Cricket 1891

MAY 21,1891 CEICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME; 123 spare. This, though, is only one of many instances of the same kind in the history of cricket, in fact, “ Scores and Biographies ” record no less than four­ teen instances of a similar character. These were furnished by the eleven Colmans, eleven Pagdens, eleven CEesars, eleven Gurneys, eleven Paynes, eleven Brotherhoods, eleven Bacons, eleven Hasties, eleven Garnetts, eleven Wal- misleys, eleven Blundells, eleven Bovills, eleven Cronks, and eleven Leathams. V iscount C obham ’ s personal record as an athlete was, too, so unique, that I venture to think it will be of interest to reproduce the brief summary of his best performances, as given by Mr. Arthur Haygarth in “ Scores and Biographies “ When but eighteen years of age he first formed one of the Gentlemen’ s Eleven v. Players, and his career, though rather short, may be termed one of the best on record. In a match at Hereford, August 3,1865, between Herefordshire and Worcestershire,he obtained sixteen wiokets, and in that between Cam­ bridge Quid Nunos and R ickliD g Green, in 1863, he made 74 runs in twenty-six hits. He twice oaught or stumped Bix in one innings at the wicket,once for Free Foresters in 1862, and once for I Zingari v. Bickling Green in or about the same year. He played in the Single and Double Tennis match for Cam­ bridge v. Oxford in 1863, being on the winning side on both oooasions; he also won the second prize, Bilver cup and medal, given by the M.C.C. for Tennis, five years in suooes- sion, namely, in 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873. In the Third Trinity Boat Club Athletio Sports, December 10, 1862, he threw the oricket ball 100 yards 3 inches, and in the Cambridge University Sports, in 1863 or 1864, he threw 106 yards, being, however, with this fine throw only third.” L ord C obham , who is Deputy Chair- man of the Great Western Railway, was President of the Marylebone Club in 1886, and on the acceptance by Lord Harris of the Governorship of Bombay was chosen to take his place as President of the County Cricket Council. Con­ sidering the inglorious collapse of that body almost immediately afterwards, it was fortunate for him that he was not able to see his way to accept that post. I n a brief but exceedingly incisive article bearing the happy title of “ Cricket fin de siecle ,” the Speaker of Saturday last draws a comparison between the style of play that obtained in the year 1800, and that of the present day, and not to the advantage of the latter. The following extract will prove that the writer possesses the knack of telling unpleasant truths in a straight­ forward manner: The prevailing batting style is Arthur Shrewsbury’s, and the game played in this week’s highly interesting matoh of North v. South is about as remote from the traditions dating from the earlier years of the Graces— when “ W . G. ” was “ becoming” and “ Henry ” and “ E. M. ” “ were ” —as was the oricket of 1875 from that of 1815. The old game—the good old game—was brilliant, dashing, forward and baokward Play, the motto of whioh was ■ 41Hit every­ thing that is not absolutely deadly, play hard forward, finesse back for singles and twos, and, above all, be picturesque and striking.” This is the game that the greatest cricketer who over lived, or is likely to live, plays in 1891, precisely as he played it in 1871, with the highly improper result that he to-day shares equally with Mr. Gladstone the repu­ tation of being the greatest living English­ man. But then Dr. Grace is, as we have explained, no longer the accepted Master—to borrow a term from the Blavatsky cult. . . The fact that “ W. G.” alone is unchanged is by no means imputed to him for righteous­ ness. Why should he be hitting fours when the Shrewsbury manual clearly enjoins a safe “ poke” for nothing? Why Bhould he make runs, as M. Jourdain made passes, regardless of the rules of the game ? The young man from the pavilion, with his eyeglass on his mother age—his grandmother age—asks these questions in all seriousness, and getting no answer from the sixpenny benches, naturally concludes that cricket is going to the dogs. A nd for the information of the uniniti­ ated, the writer gives, tersely enough, his idea of the reasons why W. G. is no longer universally accepted aa “ the Master.” He says: The shadow of Shrewsbury, the most patient, level-headed, and equable bat of the century, looms large in the view of the cricketer who looks at the game, as the Ibse- nite regards the drama, as criticism of life. For a time the Notts professional, with his hard, sound, unenterprising