before the formation of the CountyClub in the middle of the forties. His brother, the Earl of Bessborough, has been Vice-President of the Surrey County C.C. since its forma, tion. “ L ea ves from a Candidate’s Diary,” to which I had occasion to refer a week or two since, is still running through the pages of Punch, and when issued in book form should furnish a vastly entertaining volume. The following witty extract from this week’s instalment, wherein he meets the opposing candidate at a cricket dinner, will be read with interest:— .C a in e down to Billabury to-day, to attend the inaugural dinner of the season of the Bnlsbury Crioket Clnb. I am a vice-presi­ dent, and so is Chubson. The dinner was held in the large room of the “ Blue Posts ” Hotel. General Bannatyne, an old Indian, who is president of the club, was in the chair, having Chubson on his right and me on his left. Old Ohubson, to whom I was in ­ troduced, seems not half a bad old fellow, but he can’t speak a bit. The dinner was awful, everything as tough as leather, and the cabinet pudding more beastly than any cabinet pudding I ever tasted—whioh is a good deal. Chubson proposed „ J,™aPerity to the Billsbury Crioket Club.” touting,” he said, 1 are like cricket. We spend our time in bowling overs.” At this point a, young Conservative, who had ,00 uiuch, shouted, “ Ah, and you mostly change sides, too an allusion to the fact that Chubson is believed to have started in politics as a Tory. Somebody removed the interrupter, and Chubson finished his speech all right, but the incident must have annoyed him. I proposed “ The Town and Trade of Billsbury,” and started by saying what pleasure it gave anybody occupied in politics to take part in a non-political celebration like this. “ My friend Sir Thomas Chubson,” I said, “ and I have not inet before, and I con­ gratulate myself, therefore, on having been introduced to him to-day. We shall do our level best to bowl one another out, but X know we shall play the game according to the rules, and in that spirit of fair play for whioh Englishmen in general, and Billsbury cricketers in particular, are celebrated.” This was rather mixed, but it went very well. I think I took the shine out of Chubson. T h e eleotion of Mr. V. E. Walker to the Presidential chair of the Marylebone Club will give unqualified satisfaction to cricketers everywhere. One of the very best all-round cricketers of his time, the new President has never ceased to take the keenest interest in the game of which he was such a brilliant exponent. To a large number of players, professional as well as amateur, he has been essentially a guide, philosopher, and friend. In knowledge of cricket lore he has, too, no superior, and his counsel and advice for many years have proved of invaluable service to the premier club. The an­ nouncement made by the Hon. E. Chandos Leigh, Q.C., theiChairman, at the first annual meeting of the London Play­ ing Fields Committee at the Polytechnic on Tuesday night, of Mr. Walker’s muni­ ficent gift to that body, is a substantial proof of the practical sympathy he has with the extension of the opportunities for playing cricket. In addition to a sum of five hundred pounds in hard cash, he has presented fifteen acres of land at Southgate for the furtherance of the objects of the Society, which are a material increase in the number of grounds available for outdoor games in the neighbourhood of London. U nless I am much mistaken, the number of cricket lovers in the House of Commons has received another addition in the person of one of its very latest incomers—I had almost written recruits, only, if my memory serves mo rightly, Mr. W. E. Brymer previously sat in the Commons for a constituency in South Dorsetshire, or near it—very near it. Mr. Brymer, I have reason to believe, was for many years a member of the Surrey County C.C. At all events, I think I am correct in claiming him as an active supporter of cricket. He at least showed his capacity for playing an uphill game, for he had not very much in hand when the match was finished. allow them to expend a very limited sum in rent. Since the inaugural meeting of the Society, held on March 24, 1890, the Chairman stated that they had managed to secure suitable grounds at Wandsworth, Raynes Park (24 acres), Epping Forest (16 pitches, each 30 yards square), and St. Quintin Estate, near Wormwood Scrubbs (12 acres), which would materially lessen the crowds ac­ customed to flock to Battersea Park, Victoria Park, and Regent’s Park, with 100, 60, and 64 pitches respectively. Considering that this has been accom­ plished in about fourteen months it speaks well fur the energy and fore­ thought of those who constitute the London Playing Fields Committee. One of the most immediate necessities of the time is to seaare a reduction in the rail­ way fares to the outlying districts of the metropolis. I* is satisfactory to find that the executive has been fully alive to the importance of this particular question. Railway Companies, however, are not infrequently slow in their recognition of matters of notoriously public interest, and it will be well to keep the subject prominently and continually before them. T h e principle of heredity has been again vindicated in the person of Mr. A. H. Latter, the announcement of whose marriage I saw in one of the dailies the other day. His father, Mr. Robinson Latter, was a good oricketer, and the sons, one of whom, if I mistake not, is the A. Latter who assisted Mr. J. St. F. Fair in the Seniors’ match recently played at Oxford. The Latters have been long and honourably associated with cricket in West Kent. A.H. of that name, who has just qualifiod for the Married team, has done good service for the Bickley Park Clnb as a bowler many a time and oft. PRINCIPAL EVENTS FOR NEXT WEEK. M en tion of the meeting of the London Playing Fields Committee brings to my mind the amount of good work the Society has done in resouing open spaces from the probable olutohes of the builder, or, at least, securing them for the accom­ modation of chibs whose means only T hursday , M at 14. — Lord’s, 'M.C.C. & G. v. Lancashire; Kennington Oval, Surrey v! Essex; Oxford, The University v. Gentlemen of England; Taunton, Somersetshire O. & G. v. Glastonbury. F b id a y , M at 15—Newcastle, Northumberland v. Lincolnshire; Sunderland, Durham v. Glamorganshire S aturday , M ay 16.—Aldershot, 93rd Highlanders v. Lyric O. & G. M onday , M ay 18.--(Bank Holiday) Lord’s, Middle­ sex v. Somersetshire; Kennington Oval, Surrey 2nd XI. ▼. Notts 2nd X I.; Bristol, Gloucestershire r. Kent; Brighton, Sussex v. Hampshire; Derby, Derbyshire v. Leicester­ shire; Leyton, Essex v. M.C.C. & G .; Not­ tingham, Notts v. Surrey; York, Yorkshire v. Warwickshire; Newcastle, Northumberland V. Glamorganahire; Norton, Lincolnshire v. Durham; Stoke,Staffordshire v.Northampton- shire; Exeter, Devonshire v. Monmouthshire: Aldershot, The Division v. Lyric C. & O. T uesday , M a y 19.—Dereham, Dereham v. Norfolk C. & G. W ednesday , M ay 20.—Oval, Surrey Colts v, Non- Com. Officers of Royal Artillery I n Surrey’s first two matches this season, Sharpe has been the not out in eaoh innings, with scores of 17 and 10 v. Leicestershire, and 19 v. Hampshire.