Cricket 1903

CRICKET, MAY 28, 1903. “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toll.”— Byron. h o . 0 3 0 . v o l . x x i i . THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1903. p r i c e ad. CHAT ABOUT WILLIAM ATTEWELL There have been few more popular professionals than Attewell, for whose benefit the Whit Monday match at Lord’s is to be played this year. This is not at all surprising, for he is a man who has never got on anybody’s nerves, whose good nature is proverbial, who never decried an opponent or becomes disagreeable when things do not go well with him or his side. From the first time that he appeared in public he always played the game as a gentleman, and there are many well- known players who will remember how often he had a word of praise for them when they were anxious beginners. It is seldom safe to say that such and such a man was the very best bowler of his day, but when Attewell was in his prime it might truly have been said of him that he had no superiors. Many players have told me that to feel one was holding one’s own against Attewell was to experience a thrill of unlimited satisfaction, and I do not suppose for a moment that anyone who has ever been in that happy position will dispute the justice of the remark. Tou will often hear batsmen say that they likeplaying against a certain bowler because he keeps them so steady, and makes them so careful, that they can hardly help making runs. But I never heard anyone say this of Attewell, steady and accurate as he was. For there was a lot more than mere steadiness and accuracy in his bowling. From the pavilion he may have looked mechanical enough, the more so as his changes of pace were seldom at all violent, but batsmen knew ■well enough that there was deadly scheming behind all this apparent sim­ plicity, and that the moment when they were beginning to be lulled into a feeling of security was the most dangerous. You never quite knew what he would be up to next. He once, in an M.C.C. minor match bowled me a full pitch at least a foot outside the leg stump, and I laid myself out for a very comfortable and satisfactory four, since he had no WILLIAH ATTKWELL. (From a photo by Messrs. Hawkins <b Co., Brighton.) man on the leg side. But at the last moment the ball curled right in and hit me in the ribs. I was a good deal dis­ gusted at missing my four, but much amused at the proceedings of the ball. I said to the wicket-keeper that it was a curious .ball, and he smiled affably, agreeing that it was very curious indeed. I proceeded to take guard again, bat realised then that there was something wrong. It turned out that some genius had appealed for leg before, and that the umpire, who had not been carefully selected by a competent body of cricketers, thought it a good opportunity to distin­ guish himself by giving his side a leg up. I spoke to Attewell afterwards about the ball, and was not a little astonished when he said that it was a pure accident, and that he had meant to bowl a yorker on the leg stump. For all that, he often, on a windy day, bowled a ball which curved in the air. Whether he had modelled himself upon Alfred Shaw I do not kjow , but his style of bowling was very much after that of the great Alfred. He was no more able to pitch a ball on a sixpence than any other bowler who ever lived, but he was almost as wonderfully accurate as Alfred Shaw himself, which is saying a very great deal. Like Shaw he only had a small break, often too small to be noticed, although it could generally be appre­ ciated. The result was that on tricky wickets he was most deadly, for the ball did not do so much as to beat bat, wicket, and wicket­ keeper, a failing which spoils so many bowlers who would otherwise be great. Like Alfred Shaw he had a good fast ball which seemed to come at you as if from a cannon’s mouth, although it was by no means as fast as it looked. I do not think his slow ball was ever quite as deceptive as Shaw’s. He was untiring, and never gave up trying to get a man out. If he was put on at the end of the day, after a long outing, he came to his work with as much enthusiasm as if he had been a schoolboy going on for the first time in an important match. He oould stand being hit, but there was not perhaps much virtue in this, for he could almost have counted on the fingers of the two