Cricket 1903

322 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Aua. 6, 1903. fifty or sixty. One has no patience with these stars who shine with such brilliancy in a perfect firmament. No doubt they can score their hundreds, but the sun must shine, and the wicket be absolutely plumb. Where are your run- getters if a shower of rain brings up a worm to the surface in the neighbourhood of point, or a blade of grass is rolled the wrong way, or the sun goes behind a cloud, or may I maliciously add, with two or three striking exceptions where are they, when the Australians come over with a couple of unknown bowlers ? Consult the star averages against the last Australian invaders, and then rejoice that there are circumstances in which execu­ tion, however brilliant, counts but little in comparison with steady nerve and grit which it is the business of our national game to foster. “ You would prefer, however, that I should get tack to experiences. Well, perhaps it has not been given to every cricketer to captain a side in a match, on a private ground, too, where the master and his butler were, even in this demo­ cratic community, so completely ‘ two,’ as appears from the follow ing: The butler was umpire, hence his importance. His decisions were full of variety until our point caught the opposing batsman— quite unmistakably made the citch. Some one in the field gave the umpire his char c 3 by shouting the usual query. ‘ Not out,’ said the umpire. Not having sufficient experience to cope with such a contingency, and it being just lunch time, I determined to postpone discussion until that interval. This was done. It was then determined that the match could not proceed further under our present arbiter. The n as‘er, who was not play­ ing, was willing, and an amicable arrangement entered into. We had not, however, thought necessary to consult the butler. On restarting the game out he came. ‘ I ’m the umpire,’ says he, ‘ and jo u can’t get on without me. I don’t care what anyone says. Besides, I have got the bails.’ Expostulation was useless, but presently our wicket keep, a man of massive build from Ceylon, and perhaps, therefore, less permeated with the sanctity of English law, came to the front. ‘ Are you gcing to give up those bails ? ’ said he. ‘ No,’ in a very defiant tone from our friend. ‘ Then you and I must have a little talk. Come along.” And off went the pair, the wicket-keeper controlling his man by a grip of the arm. So they patrolled across the ground. The pond came in sight. Umpire less defiant, but still sticking to the bails. The pond very near now : Umpire distinctly uneasy, and Master jubilant. Then, just before the real proper ending came, were the bails handed over and the match con­ tinued, but I never saw the services of an umpire dispensed with in such a manner either before or since. Once only have I ever seen a piece of deliberate ‘ sharping. ’ About a dozen runs to get and the last two wickets to get them. Bowler send­ ing down lobs and following the ball down the wicket. Ball bowled and bail dropped. Batsman, a groom in the house, looked round and was about to retire. ‘ How’s that ? ’ said I from the other end—I was batting and, standing very wide, could see the whole perform­ ance—beautifully neat it was, too. ‘ Out,’ said the umpire, rather surprised at the question. ‘ He was clean bowled.’ And the batsman went. I could scarcely believe my own eyes, but could have sworn that the ball never hit the wicket, though the wicket-keeper’s little finger did. Very dissatisfied I took an early opportunity of obtaining an opinion from ‘ Short Leg,’ a well-known and eminent man then, even more eminent now. ‘ The less said about the matter the better, but I don’t care to play again with him,’ was the answer. And I needed no further corroboration. The umpire afterwards told me that the bowler was in his line. “ An incident in local cricket which happened to me is perhaps almost unique, viz., to play some considerable part of an innings without any chance of runs being obtained from either end except by hitting boundaries. It happened in this way : I appeared on the ground and the other side rather objected to my playing. As there was a man against us who had played for the county, the objection was made light of. At that time one of my knees had gone wrong and was in bandages. Shortly after going in to bat, I asked for a runner and was refused. This was right enough, but presently I got a terrific smack inside the thigh on the other leg. After two or three overs this leg stiffened to such an extent that I could only just stand on it. Having previously asked for a runner, I could not claim that the injury arose in the match. I could not have run five yards if there had been a wild bull in the field. The enemy had no compassion, and would not let anyone else run. Feeling that it was rough on my partner, I proposed to him to retire. ‘ Ohno,’ sayshe, ‘ let us use the boundary.’ And we did for some little time, but I didn’t move out of bed the next day. Curious things happens to us at ciicket, but I am exhausting your space. “ About the wider wicket discussion, well, to my mind something will have to be done, and at no very distant date. I have long had a theory that something might be done with the ball, something which would enable the bowler to get a better grip with his fingers without roughening it to an extent to which the fieldsmen would object. There seems, however, to be some difficulty with the makers. What I should like to see tried would be an alteration in the Ibw rule, not to the extent which was tried by the the second-class counties—that alteration went much too far—but to a limited extent which would widen the space in which a batsman might not use his pads by—say a distance of four inches—two on each side of the wicket. Iu other words, instead of drawing the line from leg stump to leg stump and off stump to off stump, the exact width of the wicket, imagine that there was another stump on each side of present wickets distant a couple of inches from its neighbour, and draw the lines from them. Possible you say, ‘ but how are you going to mark those spots for the umpire ? ’ Well, I would put in a couple of short white pegs, rather behind the wicket so as to avoid cannons, and not very substantial, so that they could quickly be moved by the ball if it should hit them—if they were broken the umpires should be provided with others—and I would draw my imaginary line, not from leg stump to leg stump, but from the peg outside the leg stump to the peg outside the leg stump. Inside that line no batsman should stop the ball with his legs. The only difficulty seems to me in the marks and if my pegs are not suitable, surely some­ thing could be evolved which would serve the purpose. Something will have to be done to assist bowlers on these plumb wickets; otherwise the time will come when a strong batting side will go in and remain fixtures just as long as they wish. I do not desire, though I admit I am one of those who look at the game more from the bowler’s than the batsman’s point of view, to adopt measures too drastic. I do wish to see something done which, independently of weather inequalities, and legislating for the game as a game to which fine weather is a necessity, will restore the ancient equilibrum between batting and bowling. J. E. E. P. S.—One word about old Thoms. He was the best of sportsmen, and the cheeriest of friends. Now he has followed H. H ., and in them we have lost two of the soundest umpires and the truest gentlemen who ever took part in the game. No weather would have deterred mefrom attending Thoms’ funeral, but to my great regret, it was absolutely impossible to get away. W . E. HARRISON’S X I. v. INCOGNITI.-Played at Litchfield on July 29 and 30. W . E. H abbison ’ s XI. B. J. T. Bosanquet, c Smith, b Wood ... 46 B.D. I3annon,cDotson, b Metcalfe ... . 19 H.R.Parkin,cMetcalfe, b Smith .................26 C.J.B.Webb.cWood, b Smi h .......................11 J.W.Stratton,stOwen, b Wood .................46 J.M.Quinton,cDobson, b Smith .................16 W.E Harrison,cDob­ son, b Wood ..........17 F.J.Dupuis, c Wood,b Metcalfe ................. 0 C.A,.W.Gilbert,cOwen, b Metcalfe .......... 0 H.E. D. Wise, c Owen, b Metcalfe ..........11 J. U. Parkin, not out. 8 B 8, w 1 .......... 9 Total . 209 I ncogniti . First innings. E. J. Metcalfe, c Wise, b Stratton ........................ E. S. Bailey, c Dupuis, b Stratton ........................ 4 F. W. Orr, b Stratton... J. S. D. Owen, not out and b Capt. Andrus, Bosanquet........................ 0 B. P. Dobson, c Parkin, b Stratton ........................ 7 Capt.A.H.Wood, c Parkin,b W e b b ............................... 2 E. W. Smith, b Bosanquet.. 1 T. C. Bett, b Bosanquet ... 6 b Webb C. B. Moggridge, b Ho3an- quet ............................... 0 J. P. Wilson, c Parkin, b Bosanquet........................ 1 B 3, lb 2 ................. 6 Second inniogs. c Bosanquet, b Stratton..........1! st Parkin, b Bos^nquet not out.......... c Quinton, Gilbert ... 19 78 26 Total 64 B 10, lb 4, nb 1 15 Total ..........166