Cricket 1898

“ Together joined In Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. h o . 488 . v o i. x v ii. T H U E S D A T , JU L Y 28 , 1898 . p r ic e aa. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. W. H. LOCKWOOD. To the great delight of all oricketers, Lockwood, after a temporary collapse, has quite returned to his old form, both in batting and bowling, at a time, too, when his county was sadly in need of his services. “ Lock­ wood’s slow ” took the cricket world by storm when it first made its appearance, and it is still a household word in the land. The bowler had mastered the extremely difficult art of changing from very fast to slow, without apparently alter­ ing his action in the slightest degree. The result was that batsman after batsman fell a victim, until by painful experience they had learned to tell when the slow ball was coming—not that it was by any means useless even then. For a time, Lockwood was played chiefly as a batsman, and he still keeps up his reputation as a splendid all-round man, with a most attractive style with both bat and ball. His first cricket was played at his native village of Old Radford, a suburb of Nottingham. He never played for the Notts Colts, possibly because his name was not sent in until the day on which the entries closed. He had a trial in the Notts eleven, and he afterwards played for Surrey, not because the Notts committee did not reoognise his value, but because Surrey had given him his first engagement. One of the best of his many flue performances was to take four wickets for 21 in the first innings for Surrey His cricket has two or three times been interrupted by accident and illness. In one year he had made a hundred against Hampshire, and was in splendid form ; on the following day he had an attack of influenza, which kept him out of the field for weeks. In the match against Leicestershire, in which he made 168 in the first innings, he went in with Abel to knock off about 70 runs in the second innings. They had got to within a run of a tie with­ out being parted, when Lockwood, not seeing a fieldsman who was behind the umpire at square leg, called Abel for a run. On being sent back he slipped and fell on one of bis fingers, which was so badly hurt that he could not play for a long time. Two years ago he lost his wife and one of his two children, and the shock of this calamity so affected him that he fell off con­ siderably in his cricket, and had to be left out of the eleven. It is to be hoped, now that he has returned to form again, that he will have many successful years before him His first appearance in first-class cricket was for Notts v. Gloucestershire at Moreton in the Marsh. " I didnothingin thatmatch,” hesaid. “ I madeabout five runs, and bowled 11 overs, 7 maidens, for seven runs and no wickets. Next I played against the Aus­ tralians. I was at work at the lace machine when a message came to me that I was wanted at once to play for the county. In the first innings I took four wickets for 69, but none in the second, while I hardly, made any runs. Then I played against Kent and Middlesex, but. except that I made 16 v. Kent at the Oval, and seven for 19 in the second innings. His highest score in first-class cricket is 168 against Leicester­ shire, and his highest in club cricket, 185 not out. In a local match at Wootton Hatch, he once put up 120 out of a total of 146 made while he was at the wickets. W . H. LOCKWOOD. ( From a Photo by R. Thiele do Co., 66, Chancery Lane, London.)