Cricket 1900

6 6 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p r il 1 9 , 190 0 . at point kept on saying, ‘ Just you wait till Searle comes,’ until it became a little monotonous. In course of time Searle arrived. He was a good bowler, but we had each got our eye in, and in the first over I hit him to leg for seven. The man at point pulled his cap over his eyes, and never said another word during the whole innings. I made between eighty and ninety, and my brother Tom sixty-live.” “ You seem to have had curious umpires sometimes, even in those days ? ” “ Well you did meet them now and then. I was once given out at Taplow l.b.w. to a ball which hit me under the chin, when I was standing nearly upright. It was a pretty bad wicket, and during my innings another ball hit me on the head and went for three byes. I remember a curious case in which the two umpires differed. It was in a match between Ealing and Twickenham. A ball was hit into a cedar tree, which was not regarded as a boundary, and lodged on one of the branches. One of the Parsons of Ealing ran for the ball and pulled off his boot to throw at it, eventually suc­ ceeding in knocking it down. Mean­ while we had been running, and when the ball was thrown in at last we had run twelve. One umpire said that it was lost ball and that six ought to be counted; the other umpire couldn’t see this, for he said that as the tree was not a boundary, and as the ball was in sight all the time it could’nt be lost. In the end it was agreed that we were only to count six. Talking of boundaries reminds me that When I was a boy I was playing at the Windsor Barracks, where the ground was not very big. A ball which was hit hard against the wall rebounded to me and I brought off a catch. I thought I had done something very clever, and was a good deal astonished and disgusted when I found that the man still continued to bat.” It was not only for Middlesex that old George played in first-class cricket. He represented Wisden and Dean’s United All England Eleven in several matches, the United South of England, and once Clarke’s famous All England Eleven. “ In this match,” he said, “ old John Lillywhite made 126. It was the first match in which Tarrant played after his return from Australia. On the day before this this match, which took place at Bath, I was at Sheffield on the old ground playing for the United All England. We were playing in soot all day, for the ground was in the middle of chimneys, and there was a wind beating down. By three o’clock, when the match finished, we were all as black as sweeps. That was in the days when Tom Emmett was just coming out. I shall never forget the first time I ever saw him. I was battiDg with Mr. I. D. Walker as a partner. Fortunately for me, when Emmett went on Mr. Walker had three or four overs from him before I had to face him. The ball did the most alarm­ ing things, for the wicket was all in favour of a bowler, and several times in the course of these iew overs it pitched on the leg stump and whipped just past the off bail. I thought to myself, ‘ George, my boy, it was j ust as well that you were not at that end.’ But I had seen enough to be put on my guard, and, as it happened, I stayed in for s >me time.” It is only natural that old George should be greatly proud of his sons, and no one is better pleased than he when one of them does a fine performance. But once when a good performance by Frank was by mistake accredited to his uncle Tom, old George was far too much amused to object. “ Frank,” he said, “ had taken a lot of wickets against Westminster School. A reporter who had by mistake attributed this perform­ ance to my brother Tom, met him and said, ‘ I hear that you took a rare lot of wickets the other day. I thought you had quite retired. It’s true I ’ve seen you bowling to old Doctor Day at Lord’s (I may say that the Doctor used to practise at Lord’s till he was about eighty years of age, padded nearly all over, and that he liked my brother Tom to bowl, or rather to jerk to him). But you always jerk the ball, and I can’t understand how any umpire can have let you off without no-balling.’ Tom was quite equal to the occasion. He replied, ‘ Yes, yes. It does seem funny. But you know my bowling isn’t really a jerk. However, to make sure, 1 put on a pair of black trousers and chalked my wrist. They made me do this every over. So you see if I had really jerked the ball there would have been a mark left on my trousers.’ The reporter was quite satis­ fied, and a full account of this extra­ ordinary incident appeared in one of the papers next day, to Tom’s immense delight.” “ My son George,” said old George, “ often speaks of the way in which Lord Harris used to help him to dispose of cer­ tain batsmen. Jack Platts, the Derbyshire cricketer, nearly always fell a victim to him, for as soon as he cime in Lord Harris used to tell George what sort of a ball to give him and then go and place himself in an unheard of position in the long field and bring off a catch. So often was this done that the Derbyshire crowd began to notice it, and once when Jack came in they all shouted “ Look out, Jack; t h e ------will be catching you again.” On one occasion Lord Harris, who was one of the best fields that ever lived, missed him twice off George. So he laughed, and went up to Alec and said, “ Here, Alec, I can’t catch him; you go aod have a try,” and despite his escapes Platts again fell into the trap and had to retire. “ Of course you know,” he continued, “ that my boys frequently play for the M.C.C. Iu one of the club and ground matches the Bev. Coppleston played against my son George during a tour in Devonshire. He was a very good bat, and always kept the field amused by talking during the whole of his innings. In this match he was in particularly good form, and at the close of the first day had made just over a hundred. On the next morning he did not turn up at the proper time to continue his innings, and, after waiting for some minutes, the M.C.C. captain said that it would be best to continue the innings and let Mr. C jppleston go in when he ctme. Just as the field had been placed Mr. Coppleston walked on the ground, and, waving his hand, called out, ‘ Very sorry to have kept you all waiting, but it isn’t every one who can make a hundred runs and be presented by his wife with a child on the same day ! ’ And he placidly walked to the wicket and finished his innings.” “ How did you come to be superinten­ dent of the Catford ground ?” “ I had been engaged by Mr. John Walker for several years to take charge of the Southgate ground to coach the village players. I used to play for his team in many of the matches, and it was in one of them at Upton Park that Sir Samuel Hoare (who was then Mr. Hoare) first saw me. He wanted some­ body to look after the Private Banks Ground at Catford, and he arranged with Mr. Walker, who was then only playing three or four matches a year on the Southgate ground, that I should go. I found the soil at Catford very bad for cricket, but it was afterwards relaid. From its low position it is inclined to be damp—this winter after the snow it was under water for some time—and it is a difficult ground to work. Damp as it is we have sometimes been able to play first-class matches there, when no cricket was possible at Lord’s or the Oval. If we had a dozen first-class matches there instead of only two the wickets would be as good as any in England.” W. A. B k t t e s w o r t ii . J. C. LOVELL’ S XI. APRIL. 28. Tulse Hill, v. Malden Wanderers M AY. 6. Norbury, v. Norbury 12. Tulse Hill, v. Barnes 19. Tulse Hill, v. B. W. Institute C C. 26. Tulse Hill, v. Croydon JUNE, 2. Beddington, v. Beddington 4. Tulse Hill, v. Pembury Village 9. East Dulwich, v. Brixton Wanderers 16. Tulse Hill, v. H. and C. C.C. 23. Tulse Hill, v. Brixton Wanderers 30. Tulse Hill, v. Norbury JULY. 7. Tulse Hill, v. Dulwich 14. Tulse Hill, v. B. NV. Institute C.C. 18. East Dulwich, v. Biixton Wanderers 21. Tulse Hill, v. H. and C. C.C. 28. 1ulse Hill, v. Barues BENEFIT MATCHES. T h e complete list of benefit matches for 1900 is as follows :— J. T. Hearne, Middlesex v. Somerset, Lord’s, June 4. tArthur tthrewsbury, Notts v. Surrey, Nottingham. June 4. Pougher, Leicestershire v. Yorkshire, Leicester, June 7. Mold, Lancashire v. Yorkshire, Manchester, July 19. Brockwell, Surrey v. Yorkshire, Oval, July 26. Martin, Kent v. Surrey, Canterbury, August y. butt, Sussex v. Yorks, Brighton, August 23. Mead, Essex v. Middlesex. Leyton, August 23. Need, North v. South, Lord’s, September 13. Moorhouse receives £500 instead of a benefit match. + tihrewsbury receives half the net gate receipts.