Cricket 1896

298 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF TIIE GAME. J u l y 23 , 1896. 118 as umpire; he was always saying amusing things.n “ Can you remember any of them ? ” , * “ On one of our tours, Edward Lake, of Bury St. Edmunds, a fast left-handed bowler, went with us. In a match at Ickworih Park he had got about five wickets when I said to Thoms, ‘ IJe seems very much on the spot.’ “ Well, sir,” said Thom4*, “ it looks as if he had a funnel laid on to bowl through.” We always called Lake / the Funnel ’ after that. Thoms once told me of a race which he had seen between two professionals runners, one of whom was, I believe, known as Smith, the Regent Street Pet. There was a lot of money on the match, which took place in the Hendon district. For some reason or other the backers of one man had an idea that they were likely to lose their money, because they were afraid that their man was not as fast as his opponent. As, therefore, the race was run on a bitterly cold morning in several degrees of frost, they arranged for a supply of hot bricks, on which their man was directed to stand while waiting for the start. Instructions were also given him to keep on making false starts uutil further orders. Every time that he made a false start he was able to return to warm bricks, and after about twenty minutes of this the other runner (who had no hot bricks to stand on) was so be­ numbed with the cold, that when at last the actual race came off he was nowhere at the finish. I won’t guarantee the accuracy of this story.” “ What was the best innings you have played ? ” “ It was for the Rifles against the Rest at Winchester—we called the match Rifles v. The World. I went down to the ground at the proper time, and found that two or three of our best bats would be unable to turn up for some time—there are often duties in military life which may make a man late at a cricket match—but as we had won the toss, we thought it best to bat. I went in first with E. O. H. Wilkinson, the old Eton captain, hoping to stay until some of the other men appeared. When they came down we were still in, and the hundred was up. On that day I made my first and only century. I remember that Gerald Portal—afterwards Sir Gerald Portal, who distinguished himself in Africa, out Uganda way—was bowling, and that I liked him immensely, and thought him easy to hit. Talking of hitting reminds me that I was playing for Eighteen of Gravesend against the United South in the match in which Jim Fellowes, of the R.E., hit W.G. for three 6’s and a 2 in one over (four balls to the over), and followed this up by hitting the next ball from W.G. out of the ground—26 in five successive balls. He was a terrifically hard hitter. When I went in to bat W.G. had half-a-crown on with Jim Lillywhite as to who should get me out first. I stayed in for some time in tach innings, and made 16 and 11, but Jim secured me each time by gradually feeding me to the off, and I suppose he got his half-crown.” “ Did you bowl much ? ” “ No. I was a very moderate player all round. But I once had a groat bit of luck at Aldershot for the Riflemen against the Rest of the Division. We went on the ground without our bowlers, who were not expected to turn up for some time. Our captain, Colonel Northey, put me on to bowl, with the result that I took five wickets at a fairly small cost, and kept up my end until the real performers came down, when they were not much needed. Colonel Northey was killed in South Africa in the Zulu war. Wilkinson (to whom I have just referred) and I were standing by his side when he fell—three Old Etonians. Wilkinson was afterwards drowned in performing a hero’s duty at the Ingogo river during the Boer war. He was trying to swim across the river, which was in flood, carrying bread and brandy to the wounded left on the opposite side after the engagement. I did not take part in the war, but my company, or what had been formerly my company, lost 48 killed and wounded out of about 80 or 90 on that day.” While he was at Madras (where he met Colonel Pennycuick, whom he describes as a remarkably good bowler in his day) the Colonel did a great deal of rowing, and was stroke of a crew, consisting of Colonel Mac- Call (who was not a Colonel in those days), F. G. Doyle, both Old Etonians, Captain Mortimer, himself and a coxswain. “ After we had beaten the Madras Boat Club,” he said, “ we tried to form a crew consisting entirely of Old Etonians, and for this purpose introduced a Captain Campbell in the place of Mortimer; but when the Madras crew had watched us at practice for about a fort­ night, they would not row unless we gave them two lengths start, to which we did not at all agree. So the match was scratched, and we had all our toil for nothing. Once while we were practising, our coxswain was a nigger boy, who tried to take us under the bridge at full speed. Now the bridge was in a somewhat slanting direction to the river, and it would have been absolutely impossible to accomplish such a feat. As it happened, I began to think that we were nearing the bridge, and looking over my shoulder, saw the situation just in time to call out to the crew to ship oars. The result was that wo were swamped, but we saved ourselves and our boat; the nigger boy could not swim, but I caught hold of him and put him on the end of the boat and he was brought safely to land. In swimming ashore I found that