Cricket 1899

“ Together joined in Cricket’s/manly toll.”— Byron. Wo. 520. VO L. X V I I I. THUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1899. P R IC E Sd. ACHAT ABOUT MAJOR POORE. When, last year, Major Poore appeared in the Hampshire Eleven and scored nearly fifty in his first matoh, the county committee was congratulated on its good fortune in finding such a good batsman. But when the Major broke down after­ wards in match after matoh there were plenty of critics who said that the committee was foolish to continue to include such a failure in the team. This year criticism has nothing to say, except what is highly flatter­ ing to the Major, for as soon as he felt his feet he began to show that he was a really great batsman. Already he has scored two separate hun­ dreds in a match for his county, and not content with this he made a third hundred in the following innings, while quite recently he has surpassed himself by scoring 304 against Somerset, and by sharing in a partnership of 411 runs with Captain Wyn­ yard. It is very seldom that a match goes by without his making a good score in one innings or the other. His early cricket was played at the Preparatory School, Cheam, where he had the advantage of the coaching of Mr. A. S. Tabor, the famous old Cambridge Blue, but for many years after­ wards he had no opportunity of taking part in the game, except in two or three village matches, until he joined his regiment, the 7th Hussars, in India. Here, with time at bis disposal, he set himself the task of learning to play cricket—he had practically to begin again. To this end he bought the “ Badminton Book ofCrioket,” and studied it as he would study for an examination, and it is no secret that he himself con­ siders that he derived an immense amount of good by reading it. At the same time he had the opportunity of watching the play of a first-class batsman, the late Mr. H . R. Troup, the brother of the Gloucestershire amateur, and above all, of Lord Harris, on whose staff he was placed at the same time as Colonel Rhodes, of South Africa fame. The reader must be left to form his own opinion as to what precise value must be attached to the benefits which the Major received from the study of the book and from the study of the two famous cricketers. But it must be MAJOR POORE. (From a Photo by Lafayette, London and Dublin.) admitted that no one who watches the Major at the wicket would have expected that his form was derived from book knowledge, for he has a style of his own which is perfectly distinct from that of anyone else, while it is also distinct from that which is generally pro­ duced by coaching; he is obviously a natural cricketer. One would very much like to know where the Major’s stroke which sends the ball between cover point and cover in the manner of a first-class left-handed bats­ man, comes from, and whether the bats­ man could explain how it is made; it is certainly one of those strokes which give a maximum of pleasure to the on-looker. In India the Major played a vast amount of cricket, chiefly at i. Poona, but also at Secundera­ bad and at Mhow. Naturally he made dozens of hundreds in minor matches, but he was also well to the front in the big matches of the Bombay Presidency, scoring 100 not out v. Parsees, and 101 v. Madras Presidency, both at Bombay. Against the Parsis he played in every match while he was in India, gener­ ally to their discomfort, his highest score being 100. They were at that time very strong in bowling but not particu­ larly good in batting. The Major tells a charming story about one of the Parsi matches which did not come off. The two sides were particularly anxious to meet each other, but the rain had been soheavy that the ground was deep under water. Sadly enough the players were about to abandon the match when a brilliant idea occurred to someone to set the fire- engines to work on the field to pump up the water. No sooner said than done. All the fire-engines were hastily got together, and when they had completed the greater part of the work in a very satisfactory manner, numbers of men were turned on with buckets and sponges. So extremely quickly does a cricket ground dry in India that by the time the work was finished the wicket was in fit order to be played upon. The losing side turned out and the batsmen prepared to go in. Then the rain came down again in torrents ! While he was in India Major Poore met some pretty good bowling, although even men who have bowled’well in Eng-