Cricket 1899

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toll.” — Byron. no. 505 voi. xviit. THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 1899. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR. TOM PAW LEY . In the year 1881, when Mr. Pawley became honorary secretary of the Ton­ bridge O.C., the club played twelve matches, while the subscrip lions amounted to £90. Last year, with Mr. Pawley still at the head of affairs, the matches numbered. 39, and the subscriptions came to £290. To those who under­ stand what trials a secretary has to go through this simple statement w ill mean much more than any elaborate attempt to explain what Mr. Pawley has done b y his many years of office. Everybody knows that to him belongs the credit of originating the idea of a Tonbridge cricket week, and everybody knows what a great amount of success has attended the venture. Now that a sort of nursery for young players has been established at Ton- biidge the services of the honorary secretary will be more in request than ever. I t is perfectly safe to prophesy that under his care the nur­ sery will be a success, for he is a man who, when he under­ takes a thing, sees it through. He was b om on January 21st, 1869, in Kent, in which county he has always resided. A t Tonbridge School he did not get into the eleven, but in after years he occasionally played for the county, and would have played more fre­ quently if he had found that county cricket and business went well together. He began to play for Tonbridge in 1875, and still represents the club of which he has been captain for years, with great success. On May 1st, 1898^ he was made an official of the Kent County C.C. In his early days of cricket Mr. Pawley had a quaint experience in a match at Battersea. ‘ ‘In the course of my innings,” he said, “ I hit a ball to leg, which bounded up against an old lady who was watching the game. She promptly picked up the ball and put it in her pocket, declining to give it up until she was paid half-a-crown. She said she was ioj ared. The end of it was that I had to pay her the half-crown, whereupon her injuries vanished at once. In those days I played a good deal with old Robert Lipscombe and Charlie Payne. In one of the matches in which I was on their side, our opponents scored twenty for the first wicket, lost eight more wickets for an addition of a single, and ended up their innings with a score of 140, which won them the match ! In another match at Tonbridge, W . Draper, the well-known umpire, bow led Cragg, and dislodged both bails, but the off bail fell on the top of the middle stump and remained there perfectly balanced.” “ You seem to have had some odd experiences p” ‘ ‘ Lots of them. I remember walking round the ground while A. J. Thornton, who stoops very much when he is running up to the wicket, was bow ling bis lobs. Now we had an old and somewhat eccentric subscri­ ber who objected to seeing lobs put on, and often ex­ pressed his opinion to me about the unwisdom of bow l­ ing them myself. He came up to me in this match and said: ‘ I wish you’d go out to the captain of that team and tell him to take this man of}1 I am quite certain that the poor fellow must be aching terribly b y this time.’ The same gentleman once decided to keep cows as a hobby, and when a match was in progress felt obliged to leave the ground at their milking time. One day he told me that he had sold the cows— ‘ They interfere so much with cricket,’ he said. One of the most curious matches ever played on the Tonbridge ground was between the club and the Kent second eleven. It was particularly remark­ able from the way in which the number 2 occurred in it. Kent second went in first and made 242, and there was a 2 in several of our scores. Our total was 82, of which I scored 42. We had to follow , of course. I was asked to go in first and was this time out first ball. When our last man was out we had made 241, leaving them 82 to win, the same total as that of our first innings. Frank Lipscombe was playing for us, and so well did he bow l that we disposed of them for 42. Lipscombe took 8 wickets for about 9 runs, and I remember that he bowled Philip H ilton off his body with a full pitch, which fast as he was, might have been very dangerous.”