Cricket 1893

DEC. 28, 1893 QEICKET 5 A WEEKLY RECORP OP THE GAME, 483 In 1849 the Gentlemen won by an innings and 40 runs, every man on their side scoring, and all but one getting into double figures; so that, though the highest, score was Mr. Felix’s21, the total reached 192. The Players failed badly against the fast bowling of Bathurst, Fellowes, and Yonge. Fuller Pilch played for them for the last time, scoring 24 and 7. The 1850 game was very similar, except that it was this time the Players who won in an innings, and that the scoring was much more uneven. The bowling of Clarke and Wisden disposed of the amateurs for 42 and 58, the old under­ hand bowler cleanbowling eight. George Parr made 65 (not out) for the Players. Caffyn (of whom Bichard Daft has given it as his opinion that he was the best man Surrey ever had, and to whom Australian cricket owes somuch) played in thematch for the first time. The Players again won by an innings in 1851, Joseph Guy making 65, Caffyn 48, Parr 32, and Wisden 22. Mr. H. Yernon, who ten days or so later made 33 for Cambridge v. Oxford, was top score for the Gentlemen with 12 and 40. Jemmy Grundy, the “ cool and clever,” made his first appearance for the Players. The 1852 match was a very g iod one. Mr. W. Nicholson (31) and the Hon. S. Ponsonby (32) batted well for the Gentle­ men ; but Jemmy Grundy’s 69 (not out), Box's 39, and Guy’s 36, with small con­ tributions, put the pros, nearly a hundred in front on the first innings. The Amateurs played up well against this lead. Mr. John Walker, the oldest of the famous brotherhood, playing for the first time, scored a fine 58, and Mr. H. Vernon made 30. The Players won in the end by five wickets, George Parr scoring 46, not out. Alfred Mynn and Mr. Felix played for the last time. A small-scoring match in 1853 resulted in a win for the Gentlemen by 60 runs, though their second mnings was only 37. Sir Frederick Bathurst and Mr. Matthew Kempson, then a Cambridge under­ graduate, bowled unchanged through both innings of the pros. Sir Frederick took 11 wickets for 50, the Cantab 9 for 54. Messrs. A. H. Evans and A. G. Steel performed a very similar feat at the Oval in 1879. Martingell was in fine bowling form for the Players; and old Clarke, appearing for the last time, took seven wickets. He was over fifty-four. Sir Frederick Bathurst was the next of the old stagers to go. He played his last match for the Gentlemen in 1854, when forty-seven. Mr. E. T. Drake, a slow lob bowler from Cambridge, and Mr. Cloudesley Dewar Marsham, perhaps the best bowler Oxford ever had, made their first appearance. The Players won a small-scoring match, with no very remarkable features, by nine wickets. Lockyer (who was, in Daft’s opinion, the finest wicket-keeper the world ever knew) and Mortlock, a fine longstop and good ba'finan, with John Lillywhite, a son of old William, and a rare good bat, who did credit to his father's coaching, were among their new men. The 1855 match was chiefly remarkable for the disparity between the first and second innings of the Gentlemen. They batted first, and scored 226 (A. Hay­ garth 47, A, Payne 39, E. T. Drake 33, not out, 0. D. Marsham 29, F. P. Miller 24). The Players finished four runs short of this, George Parr being far ahead of everyone else with 77. Then John Lillywhite and Jimmy Dean, “ the Sussex ploughboy,” tumbled out the Amateurs for 43 ; and the Players won by seven wickets. 4 close finish was seen in the next year, when the bowling of Messrs. Marsham and Payne nearly brought off a surprise, the Players only pulling through by two wickets. Julius Cajsar, the famous Surrey hitter, made his first appearance ; and a very successful one it was, as, with 51 and 5, he was top scorer for the pros, for whom George Parr made 23 and 27. Another famous player made his first bow in the Players’ team in this match. Edgar Willsher, one of Nature’s noble­ men, as upright and honest a man as ever donned flannels. It was Willsher whose action in the England v. Surrey match of 1862 practically brought about tbe legalisation of over-armbowling. The story is well told in W.G.’s book (Chapter II). I have no space to repeat it here. The next year saw the first Gentlemen and Plaj ers match ever decided at the Oval (which had been opened twelve years before) brought off. Three famous Surrey players played in the match for the first time, the Bev. Charlton Lane, a splendid bat, with fine