Cricket 1896

218 CRICKET ; JL WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J une 18, 1896. Once at Hillsea the R.E. had to go iu against the Southern Division to make 29, and lost six wickets in making them. The g^me was a tie when the last ball of the last over was bowled before time • I put it clean into third man’s hands—an easy catch, which he dropped—and we made the winning run.** “ Does club cricket in India differ much from that in England? ” “ In some ways it does. It is played under very great difficulties, because of the extreme difficulty of getting teams together, and partly because of the great distances to be travelled. The season also is very short. There are no idle men in India; everybody has some business or other, whether military or civil, and there is nobody to take a man’s place. There is no chance of playing five or six days a. week, except on a tour.. European officials are generally very considerate in allowing men to play, as long as their work does not suffer ; the work has to be done-in any case. Then there are very few good grounds, although when a ground good it is the best possible. The wicket at Ootaca- mund, one of the hill stations, is certainly the best I have ever played on, and it is especially good after a little dry weather. We gener­ ally play all day, but have to stop at about six o’clock because the light fails so suddenly. In some parts of India they play from seven to eleven and again froni three to six, but this is abominable. I consider that the avoidance of two or three of the hottest hours of the day is not worth the trouble. As far as I know there are no professionals in India. I had a curious experience in a local match at Bangalore. In the first innings of our team I made five, another man made one, iand there were three extras; in the second innings I made four, and the rest of the team made four between them, while there were five extras. As a contrast to this, in a one-day match at Ootacamund last year, we closed our innings at 310 for tight wickets, and the other side made *250 for two wickets, furiously enough, in the first match between the sapie teams we made 348 for eight wickets, and declared at 4.30 on the first day.” “ You spoke of tours in India? ” “ We sometimes had a week—or rather eight days,from Saturdayto Saturday,and that was no joke I can tell you. Once we had to play at six different places during our tour— there was one two-day match, i his meant that we played cricket all day, and with the exception of one night we had to get what sleep we could in railway carriag s. I was called back in the middle of the week by the Governor of Madras, having to travel all night to get to my destination, and after working all the next day, I travelled all the following night, and was ready for play the next morning at eleven o ’clock. It was an in­ teresting experience.” “ Do you find Tommy Atkins a good sportsman on the cricket field? ” “ There is no better fellow to play a game with than Tommy Atkins, acd no matches are more pleasant than those against regi­ ments. Tommy Atkins is a capital fellow. I once hit a man to square leg for five, and not being quite sure whether the stroke was a good one, I said to him after we had run: ‘ Was that ball on the leg stump?’ ‘ Horf stump, sir,’ he said with a smile, and went on with the next ball. Talking about hitting balis to leg reminds me that in 1893, when 1 was pluying at home for the Crystal Palace in their West of England tour, Jephson got seven men caught by a good man on the boundary off full pitches to leg, which \vas rather a surprising feat.” “ Do you think that the development oi cricket in In 4 iahas been great of late years f ” “ It has been extraordinary, especially during the last ten years. Englishmen as a rule only hear of the doings of the Parseea, but everywhere the natives are taking to the game in an amazing manner. The old stylo of bowling, fast underhand has been quite dis­ carded for round arm. At-any time during the last fifteen years they have been able to bowl fairly and field admirably, although until recently their batting was weak, es­ pecially against fast bowling, front which they used to run away. Nowadays scores of 160 to 200 are common against reasonably good and fast bowling. In Madras we could probably produce a native team whichwould be. quite able to hold its own against the Parsees. The natives wear pads and gloyes, bijt as a rule they are barefooted.” r‘ But what if they get a yorker On their .toss?” “ Well, if they do it doesn’t seem to_ hurt them more than it hurts a man who wears a boot. Their skin is as hard as leather, and they don’t much mind a knock. But a full pitch on the toe is apt to hurt anyone whether he wears boots or not. In my last match at bangalore I had $ ball like this which smashed the nail on my toe, and it was a long time before I was able to get about again. When the accident happened I said to the wicket- keeper : ‘ I can’t go on batting just'yet. I will go out and wait a little.’ He replied : ‘ Oh, you needn’t bother about coming in again; you have been given out l.b.w.’ I had not heard the question asked nor the decision, and was unpleasantly surprised.” “ How do you account for the improve­ ment in native cricket ? ” *‘ To the energy and trouble taken by the European cricketers and officials in India. I think that the improvement began in Madras through the work of the Athletic Association, which gives prizes and trophies to the different schools. Some fifteen years ago Hutchins and Brandt, two members of the Civil Service, gave a challenge cup to be played for by the local schools, m which there are a few European children as well as the natives. The competition for this was very keen indeed, and did a lot of good. Brandt was in the Oxford X I., I think, in 1860. Last year the cup was won cutright by the Bangalore Central College, and 1 gave one to replace it with the proviso that it was to be a challenge cup pure and simple, and never to be won outright,” ‘ ‘ Do the natives play in a sportsmanliko manner now ? ” “ They are certainly learning what I may, perhaps, call the moral side of cricket; not so very long ago, it was a case of win, tie, or wrangle. The spectators, however, do not display a good spirit, and when a match is interesting, they hoot and yell at everything. But this is only to be expected, for they have not had centuries of training like English­ men. I can give you a curious incidont bearing on the development of the sporting instinct in the natives. I had to take the chair at a meeting of the students of Madras University, and in addressing them, I said that for a long time their want of discipline had been a very great drawback among them, and that it was for this reason that I had strongly advised the adoption of cricket and football, in which games men plav for the team and not alone for themselves. These remarks were received with cheers, but ten years ago they would have been received in ominous silence, or with groans .’ f Colonel Pennycuick has long.topped to Mr. Harvey Eeljowes, who is so often spoken of as the fastest bowler eyer known, hut he thinks fppm what. he has seen,, that Mr, Kortright is as fast as was AJr. Feljowef. -“ Once,” he said, ^ I had an amusing ex­ perience in keeping wicket to Boyle, a very fast bowler, who was, I think, in the Oxford X I, We were playing for the Foresters against West Kent at Chislehurst, And there was no wicket-keeper ,on our side.. Ouf cap­ tain asked me to keep wicket, but J-sai.fi that I couldn’t as I had never tried jo dg so.?’ ‘ Well then,’ he replied, ‘ You .don’t know whether you can or not.’ “ I stood up as near to the wicket as I dared, but although I had two longstops -the result was not satisfactory. An over generally consisted of about six byes, two -wides, and «, ^wicket.” Like most men who have ever batted on the -Chath^jp Lines, before boundaries were made there, the Colonel has a decided opinion that boundaries have done much to spoil cricket. On the fdQes he has hit w eight, and on the Bangalore ground a nine and an eight. “ I think,” he said, “ that wind and running are factors in the game as important as eyes and hands. It is very much easier-to get a hundred with boundaries than without them. No doubt it is necessary on grounds where there are thousands of spectators to have boundaries, but on many grounds it is absolutely unnecessary. I shall never forget the effect of a boundary in the Oxford v. M.C.C. match at Lord’s in 1893. The wickets were pitched very low down on thq south side of the ground—lower than J have ever seen them. Wood, the Oxford lob bowler, was bowling to 6 . W . Wright from the pavilion end, and Wright made every balj a full pitch, with the result that he mado I) fours in succession—one off the last ball Of an over, and the rest off the next two overs’: Of courso the field had not the slightest chance. After this, Wood was put on at thp other end, but it has always been a mystery to me that he was ever tried at the pavilion end at all.” The Colonel is the father of five charming daughters, who are all in the schoolroom During a shprt interview Ayhich 1 had with them they said: “ We have been to Lord’s once, ang enjoyed it immensely, and we are to go again soon, We play cricket on the lawn. There are only two boundaries, one of which is a field, but as it is a great bother to climb over after thp ball we make it six and out, so, of course, wejdon’ t often hit there. We have never broken any windows, though we have been very close to them.sometime*, but we once broke a pane of glass in the con­ servatory of the house close by. When wo grow up we shall have to give up cricket^ which is a great shame.” W . A. B ettes woitTH. SUTTON (2) -v. NORBUHY.r-Played at Norbury Park on JuneG. , a Npa^yuy. H. C. Plummer, b Steward ... ... A. Ladyman, c Dagg, b Steward.. W.E.Hobbs,bSteward 0 E. Holmep, b Dagg ... 7 E. Simpson, b Jfunt... 31 J.J.M onis, c Steward, bD agg ... ... 38 J.J, MacAldiu, b Hunt O C, II. Heath, c. Davsr. b B t^ .................. * 4 A . Grant, lbw, b Dagg la V. E. Snowden, Jb\v, b Steward ... l M. Benson. not out i B 8, lb 1, w 5, lib 1 i5 Total B utton . E, C Steward, Ibw, b Benson ................. 7 G. M. Topp, b Holmes 5 W . A. Hunt, b Benson 8 A. Ii. Dagg, c Snow­ den, b Benson... ... 25 J. Bell, c MaeAldin, b Simpson ... ...........- 6 L, Y. StraVcr, c Snow­ den, b Sjrapson I H. J. Barclay, b Simp­ son ................... Llojd, b Simpson L. H. Blades, l> Lady- jnan ... T. Gregg, b Benson ... T. btraker, not out B 11, lb 4, w 1 ... Total .,.