Cricket 1902

34 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M ar . 27, 1902, but I knew something of the theory of the game, for I had read all the cricket books I could get hold of, including Pycroft’s ‘ The Cricket Field,’ and ‘ Felix on the Bat.’ The first time I ever practised at Cambridge was on Parker’s Piece, in the October term, just after I went up, and then Charley Arnold and Kempson bowled me out as they liked. But on the next day I was delighted to find that they did not get me out at all.” “ You played regularly in the team during the next summer ? ” “ Yes. Although I did not make a good beginning, for in my first match for the University I was out first ball in the first innings, caught at point from a very hard hit, and in the second innings I waited with my pads on for three hours and never went in. But after that I played in every match. Unfortunately I was only able to play twice against Oxford, for although I was chosen to play in each of the four years during which I was in residence, it was necessary for me to go to Ireland just before the other two matches.” “ Did you play much |cricket in Ire­ land ? ” “ A good deal. I played against I Zingari in their Irish tour, the All England elevens, and for and against many clubs; also against the Mary­ lebone club, which used to send a team every year to play against Ireland. It is a pity that these matches have been dropped, for they did a lot of good to Irish cricket. We brought over an Irish eleven to Lord’s and beat the Gentlemen of the Marylebone Club by an innings. I remember a most exciting finish between Eighteen of Ireland and the All England eleven. We put them in to get about 60, and although they several limes seemed certain to win, we managed to dispose of them when some half-dozen runs were required. I was bowling at one end and Lawrence at the other, and we divided the wickets equally. In the first innings I took six wickets, but on the other hand I made a pair of spectacles, a calamity which under the circumstances I was able to bear with some equanimity. When the last All England man came in Fred Marshall (afterwards General Sir Frederick Marshall, who died a year or two ago) offered Lawrence a new suit of clothes if he got the wicket, and Law­ rence promptly bowled MartingaJl. I may add that Lawrence was the pro­ fessional of the Phoenix Park Cricket Club at Dublin and that he was never known to give in until the last ball had been bowled in a match. In after years he and Caffyn, after touring with one of the teams in Australia, remained to coach the Australians, with such wonderful results. A short time ago I sent CafiFyn a volume of sermons which I had pub­ lished, and received in reply a most interesting letter from him.” “ Do you see any important matches nowadays ? ” “ I always go to see Oxford v. Cam­ bridge, Eton v. Harrow, and Gentlemen v. Players at Lord’s. I think that modern batsmen as a body hit harder than we did; partly, no doubt, becaus® the grounds are so much easier to scor® upon. Individually we had hitters a8 powerful as any to be seen at present > indeed, I doubt whether there has ever beeu another such a hard hitter as C. I, Thornton. I must own that I think the batsmen of the present day might hit far more off-balls than they do. Robert Carpenter once said to me, ‘ Why, Sir, if we had let off-balls alone we shouldn’t have had much chance of getting runs.’ Nor should we when there were men like Willsher and Grundy bowling ball after ball for over after over dead on the wicket. As an instance of this, I may, perhaps, be allowed to refer to an innings of 137 of mine at Canterbury in the match between North and South. At the end of it, Pooley, who was wicket- keeping for the South, said to me, ‘ Well, Sir, this is the most extraordinary experience I’ve ever had. I’ve scarcely taken one ball during the whole time you’ve been in. If they were straight you played them ; if they were crooked you hit them.’ The reason was that the bowling was so straight that it was unsafe to let the ball pass the bat.” “ And as to modern bowling P” “ Well, as to the bowling, I do not think it is anything like as straight as it was in my time, nor as difficult. With overhand bowling, you do not get shooters, and modern batsmen do not even know what a shooter is, whereas lots of men in my days were hardly ever bowled by anything else. Unquestion­ ably with the lower action of the old system there was a much greater chance that the ball would shoot, especially when there was a spin upon it from the leg.” “ Of all the bowlers that you have seen whom should you place in the first rank ? ” “ Jackson was very good. He was such a consistently fine bowler, and was so remarkably good in an emergency. I remember Lord Bessborough t«-lling me that in one of the big matches at the Oval, the South (I believe the match was North v. South) had to make only 90 to win, and that before the luncheon hour, 20 of these had been made, and several catches had been missed off Jackson, who was very much annoyed. On bis way to the pavilion he met Lord Bessborough (then Mr. Ponsonby) and said that it was hopeless to expect to win the match. ‘ I’ve been watching you,’ said Lord Bessborough, ‘andl think you are bowling well enough to win, despite missed catches.’ Jackson brightened up im­ mediately and said ‘ Do you really think so, Mr. Ponsonby ? Then I’ll try hard.” After lunch he succeeded in pulling the match out of the fire.” “ Do you think that if the old system of round-arm bowling were revived it would affect the batsmen much ? ” “ Indeed I do. The proof of the pud­ ding is in the eating, and here you have Braund, a leg-break bowler who is not even first-class, puzzling all kinds of batsmen and getting their wickets. It is my opinion, and it was that of Lord Bessborough, that if a really first-class round-arm leg-break bowler of medium pace were to appear again he would get men out for very much lower scores than are now made, for there is certainly no ball so difficult to see as one between the legs and the wicket. In my own ex­ perience I found that left-hand bowlers on the off-side were not any great puzzle to me, for the reason that I could see the ball all the way so clearly.” “ Then if you were young again you would prefer cricket as it is played now ? ” “ I ’m not so sure about that. Batting is certainly easier than it used to be, for you haven’t to run out your runs; you make a hit and quietly watch the ball rolling into the ring. This would have made all the difference in the world to me, for as I made runs quickly I was often run out through being pumped. But therewas much more pleasure in first-class cricket in my days than now when, I’m sorry to say, so many men play for their averages instead of their side, and when there are cliques in the elevens. First-class cricket is almost a business now ; it was a game then. We played to win the match, and it was a common practice, when you had made 30 or 40 runs, to go in for a free game, which generally did not pay on the more difficult wickets, although both sides enjoyed it. There is one thing that I should stronglyobj ect to if I wereplaying now ; the long gaps between the fall of a wicket and the continuation of the game. Instead of being ready to go in at once, men leisurely saunter into the dressing room to put on their pads and come out three or four minutes after the last man was dismissed—sometimes they take even longer. W. A. B e t t e s w o r t h . BIG TOTAL IN INDIA. LAHORE & M IAN M IR v. PUNJAB FRONTIER FORCE. Through the courtesy of the hon. sec. of the Lahore C.C., we are able to give the official score of this match, played at Lahore on December 23, 24 and 25. With the exception of the 633 by Patiala v. Umballa, at Umballa in November, 1898, it is the highest innings in India. L ahore & M ian M ib . B.H.Finnis,cClementi, b R o u t h ................. 25 M jr. H. O’ Donnell, c Ames, b Routh . 80 A.Campbell.bClementi 9 Capt.(J. R. Heaaty, not out .......................... 9 F. J. W ood, b Routh.. 40 ,1b 6 Total 16 Mjr.C.W.Field.cSlater, DRouth .................. .138 Y . H. Wilson, lbw, b Slater ................... 6 F.T.Portman, c Slater, b Clementi ............153 E.L.French,bClementi 72 G. C. Hart, c Brind, b Am es... ... ..............64 C. M. Hogg, lbw, b Clementi ..................... 67 P unjab F bontibr F obcb . J. Slater, 2nd P.C., c sub, b Portman .......................... 6 c and b W ood ... 36 J. Clementi, Guides, b Port­ man .......................... ... 33 b Portm an..... 1 C. G. Ames, 2nd Sikhs, st French, b O’Donnell ... 69 c Hart,bPortman 98 E.J.Bond, K.M.B., c Wood, b Finnis .................. .. 12 stFrench,bW ilson 30 H.C. fczezs-panski, K.M .B.,c Hart, b F in n is................. 3 b Finnis .....20 J. Brind, K.M.B., b Finnis 4 stFrench,bWilson 5 G.F.S. Routh, 2nd P.I., not out .. ......................... 4 b O’Donnell ... 10 C. A. Milward, 3rd Sikhs, b O’D onnell......................... 5 c French,bWilson 7 Capt. Elsmie, 5th P.C., c sub, b Finnis ................. 1 not out........ 0 S.Cobb e, K.M .B., c Hart, b c O’Donnell, b O’ D on n ell......................... 0 Finnis ....... 0 S. Murray, 2nd P.C., b O’D ounell......................... 0 b Patman ..... 8 Byes ......................... 8 B 10, lb 2 ...12 Total...........144 Total ...227