cutting powers ; “ Surrey Stephenson” (H.H.), a regular cricket genius, could bat, bowl, and keep wicket, all in first-class style; and Mr.F. Burbidge, whose influence did so much for Surrey cricket. There were fourWalkers playing, too, John, A. H., Frederick, and V. E., who had made his first appearance the year before, when only nineteen. The game was not a specially interesting one in itself, the Players (for whom Grundy scored 56, and Wisden 46) win­ ning with ten wickets in hand. At Lord’s that same year John Jackson played first for tbe Players. He was a Suffolk man by birth, but played for Notts by right of long residence. A very fast round arm bowler (“ Jackson’s pace is very fearful,” says the first line of those In Memoriam verses to Alfred Mynn), he stood well up in delivering the ball, which came from exactly level with bis shoulder. Daft says that he had a peculiar habit of loudly blowing his nose after he had taken a wicket, and that Bob Carpenter called him on this account “ the fog­ horn.” (To be continued). W . L. M u r d o c h , th e Sussex captain, is now in Australia for a trip. I t is rumoured that J. J. Lyons may settle in Sydney on bis return to Australia. T. W. G arrett , the bowltr of early Aus­ tralian teams, made 73 for Sydney University on November 4. T h e annual general meeting of the Surrey County C.C. will be held at the Oval on Thursday, May 3. G. E. P a lm e r , one of the best all-round players in some of the earlier Australian teams, is now engaged as coach at Melbourne Grammar School. REMINISCENCES OF CRICKET. B y EICHAED DAFT. T om F o ster . It is many, many years now since I first became acquainted with Tom Foster. He has been familiar to me in various capacities—as a member of the village choir, as one of the South Notts Yeo­ manry, as hon. sec. of ihe Badcliffe Cricket Club, and as a first-rate umpire. Little did I think when five-and-twenty years ago I used to see Tom arrayed in his white surplice, taking an active part in the vocal of our church choir, or some­ times favouring me by bringing the offer­ tory plate for contributions at the close of the service, that he would be taking his part as umpire in cricket matches when I should have become an old man. Let me describe Tom’s personal appear­ ance. He is rather below middle size, very stout, and of an extremely rubicund complexion, looking as though he bad never in his life known what an hour's ill­ ness was like, and never would know. Years ago, when Tom took to the secre­ taryship of the Badcliffe C.C.,it, like most village institutions of this liind often are, was hopelessly in debt. However, after Tom had been in otiice for twelve months as secretary and treasurer he contrived to bring us out with a balance on the right side. But shall we, the members, ever forget the season when we were being pulled out of the fire by our secre­ tary ! The strictest economy was the order of the day. A couple of balls only were allowed out for practice at a time, and these were made to do duty for nearly the whole of the season, so that owing to their being swollen to twice their natural size through wet weather and by repeated visits to the village cobbler for repairs, they, towards the latter part of the summer, more resembled footballs than anything else. Our practice pads and bats, too,were quite equal to the balls, the former generally requiring to be fastened on with pocket-handkercbiefs, and the latter were mostly in a deep mourning of wrapping. As secretary, Tom went in for no expensive note paper, but wrote his notices out on tbe backs of letters or any scraps of note paper he could get hold of, and his invitations to theannual dinner at Christmaswere conveyed to uson pieces of cardboard about the size of a postage stamp. However, the result of all this was that instead of being in a hopeless state of insolvency, we finished the season by having a good balance in band. It is as an umpire, however, that Tom is best known. In many hundreds of matches during the last twenty years in which I have taken part Tom has appeared in the long white coat. What fun we have had in these matches to be sure ! What pleasant tours in the North of England, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, and goodness knows where. I shall never forget a match we once played at Burton- on-Trent. We arrived on the ground at an early hour, and as we had left home very early in the morning we were all