Cricket 1903

114 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M a y 7, 1903. grounds. The Basingstoke ground itself is quite good enough for first-clasB cricket, and in some ways ic is a pity that it cannot be transferred to Alton, where there is a great deal of enthusiasm. All the county second eleven matches played there have been a success. In ordinary club matches there are five or six times as many spectators as at Basing­ stoke, but why this should be I cannot imagine. The ground at Alton is not first class, and if you exclude the officers’ private ground at Aldershot there is no ground in the North of Hampshire suit­ able for county cricket except that at Basingstoke.” “ Do you think you will like the work? ’ ’ “ I am sure I shall. But I cannot help thinking that Hampshire cricketers ought to feel under a great obligation—and I believe they do feel it—to Dr. Bencraft for what he has done for the county all these years. I have seen what he has had to do, and it is wonderful that with a large practice he has found it possible not only to do the work but to do it very thoroughly. Only a man with the clearest head and a vast capacity for work could have accomplished what he has done, and attend to a large practice as well. Of course, with the enthusiasm of a young man, I hope that, giving all my time to my duties, I ehall be able to increase the number of subscribers. A subscription of a guinea a year entitles a member to use the nets and the pro­ fessionals at Southampton, and admits him to the pavilion for any cf the county matches played in Hampshire. This year there are two at Portsmouth, three at Bournemouth, and the rest at Southamp­ ton. I think that there clight to be at least 1,500 sportsmen in Hampshire willing to assist the county club by becoming members; we have about a thousand at present.” “ What are your earliest recollcctions of cricket ? ” “ I was born at Colombo, where my father was Warden of St. Thomas’s College, and at seven years of age I had a little club of my own on the lawn. I was sent to England to Sl\ Elmund's School at Canterbury, which has turned out some good cricketers, l otatly W. N. Boe, the well-known d d Somerset­ shire player, E. C. Wright, the Cambridge Blue, Gordon Cumming, and E. Matheson. I was in the eleven, but before I was sixteen years old I lift school and went into business in L jtdon , and for five years I only touched a bat perhaps twice a year on the average. Then 1 went to Bromley. Here I had the good fortune to bs under an enthusi­ astic sportsman, who gave me leave of absence whenever I liked to play for the Bromley Club. After tLis I had a couple of months’ holiday at Basingstoke, play­ ing cricket most of the time, ar.d liked it so much that I decided not to go back to business again; so I took up profes­ sionalism, and soon after I became qualified was asked to play for Hamp­ shire.” “ You made a hundred in your first county ma'cb ? ” “ It was owing to an accident to one of the players that I received a wire to go to Birmingham to play against War­ wickshire. This was in 1894. I should have been delighted if I had made about 20, but I never for a moment dreamed of making over a hundred. For three years I played regularly for Hampshire, and then went into business at Basingstoke, with the result that I had very little time to think about cricket, until I was asked to become secretary t j the county club last November.” W. A. B e t t e sw o u t h . O B I T U A R Y . M ajo r S a m u il E v a n B u tle r . Major Samuel Evan Butler, better known as “ Sam” Butler, was born at Colombo, Ceylon, April 19th, 1850, and died at Bath, after a long illness, on April 30th. He formed one of the Eton Eleven in 1868 and 1869, in the latter year developing into a fast bowler of merit, obtaining as he did forty-one wickets for 405 runs for his school, of which seven were secured at a cost of 75 in the two innings of Harrow. The match was remarkable as being only the second occasion since 1850 on which Eton had defeated Harrow, and for an innings of 108 from the bat of C. J. Ottaway. Going up to Brasenose College, Oxford, he quickly made his mark, accounting for ten wickets in the Freshmen’s Match of 1870, and eleven for 81 for Sixteen Freshmen against the Eleven. This he followed up with ten for 113 on the side of the Eleven v. Next Sixteen, and made his “ B lue” practically secure. In the Oxford matches cf that year his chief exploits were the capture of twelve wickets in the game against the Gentle­ men of England whose totals were but 95 and 69, and his five wickets for 25 in the second innings of the M C.C. at Lord’s. In the University match, ever immortalised by the name of Cobder, he was tried but little, and only obtained one wicket. He » as, however, a dis- cm fited actor in the final stages of that dramatic finish. G <ing iu seventh down when Oxford needed but four to win he at once let out at Cobden, but was magnificently taken with one hand by mid-off from a hit that wi uld have been an easy four. How Cobden bowled the remaining two wickets with consecutive deliveries and landed Ctmbridge the winneis by two runs is a matter of cricket history. With the bat Butler’s best iunii g i for Oxford this year were 30 v. the Free Foresters, 28 against the Gentlemen, and 25 against the M.C.C., at Lord’s, an innings that included a spanking on-drive off Farrand’s for seven, and three 4’s. His runs were made in nineteen minute', while against Cam­ bridge he hit up a fiist innings of 18 in twelve aiuutes. The season cf 1871 was emphatically bis red-letter year. For the University against the M.C.C. at Oxford he obtaiaed six wickets for 24, of which four were captured in five balls. This match has an especial interest in the fact that the Hon. George, now Lord Harris, appeared as a Freshman against his University, and by playing an innings of 107 made sure of his “ Blue,” a feat which in quite recent years has been repeated by E. B. Wilson of Cambridge. In the return at Lord’s Butler was even more successful, securing eight wickets for 25 in the first innings, including those of W. G. Grace and I. D. Walker. It was singular how frequently the latter batsman failed against his bowling. Butler’s innings of 24, including four 4’s, was the highest in the first hands of Oxford. Against Cam­ bridge four days later he achieved the record triumph of taking the whole ten wickets in the first innings for 38 runs, the last six in fourteen balls, while the last four men were bowled scoreless. Of the 60 runs made by Cambridge from the bat, Yardley and Money made 48 between them. Butler bowled from the Pavilion end, and sent down a phenomenal suc­ cession of shooters. By the side of this performance his five wickets for 57 in the second innings seems almost tame. In the whole match he hit the stumps twelve times. In the supplementary match played to fill up time he assisted “ Oxford and Cambridge ” against the M.C.C., and with a lightning delivery sent K. D. Balfour’s leg stump flying ten yards behind the wicket. He failed utterly with the bat in 1872, but obtained five wickets for 11 runs for his University against the Gentlemen, arriving on the ground when one wicket had fallen for 105, but helping to bring the total to a conclusion for 152. His other best things were five for 21 v. Bitkenhead Park, four for 25 v. M.C.C., and six for 74 in a total of 250 in the first match the Dark Blues ever played with Middlesex. A strained arm handicapped him against Cambridge, and in common with the other bowlers he came in for punishment, his three wickets costing 88 runs. Yardley for Cambridge made 130, and the whole side 388, which stood as the record total till 1900, when it was beaten in the same match by both Ox­ ford and Cambridge. In 1873 his batting greatly improved, but his bowling fell below his former standard, though he had the satisfaction of taking five for 48 in the first innings of Cambridge. In the second innings, as in 1870, he went in seventh down, but this time no catch at mid-off sealed his fate, as he had the great pleasure of making the winning hit. After leaving Oxford he played in the Canterbury Week of 1874, where he bowled well and also assisted the Gentlemen against his old University. In 1871 he assisted the Gentlemen at Lord’s, where on a soaked wicket he could get no foothold, nor was he successful in the match at the Oval. Major Butler was a powerful man, six feet two inches in height, and bowled at a great pace, with a high action and good pitch. It is not a little singular that of his contemporaries in the University ma‘ ch Lord Harris, B. Paunqefote, W. Townshend and Willia'n Yardley were, like himself, natives of India.