Cricket 1900

146 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M a y 24, 1900. possibly be more exciting. For we still required four runs to win, and the last two men were at the wickets.” Instead of trying to hit and so winning the game right off, Wade, who had to receive the over, simply played each ball carefully— it was a terribly trying position for any man to be in, were he never so cool and seasoned. But when he had quietly played the fourth ball a few inches from the wicket, he forgot that the stumps had not been pulled up, and left his ground. I shall never forget seeing Sherwin, the Notts wicket-keeper. He was, of course, watching the ball with extreme anxiety, and when he saw what had happened he seized it with the quickness of a monkey and had the bail off in an instant. Wade was, of course, run out, and Notts had won by three runs ! When the matches between Australia and Mr. Stoddart’s team of 1894-95 were played, Peel put the finishing touch to all of the three which were won by England. It happened in this way. “ In the first match we won by 10 runs,” he said, “ and I caught and bowled Blackham with the last ball of the match. Then there was the match at Melbour ^, in which the Australians had one wi. Set to fall when play began on the last day. They wouldn’t finish the match on the previous evening, so after Richardson had bowled an over, I bowled Iredale with the first and only ball I had. In the match Brown made his splendid score of 140. It was not anticipated that we should win, but by his tine innings he upset all calculations and as the match progressed the excitement became intense. But when I had to go in it had quite subsided, for we had the match in our hands. I made the winning hit, a four to the boundary.” “ To what part of the country do you go after your engagement at Leyton ? ” “ To Leeds, where I have again been engaged by Mr. Kirke, who takes a very great interest in the club which he has formed— the Leeds Buckingham. Mr. Kirke engaged me immediately after I left Accriigton. He has done a vast amount of good to cricket at Leeds, and is naturally very popular. We play on the average two matches a week, but Mr. Kirke allows me to play in any other matches, so that I get a great deal of cricket all round the district.” “ Where did you first play cricket ? ” “ At Chirlwell. Then 1 went to Morley, but my first engagement was at the old ground at Oldham, known as Clarke’s Field. I was at Oldham for two years, in the second of which I began to play in the Yorkshire eleven. Tom Walker, a member of the Leeds Leaming­ ton, was the first to suggest to the com­ mittee that they should try me in a colts’ match, bnd as I took four wickets for about 18 runs-against the eleven, I was asked to play for the county, and con­ tinued to play regularly from that time.” “ Were you at all nervous in your first county match ? ” “ I don’t think I ever felt nervous in my life. I had previously bowled to good men, so that when I played in my Erst match for Yorkshire— it was against Surrey— I felt that I had a fair chance of getting wickets. In my early days I had bowled fast, but when I saw the effect caused by the slow leg-break bowling, such as Peate’s, I altered my style, and I have no doubt that it was because I picked up the new style quickly that I was put in the Yorkshire team.” “ You have occasionally been accused of throwing ? ” “ For about twelve years I had bowled without a question being raised by any­ body, when, to my great surprise, Spof- forth wrote a letter to the papers, in which he stated that I threw. But it did not do me the slightest harm. As a matter of fact, I can't throw.” “ When did you begin to take up bat­ ting seriously ? ” “ I suppose it would be about 1886 or 1887, although I had made some runs when I was in Australia with Shaw and Shrews­ bury’s team in 1884. It was all a ques­ tion of practice. At the beginning of my career I was so keen on bowling and fielding that I never paid any attention to batting, but after I had, as it were, settled down iu the Yorkshire eleven, I began to want to get runs like other people. So I studied batting carefully.” “ You do not believe, then, that a bowler is spoiled when he takes to batting p” “ I would not quite say that. I think that so very much depends on circum­ stances. To both bat and bowl, I think that a man ought to be very strong con­ stitutionally ; otherwise he is almost cer­ tain to break down after a few years. It requires a great deal of exertion to keep up both batting and bowling. I have always thought that a man who does both ought to be sent in very early in the in­ nings, for one’s hands