Cricket 1903

CRICKET, AUG. 6, 1903. “ T oge ther joined In C r ick e t’ s m an ly t o i l .” — Byron. ho. 040 . v o l . m i . THURSDAY, AUG. 6, 1 9 0 3 . p b xo b aa. MR. J. E. RAVEN. SOME REMINISCENCES BY HIMSELF. [So many years have gone by since Mr. Raven played for Sussex that he would perhaps have been forgotten by cricketers if it had not been for the important part which he has played in the history of the Incogniti Cricket Club, both as a playing member and as an adviser. Last year he acted as honorary secretary to the club, and performed his duties to the complete satisfaction of all its mem­ bers. As a cricketer he was always very keen, and a splendid man to have on any side. In his younger days he bowled exceedingly fast, and on good or bad wickets was a most difficult man to get away, as he was accurate and kept an excellent length. He was also a good bats­ man, and would have been even better if he could have resisted the temptation to have a smack after every ten tuns or so. As he had a good eye the smack frequently came off, much to the disgust of the bowler, for it was usually made off a particu­ larly fine ball. Mr. Raven still plays cricket in the Long Vacation, and still gets wickets. When it was suggested to him that he should be interviewed, he replied by sending the fol­ lowing reminiscences, which are of the greatest interest.] “ I suppose I have arrived at the veteran stage when I remember that my intro­ duction to cricket was to see E. M. Grace bit two sixes into the Dean’s garden in Christchurch, New Zealand. That must have been in the very early ‘ sixties,’ though I have not consulted Lillywhite on the subject. However, there is not much to grumble a tif you can spend the week’s vacation at Whitsuntide in playing the game, or, shall I say trying to do so, every day, finishing up by fielding out for 400 runs, and then go home and play a couple of games of bowls before dinner.” Experiences ? Well the first time I felt convinced I was a fast bowler was when I broke the wicket-keeper’s nose in a second eleven school match, and I have remained, with some periods of doubt and hesitancy, true to that conviction ever since. Even now the first week in August brings visions of scattered stumps and shifting bails. May be they are only visions. I suppose I was fairly fast, and the remem­ brance of being snicked through the slips for eight on Parker’s Piece (there were, I remember, a seven and a six in the same over) somewhat justifies my recollection. One wonders if there can be anything more delightful than to be a really good fast bowler. I don’t mean some of your modern inventions who put five men in the slips and bang them down half-way, appealing to the umpire every time the bat comes within a foot of the ball. No, give me your beautifully easy delivery, like that of Fred Morley or Allan Hill, who oould bowl for a week on end, and when they did hit a stick removed it cleanly to a comfortable distance. Morley, Hill, the Shaws, Emmett, Freeman, and others, all northerners. We never did have a fast bowler of any acccount in the south till Richardson’s time. It was not for want of looking for them either. “ In my own county, Sussex, every youngster who had any credentials at all was sure to get a trial. My own belief was that W. G. had a good deal to answer for. A young bowler would perhaps come out and promise fairly well in his first match or two. Then the Gloucestershire team would appear. At any time that Hove cricket ground was a bit heart - breaking, and the old man knew it well enough. He took his benefit, and the broken-spirited bowler went home and took up batting. What a wonder that old man was and is ! The first time I ever saw him he completed his century. There was nothing in that, but exactly 20 years after­ wards I took my boy to see him batting at Lord’s, and there was another century (against the Australians, too, and Turner could bowl above a bit), without a mistake in it. Had his lot been cast in these days, on these wickets, nothing but exhaustion would get him out. His nerve never gave way. On good wickets, when his contemporaries, the best of them, were getting forties and fifties, he was getting hundreds. When the wickets were bad and tens were more the order of the day, he was making his