Cricket 1902

J an . 30, 1902. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. IS CRICKET IN LAVENDER MEADS. Cricket naturally plays an important part in the series of handbooks to the great public schools in course of publica­ tion by Messrs. G. Bell and Sons. The illustration of Cricket in Lavender Meads appears, it goes without saying, in the volume on Winchester, and is given here by the kind permission of the publishers. The Eton and Winchester match, as we learn from the chapter on cricket, has been played at Eton and Winchester in alternate years since 1854. Previous to this, Winchester used to play both Eton and Harrow at Lord’s, and the Win­ chester eleven is still called Lord’s, though it iB nearly half a century since a Winchester team has played there. The match with Harrow, instituted in 1825, was not played after 1854. The only survival, according to Mr. R. Townsend Warner, the author of the book, now to be seen of the presence of Winchester at Lord’s is in the dark blue and white striped cap of the Harrow eleven, Winchester having been victorious in a match played against Harrow for the right to wear a plain blue cap, which has been the Win­ chester eleven’s colour since 1851. In earlier days top hats were worn, and the Winchester eleven are distinguished at Lord’s by their “ high white, or rather yellowish, beaver hats.” This is only a brief extract from the chapter on cricket. The handbooks, it is hardly necessary to add, deal with every phase, not only of the school history, but of the school life, so that they are of interest to the general reader as well as to the boys, past 'and present of the different schools. CRICKET PUBLICATIONS— 1901. Cricket Comic. Illustrated, by “ Sol.” (London: Sun Office, Temple Avenue. Price Id.) Cricket and Golf. By Hon. R. H. Lyttel­ ton (London: J. M. Dent and Co., 29 and 30, Bedford-street, W.C. Price 10s. Also 150 copies, large paper.) Cricket Handbook, A. Compiled by Sydney Bellingham. (London: Sun Office, Temple Avenue. Price Id.) Cricket Match, A report o f: XI. Boer Prisoners v. Colombo Colts. (Colombo: Ceylon Independent. Price 25 cento.) Cricket Stories: Wise and Otherwise. Gathered by C. W. Alcock. (Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith, Quay Street. Price Is. and Is. 6 d.) Curiosities of First-class Cricket. By F. S. Ashley - Cooper. (London : Edmund Searle, 10, Imperial Arcade, E.C. Price Is. and 5s.) Demon Eleven, The, and other cricket stories. By Charles Igglesden. (Ken­ tish Express, Ashford. Price Is., Is. 6 d.) Dr. W. G. Grace. By Acton Wye. (Lon­ don : Henry J. Drane, Salisbury House, Salisbury-square, E.C. Price fid.) Handbook to Ceylon Cricket. Compiled by P. L. Bartholomeuz. (Colombo : Times of Ceylon. Price Re. 1.) Lighter Side of Cricket, The. By Captain Philip Trevor. (London: Methuen and Co., 36, Essex-street, W.C. Price 6 s.) MacLaren’s English Cricket Team in Aus­ tralia: Official Souvenir. By J. C. Davis. (New South Wales : Bookstall Company.) North-Western Cricket Association: Sou­ venir of the Sixth Annual Tournament. (Chicago: Private circulation.) Observations on the Proposed Alteration of the Law of L.B.W. By W. Denison. (Private circulation.) Parsi Cricket. By M. E. Pavri. (Bombay: J. M. Marzban and Co., Ballard House, Fort. Price 3s.) Sussex County Cricket Annual. Edited by “ Willow-Wielder.” First year 1 'o f publication. (Brighton]: Sussex Evenir.g Times. Price 2d.) Sussex Cricket and Cricketers. By F. S. Ashley-Cooper. (London : Cricket Office, Upper Thames Street, E.C. Private circulation.) Tales of the Stumps. By Horace Bleackley. (London: Ward, Lock and Co., Salis- bury-square, E.C. Price 3s. 6 d.) A. D. T a y l o r . LAST CHRISTMAS DAY IN WEST AFRICA. A far away occasional correspondent writes : “ A few lines about a Christmas match on the West Coast of Africa may serve to fill an odd corner, and possibly be of interest to some of your readers. Inasmuch, too, as the match in question, played on Christmas Day and Boxipg Day, was, so far as I know, the first recorded at Badagry—at one time one of the most important towns of the slave coast—pickers-up of cricket curiosities may like a note of it. The sides were : A team got up by the District Commis­ sioner, and representatives of the local ‘ Bobbies,’ the latter of whom, under the former’s guidance, have taken to the noble game with any amount of keen­ ness. The scores were in no case large, as owing to the sandy nature of the soil at Badagry a concrete pitch had to be made specially for the occasion, and this, alas! owing to faultv construction, wore very badly, and in fact, was treacherous and broken from the start. Consequently, fast underhand bowlers, of whom there was one of either side, reaped a plenteous harvest of wickets, onlv a very straight bat proving of any avail. Indeed, saving the Commissioner himself who was responsible for some seventy odd out of a total of about a hundred, no one else exceeded a score. A by no means insig­ nificant feature of the match was the tremendous interest aroused among the native townsfolk, the majority of whom had never seen anything of the kin' before. And the way they ‘ howled ’ with delight at a good hit (or a lofty one, it didn’t much matter which !), or at one of the local ‘ Bobbies ’ receiving the bill on his shin; or, when his stumps were floored, was something to remember. The “'jabbering ’—I know of no other word _to describe it! —of the players themselves, too, was terribly ‘ notice- able ’ to the batting side, andeven those who escaped bruises from the ball went away at sunset, with tingling tympana.” ATHLETICS. To those who know the general style of the Isthman Library it is hardly necessary to say that the latest volume on Athletics is quite up to the high standard of the series. Bearing as it does the name of W. Beach Thomas, the President of the Oxford University A.C. in 1890-91, himself one of the best amateurs of the day at a hundred yards and a quarter, is sufficient guarantee that “ Athletics” is the work of an expert hand, therefore bound to be of practical use. To assist him, Mr. Beach Thomas has secured the help of such authorities as Dr. H. A. Munro, on Long Distance Running ; Mr. A. C. M. Croome, on How to Hurdle; Dr. W. Collier, on Diet and Exercise in Training; and of R. R. Conway, on Cross Country Running. Not the least interesting chapters are those on the Oxford Univer­ sity and Cambridge University Athletic Clubs by Mr. C. N. Jackson and the Rev. H. Gray respectively. The former gives a full, true and particular account of the Oxford University A.C. from its founda­ tion, tracing at the same time the rise and spread of modem athletics, the out­ come, in a measure of the Oxford movement. No one is more capable of writing fairly the history of the develop­ ments of amateur athletics since the O.U.A.C. was formed in 1863, and Mr. Jackson’s review alone would make the book of interest as well as value as a