Cricket 1898

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. No. 477. VOL. XVII. THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1898. p r ic e aa. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. M R . L. H . BAOMEISTER. About ten years ago it looked as if, in Mr. Bacmeister, Middlesex had discovered a young bowler who would be of infinite service to the county, and for a time the hopes of cricketers were not disappointed. But the new bowler was not too strong, and after a suc­ cessful first season, and the promise of an even more suc­ cessful second, he only played first-class cricket intermit­ tently. This was entirely ow ing to a breakdown in health, not very serious at first, but ending in an illness which prevented him from playing at all during the year 1891. In the follow ing year he was able to appear in club matches, but although his services are still very highly valued by the Hornsey C.C. and by the Finchley C.C., when they are fortunate enough to persuade him to play, his strength is not such as to allow him to be quite as good a bowler as he was when he played for his county. If, however, he has lost some of his original “ devil,” he has certainly not lost any of his original gift of making himself popular. In the course of his long connection with the Hornsey C.C., whose matches he par­ ticularly enjoys, Mr. Bacmeis­ ter has played against almost every cricketer of note in the London district, and has ex­ perienced almost every kind of vicissitude which falls to the lot of cricketers. “ One of the most interesting Hornsey matches that I remember,” he said, “ was the tie with Hampstead. The wicket was very much in favour of the bowlers. When we went in we only had to knock off 50 runs, tu t as Spofforth and Thornton were bjw liu g, we were not very certain of com ing out the winners. Spofforth took most of our wickets, and as time went on the result became very, doubtful. A t last it came to the turn of our last man to b a t; he was a substitute — a Hampstead mail." We had then to make two to tie, and as soon as the runs were made the substitute played on to Spofforth. The funny thing was that the two might easily— very easily—have been a three, but the substitute would only run two, because he was afraid of getting the bowling ! But he had made a miscalculation, for over was called, and he had to receive the over from Spofforth. The first ball was fatal to him .” “ Where did you learn your cricket ? ” “ Practically all my early cricket was played on the Hornsey ground. I joined the cricket club when I was little more than fourteen years old. Before that I had played, when at school, on the old Isling­ ton Albion ground, part of which was rented by the school. In my first season with Hornsey I was tried as a bowler in one match, but did not play regularly until about my seventeenth or eighteenth year. Since that time I have nearly always played for Hornsey, and occa­ sionally for Finchley, especially in their out whole-day matches, which generally take place in the middle of the week and are very enjoyable. The management of the teams on these days is generally under­ taken by W . P. Harrison, who also sometimes takes teams of his own to play at a distance, and I shall always look back upon these matches with great pleasure.” “ Had you done any speci­ ally good performance just before you were asked to play for Middlesex ? ” No. M y bow ling average for Hornsey had been pretty good for a year or two, and in January of 1889, Thoms asked me to play for the Colts at Lord’s. The match, however, did not come cff, because it rained hard on both the days for which it was arranged. Some time afterwards I was asked to go to Oxford for A. J. Webbe’s X I . against the Uni­ versity, and this was my intro­ duction to first-class cricket. It was a complete surpiise to me. For I had never dreamed of ever takingpart in first-class cricket up to that time.” “ Y ou were played for your bow ling ? ” “ Yes. A t that time my batting was much too primi­ tive to be at all likely to attract the attention of any good bowler, for I did not stay at the wickets long enough to give him an idea of what sort of style I had.” “ Were you particularly nervous in your first match ? ” “ I don’t think that a bowler is ever nervous in the same way as a batsman, and I don’ t remember feeling uncom foit- able. I did not take a wicket in the first innings, but bowled ten overs for 14 runs. In the second innings I was more fortu­ MR. L. H. BACMEISTER.