Cricket 1898

82 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p k il 28, 1898. exception of one innings of 201 not out, and in a list of consecutive innings of 106 not out, 0, 140, 2, 174 not out, 122 not out, and 113 not out, the 0 and 2 were both made against the bow ling of other boys. “ Parson” Crawford still hardly ever fails to make his thousand runs during the year, and to take nearly a hundred wickets. In 1872 he took within a very few of 300 wickets, and once took all ten wickets in an innings. In the days when Mr. Crawford used to play for Kent, the county-qualification rule had not been dreamed of, and it was quite a common thing for a man to play for a county and also against it. Thus, Mr. Crawford played for Gentlemen of Sus­ sex against Gentlemen of Surrey in 1872, played for Kent against the M.C.C. and Ground on the follow ing days, and, without any interval to speak of, played for Kent against Sussex. “ I remember,” he said, “ that in the M.C.C. match that year the wicket was in a peculiar condition, and when we went out to field, C. I. Thornton, our captain; said to me, ‘ I say, Crawford, I think those slow cockadoodles of yours might possibly be useful on this wicket.’ So he put me on first. I had to bow l to I. D. Walker, who was then one of the finest bats of the day. The first ball was a straight half-volley, without the slightest break, and, as luck would have it, Walker missed it com ­ pletely and was bowled. He was im­ mensely surprised and so was I. R. A. H . Mitchell came in, and drove the next ball back to me with such force that it smashed my hand, and after completing the over as best I might 1 had to retire. Mitchell carried out his bat for 125.” “ Were you playing in the match be­ tween Kent and Sussex which was played at Lord’s ? ” “ Yes. There was a county cup talked of in those days, and the matches in the competition were to be played at Lord’s. All the other counties withdrew except Kent and Sussex. The wicket was so very bad that the scoring was low, and the only thing to do was to h it—if you survived more than a ball or two by good fortune. I remember that I put on 35 in ten minutes. The remark made by the Sporting Life about the match will show what sort of a wicket it was : ‘ As we are not recording the 1Chronicles of the Char­ nel House,’ we purposely omit the list of the killed and wounded. Suffice it to say that but one or two of the Sussex Eleven left the field without bruises of some sort.’ The fact was that, in Coles, we had a much faster bowler than they. In one of the matches between Kent and Surrey, C. I. Thornton went in to hit a ball of Sjuthetton’s, and, for a wonder, escaped being stumped at the hands of Pooley. Thi rnton looked somewhat annoyed at missing the ball, and Southerton turned to George Bennett, who was in at the other end, and said, ‘ George, he looks precious wild. What sort of a ball shall I give him this time, so that he can’t hit it out of the fie ld ?’ Bennett shook his head and re­ plied, ‘ I don’t know, Jim—better leave it to Providence.’ A fterthebill was bowled, Soulherton was he-.rd to say to Bennett, ‘ Well, George, that ball must have gone over several streets. That comes of leav­ ing it to Providence! ’ I remember that Thornton, when in with my brother at Canterbury, made a lunge at a ball, which went so high in the air that tho batsmen had run the second run before it dropped. H . H. Stephenson, one of the best of judges of a catch, was waiting patiently under it, but it fell some five yards behind him.” “ Did you play much cricket while you were at the University ? ” “ For the first year I hardly played at all, but afterwards I had a lot of cricket, playing about ninety days during the year. A t that time my bow ling was very fast; but, as generally happens sooner or later to fast bowlers, my arm eventually gave way, and I had to take to slows such as I still bowl. Old Bowes, the ground man at my college (Univer­ sity), always stood as umpire in our matches, and in course of time I dis­ covered that he always had a bet on of a level half-a-crown that I made 30. In one innings I had made 29, when I was clearly caught at the wicket. ‘ Not out,’ said Bowes, promptly. Off the next ball I made a run, and when I had got to his end he said, ‘ Well, sir, I thought you would make 30.’ I replied, ‘ Why, Bowes, I hit that ball hard.’ ‘ Ah, sir,’ he said, ‘ I was afraid you had.’ ” ‘ ‘ How long have you been at Cane H ill ? ” “ Fifteen years. Previous to that I was Curate at St. Mary’s, Leicester, for eight years. Soon after I went there I was asked to play for Leicestershire against Notts, and as I was glad of the opportunity of playing in a good match, I accepted the invitation. It did not occur to me that my Vicar could have any objection, but soon after the match I received a letter from him, in which he said that he was exceedingly surprised to hear that I played cricket, and that I could play, but not as his Curate. As I had a good curacy I ceased to play until I came to Cane H ill.” “ Did you go to Leicester immediately after leaving Oxford ? ” “ M y first appointment after I left Oxford was at Hereford. While I was there, I played for the county against Worcestershire and Brecknockshire, and in other matches. Once when I was taking part in a game in that part of the world, a fine old ram was wandering about on the common which was used as the cricket field. In the course of my innings I hit a ball in the direction of the animal. It stopped about half-a-dozen yards in front of him, and just as the fieldsman was stooping to pick it up, the ram grasped the situation, with results that were surprising. We had already run five, and might have made the hit into about fifteen, for the poor fi>-ldsman was quite hors de combat. But although we sympathised with him in his mis­ fortune, the situation was really so ridiculous that we sat down in the middle of the wicket and laughed till we nearly cried. Since he has been at C jne H ill most of Mr. Crawford’s cricket has been played on the Asylum ground, which, besides being beautifully situated, produces the best of wickets. But he has also played for the Gentlemen of Surrey and often for the Surrey Club and Ground, besides taking part in many tours while on his annual leave. His first match for the Club and Ground was against the Parsees, when he found the bow ling so much to his liking that he made 14 off the first over and ran up a score of 90 in very quick time. Among the feats of father and sons may be mentioned the 28 made by V. F. S. in one over, when ow ing to the impossibility of finding two balls which he had hit out of the ground a third ball had to be called into requisition ; the 118 by J. C. followed b y the hat trick ; in another match a hundred b y V. F. S. followed b y four wickets in four successive b a lls; and the four wickets for one run by Reggie last year, when all the regular bowlers of the club had been on. There is a famous “ leg before ” match in which three of the Cane H ill team in succession, at a critical moment, were summarily disposed of. It is whispered that after the last of the decisions the bowler sug­ gested to the batsman at his end that the victims did not seem very pleased, and that the reply was “ Well, you know, I think that generally speaking when you can see a good deal of daylight between the batsman’s legs and the leg-stump the umpire is mistaken if he gives him out l.b .w .” In the account of a match between the Royal Fusiliers and Mote Park, which appeared in a local paper, Mr. Crawford was amused to find that the genius who had sent in the names and scores had described him as The Yery Rev. J. C. Crawford, D .D ., P.A ., and, as such, his name has been handed down to posterity b y this newspaper. It is probable that the second honorary degree conferred upon him in this report had its origin in a remark made by himself when he was up for his ordination. The candidates andvaiious clergymen were waiting for the bishop, who was delayed for a con­ siderable time. A t last, a Canon, simply for the sake of something to say, turned to Mr. Crawford, and asked him “ Are you not an M .A ., Mr. Crawford ? ” Now it had happened that just previous to the examination, the first little Crawford had come into the world, and the father, still in the fullness of his jo y at this happy event, promptly replied “ Yes, and I ’m a P .A . too.” The Canon, who had no children, was greatly mystified at what he supposed was a degree unknown to England, but the mirth of the other clergymen soon enlightened him. W. A. B e t t e s w o r t h . O f Mr. H. C. King, a well-known cricketer in Madras, it is related that in a one-day match in which his side was beaten on the first innings, he determined to close his second innings at a certain time. When that time came his own score was over 90, and in another over he would almost certainly have made his hundred. But he kept his word and declared.