Cricket 1894

DEC. 28, 1894 otvlCKET § k ^ x ^ ts J u Y KECORI? OP 'A'HE GAME, 455 and Smith major were buckling up bis pads ; 1 was fastening his batting gloves. He was the last hope of our side; and we all felt thit he ought to be made much of. A h ! and he deserved it. Never surely was made a pluckier stand than he and Lomas made that day, with all the odds against them. They understand each other well now, those two. Last year Charley’ s being run out in this very match had caused a lapse of six months and more in their close friend­ ship. But now a word was enough— “ C ome!” “ N o !” “ Back!” — and they bustled the field finely with their short runs. Cbarley scored the faster, of course; but Lomas was anything but id le; in fact, we had never before seen him make runs at the same pace. Sweeting, put on again, bowled his fastest and best to no avail. The lob bowler was knocked off, after severe punish- ( ment. The Rev. Charles’s length balls j slackened the pace, but failed to eileot a separation. Little Louis Raynor went on and bowled fast; the big Lieutenant sent down some of his sleepy-looking, hang-about slows; Tom Hardy's “ particulars”— so called apparently because they had no par­ ticular pitch, style, or anything else— and Chitlings’ grubs were all tried in vain. Even Dodd—Dodd, whom we had never seen bowl before,who never would send down a ball even when he came to coach us—tried his hand, to meet with as much or as little success as the rest. They had been together ten minutes, when the hundred went up, amid cheering. Bapturous applause greeted the one hun­ dred and fifty, at twenty minutes to four. The two hundred was hoisted amid yells of delight and impromptu war-dances by the smaller fry. At two hundred and fifty we were all talking of the runs being knocked off before another wicket fell, and perhaps of a record score for the School—423 had been made once, in the days when Frank and Louis Baynor were at Langburst—being knocked up. Charley’ s score now stood at ninety-six. Oh, the shouts we gave when, after a well- placed two to short-leg, he brought it to exactly a hundred with a sweet late cut. The cheering died away into tones of dis­ may. For off the very next ball, Charley, attempting a huge hit, sent up a skier which Thomas, running from long leg, received in his ample hands. The telegraph board read: 254—4—100. The game was by no means a foregone conclusion yet. Duncombe, indeed, gave it as his opinion that it was, and that we had lost it. He did not say so until after Harra­ den had left the pavilion on bis way to the wickets, though. Harraden did not need anything of the sort said to him. He was trembling all over as it was. That stupid nervousness always spoiled his chance of a long score in a match, though he showed good form at the nets. Charley’s departure seemed to have upset Lomas, whose score stood at ninety for quite ten minutes after his late partner had le ft; while Harraden, by a fluky stroke through the slips, a really good out,and a risky single, made five, and then played too late for one of Sweeting’s expresses. 259—5—5. Smith major went in, by no means brimful of confidence, but determined to do his best. The first ball he had all but bowled him ; the second he hit for three. Then Lomas woke up, and scored two fours. Ninety-eight! Charley was fuming and fretting at nay elbow; I think he would have given all he had in the world to make Lomas secure of what would be his first century. A single to Smith, another single to Lomas; a bit of luck for the newcomer in the shape of a let-off at short-leg; and Lomas faced Sweeting again. Hurrah! that leg-hit has done i t ! One — two—three—what on earth is that idiot Smith doing ? There’S no fourth run there. Never mind, Lomas is just home in time. No, he isn’t : look, he is leaving the wicket. Smith has run him out ! 275—6—102 ! I guess it must have gone to Atherston’s heait to have had to give Lomas ou t; Lomas, his favourite pupil, for whose stylish play and grand defence he prophesied great things. Would his rectitude have stood firm, I wonder, bad the captain’s score been just short of the hundred? “ A near thing,” said Lomas, as when the applause had subsided he took his seat among us. “ I think Smith must have lost his head a bit to try it. Never mind, we ought to pull through now. Play up, Tatham.” Tatham gave a wan smile, and passed on his way. He played Sweeting’s four remaining balls —every one of them dead on—somehow. “ They’re changing bowlers at the other end,” said Lomas, anxiously. It was so : Edgar Baynor was going on with those in­ sidious lobs. Duncombe groaned in anguish of spirit. If he were but in now ! Smith ran out to the first ball and missed it, but just got back in time. The second he poked away somehow for one, and looked im ­ mensely relieved to get to the other end. A h ! Tatham was o u t! He had popped the ball right into the hands of Frank Baynor at point. 