Cricket 1897

A p r i l 8, 1897. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 51 the previous mail accepted an offer from Mr. Priestley.” In answer to that I wish to say that the whole of the West Indian clubs had definitely and finally accepted my offer to take out a team before anyone of them wrote a letter to Lord Hawke at all, and that the first to write to him was Sir Augustus Hemming, who indited a personal letter only to him. Once again, in answer to his interviewer, Lord Hawke said “ he had met Mr. Priestley with an intention to amalgamate if it was at all possible.” For answer to this I would only refer to the first remark Lord Hawke made to me—that he had no desire to dis­ cuss the question with me. Lord Hawke told his interviewer that he had been quite willing to give him (Mr. Priestley) some places. Unless I am under a misappre­ hension, it was I who was in the position to offer places to Lord Hawke and not he to m e; and I did offer him places, nine places, and these were not enough for him. I may also say that the question of complete control never came up, for Lord Hawke never made it possible for us to bring about an amalgamation, but as I had offered in my first letter, I was quite prepared to offer him the captaincy, which, of course, carries control with it, and besides, I offered him nine places in the team, but I did not make it essential that I should know the men who filled them.” “ Lord Hawke says he ‘ afterwards wrote to the West Indies saying he had done his best to amalgamate.’ “ For my part,” pointedly remarked Mr. Priestley, “ I will leave to others to say whether His Lordship did his best towards an amalgamation. Lord Hawke has also said that Jamaica would not have been dissatisfied if Mr. Priestley had given way.” Of course I can’t say whether Jamaica has written to Lord Hawke or not, but their communication to me most emphatically and distinctly endorsed their original acceptance of my offer and guaranteed me a most cordial welcome.” “ I venture to think,” went on Mr. Priest­ ley, “ that if I had given Lord Hawke carte blanche in the choosing of the team, that not a single member whom I had invited would have been included : and that so far as the question of keeping his promise of which Lord Hawke speaks so lightly is concerned, I still prefer to hold my opinion rather than his Lordship’s upon the point.” INTERCO LON IAL CR ICKET . VICTORIA v. SOUTH AUSTRALIA (Return). Played at Adelaide. Below will be found the scores of the first days’ play (Feb. 26) V ictoria . C. McLeod, b Evans... 48 H . Stuckey, b Giif'en 5 J. W oirall, b Jones ... 26 G. H. 8. Trott, c Dar­ ling, b Reedman ... 61 F. Laver, b Giffen ... 27 J. O’Halloran, c and b Giifen ................... 6 J. Harry, b Giifen ... 20 J. Giller, run out .. 42 S. McMichael, not out 27 B 5,1b 10, nb 1... 16 Total (8 wkts.) 277 T H E jE D lT O B OF “ CRICKET ” wishes to procure 1 Vols. 3, 4, 7, 8, 9,10 and 11 o f ores and Bio­ graphies.” BETWEEN THE INNINGS. What a quaint little volume is that Cricketers’ Manual,” by “ Bat,” known to all cricket bibliophiles, but by me unseen until the other day, when the kindness o fm y friend Mr. Ashley-Cooper placed a copy of it in my hands ! Its many quotations, classical and poetical, its flowery account of the value and attractions of cricket, its history of the game, in which the author contrives to bring in references to the Persians, the Saxons, the Normans, Shakespeare, Mas­ singer, Shirley, Marlowe, (but these four only because they don’t mention it), Edward III., Bacon, Charles I., Burton (of melancholy fame), Tom D’Urfey, Jenyns, Sir Richard Steele, Pope, Chaucer, Canning, Wolfe and Wellington—all these add to its value as a curiosity, even though they do not throw any great new light upon the subject of the king of games. ____________________ How’s this for tall writing, eh ? “ Cricket now takes precedence amongst existing sports from its adaptation to the means and wants of all; while the spirit of emulation which it educes is in exact accordance with the habits and feeling! of a true-born Briton. Within the sea- encircled land of his birth, cricket was brought into existence; it was nursed in its tender days by the sons of the British soil, and now that it is matured, English men are justly proud of their offspring. Many exciting popular sports tend to beget