Cricket 1894

DEC. 28, 1894 OBIC&ETs A WEEKLY BECOED OF THE GAME. 453 THE PROWESS OF SMITH MINOR. A Cricket Story. B y J. N . P e n t e lo w . C h a p t e r I. A b e a u t i f u l July day, intensely hot, although it was early; yeb not with an oppressive heat, for there was a light breeze stirring that rustled pleasantly the leaves of the old elms behind the pavilion ; not a cloud to be seen in the sky; a whole day’s]holiday ; and the match with Silverdene to be played ! We should have been thoroughly happy if it hadn’t been for that unbeaten certificate of ours, and our dread of losing it to-day in this, our last match. In the latter part of July and throughout August Silverdene mustered the strongest club team in the county. It was only a small village ; but the Rector, Doctor Raynor, was a cricket enthusiast, and his six sons were all rattling good men. All of them had been at Langhurst for a year or two before going to Eton, whence two of them went up to Cambridge and four to Oxford; two of them had played for the Gentlemen, and the youngest but one, Frank, was the best man in the county team at the time of which I am writing. W e had been in hopes that he would be wanted by the county this Wednes­ day ; but unfortunately the match with Blank- shire—in which he had scored his third century of the season—had come to a sudden end on the Tuesday afternoon, owing to the collapse of the visiting team ; and so, as Mr. Crawleigh put it, “ we should have the Baynor clan heie in full force.” Of course, it was not often that the y were all at home together; but thfy generally managed to meet at the end of July for a series of matches, and among them w’as always one with us. They generally beat us ; but this year our team was stronger than usual, and we thought we might have had a chance if only— say as a set off against the loss of Deakin, one of our stock bowlers, and Marshall, one of our most useful bats—Mr. Frank Baynor bad still been preforming on the county ground. Deakin had sprained his ankle ; and Mar­ shall had left yesterday, a week before the rest of us, to go with his people to Dieppe. Lomas, our captain, had given me one place; I had been making a few runs in second eleven matches, and had scored 45 for the Sixth against the School a day or two before ; and Atherston, the school pro., said I had the making of a batsman in me. Smith, m iior, got the other. If fc*mitb, minor, had got his rights, he would have been iu the eleven long before At least, so he said. He was a regular schoolboy Winkle. When he first came to the school, after Christmas, he had talked big about bis prowess in every department of athletics; and though we were continually finding him out, be didn’t drop it. At the beginning of the summer term Lomas had sa:d to him, scarcely in earnest, of course: “ Play cricket, I suppose, Smith ? ” “ No, the young duffer can’t play,” said Smith major, hastily. He was continually trying to bottle up his brother, but never succeeded. “ Oh yes, rather; I had an average of fifty last year,’’ said the cub, in hi3 grandest style. “ Humph! I gness we fha11 have to promote you to the fir=t eleven straight away.'’ “ What club were you playin j for. young ’ud ? ” asked Dancombef Young Smith coloured up and looked sheepish. His brother hastened to make answer for him. “ He’s never played in a match in his life, the joung ass. Who do you think would have such a bumptious little idiot ? I used to let him bowl to me sometimes in the holi­ days ; but I expect his average of fifty was got playing with my sisters and their gover­ ness on the lawn.” Which was true. In a weak moment one day young Smith showed me the pocket-book wherein he had recorded the scores made in these important contests. Whether Lomas ever saw it I don’t know ; but young Smith was not at once put into the first eleven. However, he managed to get a place in the second; and, though his average was nearer decimal five than fifty, he fielded fairly well and somelimes got a few wickets. The match was to begin at half-past ten. We went in for old-fashioned hours at Lang hurst in our whole-day matches. Some of us were on the ground before breakfast; and by half-past nine we were all there—all the first eleven, I mean—watching Atherston mark out the wicket. Carefully rolled and cut, level as a billiard-table, it looked as though anyone might get runs on it. I felt that I shouldn’t wonder if I got thirty or forty my­ self. I did not—but you will hear about that later on. I believe every fellow in the school except poor old Deakin was on the ground when, soon after ten o’clock, the Silverdene team dashed up in a roomy break, drawn by a spanking pair of blacks. There they were, all of them. The dreaded Frank Baynor, cigar in mouth, sat on the box by the diiver. Behind were the rest of them : the Reverend Charles, who was his father’s curate ; he was not quite good enough for the county, but we respected his ability, for he had made over eighty against us for three years in succession; the Lieutenant, in