Cricket 1902

CRICKET, JULY 3, 1902 Together joined in Cricket’ s m an ly t o i l .” — Byron. H o . 0 0 5 . V O L . X X I . TH U R SD AY , JU LY 3, 1902. P R I C E 2 d . CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. ME. F. L. PEARCE. When Mr. Pearce, who is captain of the Kingston (Jamaica) Cricket Club, recently came over to England from the West Indies, on account of his health, he looked forward to getting some good cricket. Naturally he has been considerably disap­ pointed, for several of the matches in which he was to have played did not come off owing to rain, while in others the wickets were so bad, that to a man accustomed to the hard wickets of Jamaica they were startling. Mr. Pearce was educated in England, at the Royal Naval School at New Cross, and at the High School, Margate. He left school in 1884, and went to Jamaica, where he now holds the office of “ Pro­ tector of Immigrants.” He has been captain of the Kingston C.C., the leading club in Jamaica, since 1893, and has always captained the Island elevens (until his recent absence) against the visiting teams of Englishmen. Besides being a very good all-round cricketer, he has been very successful at lawn tennis, winning the cham­ pionship of Jamaica seven times in all, four of which were in succession. Jamaica does not take part in the other West Indian intercolonial matches. “ The distance is too great,” said Mr. Pearce, “ for we are nearly twelve hundred miles from the other colonies. Last year, however, we made an applica­ tion to be allowed to enter for the intercolonial cup, but we were informed that the time available for play did not admit of our entering the competition. In 1896 I took a team to Demerara—not a thoroughly representative team, for that I found impossible. They have a beautiful ground at Demerara. The wicket is hard, with a clay soil, and the out-fielding is perfect. We lost both the matches which we played, but the second was one of the most exciting I have ever seen. When the last man of the Demerara team came in during the second innings twelve runs were still required to win. A few of these were made, and then both sides MR. P. L . PBARCK. (From a photo by Debenham 6- Gould, Bournemouth). thought that one of the batsmen was badly run out, although the umpire had a different opinion. When the excite­ ment was at its height two easy chances were given to mid-off, who dropped them both, which was unfortunate, although such a thing might have happened to any fieldsman. The result was that we lost, amidst the most intense excitement, the natives going nearly wild in their enthusiasm. Poor mid-ofif heard enough about his mistakes during the rest of the time that we were at Demerara, for when any of the natives saw him in the street, they called out, *See him da ! Him the man wha’ drap de catch ! ’ Sir Augustus Hemming, who was then Governor of Demerara, entertained some of us at Government House, and very greatly helped to make the visit enjoyable.” “ You have good wickets in Jamaica ?” T “ Very good indeed, so good that the last English team which was over said that our wicket was one of the best they had ever played on in the West Indies. It is quite different from wickets over here, being so very much faster. The soil is of a friable nature, but we have neutralized this by putting down cla y ; the grass, which is known as ‘ bahama,’ is not as thick as it is in England, but it blends well. In the summer we hardly ever have rain, but when it does come, it comes in torrents, and deluges everything. There is a good water supply in the island, but on the cricket ground we are often very short. We could easily play cricket all the year round, but, as this would give the turf no time to recuperate, a close season was instituted at my sugges­ tion from September 30th to Boxing Day.” “ Is cricket in Jamaica chiefly confined to Saturday afternoon ? ” “ As a rule. But some­ times on public holidays we can play whole-day matches. A very enjoyable annual fixture is a match with the North American West Indian Squadron; the fleet is stationed at the Bermudas, but pays us visits occasionally. One of the Champains, who is on H.M.S. Pallap, has played occasionally against us. Our greatest drawback is that we so seldom