Cricket 1902

338 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A ug . 14, 1902. your side should have the reputation o f being able to do a bit o f both, for in those days the um pire’s decision was not always final— some of us were occasionally so ungentlem anly as absolutely to refuse to go when given out. Then came the opportunity of introducing the other business, for a free fight invariably ensued, which was no small matter, since losing the battle meant losing all your cricket material. I commenced very hum bly, and our cricket pitch was on the side o f the road. This had its advantages, fo r there was no need to take stumps— we got them from the nearest stone wall. Our pitch was not particularly true, for it served m any purposes. It was the site of our annual bon-fire on N ovem ber 5, and you can understand if the 5th happened to be a very wet tim e there was a lot o f extra w ork for our groundman. I soon got very enthusiastic on the gam e. So much so that occasionally I used to sneak on to the Tow n Ground, and if only I could get hold o f the ball it used to delight me. The members of the club soon noticed m y keen­ ness to field, and I am pleased to say that so far from being snubbed I was encouraged.” “ It is a great pity that the same thing cannot be said of all clubs.” “ I t is indeed. I should like to say that every encouragement should be given to lads to help them to becom e good fielders. H ow annoying it is to find so m any new first-class bats who w ill never be included in first-class cricket ow ing to their faulty fielding ! U n ­ less fielding is cultivated in youth it can never be brought to great perfection after­ wards. There are two or three salient points conne. ted w ith fielding that should always be impressed upon the minds of young players. Suppose the ball is hie to third man or cover ; the batsmen are lu n n in g; the fielder should not return the ball as hard as he can throw it unless he is confident of running the batsman out—the chances are that you may knock up the hands o f the bow ler or wicket-keeper, besides m aking overthrows. This m ay seem a small point, but in the eyes of a captain who is tryin g new blood, matters of good or bad judgm ent, in every department of the game, are carefully noted. I f you have a prom ising player and an idea of obtaining county honours for him , do not allow him always to field point or m id off, but rather let him cultivate long field or third man ; for should he get a tiial these are the places he w ill be expected to take ; the others are reserved for bowlers and old members of the team. T he reason I make fielding such a strong point is that 1 attribute m y early inclusion in club ciicket to being a good hard worker in the field. M y success in club cricket (with the bat) was not very great to comm ence w ith .” “ H ow did you com e into n o tice ?” “ 1 had made rapid improvem ent and, I believe, gave signs o f prom ise. Just at this time a club was form ed which went under the name o f the N orth and Last H iding o f Y ork ­ shire, its object being to bring out any likely player for the county, and as it opposed such clubs as M .C .C ., Manchester Club and Ground, Northum berland, etc., it was a great opportunity for prelim inary training to first- class cricket. M y inclusion in this team gave me m y initial taste o f class cricket. T o be candid I do not see very much difference between good club cricket and that of m inor counties— except that the fact of being chosen for such an important engagem ent is a great strain on the nerves. I met with considerable success in these matches, and as the Yorkshire County Club at that tim e had not such a high standard of excellence as at the present time, there was m uch discussion in the papers about im proving the teams, and m y name, amongst m any others, was m entioned as that of a man w orth a trial.” “ W hat was the result ? ” “ A t the Scarbro’ Festival in that year— 1889— I . Zingari came a man short. M r. A . J. W ebbe was tryin g several local m en in order to fill the vacancy, and seeing that he was not goin g to ask me and as I was very anxious to have a go, I m odestly volunteered m y services, which were accepted. G oing in last I scored 16 out of a total of 102, and in the second innings 24 out o f 165. T h e second match of the Festival was Yorkshire v. M .C .C ., and much to m y delight I was asked to take part in it, and scored 7 and 46. Several o f the Yorkshire officials were present, with the result that the follow ing year gave m e a further opportunity, as I was selected for the first matches. M y first county match was against Gloucestershire, m y scores being 7 and 24. Then came the match of m y life, Australians v. Yorkshire, at Sheffield, on M ay 26th, 1890. I f I were asked to relate m y saddest experienco in cricket, this, of all matches is the one. “ W h at is the reason for this ? ” “ Y ou shall see. M y friends were abso­ lutely delighted when I received theinvitation, and to be honest, I felt rather elated m yself; but when I got on the ground, surrounded by tw enty thousand people, m y feelings can be better imagined than described. The A us­ tralians batted first. I was sent to field third man— in other words the football end. The first ball sent to me gave me a feeling in the region of m y chest like a sudden attack of morbus cordis. T he gam e had not been in progress very lon g before Lyons (the Austra­ lian hitter) sent one which came sailing straight to me. I did not judge the catch very w ell—more morbus