jealousies and heartburnings, and in proportion as the winners triumph, the losers became splenetic and depressed. This, however, is not the case with cricket—gain forms no ingredient in it; thence the absence of sordid motives. The victors and vanquished meet without those festering feelings which usually result from heavy exchanges, and which must ever cleave to the votary of hazard­ ous and extensive stake-playing.” That is not quite the fin de siecle style of writing, of course. But one’s heart warms to “ Bat,” as one reads his little volume; without doubt he loved the game even as we love it to-day, and now, half-a-century after its publication, one can find much of interest in his book. One may not care particularly to read how noble lords and learned judges patronised the game, because one thinks it above patronage—nowadays it is not held a wonder before all men that a noble lord should wield a bat with less exalted personages. But one is interested in Tom Walker’s doughty play against Thirty- three of Norfolk, when, for an England eleven, that hero scored five runs more off his own bat than the whole 33 to­ gether made in an innings; in the cricket on Penenden Heath at election time; in the great Ward’s 278 and Adams the butcher’s 279; in the early days of Lord’s and the Oval; in the “ very nice team that can be turned out when needed ’’ from Twickenham; and especially in those two great heroes, Alfred Mynn and Pilch. By the way, how like this description of Fuller in his prime is to the eulogies lavished on W. G. in the seventies, to the jraise accorded to the dark Prince to-day. It refers to an old Notts, v. Kent (Not­ tingham v. Kent was the correct title in those days, I believe; but the other seems more familiar) match somewhere in the thirties. “ Pilch took his place at the stumps, as usual, as the third man, and at the third ball wrote down three with a leg hit. But what of this—threes, fours and fives appear as easy for him to get, as ’tis for us to write about them. We denounce Pilch as a ‘ merciless tyrant’ when at the wicket. While we were ensconced under a splendid marquee, and distilled almost to dew by a temperature of 85°, he was despatching the ball to the extreme limits of the ground, at all points of the compass, just when, where, and how he pleased, giving the field an over-abundance of sweltering employ­ ment. We really, for once, sank our love for cricket in sympathy for our neighbours’ distresses, and more than once ‘ blessed our stars ’ that we were not the doomed ministers to his stern neces­ sities. All attempts to get him out were as futile as the endeavour to catch levi­ athan with a lady’s reticule, or to pull the sun out of heaven with a silken halter. ____________ _______ After reading this it is somewhat of a drop down to learn that Pilch’s score on the occasion was—sixty-one not out! One expected at least a hundred more than that. But hundreds were not so plenty in those days. Good old Fuller, I believe, made but ten or twelve centuries in the whole course of his long and brilliant career. In a most interesting letter that I had from him the other day, Mr. George Lacy pays a very high tribute to Hugh Massie, the famous Australian big hitter. Those who know Mr. Lacy’s opinions best will appreciate the value of such testimony, for that gentleman is by no meansprone to indiscriminate enthusiasm. I trust he will forgive me for quoting in extenso his remarks on the Sydney slogger:— “ I attended all matches in Sydney, and one or two in Melbourne, in 1879-80, 1880-81, 1881-82, 1882-83, and 1883-84, and, except Murdoch’s 321, McDonnell’ s 147 on a sticky, caking wicket, and a couple of centuries by Horan, Massie played by far the finest innings I saw, and more of them than any other. His batting was simply lovely; I have never seen another like him. With a graceful pat he would send the ball clinging to the ground, and actually cutting the grass in its progress, aud make it bang up against the fence with a noise like a cannon ball. If I were to choose the final eleven of all Australian players he would be my next choice to Murdoch for batting. . . . By the way, I should say he is the only batsman who has made a double century but never a single one.” “ If I were to choose the final eleven of all Australia,” says Mr. Lacy. That is an idea that has appealed to me many