all his hugeness, six feet six inches in his socks, and I don’t know how far round the chest; Louis, the youngest, a medical student at St. Bartholomew’s, and the only little fellow of the half-dozen; Harold, the law coach at Oxford, who ten years before had kept wicket for the Dark Blues ; and Edgar, the barrister, who bowled those beastly lob3. And there was the village contingent, too : Sweeting, pork butcher, and d'eadly fast bowler when on the wicket ; Chitlings, gardener and most unorthodox of bals, who invaiiably ran up twenty or thirty runs against our best bowling by the most curious of cricket; Dodd, the pro­ fessional, a county man in his younger days; him we knew well, for he came up to help Atherston with the coaching on half-holidays during the first two months of the season; Thomas, the county colt, who had been tried on Mr. Frank Raynor’s recommendation, and had already made his place in the team secure, though he was barely twenty; and, ever last man on the batting list, consistent scorer of ducks, little Tom Hardy, ostler at the “ George ” and most hard-working of long-fields. \\e gave them a rousing cheer. No eleven we played during the season were half as jolly a set as that Silverden) team. Ha?l! fellows, well met, everyone of them, and equals on the cricket-field, as all men should be. Everybody went out and inspected the wicket; and Atherston got compliments enough to tnrn his head. Then there was a quarter of an hour’s chatting, an anxious time for one or two of us. I hnow I began to feel awfully nervous. The very sight of those Raynor % six-footers all save Louis, was enough to make us feel that our record of victories unbroken by defeat or even draw — that record of which the whole school was so proud—was in imminent danger. I was glad when, after Doctor Raynor and Doctor Helmsley (our own good old head) had come up, and the former had shaken hands with us all, and the latter had told us to play up for the honour of the old school, we saw Lomas and the Reverend Charles to3eing for choice of innings. The Silverdene captain won, and naturally chose that his side should take first innings. Half past ten was just chiming from the school clock when we turned out into the field. Duncombe and Harraden were to begin the bowling ; Duncombe was very fa st; Harraden bowled a slow ball, with a leg break, which he had never managed to get under proper control yet, but which some­ times proved effective. Scarcely had we taken our places—Lomas, padded and gloved, at the wicket, and I long- stopping, for he had sense enough to know he wasn’t a Blackham—when Mr. Frank Raynor’s tall, athletic form and Dodd’ s portly presence emerged from the pavilion. Charley Castle gave a little groan. “ Take us all day to get rid of these two,” said Mill- ward. The county amateur faced Duncombe for the first ball of the match, standing in his own graceful upright style. “ P lay! ” said Atherston; and Duncombe’s first ball sped on its way— a ripping fast one, well pitched. But Mr. Rayner played it hard back; and Dodd, backing up a little too far, was all but run out. The next, a little to the off and rising a bit, was cut for four : the third was neatly placed to the on for two. The fourth resulted in a sing’ e. Dodd had, therefore, to play the fifth. It was a trifle too good for him ; he played it, indeed, but sent it sky­ ward; and it fell right into the hand of Smith minor at mid-off. Fell into them, I said. A las! I should have said fell through them, for the clumsy cub mulled it entirely. We all felt murderous. Mr. Raynor evidently enjoyed Harraden’s bowling. The leg-break was quite ineffec­ tive. Four fours w^re notched off the first over, three more—this time to old Dodd, who seemed to think it a great joke—off the second; and then Lomas took him off and put on Charley Castle. Charley's bowling was faster than Harra­ den’s— about medium-pace, with a bit of an off-bre3k, which, however, the good wicket killed that day. Neither Mr. Baynor nor Dodd scored very fast off it for a time, nor did they punish Duncombe tremendously. Still the score mounted up at a good pace; and both were now well set. Dodd, though proverbially a bad starter, never gave a chance after that first on e; aud as for Mr. Raynor—well, whenever he lifted the Itall he sent it a good deal too far to make a catch possible. He was cutting beautifully; almost every ball outside the off-stump seemed to afford him a chance to make his favourite stroke; and if one bowled to leg it was worse still—he sent one full-pitch of Charley’s over the pavilion for six. Dodd was driving to the off in a style that made the older spsctators talk about his triumphs for the county in earlier d ays; and he, too, was death on a leg-bail. Though Millward went on with his slows, and Tatham with those nondescripts of his no two of which were alike, eleven o’clock fouud seventy-five on the board— only three of them in singles. “ Have a try, Horatius,” sa;d Loma®, tosnng the ball to me as the hundred waj NEXT ISSUE JANUARY 31