Cricket 1898

no. 486. v o l. x v ii. T H U E SD A Y , JU L Y 14, 18 9 8 . p r i c e an. A CHAT ABOUT MR. I. D. WALKER. The youngest of seven brothers, six of whom played for Gentlemen v. Players, Mr. I. D. Walker was, in hi* day, able to hold his own with any other batsman liv­ ing, with the single exception of the great and only “ W.G.” To the present genera­ tion of cricketers he is chiefly known for his enthusiastic efforts to bring Harrow cricket to as near perfection as possible, and for his occasional appearances with the Old Harrovians on their tours. And yet it is not so very many years ago that he was playing with great mccess in county cricket, wbich he gave up because he said that, although he knew he had not lost his powers as a batsman, he would soon begin to fall off in fielding, and this he could not bear to think of. In 1883 he had the fine average of 34 for Middlesex— averages in those days were not as high as they are now—and it came as a great and unpleasant surprise to his very numerous admirers when it was known that he in­ tended to play for one more season only. Despite many attempts to make him change his mind, he held firmly to his determination, and at the end of 1884 he resigned the captaincy of the eleven, his place being taken by Mr. Webbe. After this he still played occasionally, and even up to the last it was no un­ common thing for him to make a good score for the Old Harrovians, or to dispose of several batsmen with his lobs. But he devoted his time chiefly to Harrow cricket. Never was a man regarded with more respect by boys than Mr. Walker.It is to be feared that boys, as a rule, are apt to regard the advice of an old cricketer, however good he may have been in his day, as “ Tommy rot,” and although they may listen to him with outward respect they fcrget his advice as soon as possible, and go on their own way rejoicing, until some catastrophe reminds them that even they are not too old to learn. At Harrow, with Mr. Walker, there was nothing of this. What he said was carefully thought over, and his advice was invariably acted upon, for he was a man who knew what he was talking about. In the opinion of the modern school of cricketers it may be that cricket practice at Harrow was carried on with a little too much seriousness when Mr. Walker was about, but if this was a fault, it was most certainly a fault on the right side. However this may be, Mr. Walker was regarded as a friend by every Harrow boy with any pretence of being a bats­ man or a bowler, or a field, and it will be very many years indeed before his old pupils cease to speak of him with frequency. As a batsman, Mr. Walker was not one of the school who play simply “ for keeps.” He was not in the habit of letting the grass grow under his feet, any more than are the famous cricketers who have passed through his hands, headed by Mr. Jackson and Mr. MacLaren. Like all great batsmen he had a hit or two which were peculiar to himself. The most notable of his hits was a stroke to the off, which was half cut and half drive. The ball as often as not went in the air to the boundary, and unwary captains would put out man after man in hopes that one or two of these flukes, as they thought them, would be caught. But there was very much more method in this particular hit than was apparent to most bowlers who saw it made off them. The same stroke, with slight differences, was frequently made by Mr. H. H. Massie and also by George Ulyett, and in ordinary club cricket it is by no means uncommon. But if a man makes the stroke with success a dczen times in an innings of 200, it never, by any chance, happens that the opposing side is convinced that it was even once made inten­ tionally. Most of Mr. Walker’s runs were made in front of the wicket, and some of his big drives have become historic. At mid-off, where he usually stood in the field, there was very few men who were his equal. His lobs were not often of much use in first-class cricket, but in club matches they were sometimes irresistible. Mr. Walker played for Middle­ sex, of which the county club was founded by him and his brothers, in the same year that he was captain of the Harrow X I. He first played against Eton in 1860, when he went in eighth wicket down and carried his bat for 20 out of a total of 62. In 1861 he only made 11, and in 1862, when he was captain, his team was ignominiously beaten. For Middlesex, he made his debut a month after the Eton match, and from that time until the close of his first-class career, he was always one of the most successful of the men on the side—often the most successful of all. In those days Middle­ sex only played a few matches, and had no ground of its own until 1863, when a home was found for the club on the site of the cattle market at Islington. As there was then no law in the land to prevent a man from playing for two counties in the same season, Mr. Walker took considerable interest in the welfare of the Surrey Club, for which he frequently played. He made his first appearance in the match between Gentlemen and Players in 1865, and was TH K L A T E MR. I. D. W ALKEli. (From a Photo by E. Hawkins & Co., Brighton.)