Cricket 1896

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. n o . 4 2 0 . v o l . x v . THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1 8 9 6 . p r i c e aa. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. WALTER SUGG. Iu the early days of their lives Frank and Walter Sugg were described b y other b jy s who played cricket with them as W.G. and Daft, although at the time neither of them knew who these notabilities were. As the years went b y they both played for the Yorkshire c >lts and Yorkshire, and afterwards for Derbyshire, of whose eleven Walter is still one of the most valued members. He made his first hundred when he was about 20 years of age for the Judicature C.C. v. S'lirecliffe at Bramall L,<ine, goin g in first and carrying his bat. In the follow ing season he played in the Yorkshire 0 .Its’ match, and for the Yorkshire Colts v. Notts C jits, in which he made 30. Attewell appeared f.jr the Notts Colts in this match. Afterwards, Sugg played once for Yorkshire against Kent at Bradford, scoring nine runs, and three seasons afterwards —in 1884—he began to play for Derbyshire, the county o f his birth. When Mr. Spofforth was captain of the Derbyshire Eleven lie wrote an article for the “ Derbyshire Cricket Guide,” in which he spoke highly of Walter’s bow l­ ing. H e acted up to his opinions, and used to put him on to bowl, with the result that Walter did several good perfor­ mances, among them being his seven wickets against Essex for 23, and five wickets 8 gainst the Australians for 40 in the three follow ing days. Of late years his fielding and batting have overshadowed his bowling, but he still bow ls with success occasionally. “ Other counties tell us that our great want in Derbyshire is a ‘ cock-a-doodle ’ bowler ” he said, “ and this may be the reason why I have to go on sometimes with *all sorts ’ with the object of getting a wicket. In a Warwickshire match I bowled W . West, who is a) great friend of mine, after he had made some runs, and ran him out in the next innings. Just before this I had run him out twice in an M.C.C. match. He afterwards came up to me and said ‘ Well, at last I I think I must really own that you are my boss ’ One (of the worst doings I have ever had was in a match against Mr. H . B. Steel’s Eleven, when a Mr. Roberts— I forget his initials—hit me for 23 in one over. An amusing thing happened the year before in a match in which my brother and I were playing against Mr. H . B. Steel’s X I . at Birkdale. Mr. A. G. Steel was bowling, and in his first over my brother hit him twice out of the field. ‘ Ah,’ said Mr. Steel, ‘ this is a short boundary, Sugg,’ and he went on at the other end. Frank then promptly hit him out of the ground a third time, much to Mr. Steel’s amusement. It was after this match that Mr. Steel, knowing that Frank and I were living in Birkdale, asked us why we did not start in busi­ ness in Liverpool. This was in August. We took his hint so kindly given and commenced business in the follow ing month, and up to the present moment, I am ashamed to say, we have never had the courtesy to thank him for his suggestion. Over and over again Sugg has run out men from cover point, when there seemed plenty of time for them to get home, and he has had some amusing experiences in this way. “ In a Y ork ­ shire match,” be said, * ‘ Lord Hawke was i Brown, who hit a ball to me at cover. I threw it in to the bowler’s end, although if I had thrown it to Storer, Lord Hawke m ight easily have been run out. As it happened, the bowler had not had time to get back to his wicket, and Brown escaped also. Then Lord Hawke called out, ‘ Brown, Brown, what are you d o in g ? ’ and Brown replied, WALTER SUGG. From a Photo by IK. Berry, Liverpool.