Cricket 1897

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. n o . 4 5 7 . v o l . x v i . THUKSDAY, JULY 15, 1 8 9 7 . p r i c e a d . CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR. G. S. PATTERSON. Undoubtedly the best batsman that America has ever produced, Mr. Patterson, the captain of the Philadelphia XI., was not until latelyseen at his best on Eng­ lish wickets. But hewas not at all the sort of man to be discouraged by a few failures, and, indeed, he might point to many examples of men who, when playing with touring teams, have begun the tour badly to end it in a blaze of fireworks. Perhaps his best record against foreign teams—it must be remembered that it is only possible for a Philadelphian, when in his own country, to play more than three or four big matches in a season—was against the Oxford and Cambridge team of 1895, when his scores were 23 and 64, 109 (not out), 67 and 74—scores which speak for themselves. Englishmen can hardly appre­ ciate the difficulties under which cricket is played in the United States. “ As far as native cricketers are concerned,” said Mr. Patterson, “ the game is con­ fined almost entirely to Phila­ delphia, and possibly Baltimore. There is quite a lot of cricket playedroundNewYork—I suppose there are thirty or forty clubs, but they are composed entirely of Englishmen, and the same may be said of Chicago, Boston and generally throughout New Eng­ land. As regards school cricket there is not much played. St. Paul’s School, New Hampshire, a school corresponding to Eton, plays cricket, but it is almost con­ fined to matches within the school with very occasional visits to Philadelphia. So with the Uni­ versity of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Haverford College. At Haverford, cricket is distinctly the college game. At the others it is of minor importance. Another great disadvantage is, that nearly all the best men who play in Philadelphia are engaged in professional work or in business, with the result that matches can only be played on Saturday afternoons, except on holidays or on the few occasions when a foreign team visits us in the fall.” “ Are you able to get good practice at the nets ?” “ Men go out in the afternoon at about half-past four for practice, and there are some very good professionals to bowl, although there is not an abundance of them, as on important English grounds. Germantown and Merion have three professionals, Phila­ delphia two, and Belmont and Tioga one each. We have had, at various times, some exceed­ ingly good bowlers. In the seventies Martin Macintyre was with us; in 1880 Daft sent out Bromhead and Tyers from Nottingham ; Tyers was rather a good bat. Since then we have had Pacey, George Lane, Sanders, Handford (a brother of the professional at Lord’s), Stuart Lohmann (George’s brother), Woodcock, and Alec Handford, nearly all Notts men.” “ Does the rising generation take much interest in cricket ? ” “ In Philadelphia, but not in other cities, there is a great love of the game among the boys, who have a regular series of matches arranged for them. They form the so-called junior team, and are all under seventeen years of age. But with few exceptions the best of them have to go into business when they are beginning to show great promise’, and then they are obliged to give up cricket. There are practically no men in Philadelphia who have no work to d o; for it does not seem possible for a man to do nothing unless he has got somebody to do it with. In New York there is a large leisure cla'-s, but they don’t play pricket—they are content with golf. It is fair to say that cricket generally in NewEngland, New York, and Philadelphia is on the increase as far as the number of clubs and players is concerned, but it is doubtful whether the public take any more interest in it than they did two years ago. We were very much afraid that the great strides which golf has made, more particularly in Phila­ delphia, would interfere with the popularity of cricket, but, so far, it is difficult to see that it has affected us in any way. The same fear was expressed about lawn tennis some years ago, when it was first introduced to Philadel­ phia, but the fears have been groundless. There is not the slightest interest taken in it now, and it has never hurt cricket at all.” “ What would be the best time of the year for touring teams to visit you if the arrangements could be made ?” “ It would be very much better if we could get a foreign team to visit us in June, as it would then be possible to play until about a quarter to seven, while the wickets and the weather would be so much better than in September when also we have to stop play at a quarter after five.” “ Do you consider that your match wickets are as good as ours ?’’ “ We have good wickets, but none as good as are to be found at Old Trafford, Brighton or