Cricket 1898

442 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. O ct . 27, 1898. and took 15 wickets, and we won pretty eaeilv.” “ You used to bowl with a very high action ?” “ In my first matches for the county I used to bowl with a very high action indfle1, but there came a time when a dead set was made against bowlers whose arm went higher than the shoulder. My turn came in a match between East and West Sussex. George Brown stood umpire, and no-balled me eighteen times. It seemed very hard to have to alter my action, for after all a professional has his living to make ; but I did it—in after years many of the batsmen who had objected to my former action said that they wished I would return to it again. Julius Csesar used to say of my high action, ‘ If you were to stand on your head when you bowl, I’m blest if you wouldn’t be bowling under­ hand ! ’ ’’ “ What was your first match for Sussex ?” “ It was against Surrey, on the old Brighton Brunswick ground, and I took a wicket with the very first ball. I can remember this perfectly. When Jimmy Dean was taken off I was told to take his place. When I got the ball I always used to take off my cap and scratch my hair, and this amused the crowd, who shouted ‘ Bravo, Stubber,’ to encourage me. But I felt very nervous when I started to howl to Billy Mortlock amid a dead silence. The ball got up among his knuckles, and he was caught by John Wisden at short slip. I think I took four wickets in that match. In one of the matches at Brighton I said to Jack Lillywhite just before the game began, ‘ Where shall I field ? ’ ‘ Go where you like,’ he replied, apparently in a snappish sort of way, but he turned to Mr. George Kelson, who was batting, and said, ‘ You see, he’ll go and put himself somewhere where he will catch somebody out.’ I went somewhere out iu the long field, which was not in accordance with regu­ lations, and presently a ball came to me veryawkwardly, and inmaking the catch I fell right over on to my head. Jack Lillywhite always vowed that the ball must have touched the ground, but it didn’t, and the umpire rightly gave the batsman out.” “ Does your memory carry you back to the days when you first played cricket p” “ I can remember the first match in which I ever played, although it was fifty years ago. I was then a boy of thirteen or fourteen years old. My score was ten. In those days I bowled under­ hand, until in a match at Queen’s Park, between the Windmill Hill Club and Kemp Town, one of our side suddenly said to me, ‘ Henry, why don’t you bowl round-arm ?’ I tried, andwas sosuccess­ ful that I never went back to underhand. I was then about seventeen.” In 1872 an advertisement appeared in the sporting papers stating that a pro­ fessional was required for a New York cricket club. “ I sawthis,” said Stubber- field, “ and without thinking that I was likely to be successful, I T7rote to Jack Lillywhite about it. He replied, ‘ Come up to London nextTuesday.’ 1went and sawMr. V. E. Walker, who had promised the New York Club to engage a pro­ fessional for them. Mr. Walker often used to get me to bowl to him on the Brighton ground, and he said, ‘ Stubber- field will just suit these New Yorkers.’ So I went, and got fever, and ague, and indigestion. But I had a verygood time afterwards. The heat was sometimes almost unendurable, and the gra«s used to grow so quickly that it was precious hard work to keep it down. I used to tell people in my younger days, before I had come to years of discretion, that the grass used to grow a yard high in a single night, but they did not always believe it. I was very much in­ terested in a blind man who always came to see the matches. He knew almost as much about cricketers in England as I did. His only occupation, as far as I could see, except that of listening towhat was happening on the cricket ground, was to drive his mother’s cows to and from their feeding place—a distance of about three miles. He always brought them home with certainty and regu­ larity.” It used to be whispered among the wicked that, to save himself the trouble of rolling the pitch, the groundman at Br'ghton was in the habit of persuading Stubberfield to walk over it two or three times. This was doubtless a libel on the old