Cricket 1891

NOV. 26, 1891 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME, 477 assert itself that before a single match had been played, its membership was double its number before the breaking out of the war. Through the generosity of H. Pratt McKean, Esq., suitable grounds were given for the use of the Club, and on October 17th and 18th these were opened and christened by a game with the old St. George’s Club, of New York. The ladies of Germantown at this time, through the late General Meade, made a presentation of colours to the Club, and under the most happy auspices, surrounded by congratulating friends, the Club was once more launched on the sea of cricket. Since the year 1867 the Club has never looked backward. Prosperity has followed it in some form ever since. To it must be ascribed praise for the more, it makes the Germantown Club the M. C. C. of this continent. About the time above mentioned the members of the Young America and Germantown Clubs held separate meetings in the Colonnade Hotel, Philadelphia, for the purpose of considering the advisability of making a consolidation of the two clubs. The Young America Club, it may be said, was organized about 1855 by practically the younger element of the party that organ­ ized the Germantown Cricket Club a year or so previously, and at the same time of the consideration of this proposition, was the only rival of the “ Daisies.” Finally, on the 17th of March, 1890, it was unani­ mously decided that the consolidation should be consummated. The property on Manheim Street) consisting of some from sixteen to twenty-four tennis courts. As one enters the grounds from Man­ heim Street, the bowling green (about the only one in Philadelphia) attracts attention on the left, while on the right is the building at present used for dress­ ing purposes by the senior and playing members. Immediately in front is the quaint old Price Cottage, fitted up as a ladies’ club-house. The large club-house, now almost completed, is, however, the centre of attraction. Built, as it is, in the old Colonial style, and fitted up with every convenience—billiard room, dining hall, smoking, reading, lounging, committee, private dining, tennis, and cricket dress­ ing-rooms, in addition to the magnificent theatre and ball-room, in which it is pro­ posed to hold entertainments during the manner in which it has held up the standard of American cricket. Higher and higher seems to have been the aim. At the same time it has endeavoured to extend cricket. Largely has it been in­ strumental in the bringing out of English teams, not so much with the expectation of winning, but with the idea of improving our own cricket play. So the Club went on, unselfish in motive, with the sole purpose in view of making the noble game more and more popular. But it was destined that its in­ fluence and scope should be still further increased, and about April, 1889, a stepwas taken which renders the Germantown Cricket Club the premier club of all America—in numbers, ground, service, and in point of equipments—yes, even eleven acres, has purchased, and the work of preparing it for the use of the combined clubs, now known as the Germantown Cricket Club, was begun. As has been said, the grounds are some eleven acres in extent, within three minutes’ walk of Queen Lane Station, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, twelve minutes’ walk from Wayne Junction, on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, ten minutes from the Germantown street­ cars, and fifteen minutes’ drive from Fairmount Park. The first cost was about ninety thousand dollars, and this, added to the cost of improvement, will amount to some two hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand dollars. The cricket inclosure is some five hundred feet square, and in addition there are winter, it can indeed be termed the finest club-house in America, perhaps in the world. ‘ Consequent on the coming of Lord Hawke’s team to Quakerdom, a new grand stand with seating capacity of two thousand people is a feature of the grounds, and underneath it is a well- appointed bowling alley. With all these conveniences and com­ fortable appointments, and a membership continually growing, numbering at the present time some eleven hundred, the Germantown Cricket Club should indeed have a prosperous career. Much has been done by its members in the interests of pure cricket, more remains to be done. The success which attended it in the past was deserved. May prosperity continue to follow it. NEXT ISSUE DECEMBER 81