Cricket 1900

“ Together Joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. no . 547. voi. u x . THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1900. pbiob sa. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. SIR A. W . L. HEMMING , G.C.M.G. For several years Sir Augustus Hem­ ming, who, when he was in England, was the very popular honorary secretary of the Incogniti, has been living in the West Indies, first as Governor of British Guiana, and then as Governor of Jamaica. He has had abundant opportunities of studying the cricket played in the two colonies, and his impressions are, there­ fore, of particular interest at the present moment when the West Indian team is making its d£but on English grounds. The climate of the West Indies suits him admir­ ably, and he is of opinion that with care and plenty of exercise an Englishman does not suffer from the altered conditions when living there. Sir Augustus has played a great deal of cricket of all kinds, and in the days of the United All England eleven he often found himself opposed to it. He was one of the very first of the Epsom College boys, going to the school when it was first started. For two years Sir Augustus was Governor of British Guiana, and although owing to his official duties he had few opportunities of actually playing cricket, he was a diligent student of the cricket shown in the colony. “ Two of the men who are over here now,” he said, “ Sproston and Learmond, are from British Guiana. The former was a most excellent bat, and the latter did very well in the colony when I was there, but I believe that at that time at any rate he had never played outside the colony. I think he originally came from Bar­ bados.” “ Will you tell me something about the cricket of British Guiana.” “ It is played under many difficulties. True, there is an excellent ground on which the wickets in fine weather are as good as ordinary wickets in England, but I found them very much faster. As far as I could tell the grass is exactly like that grown[in England. The climate is very hot and'not at all unpleasant, but there is a tremendous lot oi rain at fixed periods. As a rule matches are arranged for a time when it is almost certain that there will be no rain, but this is not always possible, and when it does rain the wickets are exceed­ ingly difficult. The drawback to the cricket of the colony is that there is no competition, and practically all the matches have to be arranged between the members of the one club at Georgetown. Very occasionally ships come in, and matches are arranged with them, but these are red-letter days; only one man - of - war arrived during the whole time that I was there. Cricket is played with enthusiasm all over the colony, but, except as fields, the natives are not very good. But they will catch anything that you hit to them, no matter how hard, for in addition to a splendid sight, they have very large and flex­ ible hands. The ground at Georgetown is kept open for nine months in the year, and though it might be thought that the players would get completely tired of the game in that time, there are so few matches that the length of time avail­ able hardly aflects cricket at all.” “ What have you to say about cricket inJamaica ?” “ There is very little difference between cricket as played in British Guiana and in Jamaica, except that there are more clubs in the latter colony, in­ cluding the Garrison Club, which has a good ground at Up Park Camp. The ground of the Kingston Club at Sabina Park is also very good. There are also clubs at St. Ann’s, Black River, etc. E. F. Wright, who used to be in the Gloucestershire eleven, followed me from British Guiana to Jamaica; he is Inspector-General of Police there now. Altogether there is a good deal of cricket played in Jamaica, and one of the newspapers has a weekly article on the game, showing extreme enthusiasm, although the criticisms leave