my nether garments had descended to my feet and so I kicked them off, and they are still, I suppose, at the bottom of the river. Unfortunately there were hundreds of people on the bridge, and so I had to swim about until I could stand it no longer, when I made a bolt for the club house. There were only two outriggers in Madras, and we should have had to wait till another could come from England if ours had been smashed. In the same year I was in the boat which won the scratch fours. I was lucky in having MacCall and Doyle, but my fourth man was not experienced and weighed about 14 stone. I knew that he wouldn’t be able to last; so I told him to row as hard as he possibly could at first. I think about ten strokes settled him.” W . A. B e t t e s w o r t h . LONDON AND WESTM INSTER BANK (3) v. LONDON JOINT STOCK BANK (2).-P layed at Denmark Hill on July 13 and 14. L o ndon a n d W e stm in st e r B a n k . J. D. Paul, not out .. 26 B. A . E. Newman, not out .......................... 11 B 10, lb 3, w 8 ... 21 A. W . Maclean, c Thompson,bWhitby 11 M. G. Dunlop, c Spear- point, b Whitbv ... 5 A . E. Bassindale, b B row nlie..................23 Total (4 wkts.)*133 E.G.Keeping,bWhitby 36 T. W . Haines, W . W . Woodhams, G. H. Mortimer, R. H. Watson and T. Gardner did not bat. * Innings declared closed. L ondon J o in t S toc k B a n k . J. N. Brownlie, b Bassindale ........... 7 H. C. Clark, c Bassin­ dale, b Baines ^ ... 13 L. Delaroque,b Haines 1 H. Whitby, b Bassin­ dale .......................... 0 F. Spearpoint, run out 2 E. T. Spearing, lbw, b Haines ........... ... 0 C.O.Emra,bBassindale 0 E. Lockhart, b Bassin­ dale .......................... 26 W . H. Thompson, b Haines ................... 0 A. J. Sisman, c sub., b Bassindale ........... 1 H. V. Morren, not out 1 B 5, lb 1 ........... 6 Total 57 KENSINGTON v. FIN CH LE Y.-Played at W ood Lane on July 18. K e n s in g to n . R. H. Moore, b Tuck 16 F.M.Wheatley, b Tuck 10 G. T. Davies, not out 17 B 16, lb 3, nb 3 ... 22 Total (5 wkts ) *254 C. E. Bloomer, c Tuck 8 E. V. Gardner, c Ven­ ables, b T u ck ........... 8 J. N. Cooper, c Ven­ ables, b Jose ...........11 L. de Montezuma, not out ... ... ...162 | J. Briggs, J. H. Watts, C. J. Dux, and F. Briggs did not bat. * Innings declared closed. F in c h l e y . B. Venables, c J.Briggs b Montezuma........... 6 W . E. Green, b Gard­ ner ......................... 2 R.C.Williams, cWatts, b Montezuma...........19 S. W . Jose, b Monte­ zuma .......................... 6 F.Tuck, b Montezuma 2 Rev. F. S. Keysell, b Montezuma ........... 0 B. Fowler, not out .. M.Jones.b Montezuma F. S. Thompson, b Montezuma ... A.Davis,b Montezuma Morgan, b Montezuma B 2, lb 1 ........... Total ... 67 GRANVILLE “ A ” v. BE XLEY .—Played at Lee on July 18. G r a n v il l e . F. E. Lander, c Mars­ den, b Ashdown ... 0 A. L. Ryder, b Ash­ down ..........................31 E. R. D. Moulder, c Elms, b Ashdown . . 33 G. IIelder, c Hender­ son, b A*<hdowu ... 11 G. C. Nicoll, b Ash­ dow n..........................21 R. F. Taylor, c Morris, b Ashdown ... ... 3 W . Edwards, st Elms, b Ashdown ...........11 B. F. Gordon, run out 9 W . S. Pate, b Ash­ down .......................... 12 T. Passmore, st Elms, b Horner ... ...........20 F. van de Linde, not out .......................... 0 B 6, lb 3, w 2 ... 11 Total B e x l e y . T. H. Bourher, c F. Holburd, b Pass- Ryder, b Edwards... Rev. A . C. Marsden, b Passmore ........... V. Morris, c Helder, b E dw ards.................. H. B. Banning, b Pass- more .......................... J. Field, b Passmore C. Horner, c Gordon, b Edwards ........... m o re ........................... b G. Henderson, c Lan­ der, b Edwards ...1 2 W . Ashdown, run out 0 A. G. Elms, not out .. 1 Byes ................... 2 Total ...........68 H. E. Baines did not bat. LONDON & WESTM INSTER BANK v. ROM­ FORD. -Played at Romford on July 18. L o n d o n & W e s tm in st e r B a n k . W . B r a d b e r y , b Champness ...........32 C. A . Snell, lbw, b Champness ...........83 T. H. Pritchard, b W right ................... 3 H. O. Manfield, not out ..........................43 A. G. Gough, b W right ................... 7 C. J. Bowman, not out ...........................16 B 9, lb 6, n b l .. 16 Total (4 wkts.)*200 C. C. Simpson, C. J. Crossley, F. W . Stone, T. W . Haines, and A. Podmore did not bat. * Innings declared closed. R o m fo r d . A . Cornell, notout ... 33 B 7, lb 1, nb 2... 10 Total (3 wkts.) 141 G. Stevenson, b Snell 20 S. R. Wright, not out 63 L. Hooton, c Podmore, b Snell ..................13 E. Champness, c and b Podmore ........... 2 E. W . Smith, E. Hinds, E. Fletchar, W . Kelly, A. Rich, E. Chalmor, and T. H. Thirlwall did not bat. GRANVILLE v. NORWOOD.—Played at Norwood on July 18. G r a n v il l e . P. P. Lincoln, not out 22 B 11, lb 2, nb 1... 14 J. C. Stone, b Rogers 7 C. J . M. Godfrey, not out ..........................56 W . Morris, b Roe ... 23 Total (3 wkts) 169 L. R. Havers, c Hol­ lands, b Austin ... 47 W . Greer, S. Ellis,C. S. Carey, J. R. Hollingworth, J. Moore, and A. R. Layman did not bat. N o r w o o d . S. Hollands, bGodfrey 7 C. F. Blain, not out ... 21 A. P. Roe, c Lincoln, b B 2, lb 1 ........... 3 Godfrey ..................48 — C. A . Checkland, not Total (2 wkts) 129 out ..........................50 A. French, W . Austin, R. S. Rogers, C. G. Austin, J. D. Gillespie, W . C. Elborough, and L. F. Elliott did not bat.