Cricket 1901

CR IC K E T , MAY 2, 1901. f i — =He 8— — =>""5©5— t — )§©5t_ 3 — 8©3— f j ijc. few «£: j f v V-’ s /aiTvi jn&ggig 3 j _ 1 YJ -.l, I KakJ O T S , J j p r C ^A fsT - ■ -*■—1< m h s w “ Together joined In Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. no . 566. vo l . z x , THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1901. p s io e ad. CHATS ON THE CRICKET F IELD ' H . YOUNG. It is exceedingly seldom that a cricketer with no previous experience to speak of comes to the front as quickly as Y oung. Three years ago his name was absolutely unknown, but now he is recognised as one of the greatest bowlers of the day. H e is left hand, of about medium pace, and at times has a most deceptive curl in the air, which he cannot, and does not attempt to explain. In this he is prob ­ ably wise, for if he were to begin to try experiments, he might, perhaps, lose the curl altogether. He has often done fine performances with the ball, but in the opinion of many good judges he never bow led better than in the match in 1899, at Leeds, between England and Aus­ tralia. True, his analysis in that match was not remark­ able, but this was simply due to sheer bad lu ck ; if the luck had been the other way he would have taken six or seven w ickets; every bowler will understand this. The story of the way in which he came to play for Essex is interesting. “ To begin w ith,” he said, “ I was bom in Essex. When I was battery instructor at H ove I came up one day to town to play in a small match at Southgate — not on the ground of the Southgate Club, but one on which dozens of teams played. Essex was playing Warw ick­ shire on the same day, and in order to get a little practice before my match I went to the county ground, bor­ rowed a ball, and bow led to one or two of the Essex men at the nets. Afterwards they spoke to me and said they would see Mr. C. E. Green, as they said they had an idea that I could bow l. The result was that through Mr. Green’s influence and kindness I was bought out of the N avy.” “ Y ou played for Essex very soon afterwards ? ” “ In the week after I left the Navy I played against Derbyshire. I like county cricket immensely. Thanks to Mr. Green, who has helped me very greatly, I was drafted on to the staff at Lord’s, and I have nearly always played in first-class cricket. Sometimes I play for the M.C.C. H . YOUNG. (From a Photo by G. H. Hales, High Road, Leyton), in smaller matches, and very pleasant they are. A t the end of the season there are matches against twenty-two’s and so forth. I remember that in one of them a batsman had made eight or nine runs, and then began to back up in the boldest manner. Presently he backed up so far that when Walter Mead, who was bow ling, stopped just before delivering the ball, he was nearly half-way up the wicket. Mead, with the ball in his hand close to the wicket, called out, ‘ Here, come back.’ The batsman came back, Mead of course put down his wicket long before he reached the crease, the local umpire said ‘ not out,’ and the batsman continued his innings cheerfully.” “ What cricket did you get while you were in the Navy ? ” “ When I was on the training ship at Portland I played with the other boys, and at that time I did not study bowling much, al­ though I generally did fairly well. Then I was with the Mediterranean Fleet, and, with the exception of two or three matches at places where we called, my cricket was con­ fined to playing at Malta.” “ D id you get many matches there ? ” “ N ot very many, for we were only stationed there for a short iime. We played on matting, which I liked very much. It was easy to make runs, and at the same time one could get some work on the ball. One of the advan­ tages of a matting wicket is that if a heavy shower comes you roll the matting up, and in half-an-hour you can play again as if nothing had hap­ pened. As we had so little time for cricket we went to ourmatches without any prac­ tice whatever. But although it was very hard work if you had to bow l much, we man­ aged to go through the day without difficulty; we were pretty stiff and sore for a day or two afterwards.” “ What sort of a team had you ? ” “ A pretty good one. Some of the chief officers played, and among them were some very good men indeed. Commander Jellicoe, Dr. Moon, and Major Quill were particularly fine cricketers. On the whole, I should say that we could get as good a side from the squad­ ron as a medium second-class county.