Cricket 1895

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1895. MR. C. L. TOWNSEND. There was one satisfied man amongst the thousands of dissatisfied spectators at Bristol on Bank Holiday, for it is indeed an ill wind, a worse wind than that which was blowing the rain clouds in from the Channel, which blows no one any good. For he had been deputed to interview on behalf of thousands, scattered as far and as wide from the confines of the Gloucestershire county cricket ground as the limits of terrestrial existence allow, the young amateur whose name stands at the head of the list of all bowling averages, amateur or profes­ sional, for the present season. Interviewing is often a thankless office so far as the interviewer is concerned, but the softness of the weather or the sentiment of compassion for a fellow West- countryman in search of infor­ mation, in this instance at once ensured a favourable answer to the request for an interview ; and at the time when in fine weather he would have been engaged in dismissing the Sussex batsmen, or in improving his batting average, Mr. C. L. Townsend submitted himself at the county club’s headquarters in Victoria Square, Clifton, to his fate with­ out a murmur. “ You have not yet, I believe, Mr. Townsend, completed your nineteenth year? ” “ Quite so. I was born in 1876.” “ With nearly all your cricket career before you, one feels it is not taking you very far back to ask about your early cricket ? ” “ No. I can remember my earliest cricket very well. It was played in our own back garden, and chiefly between my brother Frank and myself. We used to go to work in a rather systematic manner. We played on a cocoa-nut matting wicket, and we had a net shaped like a cage, so as to prevent us from breaking windows or losing the ball. We used to arrange regular matches between us, in which each of us had eleven innings, representing the eleven batsmen on a side ; and we used to. imitate the various players we had seen in county matches.” “ Do you think that you acquired in this way your power of bowling a breaking ball ? ” “ Yes, certainly, I am sure that it was by copying ‘ W.G. ’ that I first learned to bowl a leg-break.” “ Did you play cricket at all with a club before you went to Clifton College?” “ I played occasionally for the Clifton Club, and did fairly well for them. I was only about fourteen at this time. The best performance that I did about that period was in 1891. in a match between Knowle Park and Clifton College, in which, in the course of the two innings, I took ten wickets for 56 runs.” “ I believe you went to Clifton in 1892 ?” “ Yes, and in the same year I got into the eleven, for which I played three years, leaving last year, 1894.” ‘ ‘ It would be interesting to be able to record your averages for bowling and batting during the three years you played for your school.” “ In 1892 my batting average was 25, and bowling 12 ; in 1893, batting 28, and bowling 12 ; in 1894, batting 36, and bowling 8.” “ Did you not accomplish a performance in your first year which called attention to your bowling? ” “ I suppose you mean against the Old Cliftonians. It was a twelve a-side match, and I had 10 out of the 11 wickets, the twelfth man being run out.” “ But your last was your best year ?” 11 Certainly. In that year (last season, 1894), I took in all 85 wickets at a cost of eight runs each; and the best bowling record I had in a single match was nine wickets for 18 against a team of Incogniti. Against Cheltenham I did the hat trick.” “ You developed your power of breaking the ball when quite young ? ” “ I could always get consider­ able work upon the ball as long as I remember.” “ Can you break in each direc­ tion with equal facility ? ” “ Yes, with equal facility, but not to the same extent, the ball from the leg has much the larger break.” “ Had you ever any instruc­ tions in the method of obtaining bias on the ball ? ” “ No. I found that the break came naturally, simply by copying so far as I could the action of bowlers in the best matches.” “ In your opinion then a bowler with a big break is not produced by instruction re­ ceived?” “ Yes; na8citur nonJit “ But, I presume, the state of the ground must make a great difference to the amount of break which you can obtain ? ” “ Decidedly so. On some wickets many break bowlers are quite harmless, whilst on others everything attempted comes off ” “ I should like to know whether you are going up to either of the Universities, and if so, at which you intend to study ? ” “ I am not going to the University, and