bowler, who, nevertheless, tells with enjoyment a tale or two against himself. “ Once I was playing at Sheffield,” he said, ‘‘ for Sussex—I think it was my last match for the county—and on the second morning I couldn’t find my cricket boots anywhere. After hunting for them all over the place, I discovered that Oharl- wood had put them on over his own. In another match, atLord’s, JackLillywhite put Tiny Wells’s cricket boots in mine at the end of the day’s play, and you may guess that there was a rare to-do in the morning when Tiny couldn’t find his boots.” In later days Stubberfield has done a very great deal of umpiring, more especially at Sheffield Park, where he is an institution, and on the Brighton Brunswick ground. He was one of the umpires in the memorable match at Brighton—Gentlemen of Sussex v. South Wales—in which Dr. Grace made his first hundred. “ The wicket was almost perfect,” he said, “ and although Mr. Grace did nothing in the first innings of importance, he said, when he came in a second time, ‘ You won’t get me out again.’ And there never was theremotest chance that they would as long as he cared to play his game.” W. A. B e t t e s w o r t i i . CURIOSITIES OF 1898. Compiled from Cricket. Continued from page 426. May 30. Portsmouth. United Services v. Hampshire Rovers. Services declared with score 525 for four wickets. C. S. Hickley made 101, E. M. Sprot 176, and Lieut.-Col. J. Spens 131. May 30. Oval. Surrey 2nd Eleven v. Lancashire 2nd Eleven. W . B. Stoddart took all ten wickets in Surrey’s first innings. June 2. Lord’s. Middlesex v. Gloucester­ shire. P. F. Warner carried his bat through first innings of Middlesex for 46 out of 75. In this match C. L. Townsend took fifteen Middlesex wickets for 134. June 2. Eastbourne. Sussex v. Somerset. S. M. J. Woods, in Somerset’s second innings, scored 143 out of 173 while in. He was batting two hours and a quarter. June 2. Leicester. Leicestershire v. Surrey. Brockwell carried his bat through Surrey’s first innings for 76 out of 158. June 4. Honor Oak. Guy’s Hospital v. Reiga^e Priory. F. C. Wetherell (77 out of 157) for Guy’s, and F. Nightin­ gale (47 out of 128) for Reigate Priory, both carried their bats through the innings. June 9. Bristol. Gloucestershire v. Notts. Gloucestershire scored 634 (W. Troup, 180; C. L. Towntend, 134; and 0. O H. Sewell, 108). June — . Southport. Rockley House School v. Bickerton House School. Rockley House were dismissed for no runs. June —. Quebec. Quebec C.C. v. Royal Artillery. Auden scored 104, not out, for Quebec. The first hundred scored in Quebec. June 10. Lord’s. M.C.C. and Ground v. Derbyshire. At end of match, G. Davidson took last three wickets in M.C.C.’s second innings with succes­ sive balls. June 13. Sheffield. Yorkshire v. Kent. Lord Hawke and Hunter scored 140 for last wicket in Yorkshire’s first innings. June 13. Oval. Gentlemen v. Players. Storer and Lockwood put on (J6 for last wicket in Players’ first innings. June — . Ashfoid. Ashford Grammar School v. Kenningtou (Kent). J. L. Cornes took ail ten wickets (nine bowled) of latter for four runs. June — . Eastbuurne. Eastbourne College v. M.C.C. and Ground. M.C.C. scored 492 lor three wickets (F. M. Lees, 180 ; F. B. May, 120, not ou t; and Dr. Holton, 122 not out). June 16. Cirencester. Cirencester v. Stroud. Cirencester scored 395 for one wicket. June 20. Tonbridge. Kent v. Warwick­ shire. Kent scored 571. June 20. Taunton. Somersetshire v. Lanca­ shire. In the match, 1,088 runs were scored for forty wickets. June 23. Lord’s. M.C.C. and Ground v. Cambridge University. C. W. Wright and F. Mitchell put on 208 for first wicket of M.C.C. in two hours and thirty-five minutes. June 23. Lord’s. M.C.C. and Ground v. Cambridge University. M.C.C. closed their innings at 325 for three wickets. June 23. Oval. Surrey v. Middlesex. Brockwell and Abel made 100 for Surrey’s first wicket. June 30. Manchester. Lancashire v. Notts. Ward and C. R. Hartley scored 116 for first wicket in Lancashire’s first innings. July 4. Leatherhead. St. John’s School, Leatherhead, v. Surrey Club and Ground. Braund scored 205, not out, including six hits out of the ground, for Surrey Club and Ground. (To be continued). N E X T ISSUE, T HUR SDA Y , NOVEMBER 24.