Cricket 1894

'Together "joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron • Beistere3 for T ran^U sion^broad THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1894. P R IC E 2 d . •CRICKET_NOTCHES. B y th e R e v . R . S. H o lm es . I a'n afraid I shall see no cricket in ScotUnd after all, having mi sed the South Africans both at Edinburgh and Glasgow. And the Weather on Saturday knocked on the head all local matches. But evidences of cricket are to be found everywhere in the far North. There is a verv decent ground in the village of Ballater, which is used for “ Socker ” football as w ell; and every shop window last week contained an imposing bill announcing the fait of an important cric'sei contest between Ballater and a neighbouring club, whose name I have clean forgot­ ten. Cricket holds a conspicuous place in the Scottish press, and I have come across no less than three papers wholly devoted to sport, viz., the Scottish Field, Scottish Sport, and Scottish Referee, th? first a daily,the other two appearing twice a week. I ha 1 a p’ ea-'ant surprise last week; taking re­ fuge in a newspaper shop in Aberdeen during a heavy thunderstorm, I es­ pied a copy of Scotti h Sport lying on the counter; the first item that greeted me was an extract from these notches, the writer of which was described as- “ that prince of cricket g°ssiper-.” One has sometimes to go far afield to learn some­ thing about j ourself. I have had another favour extended to m e : the bibliography in Wisden contained a reference to one is-ue (I forget the year) of the Northern Cricket Annual, published in Aberdeen. I called on the publishers, and was referred by them to a “ likely man.” From him I learnel that this annual appeared first in 1889, and for four following years; so delighted was he with an Englishman’s interest in Scotch cricket that he insistsd on making me a present of his own complete sst, although I was anxious to pay full value for the same- I did not di-close my identity, and so take this opportunity of thanking him most warmly for his generous courtesy to a stranger. Sundry cricket let'ers have follow el me in my travels. One calls attention to the fact that W.G. did not play for the Gent e- men at the Oval in 1892. I should probably have steered clear of this error had I bean surrounded with mv cricket library. Up here I have trusted to the guidance of memory only. Somebody who saw Ulyett's catch which dismissed Bonnor, writes me that “ After the catch, and coming to the boundary where I was siting, Ulyetr. told me that for a second he hardly realised that he had secured the ball.” Was it a fluke then ? It reminds BETWEEN T B E 1NNING3. me of a similar incident in the famous single­ wicket conte t between Mynn and Felix ; the latter was not much of a bowler, and one ball M} nn d ove ba;;k with tbe velocity of a cannon shoL. Felix had ju^t time to put up, his hand to protect his face, when, to his sui prise, the ball striking his hand we11 up in the palm, ihe muscles suddenly con- tractad, and the ball stuck fast. It was regarded as an extraordinary catch, nobody at the time imagining that it was not made of set purpose. It was very lucky ; and yet it will he found that the-:e lucky catches are for the most part, made by first-rate fielders only. Not always, however. In that most delightful Ijook “ Wickets in the West,” mention is made of a doctor, who, standing behind the wicket, caught out W.G. from a very hard c u t; ball hit him full iu the stomach (he was very corpulent), lodged there, and then was quietly held. Daft tells a similar story, adding that the lucky fielder threw up the baU with all the nonchalance of a truly “ safe catch.” Yes, such things will happen. Yet, nearly all wonderful catches are brought off by a reliable pair of hinds. Not that they are the finest catches necessarily which bring down the house; out-fir-ld catches only want judging, there’s no sp.n on the ball. Yet some of them ara little less than marvellous, especially when a great distance has to be covered, and the ball is held with one hand whilst the indi­ vidual is running at top speed. I mind ma (as Scotchmen say of such a catch by Jupp in 1862; Surrey were playing O'a m b r i d g e shire, Jupp was fielding for one of the latter, and caught out Julius Ctesar in a way that earned for this feat the distinction of “ ihe citch of tbe s e a s o n .” A . J. W ebbe’s dismissal of the Hon. Edward Lyt-eltonin the Uni­ versity match of 1875 will never be forgot­ ten by those of us who were present. Perhaps, after all, the catches that attract little or no at­ tention from the ring, are most deserving of applause, to wit, a hard cut to cover point low down to tie left hand of a right hand fielder; the ba 1often swerves in the air, and, moreover, has an awful spin on it. Just such a ball I . saw slick fast in the grip .of Strachan, whom all Surrey men will recall as almost, if not quite, the most brilliant cover eytx seen. Veri on Boyle a’one lan him haid for chief honors iu the field. Another g-ntleman, who is too modest to append his nameor initials, andwho»9 “ fist” is almost as hard to decipher as my own, brusquely writes on a post card— “ The two greatest batsmen Surrey evtr produced are Mr. Felix and Caffyn.” Chacun a son gout ; judgments differ, there never can be agree, ment as to the relative merits of differenj F ro m a p h o to b y M r. K J. K ey .