Cricket 1902

CRICKET, AUG. 21, 1902. “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly to il.”— Byron, vo. 012 . v o l . x x i . THURSDAY, AUG. 21, 1902. fb x c b aa. A CHAT ABOUT MB. G. P. VERNON. The news of the death, of malarial fever, at Elmina, West Africa, of Mr. Vernon came as a great surprise to cricketers. Although he had retired from Middlesex cricket for several years, it was only lately that Mr. Vernon gave up playing occasionally in first-class matches, and as far at least as batting was con­ cerned he might have con­ tinued with success to represent his county much longer than he did. But like several other good players who have retired when in their prime as bats­ men, he could not bear the idea of becoming a fieldsman who could only stand near the wicket, and could not stoop quickly to pick up the ball. So, long before this period came, he ceased to to represent Middlesex, very greatly to the regret of his companions and thousands of spectators, who delighted ia seeing him at the wickets. It was not remarkable that he should be popular among all sorts of cricketers, for, a man of the most pleasing disposition, he was a hard hitting batsman of a kind which seems to be dying out, and, above all, a thorough sportsman. He never paid the least attention to his average, his career having practically ended before the weekly average list was published in the daily papers, and accordingly his record is not by any means as good as it might have been if he had always chosen to make his innings last as long as possible. But it was more or less’ the custom of his time for a batsman to hit at everything as soon as ever he had made a hundred, instead of continuing to play as carefully as if the innings were only just commenced. Moreover, if his side did not really need ruus when he went in for hitting pure and simple, and so often got out soon. Por hard and clean hitting it would not have been easy to find Mr. Vernon’s equal. He relied greatly on a keen eye, and the angle of his bat when he played the ball would have seemed positively shocking to a school coach, but, like Robert Abel, he got there all the same. When he was in his finest form the best of bowling seemed commonplace, and he made big boundary hits off balls which another batsman would have been obliged to play with the utmost care. Whenever the name of Vernon is mentioned it recalls to the minds of older cricketers a brilliant feat performed by him and Mr. T. C. O’Brien (now Sir Timothy O’Brien) in 1889. Middlesex were'playing,Yorkshire at Lord’s, and.had to make about 280Jto win, in three hours and a half. This seemed an impossible task against such fine bowlers as York­ shire possessed, and at twenty minutes past six (stumps were to be drawn at seven) there were still 83 runs to be made with four wickets in hand, so that Middlesex stood more chance of losing than of winning. But Mr. Vernon then joined Mr. O’Brien, and despite all that could be done by the Yorkshiremen to outmanoeuvre the bats­ men, the runs were made ten minutes before time, the crowd beiog in such a state of excitement as has seldom been seen at Lord’s. Mr. Vernon himself has given a description of what hap­ pened during this perform­ ance. “ I had no idea of trying to knock off the runs,” he said, “ but O’Brien was hitting in most mar­ vellous fashion, and good length balls were as half volleys to him. He seemed to get every ball right in the middle of the bat. I don’t quite know when I began to think that there was a chance of making the runs, but I remember saying to Hunter at about twenty minutes to seven, when there were still forty runs to^get, that it was a pity we had not another ten minutes. As it happened, the runs were hit off at about ten minutes to seven. We ran everything. At the end O’Brien had made 99, when there were only two runs required to win. If I had got the ball I could not have afforded to let it go without trying to score off it, but I told him that I would run for anything whatever. He played a ball just in front of point, and we ran easily. I think that point, perhaps, had a kindly feeling of sympathy, but it was one of those runs which, if two batsmen make up their minds, might often be brought off successfully. O’Brien made 52 in the last half-hour, my own score in the