Cricket 1902

274 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J uly 17 1902. one gets double figures ou it. The wickets at Sydney and Melbourne would compare very favourably with even the best of English wickets, but at Adelaide they were in difficulties about the turf. In one of our matches the first two or three balls took pieces right out of it, and naturally the wicket did not wear well. But they will be certain to make a good wicket there before long. The experi­ ence of playing in some of the up-country matches was most interesting. At Broken Hill, after travelling for ten miles over what is practically a desert, we found a matting wicket on a piece of waste ground, with four or five inches of dust by the side of the matting where the batsmen had to run.” One of the incidents which occurred during the tour in Australia is not likely soon to be forgotten by Quaife. “ We were playing at Bendigo,” he said, “ on a very good turf wicket. I had been batting a short time, and was getting well set, when one of the Australians came up to “ silly point,” very close in. At once I made up my mind that he must be moved further away. The bowler was a medium pace, and I waited for the half-volley and let go with all my strength, hit it plumb in the middle of the bat, and plumb on “ silly point’s” shin, cutting him clean over. Of course I apologized, and he said it was all right, but I could see that he wanted to rub the place, yet did not like to do so. Hearing a cheer, and someone shout “ Well hit, Billy,” I looked up and saw Mr. Jessop bursting with laughter. Later in the innings I broke my bat, and Mr. Jessop sent me out his own, which weighed 3 lbs., saying I needed a heavier bat to steady me down. I played with it and was not out at the finish. I should like to add for the benefit of “ silly points ” at home that I met that Bendigo player a month afterwards at the test match at Melbourne, and he owned up that his shin bone was very badly bruised; in fact he was then walking with a stick.” Quaife was born at Newhaven, where he and his brother soon became the most enthusiastic of youthful cricketers. “ We played in a field at the back of our house nearly all the year round,” said Quaife, “ and I can well remember playing cricket on Christmas day ona frozen wicketwhich we made level with a home-made beater. When I was fourteen I played for the Newhaven C.C. and made about 40, not out, in my first match. In course of time I was asked to go to Sheffield Park, and often played for Lord Sheffield’s team there, besides having the advantage of being coached by Alfred Shaw, who was then engaged by Lord Sheffield to bowl to young Sussex cricketers.” “ Did you learn anything from Alfred Shaw ? ” “ Nearly everything. He was the best length bowler I ever played against, and was wonderfully clever in beating you in the flight of the ball. He used to make a lot of the best way of placing the feet, for he always said that a batsman who had not the advantage of height must make up for it by the quickness with which he can shift his feet. I am sure that he was perfectly right in this. By his advice I used to practise getting my arms well up, so as to be able to play a ball which might do me serious injury if it got past the bat. He was an excellent coach in every way. One of the things on which he used to insist was that a fieldsman, when throwing in the ball, ought to do it in such a way that the bowler dees not have to bend to pick it up. He said that, in the course of a long day the difference that this meant to a bowler was immense, and I am certain that every bowler will say that he was right in this. I don’t think Alfred was ever under the impression that I should make a county cricketer, for although he recommended me to be tried for the county, he always felt that I was too small to be successful.” “ What sort of a trial did you have ? ” “ I think the county gave me quite a fair trial. But at the time they bad some veiy good men, and others coming on, and I could never make runs very quickly. The very first time that I ever played on the county ground at Hove I had my nose broken by a rising ball, but I was lucky enough to have it attended to by Mr. C. A. Smith’s father, who mended it very cleverly for me. I played in two matches for Sussex, against the M.C.C., in which my score was 29, and against Hampshire, when I made 11 and 1 not out. Then there came the time when my brother went to Birming­ ham to qualify for Warwickshire, and I went with him. But first I went to the Chairman of the Sussex Committee and asked him whether he thought I had any chance of playing for the county, and he replied that he really did not think I had, and that it was certain that no promise could be given me. I was not at all surprised to hear this, for I did not myself think |that I was ever likely to become good enough for a county. I was not asked to go to Warwickshire. I merely went there to be with my brother.” “ What happened ? ” “ I was engaged as coach to the Moseley Club and did pretty well for them in Birmingham League Matches, being top of the averages two or three times. But I really qualified myself, although I believe that the Warwickshire Committee gave a small sum to the Moseley Club to assist them in keeping me on. My first match for Warwick­ shire was against Durham, and my brother and I each made over a hundred not out. Then I played against Leices­ tershire and scored 0 and 10. At this time Warwickshire was only a second- class county, but in the following year it became first-class, and I have played ever since then. I was fortunate enough to make 92 against Surrey at the Oval, and I shall never forget the first ball I received from Tom Bichardson, who was then at his very best. I had been care­ fully watching him from the pavilion, and when I went to the wickets I said to my brother, whom I met coming out, ‘ He doesn’t seem to me to be very fast.’ ‘ You wait till you get there,’ he replied, ‘ and mind that you don’t get your bat very high.’ The ball was a tremendously fast Yorker and nearly took my breath away, but I had not lifted my bat much, and just managed to stop it. You may be sure that I was very careful after that. On the whole I prefer fast bowling to slow, probably because you can score quicker off fast bow lirg by means of placing the ball, whereas you have to make your runs off slow bowling. But I can’ t say that I liked bowlers like Bichardson or Mold when they were at their best, and I don’t believe anybody else even did. Bichardson always seemed to me to be the best fast bowler I ever met.” “ Have you ever felt hurt by the news­ paper criticisms on your slow p la y ? ” “ I used to take notice of them at first, and although they never really bothered me very much, I began to find that they upset me a little; so I came to the con­ clusion that the best thing I could do was to drop reading reports of our matches. I knew that if I was to continue to play for the county, I must play my own game, and as I thought that the criticisms might make a difference to me, I very seldom read them. But, of course, it was not long before they had no effect at all upon me. We can’t all be hitters.” It will be remembered that Quaife was one of the bowlers who was condemned as a thrower, at the famous meeting of county captains. With regard to this he said : “ I had never been no-balled by an umpire, and had never heard any suggestions that I threw, but when I was told what had been done, I went care­ fully into the matter. I came to the conclusion, that when I tried to put on a spin from the tff, my action was occasion­ ally something in the nature of a throw, although it was not quite a throw. You will find very few bowlers with an off- break whose action does not, every now and then, suggest a throw, although it really isn’t a throw. But I went in for leg-breaks, and last year did better than I had ever done before. It seems to me that the time when a leg-break bowler is most likely to meet with success is when, in the fourth innings of a match, batsmen don’t quite know whether to play for a win or for a draw. I am inclined to think that most leg-break bowlers get their wickets, not so much because of their break, which is very often entirely absent, but because of their action, which makes a batsman unconsciously allow for a break. There was a curious instance of this deception in our match with the Australians, when Armstrong took six wickets for fifteen runs. He was bowling over the wicket, and using the extra foot of the crease, and although he spun the ball from the leg it seemed to the batsman to come in from the off. I think that the lengthening of the crease makes a difference, for when a man bowls at its farthest point it is more difficult to tell how far off the wicket the ball is going, especially at the com­ mencement oi his innings. But probably batsmen will soon get accustomed to this,” W, A. B-ETXESWOBTH,