cordis ! Y ou can guess the result. Lyons went on batting. L ord H aw ke has the reputation o f never losing his head or bustling a player on the field ; but, like all other great generals, he can convey his m eaning to you in other w a y s ; he gave me one searching glance which almost upset m y equilibrium. H ow ­ ever, m uch to m y delight, Lyons was caught in the next over. Then came m y turn for batting. W hat a shape I made, and what an impression I must have given ! P laying forw ard at the fourth ball, which was fatal, I retired w ith a balloon, resolving, that when this m atch finished m y carter as a county cricketer should finish also. But M r. W ostin- holm , w ith a few kind and encouraging words, made me prom ise to play again, which I did w ith better results.” “ W hat is your highest score ? ” “ It was made in a match at Scarborough for M iddlesborough. Scarborough was m y local club, but ow ing to a little unpleasantness the comm ittee would not give me a place in the team. So I offered m y services to M id­ dlesborough. It very often happens that under such circumstances you fail to come off, but this was an exception to the rule, for 1 scored 309 in three hours and a half, which stood as a record for the ground until last year, when Mr. W ells Cole made 387.” Like so many other w ell known men, M r. Frank has not alwa\ s been able to escape the local journalist who poses as a disinterested gentleman, and, after leading his victim into a conversation, publishes the result (generally with embellishments) without saying “ b y your leave.” “ I was once travelling to a match in a crowded railway carriage,” he said, “ and at one o f the stations all the other passengers got out except one, who proved to be a very affable person.” T he conversation vtasbrought round to the subject of cricket, whereupon the other passenger looked up at the rack on which m y bag was resting, and said, “ I see you are a cricketer.” “ Y es.” “ G oing to H a rrog a te?” “ Y es.” “ A h ! Then you must be M r. Frank. V ery pleased to have met you. A s a hard hitter yourself, what do you think of Mr. Jessop ? ” “ W ell, I fancy that though he m ight make runs at Bradford, he couldn’t at Leeds, where Rhodes would be pretty sure to get him on the big ground.” “ Quite so. I daresay you are right. B y the way, your cousin Joe is a good cricketer, i^n’t he ? ” A nd so on for some little time. W e parted with many expressions of pleasure on his part, and I thought no more of the matter. But a month afterwards I received a copy of a local paper in which everything was printed that I had said— and a little more. Speak­ ing of big grounds, I would not allow them above a regulation size. Every effort should be taken to encourage cricket being played in a bright and attractive manner. H ow delighted the spectators are to see the ball hit out of the ground— but to attempt to make a drive over the ropes on m any big grounds would be put down as madness from a cricket point of view . Therefore, on such grounds as the Oval, Leeds, and many others, the spectators aie deprived o f the most pop­ ular part o f the game, besides being much nearer the play on small grounds like that at Bradford.” M r. Frank’s career as a cricketer has been very m uch interfered with b y accidents on the field. “ On three occasions,” he said, “ when I was just getting settled in the team, I had to give up on this account. M y best season was in 1892, when in 12 innings, I scored 382 runs with an average of 34-8 — finishing at B righton on August 8th with a score o f 58 - but m y hand was so much hurt that it prevented me from playing any more that season. County crick* t never fascinated me very much. I could enjoy three matches bu then 1 wanted to be away from the responsibility and w orry. It is clear that if you want to becom e a successful first-class cricketer you must play regularly.” “ W hat sort of cricket have you enjoyed most ? ” “ M y most enjoyable cricket has been when touring in {Scotland with L. H all’s and F. S u gg’s Nor*h of England X I .— in the years 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1897— we played three to four matches each year, visiting at different times Arbroath, Cupar, Aberdeen, Inverness, Perth, E dinburgh and G lasgow. Cricket is not of a very high class in Scotland, and so we played against odds from Sixteens to Tw enty-tw os. W ith such noted bowlers on our side as B riggs, M old, Pougher, Attewell, and A lec W atson the batsmen had not a very great chance o f m aking b ig scores. It was on one of these tours that w e found Schofield H aigh. I shall alw ajs remember a match at E dinburgh (Grange Ground) between England v. Scotland. T he E nglish­ men received an invitation to look over the University. T he gentleman who was con­ ducting us inquired from me whether I thought the dissecting room would be too much for us. I assured him that it would not—but that he must not let it be known where he was taking us. There was no m istaking the fact when we were com ing to it ; poor Johnny B riggs made the remark that we must be very near a tannery. I shall never Jorget our faces, when it dawned upon us what we had to face. B riggs did not venture far into the room —and with several others did a stampede— the next time we saw him he was sitting on the stone steps disinfecting him self with the fumes o f tobacco. Our visit seemed to agree w ith me, for I scored 99 runs in the afternoon. M any of m y friends thought it very hard luck not getting the 100— but I thought it very good