Cricket 1900

18 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F eb . 22, 1900 a hundred against us, and, I don’t mind confessing, was my complete master. My tfirst match was in 1870, in which F. C. Cobden took our last three wickets in an over, and we were beaten by two runs. It was a ridiculous business. If the match had been continued to the third day we should, in all probability, have won easily, but in those days, if there was a prospect of finishing the game on the second day, we played on until 7 30. The result was that when Cobden bowled his famous over it was certainly a very bad light, and after 7.30, we having foolishly consented to finish the match that evening, and he naturally bow lei his fastest; but I do not wish in any way to detract from his wonderful performance in winning the match for Cimbridge. At one time we seemed to be winning easily, for we had got six of the Cambridge wickets down in tbe second inrings for a few runs, but then Yardley and Jack Dale got together and put on about 150 in partnership. I always used to think that Yardley was about the most dangerous man I had to meet, for quite apart from the fact that he was a splendid batsman, he had become so accustomed to my bowling at Iingby that he treated it with the same contempt that Rugby boys treated David Buchanan.” “ Why should Rugby boys treat Mr. Buchanan’s bowling with contempt ? ” “ W ell; he lived in the town and was continually playing against us—for the Free Foresters, Old Rugbeians, the Town, and many other teams—and we became accustomed to his bowling, and ‘ famili­ arity breeds contempt.” In addition to this, Diver, the old Cambridge cricketer, who was our professional and an excellent coach, had the most supreme contempt for Dtvid’s bowling, and used to say to us, ‘ G j out and meet him.’ And so the batsmen in the eleven went out to him, and, finding that he did not like the ball hit hard back to him, used to give him plenty to do, and poor old David was not quite the best field to his own bowling ! And then he would come up to Lnr.i’s and fiddle out the Players—who invariably played back to him—to our infinite surprise. I don’ t mean to say he didn’t get us out, but he didn’t make such fools of us boys as he did of the Players of England. It was simply that familiarity with a man’s bowling makes it seem easy. In my opinion the un­ familiarity of the bowling of the Australians is half the secret of their success. They very often do much better at the beginning of the tour than at the end.” Of tbe Canadian tour in 1872, Mr. Francis said : “ We were away for three months, during which there was hardly ever an uninteresting day. Wherever we went we were made much of and most hospitably treated—too hospitably so far as ciioket was concerned. We won all our matches with ease, except one against twenty-two of Boston, which was drawn, but that was on a very infeiior wicket. It was a low scoring match, each side making 51 in the first innings. We had to go in to make 44 in our second innings and got exactly half of them for the loss of half our wickets. A Boston paper said about the finish, ‘ It is not probable that the English would have bettered their average if the last innings bad been played out, and the game is virtually a victory for the twenty-two.’ This no doubt pleased its readers, and we did not mind. We had a tight match against twenty-two of Philadelphia. A whole family of Newhalls were playing for the twenty-two and the close fight was chiefly due to them and a bowler named Meade. I think we only won by one or two wickets. The extraordinary superiority of W.G. was as much apparent during this tour as it was everywhere else. He used to go in first with Ottaway, and about a 100 usually went up for the first wicket of which W.G. would make about 80, poor Ottaway about 8 , and the rest extras. We were then told to go in and be busy for a short time, with the result that A. N. Hornby would knock up 50 or so very quickly, and delight the spectators by short runs. This suited us all except Edgar Lubbock, who ‘ always stopped the run-getting, no matter whether he was batting or bowling,’ as some facetious person once said of bis style of cricket, which certainly was peculiar to himself.” “ Were there any special incidents during the tour ? ” “ The whole tour was so full of incident that it is not easy to select any one in particular after a lapse of twenty-eight years—Bob Fitzgerald’s book, ‘ Wickets in the West,’ gives a most interesting account of the tour —but I have a very vivid recollection of W. G.’s after-dinner speeches, which, unlike his innings, were, fortunately, extremely short. There was always great excitement at the end of a match when we were fielding, for all of us tried to make the last catch in order to keep the ball as a trophy. But we had no chance with W.G., who, when the end was at hand, used to move in from point until he was almost on top of the bats­ man, with the frequent result that he snapped up a catch. I think I only bagged one, which I now have, but I should think W. G. must have taken home a bag full of trophies. I remember one incident which amused us very much. We had been invited to a big dinner and a card with the name of the player was placed opposite to the seat which he was to take. As my next neighbour had not arrived when we sat down I looked to see who he was. I found that he was ‘ Mr. Byes.’ It seemed to me an odd name, but I concluded that he was some Canadian celebrity, until, as he still kept away it dawned on me that the writer of the names had studied a list from the report of a match, and seeing 1 byes ’ at the end, had put the word down as being one of the players. I kept the card as a curiosity. I do not know whether seats were reserved for Mr. ‘ Wides ’ or Mr. ‘ Total.’ ” After going to the Bar, Mr. Francis still continued to play occasionally for Middlesex, but gradually drifted into a form of cricket which was less serious in its requirements. “ I found,” he said, “ that when August came I wanted relaxation, and although county cricket was not like it is now—there was not then so much striving after champion­ ships-there was still a considerable strain on those who took part in it. I have no doubt that many other men have felt as I did, for unless one can give up one’s whole time to first-class cricket, it loses much of its fascination ; iu fact, to take part in it, one must be in fairly hard condition. Now, by playing I Zingari and country house cricket I could get a great deal of real enjoyment and cheery companionship which amused me more, and in which I did not feel the responsibilities quite so great.” “ By ‘ country house cricket’ you mean more than an occasional match ? ” “ Yes. We used to stay in various country houses for about a week, play­ ing two or three matches, sometimes against very good teams. The cricket weeks at Preston Hall, Croxteth, Lees Court, Scarborough, Hothfield, Compton Vemey, Wilton, Rood, Ashton, Patshull, Southgate, Vice Regal Lodge are only a few that I can now remember out of many. Also I played a good deal in another series of matches against Wool­ wich, Chatham, etc. Toese were the greatest fun. I always tried to get C. C. Clarke to go when I had anything to do with getting up the team, for if you could ensure his being in the team you could ensure having a good time, as he had always a fund of amusement, and kept the ball rolling.” With reference to tbe changes which have taken place in the game of late years, Mr. Francis said : “ I don’t think that modern cricketers can possibly understand the difficulties with which batsmen in the old days had to contend. For one thing they hardly know what a shooter is like. Thirty years ago a dead shooter was by no means an un­ common thing to see, and at Lord’s it came with unpleasant recurrence andoften brought disaster to the batsman; and if the fates happened to be against the bowler in this way, he had some compensation in being able occasionally to hit his man iu the stomach. I shall never forget seeing C. J. Ottaway make 50 not out playing for Oxford v. M.C.C. at Lord’s ; he must have stopped a hundred shooters from Wootton and Alfred Shaw. In those days there was no occasion for reducing the size of the bat, which some advocate now, and with whom I entirely disagree. In my humble opinion, by alteiing the size of the bit, the game would be made an entirely different one, that is if materially altered; if not materially altered it would make no difference to the length of innings. How­ ever, this is not, perhaps, the place to answer those who, in lengthy articles in the Times, have advocated the alteration in the siza of the bat, though I think I might give a good many cogent reasons for retaining at any rate the bat in its present form and shape.” Mr. Francis first played for the Gentle­ men in 1870, when he was only nineteen years old, and continued to play for