Cricket 1900

“ Together joined In Cricket’s manly toll.”— Byron. n o . B 4 i. v o n . x i x . THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1900. p b i o b sa . They both bowled for wickets and not for averages ; they both gave half volleys when a man was playing a wary game—not half volleys which seemed, by subtle variation of pace, to be yorkers or short pitches to the batsman— but the real thing, simple and undisguised; they both tried every dodge which ingenuity could suggest, including balls which would have ro lsed the anger of MR. DAVID BUCHANAN. ( From a Photo by E. H. Speight , Rugby.) the captain of a junior team in one of the London parks. It was often said of Mr. Buchanan’sbowling that it only wanted cheek for a batsman to be able to hit it all over the field, and, as Mr. C. K. Francis pointed out in the interview which appeared with him in Cricket a thort time ago, the boys at Rugby School used to paste him pretty considerably in some of the matches in which he played against them. But everyone knows that it is one thing to knock off a bowler in a small match, and another to do so when there are ten brilliant men in the field on a large ground in an important match. The Rugby boys more­ over met himat a time when he was beginning to look upon fielding as an exertion, which makes all the difference in the world. Mr. Buchanan’s career as a cricketer lasted for about 40 years, during which he played an immense number of matches. Indeed it would be hard to find a cricketer of any note at all who played between the years 1846 and 1886, who had not at least once in his career been opposed to Mr. Buchanan. In his time he perhaps took more wickets than even Dr. Grace, but his chief fame rested on his doings in the Gentlemen and Players matches— the great matches of his day. He first played in 1868 at the Oval, in the match in which so many players who afterwards became famous made their debut, viz., Henry Jupp, Alfred Shaw, Tom Humphrey, George Bennett, Luke Greenwood, and Messrs. W. G. Grace, I. D. Walker, C. F. Buller, and A. J. Wilkin­ son. The new left hand bowler took nine wickets in the second innings for 78 runs. Until 1874 he regularly played in these matches, his complete record for them being 3,215 balls, 1,296 runs, 87 wickets ; average 14-89 runs per wicket. He received his “ blue” for Cam­ bridge University in 1850, taking 7 wickets in the Oxford match : he was chosen to play in 1851, but as the match was at that time played a fortnight or thereabouts after term ended, he preferred to go home to Scotland. In his later years he played chiefly for the Rugby Club, but he also assisted War­ wickshire, which was then not a first-class county. He was one of the founders of the county club and its captain for several years. As a member of the Free Foresters cricket club he played a lot of matches, and was always one of the most popular men of a popular team. When the “ Annals of the Free Foresters, 1856-94,” appeared, one of the most interest­ ing chapters in the book was written by Mr. Buchanan. Describing a match against the A CHAT ABOUT MR. DAVID BUCHANAN. One o? the greatest cricketers of the period at which Mr. Buchanan, who died at Rugby on Friday last, was at the height of his fame, has said that he was perhaps the best slow medium left- hand amateur bowler who has ever appeared on a cricket field, and without much doubt the verdict will be accepted by nearly every cricketer who played against the famous old bowler. It was not until he was somewhat ad­ vanced in life, being nearly forty years old, that Mr. Buchanan began to win fame, but for years afterwards he met with almost unexampled success, in the very best matches as well as in those played by clubs. Possibly, if he had been compelled by a county championship compe­ tition to play day after day in first-class cricket, his powers might have diminished sooner than they did, for in later years he was somewhat bulky and found it difficult to run about much, but he must be judged by what he did and not by what he might have done. Originally a fast bowler, he for some eighteen years only met with the success which falls to an ordinary club bowler, until finding his side in des­ perate straits in a match on the Old Trafford ground, he tried the experiment of bowling slows with the idea of tempting one of the batsmen to hit. The batsman was tempted and fell. Another batsman could not help seizing what seemed to him an excellent opportunity of hitting the ball out of the ground. He too fell, and so did most of the remaining batsmen. This was the beginning of a new era for Mr. Buchanan. Thencefor­ ward he studied the art of slow bowling, of which he became such a past master that his * ‘ Hints to bowlers,” which were issued in 1894 in a small book (to be treasured in the future by collectors) have generally been regarded as being as good as any of the kind which have ever appeared in print. George Lohmann would have appreciated Mr. Buchanan’s methods to the full if he could have seen him bowl. The two men, except in style and pace, were very much alike in their methods.