2 7 6 -7 -0 ! “ Keep ’em down, Millward, do keep ’em down! ” said Duncombe. “ And hit ’em hard if you do hit ’em ! ” Millward did his best, no doubt. But that beastly curl might have beaten anyone. 276—8—0! One ball more of Mr. Raynor’s over to be played ; and I, Selby Vane, to play i t ! “ Steady, Horatius, old man ; you are our last hope,” said good old Lomas. “ There’s me to come yet,” chimed in Smith minor. At such a moment the cub’s conceit was too much to be borne. Duncombe kicked him ; Harold North said, sarcastically: “ You hear that, old man ? It doesn’t matter wbat you do. Smith will get the runs.” All sorts of queer things passed through my mind as I walked to the wicket. I re­ member noticing how long the shadows of the elms were getting, and listening to the rooks cawing on their way home to their nests. But the feeling uppermost all the time was a sense of relief that I was not sitting in front of the pavilion to see myself bat. I don’t know how I stopped that ball; but I did stop it, and Mr. Raynor’s hat-trick did not come off. A dead silence as Smith, in surprisingly good and confident style, played every ball of a maiden over of Sweeting’s. Then I faced Mr. Raynor again. The first ball I m issed; but it passed harmlessly over the bails. The second I just stopped. The third I cut hard, but Frank Baynor fielded it. The fourth was to le g ; but I could not get it away. The fifth—ah! that fatal fifth ! It looked so easy, and a fairer seemed worth a King’s ransom. I slammed i t ; it went up, up ; we ran. But what was that shout ? “ Well caught, sir! ” And the Beverend Charles stood smiling at long-off with the ball in his right hand ! 276—9—0! Thirty to win, and only Smith minor to come in. Surely all was lost! Smith minor didn’t think so. Perhap3, after all, his self-conceit was better than Harraden’s nervousness. It stood him in good stead then, anyway. He marched out to the wicket with all imaginable dignity, and took guard in a most impressive manner, only to find, to his disgust, that his brother had to play the next ball. “ Well hit, Smith major, well hit indeed ! Now, stir your stumps, young’u n ! ” A four to Smith major. A leg-glance for two. A snick for two more. Twenty-two to w in ! A h ! Smith minor's very first stroke a catch! Hurrah! Dodd has missed it, and they have run one. Another single, to the elder brother. A two to the cub off a dangerous stroke that fell just beyond Hardy in the long-field. “ How’s that ? ” Smith minor h a l got out of his ground. “ Not o u t !” It was not Atherston, but the Silverdene umpire. We breathed again. “ Keep in your ground, Sm ith !” yelled Lomas, shaken out of his usual serenity. I think Smith minor shut bis eyes to Ihe next. He did not know in the least where it w ent; but he felt it go off his bat and started running, and another t io W j S scored. Sweeting’s next over was a maiden. Smith major played ball after ball carefully and well. We cheered him at the end. Two— two—two again—every stroke going up, but luckily falling out of harm’s way. It was Smith minor we cheered now. A four to Smith major—rather a lucky snick off Sweeting. A three bye— the first time the old Oxford stumper had allowed a bye to go past him during the innings. He looked fearfully chagrined. Every lunw as of value now. Three to w in ! I think some of U3 were almost praying for victory. And Smith minor facing Sweeting for the first time. I know he shut his tyes that time. But it touched his bat, and went for two. A tie! Huirah ! hurrah! hurrah! The Beverend Charles went on, nnd bowled a maiden to Smith major. And then —Smith minor hit Sweeting s first ball for a tingle—and we had won It did not matter what happened a fo r that. I don’t think many of us even knew, in our jubilation, that Smith major had cut Sweet­ ing for three, and that the very next b ill had upset the cub’s middle stump. We had won —what mattered it if by one run or four ? * + * “ And there stood that chap, and b'.ocked every ball, while I had to force the game ! ” said Smith minor afterwards. “ And Mr. Frank Baynor told me that he couldn’t make out how it was Lomas kept bis best men until last. I shouldn’ t wonder if I played for the county before long ! ” We let him talk like that for a time. After all, boasting young duffer though he wa^, he had won the match for us. I was privileged to see next term the letter he wrote home about it. I did not find a word in it about Lomas or Charley; but the description of that one over he bowled filled two pages, and his inDings (of fourteen) was related in a sheet and a half. It was quite chaneeless, I found by that letter. I had not known that. i am awfully sorry I did not take a copy of it. It was about the most interesting document I have ever seen. N EX T ISSUE JANUARY 31 }