Cricket 1895

D ec . 26, 1895. CR ICKET : A W E E K L Y RECORD OP THE GAME. 469 the other evening, at the close o f a hard day’s w ork, and in m y arm chair. I had been thinking of the cricket I had seen, o f the giants of the gam e in 1858, and of the changes which the years have silently inserted in to the L aw s. F igure after figure started up in m em ory’s picture ; m atch after match was played over again. E very p u ff o f smoke from m y evening pipe show ed faces lon g since m issing. L o rd ’s and the Oval, the Oval and L ord ’s — these tw o old battle-grounds only came before me, but as they were then. The ground in the w ood o f St. John recog ­ nizable on ly b y the old Tennis Court, whilst nothin g save the w ooden steps by the side o f the bar, and W estm inster’s proud pile in the distance and the gas­ om eter nearer at hand, w ou ld enable the earliest Surrey players and spectators to identify once again the sacred inclosure. A n d then I fell asleep for exactly four m inutes, and w oke m yself up b y a hearty laugh such as few persons in their w aking m oments could surpass. A n d into those fou r m inutes there was squeezed the m ost delightful dream about cricket, which seemed to lengthen itself out into hours, if n ot days, rather than moments. M uch that happened has already faded away, bu t much is still distinct— far too much o f it to reproduce here. I dreamed that w e w ere cricketing in 1945, ju st fifty years forw ard. The ground was new to me. I t seemed as if all the salient features o f all the grounds I have ever visited had som ehow been lum ped together— focussed in this ground o f dream land. There was the dear old tavern o f L ord ’s and the still older tree of the Oval, and . . . bu t stop, and, b y your leave, w e w ill dismiss this fancy picture. N or need w e linger over the persons at this 1945 match. A ll the cricketers I had ever read of, and all I had seen— from L um py and D avid Harris to W . G . and Eichardson— were there, and non e o f them changed in the least, for n ob od y ever gets any older in dream land. A nd the O ld Buffer and Thom s w ere present, neither a day older. A nd seeing me, they beckoned me to join them . A nd it was from their lips I learned h ow cricket was bein g played in the m iddle o f the tw entieth century. That is to say, they answered the questions I put to them , and w hich the changed appearance of things suggested to me, though they had almost forgotten what was the state o f the gam e as far back as 1895. I w ill m ention just a few of the changes. 1. N o maiden overs. N o boundaries. N o overthrow s. A n d no-balls were reckoned no-balls, and consequently could n ot yield runs to the batsman. The over contained six balls, and there were serious though ts o f enlarging it to eight. 2. N ot a pad was to be seen, and just because, as I learned, the unfair use of them had threatened to destroy the art o f scientific batting, as it had also seriously deterred the grow th of high- class bow lin g. The l.b .w . law had been altered so as to include any ball, pitched on or off the w icket, w hich w ould have hit it had it not been stopped by some part o f the batsman’s person. 3. Gentlemen v. Players matches had lon g been discontinued. M y enquiry for this match provoked a sm ile from both m y old friends. “ E vidently you have not kept pace w ith the times.” A ll cricketers n ow start on precisely the same level. The fact is, the evil you used to have a fling at, becam e m ore marked in a few years after y ou ceased w riting for Cricket, w hich y ou remember happened at the close o f 1895. The leisure classes lost their wealth, and the w orking classes so advanced in education and in general intelligence, that all class distinctions had to be abolished in sport. Some kicked furiously against the ch a n g e ; w e leave you to guess who th ey were. But in the end, comm on sense triumphed. E very cricketer now is paid, bu t not at the same rate. So much a m atch, o f course, but according to their respective abilities for the gam e. F ieldin g comes in for the same reward as used to be given to ba t­ tin g only. Averages again are not the final test o f skill. Indeed, you m ight go a season through and hear and see nothing o f averages. They are nearly as dead as Marley was iu D ickens’ Christmas Carol. A n innings to-d ay is valued less fo r the number o f runs it contains than fo r its w orth to its side. The condition o f the wicket, the quality o f the opposin g b o w l­ ing, the relative size o f an innings to the innings played b y the rest o f the batting eleven, and above all, the actual state o f the gam e when each batsm an w ent in— all this, and m uch m ore, is n ow taken into account. Thus y ou w ill readily understand h ow