Cricket 1896

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. n o . 4 2 2 . v o l . x v , THURSDAY, JUNE 11 , 1896. p b i c s 2d. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. ME. H. a . OWEN. Among the men who have distinguished themselves in first-class cricket, and yet failed to get their “ blue ” at their University, Mr. Owen is certainly one of the most conspicuous. It is true that while he was at Cambridge the elevens were strong, but it is curious that ho was overlooked. He made some runs for the Seniors and for the Sixteen, but was only tried once in the X I. For his College, Corpus, he made a lot of runs, and was also fairly successful with the ball, doing the hat trick for the only time in his life against Queen’s College. At one time he was qualified for three counties, by birth for Somersetshire, by residence for Derbyshire, and for Essex by his family home. Among his numerous fine performances for Essex, he had an aggregrate of 160 in the two Surrey matches in 1886; with Mr. A. P. Lucas, he put on 185 for the first wicket, against M.C.C. in 1889; and against Leicestershire, in the same year, he carried his bat through the innings for 153, out of a total of 279 from the bat. In club cricket his scores have been very large. He had an average of 185 for six innings in 1885, for the Bradwell and Tillingham C.C. In 1887 he scored five hun­ dreds for Trent College, and for the whole season he had an aggregate of 1809 runs, with an average of 43. In the following year he had a curious record from June 16 to July 19, scoring in succession, 35, 104, 205, 31, 119, 55, 23, only once being out—a total of 572 rims. Mr. Owen has, also, a good record in athletics. In his college sports, at Gambridge, he won the 100 and the 120 yards in 10 | and 12 £, and the weight with 33 ft. 5 in. He also won two University handicaps of 120 yards, the 200 yards open race in the Freshmen’s sports in 2Of,with, three yards start, and the 100 yards open, at Ulster Cricket Club Spbrts, Belfast. Start­ ing from scratch in the 120 yards, in the University sports, he ruptured a muscle in the right leg,' and has not been on the running path since then. He used to keep goal for Trent College, and once played in goal for Notts. County v. Preston North End. For many years he has been one of the most useful bats in the Essex team, and last year he became its captain, a choice which proved decidedly popular. At the end of the season the county committee sent him a letter thanking him heartily for his services. “ I don’t mind the duties of a captain much,” he said, “ for wo have a fair side, who are keen and don’t play for their averages, and that sort of thing. I think that in cricket the great thing is to sink self as much as possible ; | the team ought to worn: as one man. Essex men are hard working and do their best to win. They are very* easy to manage, and make things as pleasant as they possibly can for me. Old Pickett is an excellent judge of the game, and I often consult him and others of the team. I believe in working together as much as possible, and don’t at all agree with autocracy. In being captain there is a good deal of anxiety, which tends a little to spoil one’ s enjoyment of the game, especially when the match is very close, as it was last year at Leicester, when we got eight men out and then could only make a draw, because a catch didn’t come off. We had another very close match at Leicester, when we had four or five runs to win, and were not able to get them. A. P. Lucas was one of the not outs, but he did not look very pleased when he came into the pavilion. We have not often had to declare—only twice last year. At Leicester we de­ clared with three wickets, and we also declared against Middle­ sex, at Lord’s, although we knew that the chances of winning were infinitesimal.” “ What do you consider your best innings?” “ I rather fancied myself to­ day against Surrey, for it is a treat for me to get runs against fast bowling. Richardson has always got me out bafore. I think it is the pace and that little bit of work which are too much for me. Perhaps, how­ ever, my best performance was two years ago against Oxford University, when my scores were 109 in the first innings and 86 (not out) in the second. I was almost in hopes of gettinga hun­ dred in each innings, but we had a certain number of runs to get, and my partners scored well ’ ’ ‘ ‘ Did you play much as a b oy?” “ When I was very small in­ deed I was very keen on playing cricket on the lawn at home with my brothers, but until I went to Cambridge I did nothing much in the way of playing serious cricket. We had no coaching at Cambridge to speak of, although at Corpus we had, one year, a Yorkshireman as groundman, and a son of Dan Hayward’s another year. The most coaching I have ever had was at Leyton this year, from Maurice Read and A bel; they made one play so hard, and really understood what ought to be done. They did not stand behind the nets to give advice, but bowled to you and explained what would have been the best way in which to treat the ball. They were particularly good in shewing how to deal with the off ball which is nearly straight; they MR. H. G. OWEN. From a Photo by F. Spalding , Chelms/oid.