ways, was a voice orying in the wilderness, ana the gospel of “ stonewalling ” was preached to deaf ears. Finally, he found a convert in his oolleague Gunn—Gunn, a man framed in the prodigality of Nature to be a perfect and unapproachable “ slogger.” William Gunn’s conversion settled the business—Henceforth the motto has been “ Keep up your wioket and your average.” . . . This week, for instance, it has been worth one’ s while to watch, in the instructive matoh between North and South, how veterans like Barnes, who in the old days never dreamed of playing wisely, and who as a result almost invariably played well, have fallen into the defensive style of batting. Even Maurioe Bead, the hero of many a reok- less hundred, is tailing in with the Shrewsbury leadl At the same time it must not be assumed for one moment that the Speaker's de­ ductions represent the general opinion. On the contrary I am inclined to think that the monotonous block, block, block, has just latterly got something of the knock, knock, knock. The experience of this week’s match between Surrey and Notts shows that slow scoring is giving place to a more lively kind of play at Trent Bridge. ON DRAWS. ( the rhymer meets w ith a difficu lty and STARTS A HERESY). Can anyone throw any light, light, light To illumine the mind of the Bard ? For he’s quite in a pitiful plight, plight, plight, As he sits in his sanotum by night, night, night, Upon crioket, for C ricket , to write,write,write; To foreshow the result of the fight, fight, fight Of the Bat and the Ball trying hard. For he wishes the Champions to tip, tip, tip, As a rhythmioal oracle ought; He is skilled in the future to dip, dip, dip, And he has in his mind a dead snip, snip, snip, Bnt is baokward at giving it lip, lip, Up, For h# knows that with many a slip, slip, slip, All the records of cricket are fraught. And this here is the cause of his woe, woe, woe, That in cricket we find that the laws, Though they mostly are good, as we know, know, know, Are in certain respects only so-so, so That wherever for cricket we go, go, go, All the records are certain to show, show, show A tremendous proportion of—Draws! For example, if Surrey should meet, meet, meet An Eleven of all England composed Of old women picked up on the street, street, street, If the county had first to complete, plete, plete Their ten wiokets, and fill up their sheet, sheet, sheet. Those old women they never would beat, beat, beat, For their innings would never be d osed ! And yet either Eleven, beyond doubt, doubt, doubt, Would have scored equal points for a draw; For in oricket the more you bat out, out, out, And with “ slogs” put the fielders to rout, rout, rout, All the more your opponents may shout, shout, shout, Since a “ draw ” they can then bring about, bout, bout;— Which is surely a flaw in the law. To “ declare” may endanger success,-oess,-cess, For “ uncertainties’’ rise; and what then? If these draws we oould only suppress, press, press, Then the Bard would with confidence guess, guess, guess That the Champion’ s initial is “ S,” “ S,” “ S;” But these draws, he is forced to oonfess, fess, fess, May spell “ ohampions ” with “ L ” or with “ N ” ! Now, a game oannot last but three days, days, days, For the fixtures must go by the oards: Yet the Bard still conceives there be ways, ways, ways; As, suppose we give points and the praise, praise, praise To the team that at oall-time displays, plays, plays The beat average per wicket; and raise, raise, raise— But then nobody notices Bards!!! T h e executive of the Dutch Cricket Union seem, as far as I can learn, to be disappointed at the absence of any intima­ tion of a visit from an English Club this summer as has been the custom of late years. The game, to all appearances, is spreading, if slowly at all events steadily and surely in the Netherlands, and the journey now-a-days from England is so short, as well as so comfortable, that a tour in Holland should present plenty of attraction for clubs in search of a holiday outing. To such I may say that a communication addressed to H. E. P. Coops, the Honorary Secretary of the Dutch Cricket Union, Prinz Hendrikstraat 6, The Hague, will receive immediate attention. M r . P. I llin g w o r th , who has been appointed to make the necessary arrange­ ments in Australia for the team which the Earl of Sheffield proposes to per­ sonally conduct to the Colonies next winter, arrived in England last week, in the “ Ballarat,” after a voyage lasting, I believe, forty-six days. I had an oppor­ tunity of welcoming him on the day after his arrival, and, as is only to be ex­ pected from the general tone of the