Cricket 1901

8 2 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. A n t i r , 2 5 , 1 9 0 1 had it in my pocket, as the sayirg goes, for a couple of years.” “ Y ou mean that 'your opponents did not find it out ? ” “ N o. They didn’t. It was rare fun to me to see them goin g out to pat the ground when a ball came back, and grumbling like anything at the wicket. Y ou see I purposely kept the break up my sleeve, and only bowled it occa­ sionally.” “ When was the secret discovered ? ” “ I had to play at St. Albans against an A ll England eleven, and when I had got rid of Jupp, Tom Humphrey, Pooley and Mr. I. D. Walker in five balls— three of them bowled and one caught— the mischief was out. Of course Southerton used to make the ball break, but at that time I had never heard of him, much less seen him—cricket was not reported in every newspaper in the way which it is done nowadays, so that every young cricketer knows all about everything and everybody.” " But had you never met break bowlers yourself ? ” “ N o. M y cricket had been confined to what was played in the neighbour­ hood, and although we sometimes met great batsmen, it was seldom that great bowlers came, and when they did they were fast round arm.” “ Was it fashionable in your days to say that certain bowlers were in the habit of throw ing ? ” “ Oh, yes. It is no new thing. As far as I myself am concerned I was never n o­ balled, and I played against all the greatest batsmen of the time, while the best umpires stood in the matches. Once indeed, when I was playing at Bedford, Lord Charles Bussell called out to the umpire from the pavilion telling him that he ought to stop me from throwing. But I invited him to come to the wicket and see for himself that my action was per­ fectly above board.” “ D id he come ? ” “ No. 1 he umpire told him that J had not a suspicion of a throw, and he said that if that were so he was perfectly satisfied, I don’t believe that if a man threw he could get the break that I did. O f course I had a whip of the wrist, as every bowler has with any ‘ devil’ in him, and as I had very lon g arms the ball rose very rapidly from the pitch. I used to take a very short stride and a short run. It is my firm belief that many young cricketers of the present day ruin their baw ling b y taking very long strides— it takes so much out of them. As for young fast bowlers, the example set by Mr. Kortright in taking a very long run has been fatal to hundreds of th em ; they can’t see that what may be good for him is not b y any means necessarily good for anyone else. But you can’t teach young bowlers anything nowadays; they know every­ thing worth knowing, or think they do, which is perhaps not quite the same thing.” “ Were you ever engaged by any big club ? ” “ I was asked to go to Harrow b y the Hon. Robert Grimston, and once I went there to bow l for two or three weeks. Bat I had a good business as a pipe maker, and it suited me much better to get known locally. During the hay time and harvest I could go to a place to play a match and pick up orders at the same time. Anywhere within twenty miles of Hertford I had a lot of customers. But business did not prevent me from going to Haileybury twice a week to bow l, or from playing in county matches arranged by the Hon. Robert Giimston and other gentlemen. When the Hon. Robert arranged a match it was always under­ stood that the game should begin at eleven o ’clock and continue without any interruption until seven o’clock. There were plenty of provisions which you could get when you had the chance. I don’ t know what would have happened if a side had kept in all day, but the wickets always prevented that in all the matches in which I played.” “ How often did you play a week on the average ? ” “ Well, for about thirty-five years I never sat down in the summer, so to tpeak, for I frequently had six matches a week, and had to walk a long way to some of them. I f a match was far off, it would some'imes take me seventeen or eighteen hours from the time that I started until I reached home again. Naturally I often felt very tired in the mornings, but as soon as the game began I always felt quite fresh. Sometimes, however, a match was finished very early. For instance, I was once playing against a village named Pitson which had not been beaten for years. We didn’t make more than about 35, and my share was 21 of them. Of course we all thought that we were in for a tremendous licking, but as it happened we got them out for 30. The match was played out and was finished b y four o ’clock. We won.” Before Hughes was famous as a bowler it often occurred that when he played in a match nobody knew him except the man who had asked him to play. He tells with great glee a story about him­ self. “ A gentleman, Colonel Medcalf, was getting together an eleven,” he said, “ and wanted a bowler. He asked one of his employes if he knew of any man good enough. ‘ There’s Jack Hughes, of Hertford,’ was the reply. ‘ O j , very well,’ said the gentleman, ‘ engage him for me.’ Now it happened that on the same evening a clergyman was dining with Colonel Medcalf, and in the c >urse o f conversation asked whom he had got to bow l for him— I may say that the clergyman was going to play on the opposite side. He was told ‘ Jack Hughes,’ at which he laughed and said, ‘ Well, I ’m very sorry for you, but you ’ve been deceived. H e can’t bow l a bit.’ The colonel was furious, and afterwards soundly rated m y proposer, who on the day of the match told me what had passed, and begg»d me to do my very best— especially when the parson came in. 1 bowled pretty well that day. The parson, as things turned out, made two duck’s eggs. I got him each time.” “ Do you ever see any first-class cricket now ? ” “ Last year I went to the Oval to see Surrey and Yorkshire, and I wondered how spectators could stand the sort of cricket that was played. I waited all day for a cut, and did not see one, although the bowlers continually sent in balls to the off, each of which Tom Humphrey or any of the old players would have sent to the boundary; but I suppose that the wickets are so good nowadays that a man can afford to wait until he can get a ball to hit without running any risk whatever. I f you had waited like this in the old days you would never have got a ru n ; you had to take every chance which was offered. It seemed to me that in this Surrey and Yorkshire match they m ight as well have done away with all the field, except the wicket-keeper, short slip and cover point, for they were the only three men who had any work to d o—everybody else was waiting for boundary hits. They didn’t seem to play for single runs at all, and I suppose they would say, ‘ What’s the use, when you can get boundaries just as well ? ’ I ’d sooner see a club match than this kind of cricket, but perhaps I am not educated up to it yet.” “ Were there any good players besides yourself in the Hertford Club ? ” '•We had several good bowlers, and in a club which has good bowlers you may always be sure that there are good bats­ men. We had one advantage over many neighbouring clubs ; we could always be sure of an eleven without having to depend on gentlemen who m ight dis­ appoint you at the very last moment. The old eleven consisted of Mr. Sworder, our present Coroner, Mr. Francis, a good all-round cricketer, a brother, I believe, of Mr. C. K . Francis, M. Campbell, A. Fisher, George Skerman, W . Fisher, W . Nichols, G. Brown, A. Macmillan, R. Ray and myself. It used to take a wonderfully good club to give us a beating.” As an instance of the reluctance of certain batsmen to accept the umpire’s decision, Hughes tells the follow ing tale : “ In a local match I bow led a man, who promptly said, ‘ I ’m jiggered if I g o o u t! ’ I was so much amused b y the way in which he made this remark, that I said, ‘ Oh let him go in again.’ In the next over I got him caught at the wicket tff his hand, and again he refused to g o out, saying that the ball had not touched him. But I told him that he had made a mis­ take this time, and reluctantly enough he had to retire to the pavilion. Then he went off to a jeweller to get him to cut a ring which had been forced into his finger by the ball off which he was cau gh t! ” W . A. BETTE8WOKTH.