Cricket 1897

162 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M a t 27, 1897. an enthusiasm for it ; so much so that afterwards when we started the Free Foresters Cricket Club, I said that I should like to play. But I don’t think I played for them after about two years, owing to an accident to my hand. Cricket chiefly attracted me by reason of the good fellowship which existed among the m>n who played it. Indeed the founders of the Free Foresters were more like a happy family party than anything else; they were as intimate as if they had been brothers.” “ The club played better matches at that time ?” “ Yes, we had David Buchanan, who then bowled fast; I think he was better as a fast bowler than afterwards when he took to slows, although he made a great reputation with them. Then we had Goodrich, a wonderfully good slow bowler. About that time Fourteen of the Free Foresters played Surrey— then very strong— and Buchanan and Ratliff got them out at the Oval for 34; it was in 1863 I think. From about 1865 to the present time, the club has altered its scope and plays many more matches, but against weaker teams. But I could not possibly have managed the club as well as it has been.” “ When did you give up the secretary­ ship ?” “ I handed it over in 1863 to A. H . Faber, thefirstheadmaster of MalvernCol­ lege. Then R. A. H . Mitchell took it, and C. C. Cotes, themember of Parliament for Shrewsbury for a long time, followed him. In modern times the club has flourished under the management of Marshall and Rutter. There is generally one of the old Free Foresters on the M.C.C. committee. Montague Turner is on it this year. In the old days we played a dozin or perhaps twenty matches; nowadays, fifty or sixty are on the card.” “ Will you tell me something of your earlier experiences with the Free Foresters ?” “ I remember that we once went down to Oxford to play Magdalen, in whose eleven at that time was Charles Ridding, a brother of the Bishop of Southwell, and an old Winchester boy. We expected Ridding to play for us, but the Magdalen men wouldn’t hear of it. ‘ But,’ they said, ‘ he has a friend staying with him— a man named Trollope, he can play for you.’ The upshot of it was that Trollope made 95 for us out of 120, and enabled us to win the match. Rid­ ding only scored 5 for them, so that they were hoist with their own petard. But that is one of the chances of cricket which make the game so interesting ; if it were not for them one might as well put a penny in the slot and have one’s cricket ready made. One of my earliest recollections of the Free Foresters is of a match against a local eleven near Birmingham. We were a man short. An old gentleman, who represented one of the Birmingham newspapers, said that he had a nephew staying with him ; he added that he was aCambridge man. The nephew turned out to be Joe Makinson, one of the very best men of the day ! We had not the cheek to put him on to bowl, but he made a lot of runs, and practically secured the match for us. I used to play a lot of cricket near Birmingham.” “ Were you located there ?” “ I was at Sutton Coldfield for years; in fact, until I retired. I also used to go to Manchester a good deal, and it was there that I saw my first tie match. The Free Foresters were playing Western, a club which was not very strong, but had a particularly good man in Kingston— a military bat. They had two profes­ sionals, and as they only had to make 35 runs to win, they allowed one to go away, never dreaming that his services might be required. Well, at the fall of the sixth wicket they had scored 33 runs; they only managed to get one more before the eighth wicket went down. The ninth and last man came in with a carefully thought-out programme. He was to let the ball pass his wicket (unless it would have bowled him) and run at once. Our longstop, Armitstead— there were always longstops at that time— was standing, in the opinion of the other side, too far back to save the run, but anticipating the manoeuvre, he crept in as the bowler was moving towards the wicket, and when the attempt was made to run, he threw the ball to the bowler’s end accurately and promptly. The batsman had not looked for this, and the result was a run out and a tie.” Strong opinions are held by Mr. Bedford as to the necessity of playing the game with due regard to what is honourable; but there are points where he fully admits that there may be two sides to the question. “ I did not see the match between Oxford and Cam­ bridge,” he said, “ when Wells bowled no balls to prevent the Oxford men from following on. But I saw the same thing done last year, and after the incident had occurred, 1 was put in a very awkward position. Needless to say that the opinions in the pavilion differed very widely. An animated conversation was being held, and suddenly a famous cricketer, who has, deservedly, the repu­ tation of being one who plays the game in the most honourable manner, turned to me and said, ‘ What is your opinion ?’ I replied, ‘ I have no right to pass any opinion on the question. If such an incident had happened when I had a ground of my own, the team would not have been asked to play there again ; but as to saying whether it was strict cricket I do not offer an opinion.’ I may say that two such honourable cricketers as Webbe and Lord Cobham considered that the Cambridge eleven had acted rightly. What struck one more than anything about the proceeding was that the stage management of it was so awkwardly done ; the Cambridge men might almost as well have gone to the scoring board and altered the totals. I thought of and wrote a piper, entitled ‘ The Devil’s Advocate,’ treating of cricket a little too near the line. But I put it in the fire. When Cambridge went in again I was sitting on the box-seat of a coach in company with Dean Hole, and after the fourth wicket had fallen for about 7 runs, he turned to me and said ‘ Ah, Nemesis has followed crime very quickly!’ I can’t help thinking that they felt their false position and so played under their form; the vindictive howl which was raised when young Grace got out for a duck was almost cruel. When Oxford, with only seven men, beat Cambridge in a boatrace, I was asked to write an article about the race. You may remem­ ber that, at the moment of starting, the Oxford captain was taken ill, and that the Cambridge captain refused to allow a fresh man to be put in the boat and at the same time objected to Oxford’s rowing without the full complement of men. In the end the race was rowed and Oxford won. I asked one of the Cam­ bridge crew how he could account for this; it seemed to me to require a good deal of explanation that seven men should beat eight. He replied ‘ The fact is that we were all dissatisfied with our position, and we could not do ourselves justice.’ I do not say that this a parallel instance, but it gives an idea of the feel­ ing of men who know that they are in a false position. W. A. B e tte s w o rth . s tr e a th a m : v . BECKENHAM.— Played at Beck- enham. B ec k en h a m . E. H. Simpson,cWage- ner, bHooper........ 0 C. O. Cooper, c Wini- peris, b Wagener ... 21 F. Mitchell, c&b Scott 39 F. D. Browne, b Wagener .............. 52 S. W. Marshall, c H. M. Leaf, b Wagener 38 B. Matthews, not out 19 W. R. Stratton and A. A. P. C. Baker, c Pul- brook, b Wimperis 30 B. S. Matthews, not out .....................19 C. M. Baker, c Wim­ peris, b Wagener... 7 W. B. Baker, not out 28 Extras...............18 Total(for 7wks)252 Baker did not bat. S t r e a t h a m . R. O. Schwarz, c A. A. Baker, bMitchell ... 47 C. P. Pulbrook, cMar­ shall, bW. B. Baker 37 H.H. Scott, bW.Baker 9 C. H. Leaf, st P. C. Marshall,bA. Baker 45 H. M. Leaf, run out... 21 G. Wagener, run out... 0 J. Hooper, c Browne, b A. A. Baker........ 12 D. O. Kerr, b A. A. Baker ............... 0 A. H. Wimperis, b A. A. Baker.............. 6 A. Barkworth, not out ..................... 5 W. Solman, b C. M. Baker ............... 0 Extras.............. 14 Total... ...195 GRANVILLE (LEE) v. WOOLWICE GARRI­ SON.—Played at Woolwich on May 12. W o o lw ich G a r r is o n . Major Barter,bTurner 0 C. C. Barnes, bTurner 16 Capt.Spurway,st Lay­ man, b Austin ...61 Major Cursers, b Turner ....... ... 0 Capt. Slee, b Austin.. 0 B. Atkinson, b Austin 1 Capt. Crampton, c EUis, b Stone....... 9 C. L. Sykes, b Godfrey 22 L. Edwards, c Clark­ son, b Austin........ 9 Capt.E.G. Weymouth, not out G. W. Edwards, Godfrey ........ B 7, lb 6 ... Total ... 16 0 18 ..150 Second inningsMajor Barter, not out, 7; B. Atkinson, b Lincoln, 3; C. L. Sykes, not out, 19; Bye, 1; Total (I wicket), 30. G r a n v il l e . P. P. Lincoln, b Wey­ mouth ............... C. J. M. Godfrey, c Weymouth,bAtkin­ son .....................: J. C. Stone, b Wey­ mouth .............. i L. T. Turner, c Wey­ mouth, b Crampton J. P. Clarkson, c Crampton, b Sykes : W. Austen, cSykes, b Crampton.............. W. Greer, b Sykes ... F. E. Lander, b Sykes F. Helder, b Cramp­ ton ..................... S. Ellis, not out....... A.R. Layman, run out Total 1 14 0 5 3 7 .,100