Cricket 1899

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. vo. 50 1 . vox,, xvnf. THURSDAY. FEBEUAEY 23, 1899 price sd. A CHAT ABOUT GEORGE DAVIDSON . After a struggle which has at times been de^erate, Derbyshire, most unfor­ tunate of counties, has at last taken a fair position in the championship table, and Derbyshire men have been looking forward to a still greater advance during the com ing season. But a great blow has fallen upon them quite suddenly. Am ong the two or three men who were the mainstay of the county team, none stood higher in the estimation of his fellow county men than Davidson—indeed it may be said that none stood so high. He was in his prime, and there was every reason to hope that he would be at least as good as ever this year as a batsman and as a bowler. A t the beginning of the month cricketers in the county did not know that their best all-round man was ill, and the shock to them, as to cricketers all over Eng­ land, was all the greater when it was announced on February 10th that Davidson had died on the previous day as the result of pneumonia follow ing on influenza. Even his personal friends did not know that anything whatever was the matter with him. As far as one can see his loss to his county is irreparable, for there is no one who can take his place. He suffered much during the last tew days of his illness, but until a few hours before he died he felt confident that he would re­ cover. Sad to say, he has left a wife and five young children, who, with the exception of the £200 which he received for hisbenefit match, are quite unprovided for. It is scarcely necessary to say that energetic measures are being taken b y gentlemen in the county to raise a fund on their behalf. For twelve years Davidson was a mem­ ber of the Derbyshire elt v e il, and although at first some of the committee were of opinion that he was ton young to play in first-class cricket, chiefly because he occa­ sionally failed ignominiously when he was opposed to a very “ tricky ” bowler, he so;n did so well that his place in the eleven was assured. There was a time, after he had become one of the props of the team, when it was almost a toss-up whether he should qualify for Warwick­ shire or not. For, as a worker in an iron foundry, he had been dismissed when he began to play first-class cricket, and although he was given an engagement at the Oval during the summer and spring, it was absolutely necessary for him to find some e m p lo y m e n t during the winter. When it was brought home t o Derbyshire cricketers that they B tood a v e i y g o o d chance of losing a splendid all-round man, employment was found for him, and thereafter there was no more ques­ tion that he might have to leave the county. As a batsman he was essentially a man on whom reliance could be placed. On drzens of occasions he has gone to the wickets when his side was in a seem­ ingly hopeless position, and before he was disposed of, has been the chief means of improving the ap­ pearance of the score out of all knowledge. His frequent and lon g partnerships with Chatterton, and lately with Storer, have made many a captain of an opposing team heartily sick of cricket for the time being, and if there had been one or two more men of his stamp in Derbyshire, the county would long ago have taken a different place in the cricket world. As a bowler, Davidson could hardly be said to be popular with spectators, who knew well enough that while he was on, nothing of any very great interest was likely to happen. However lively might have been the batting, it was pretty certain to become uninterest­ ing as soon as Davidson took the ball, for, to use an expres­ sion which one often heard in connection with his bowling, he was “ so beastly accurate,” that only a man to whom, after a lon g innings, the ball had become as big as a foot­ h ill, could hope to do more than steadily keep up his wicket. W ith a subtle varia­ tion of pace, Davidson seldom tried dodges to tempt his man to hit, but he never became so like a machine that he could be treated almost with impunity. In the field he was always keen. One never saw him loafing about waiting aimlessly for something to turn up. In fact from the first ball of a match to the last he was a “ trier.” His experiences of cricket as a boy were peculiar and interesting. On several occasions he risked losing the sum of 10i. a day, which he received for GEORGE DAVIDSON. ( From a Photo by R. Thiele d: Co., 66, Chancery Lane, London.)