it is that some scores of ten runs rank infinitely higher than many a century o f the olden times. M ore than th is; we deduct so m any runs for every chance missed in an innings, and with this result, that an innings o f 50 recently played had to stand the brunt of so m any such penalties or deductions, that it was reckoned as a duck’s -e g g ; indeed, in strict fairness, a minus sign w ou ld have m ore accurately described it.” 4. I learned further that there had been the strangest fluctuations in the fate of the Counties. N ew Counties suddenly came to the front b y dint o f tw o or three phenom enal cricketers, b u t through lack of enterprise in d eveloping youn ger native talent, these Counties had disappeared. Cambridgeshire had once m ore beaten all comers, and had boasted o f w orth y suc­ cessors to H ayw ard, Carpenter, and Tarrant. N o C ou n ty was allow ed to play other than hom e-born men, though, in the case o f a cricketer bein g born in a coun ty where there was no C ounty Club, he was drafted off, after his claims had been carefully investigated b y the M .C .C ., into that couuty which at the time was m ost in need o f a pow erful recruit. Surrey k ept to the front righ t on into the present century, whilst N otts fo r the same period remained under a cloud. “ But as you used to say, bow lin g was hereditary in N otts, largely as the survival o f their o ld skill in archery ; so their turn came again. A t first we w ould not let any man p lay against his county who had ever played fo r it ; next, we forbade any man playing against the county o f his birth ; and lastly, w e passed a law that, except in extraordinary instances, n o cricketer should take part in any coun ty m atch other than that which claimed him as born within its borders. The tw o years’ residential qualification no longer requires to be enforced. The on ly transfers now possible are made w ithout any delay o f that sort ; it was felt that such an enforced idleness w ou ld have a serious effect on the bow lin g or battin g skill o f any cricketer.” “ A n y other changes ? Y es, several; too m any for us to explain to you in full at one sitting. The old lo b -b ow lin g has com e in again, and in to -d a y ’s m atch you w ill see perhaps only one round-arm bow ler. B ut you w on ’t recognize m uch resemblance to the lo b -b ow lin g occasion­ ally seen 50 years ago. M en practice it all through the winter, ju st as old L illy used to. A nd som e o f our bow lers can make the ball swerve in the air, or not, ju st as they w i l l ; whilst you w ill see one bow ler w ho can at w ill send in shooters. But n ob od y know s h ow he manages them , and he has solem nly pledged him self never to divulge the secret. The w icket is a trifle w ider than it used to be ; this was deemed necessary to put a stop to the old custom o f lettin g off-balls pass. The cricketers in turns report the matches, bu t no man is allow ed to d o m ore than give the bare facts of his ow n perform ances, except when he scores a duck, or mulls a catch. In these cases he m ay say w hat he likes. B ut as n obody w ould believe a w ord he says b y w ay o f extenuation, one never sees au excuse in print. B ut there— enough for to-d a y . Glad to see you again, and hope you w ill quickly fall into our im proved m ethods o f p la y in g the noble gam e o f cricket.” A n d m y dream came to an end, and w ith it I close these “ N otches,” which have been in evidence fo r alm ost fou r years. I shall miss m any a friendly w ord o f approval, m any a serious question as w ell. It has been m y g o od fortune to learn that this colum n has been w elcom e reading to a large circle o f cricketers all the w orld over. The almost countless expressions o f comm endation have fairly overwhelm ed me at times, as 'th ey have stimulated me to p u t out all m y strength in an honorable and independent direction. Many things had perhaps been left unsaid; many m ore m ight have been said m ore fo r c ib ly ; bu t not one w ord has been written save w ith an enthusiastic desire to prom ote the largest interests of the gam e. L eave-tak ing is painful, so w e w ill not form ally say, g o o d bye. Au revoir sounds m ore pleasant, for it is j ust possible that some inner compulsion m ay ■from time to tim e bring m e again before m y old friends. F or the present I have said all that there is in me to say about cricket and cricketers. A n d for that reason I shall be unseen. A m em ory on ly to many a kindly heart far and near, but a m em ory, I sincerely trust, which it w ill n ot be unpleasant to any to recall. On the eve of another Christmas let me propose a toast— “ Cricket and Cricketers of all Nationalities ! ” NEXT ISSUE, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30th.