Cricket 1900

^ 3 3 III ^ 1 jl u . j j \ V A v VOS >9— gftff *»«■* v | {| yMu .u i W s m wm Set 'Z & V .y ■ «e |— e = & b L j & c o m j s 4- )$< i f ^ s ^ ! a t c Z 3 — ««> — e- 58© f c — - ------------ fc----------------------- ^ “ Together joined In Cricket’s manly toll.”— Byron. no. 530 vot. six THURSDA.Y, JANUARY 25, 1900 *»ricb an. A CHAT ABOUT WILLIAM BATES. From about the year 1880 to 1887 Bates, who died on January 8 th at his home at Lepton, was one of the very greatest among English cricketers. When he retired from first-class cricket it was not because he was played out, for he was at the very height of his fame as a batsman, and his bowling had not greatly deteriorated, but because his sight bad been very seriously injured by a blow which he had re­ ceived from a cricket ball when practising at the nets during the tour of Mr. Vernon’s team in Australia in 1887-8. He was never the same man again, and al­ though he recovered his sight sufficiently to be able to play cricket with considerable success in after years, he seemed to have lost heart in the game for which he once had so great an enthusiasm. At the end of a long day’s fielding Bates used to be as cheerful and fresh as at its be­ ginning, and he went on to bowl when a couple of bats­ men had taken root with ex­ actly the same confidence of separating them as he had shewn when they first came together. His comments on the progress of the game were often racy but never ill-natured. In the field ho was a very hard worker, and if a very difficult catch came to him he was almost certain to hold i t ; if it was ridicu­ lously easy, the batsman always had a hope, which was not infrequently justi­ fied, that he would escape. On the occasions when the batsman was able to breathe again, Bates was so desperately crestfallen that even his own side were obliged to laugh at him, and then with him. For this reason, perhaps, he was always very tolerant of mistakes made by other men in the field off his own bowling —a characteristic which is not altogether typical of bowlers who are apt to miss easy catches. In one of the Yorkshire matches Ephraim Lockwood, safest of catches, had a ball gently lofted to him at point. It was such an absurdly easy catch, and Lockwood had such capacious hands, that the batsman sadly moved homewards. But to the surprise of all the world the ball was dropped. The batsman give a shriek of joy, and WILLIAM BATES. (From a Photo by Messrs. Hawkins die Co.t Brighton.) Ephraim steadily looked down at his boots. There was a silence which might have been felt. Tom Emmett lcoked heavenwards, taking off his cap and thoughtfully scratching his head. Peate sniffed at the air like a war horse, and Lord Hawke put his feet wide apart, his hands in his pockets, and carefully studied the scenery in the neighbourhood of his feet. The situation was getting serious, when Bates walked up to Lock­ wood, patted him on the back, and said cheerily, “ Never mind, Ephraim, I’ve done the same thing myself.” So there was a great peace in the field. As a batsman Bates was not quite of the orthodox type, for at a time when pulling was more or less frowned upon by classical batsmen he often made the most shameless strokes. It is related of him that in a Sussex and York­ shire match on a heavy wicket he so frequently pulled a slow bowler some­ where in the direction of square leg, however far on the off side of the wicket the ball might be, that the bowler at last expostulated with him, saying, “ Look here, Billy, I think you ought to draw the line at wides.” Billy laughed and said that it was a fancy stroke which he had patented. The bowler thought the matter over. When his turn came to bat in the second innings Bates was bowling, and bowling exceedingly well—in fact he was breaking back “ a yard,” as the saying goes. Presently the new-comer gently fetched round to square leg a ball that was nearly wide, and looked very innocent after he had made the stroke. Bates for once seemed a little surprised, but he did not shift his field, although he proceeded to bowl an identi­ cally Bimilar ball, as his antagonist had anticipated. The ball was pulled to iden­ tically the same place as the first, and Bates altered his field. Before long two men were fielding on the boundary on the leg side. But there was still a lot of room, and at any rate a hit in their direction was a safe single. After a few overs Bates said, “ Where on earth did you pick up such a rotten stroke ? Do you call that county cricket ?” He was reminded that he had himself been the artist who taught the stroke,