get jarred by the bat, and the fingers lose their touch for some time after a long innings. A bowler to be of any great use must be able to feel the ball run from his fingers. If an all-round man were sent in very early his fiDgers would have time to recover before he was required to bowl.” One of Peel’s most remarkable per­ formances was to take eighteen wickets for 7 runs in a match against a X X II. in one of the Australian tours. Of this match he tells an amusing anecdote. “ There was a gentleman playing for the X X I I .,” he said, who had made a small bet with a friend that he would score 4 runs against us. On the evening before he had to go in he asked George Ulyatt, who knew him slightly, to introduce him to me, his object being to work on my feelings so that I should let him win his bet —I had taken nearly all the wickets as far as the innings had progressed. So he spoke of a couple of bottles of cham­ pagne which should be mine if the event happened to come off, and George Uiyett, in his most judicial manner, suggested that we had better have one of the bottles at once, to test it, which was done. On the next morning the gentle­ man anxiously interviewed Flowers, who was not playing in the match, and Flowers told him, ‘ Oh, Bobby’s sure to chuck you up an easy one.’ He, there­ fore, came in quite confidently with his bat over his shoulder— I can see him now—and as he passed me, he said, ‘ Peel—you know ? ’ To which I replied, ‘ Yes; it’s all right sir.’ So I chucked him up a very slow full toss ; he made a noble attempt to make a boundary hit, but, unfortunately, missed the ball alto­ gether, and it fell right on the top of the stumps! As he shouldered his bat and went away, he called out, ‘ You’ve done with me for ever. No more champagne ! ’ ” Needless to say, Peel has greatly dis­ tinguished himself in club matches since he has left the Yorkshire eleven, for he is almost as good an all-round cricketer as ever. He has a curious reminiscence of one of these matches. “ In trying to hit a ball to the leg boundary,” he said, “ I got back too far, and just tipped off a bail before I made the stroke. But my partner, who had not noticed anything, called me, and I ran, expecting to be promptly told that I was out. To my surprise, nothing was said; the fieldsman was tearing after the ball, and the others were waiting in eager attitudes for it to be returned. So I thought I might as well pick up the bail, and stooping down at the end of the second run, and looking the wicket-keeper steadily in the face, I leisurely picked up the bail and put it in its place. Then I prepared to receive the next ball. After 1 had received it one of the fieldsmen suddenly asked, ‘ How was that ? Peel knocked off the bail with his bat.’ Of course, it was too late then to appeal, and I made over a hundred. The odd thing about it was that tho wicket-keeper never noticed anything. I suppose that he had been waiting on the leg side, and when he saw me pick up the bail after the second run, thought that he had himself knocked it off in turning round. The only man on the fielding side who had really seen what had hap­ pened was Billy Bates. He was fielding somewhere on the boundary in the long field, but instead of letting on he shouted, ‘ Oh, well j layed Peel,’ and clapped vigorously.” With regard to the prospects of the Essex team this year, Peel said : “ I was surprised at the improvement which last season’s matches have effected. The bat­ ting is much better than it was before the season began laBt year, but I should like to see the team study fielding a little more. In Young, Essex has a bowler who is all right. There is nobody else whose style is quite like his, and nobody who can make the ball swerve like him. He is a rare good bowler. Mead is as good as ever; and although Mr. Kortright has not yet bowled his fastest, I am inclined to think that he, too, will be all right this year.” W . A. B ette s worth . SOUTHGATE v. ST. MAKY’S HOSPITAL.— S t . M a r y ’ s H o sp ita l . E.C.Hobbs,b Ricketts 1 j 3 R.R. Cruise, b Ricketts 16 W . heatle, cfcicketts, b Smith .................. 39 8. Field, b Lewis ... 14 T.Ollehead, b Ricketts 0 H. Lundell, b Ricketts 2 E. H. Milner Moore, b Lewis.......................... 0 a S o u th g a te . L. D. Smith, run o u t. 0 A. S. Harris, not o u t. 48 E. H. W . Scott, run o u t ...........................10 A. F. Pilkington, b Ricketts................... 0 W . F in la y s o n , b Ricketts ...........24 A . H. Bond, not out... 4 A . R. Finn, run out... 0 Extras ...........33 Total ...235 T. Bevington, c Cruise, b Pilkington ...........73 Extras ........... 7 Total (3 wkts) 13 %