Cricket 1900

“ Together joined In Cricket’s manly toll.”— Byron. H o. 559. voi. X I X . THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1900. p b i c b b a . - CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD- CANON ROBERT OWEN. Few men who are now living have had a wider experience of cricket and cricketers than Canon Owen. Bom in Staffordshire on October 23rd, 1823, he played occasionally for the county, as well as for Derbyshire, but the matches were few and far between, for neither county had then come to the front. In 1847 he was curate in sole charge, and in 1854 vicar of Boroughbridge, inYorkshire, but his many duties gave him no time for the serious practice which is required by cricketers who want to play for a big county. Neverthe­ less, he found leisure to play in many matches for twenty- twos against the All England Elevens, and to take a very active interest in the doings of the club in his own parish, where he was the guide, philosopher, and friend of the players for fifty-two years. He was very well known in Yorkshire as an enthusiastic upholder of the game in its most rigid purity, and from the commencement of the club was wicket-keeper for the Yorkshire Gentlemen. For a short time he was at Bei on School, and after­ wards went to Cambridge, where, to the loss of cricket, he went in for rowing, and never touched a bat; he was chosen to row in the eight, but had the misfortune to be prevented from taking part in the race by domestic reasons. In a quiet way, ia later years, he has done a vast amount of good for the game of cricket. Although George Freeman, the famous old Yorkshire bowler, the best of his day, would probably have come to the front under any circumstances whatever, it is indisputable that he owed a very great deal to the careful coaching of Canon Owen. Freeman fastish medium. If the ball was not truly played, there was generally a chance of a catch. Hillyer had great command over his pitch. In a match against a twenty-two of Bedale, when Hillyer was being well scored from by a butcher with a good eye and resolute will, Felix said to him, ‘ Well, Hillyer (I think he called him Dan), I .wouldn’t, if I were you, have come all this way north to be hit all over the field by a little fat butcher.’ The most difficult bowler whom I ever played against was Tarrant. His pitch seemed always inconvenient for me, and he had a very sharp break back. He was about as fast as Freeman, but I should not say that he was as fast as Kortright or Bradley.” Although he was a good bat, and could bowl, Canon Owen was chiefly known as a wicket-keeper. “ I did not keep wicket,” he said, “ in the days of my youth, and should probably never have done so but for an accident. Burton-on-Trent, of which club I was a member, was to play Derbyshire. About ten days before the match our wicket-keeper was placed hors de combat. In this diffi­ culty Major Bass, who was undoubtedly the Father of cricket in the Midlands, came to me and told me that I must keep wicket. He would not listen to my explanation that I had never tried my hand at wicket-keeping, so that there was nothing for me to do but to endeavour to get some practice. Accord­ ingly I got a man to come and throw to me every day for a week, and to my astonishment and pleasure I was fortunate enough to dis­ pose of either ten or eleven of my opponents in the match. The Major was equally pleased, and said flattering things of me in the report which he wrote in the local paper. His reports were always looked forward to by the members of the team, for there were many good things was a child of four when the Canon went to Boroughbridge, and was taken in hand by him as soon as he could wield a bat, shown how to make the best use of his natural advantages, to vary his pace—in fact, all the “ tricks of the trade.” Even as a boy Freeman was a most successful bowler, but whether it was that by having practice against CANON BOBERT OWEN. (FromaPhotobyM. Stephens , 48, St. JamesStreet, Harrogate.) him the Canon got to know him very thoroughly, it is certain that he does not consider Freeman to have been the most difficult bowler he ever played against. In the former category, the Canon would place Hillyer. “ According to my judg­ ment,” he said, “ Hillyer was the best bowler of his day. There was always a great curl on his deliveries, which were