Cricket 1903

CRICKET, MARCH 26, 1903. “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. wo. 02 a. v o l . x x i i . THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1903. p b i c e ad. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. M r . DENZIL R. ONSLOW. Although Mr. Onslow, who is now one of the most active members of the Surrey committee, was known as one of the best men of his day, he would undoubtedly have attained to higher fame if his duties had not called him away to India soon after his Univer­ sity career was finished. He had pl»yed with distinction for Cambridge and Sussex when he went to India as private secretary to the late Sir Charles Trevelyan, Bart., the Chancellor of the E x­ chequer for India, although known in India as Finance Minister. After Sir Charles Trevelyan’s term of office, Mr. Onslow remained in India as secretary to the late Right Hon. W. N. Massey, and afterwards to the late Sir Richard Temple, Bart. While in India he took a keen interest in the doings of the Calcutta and Simla clubs. The matches which created the greatest a nount of interest at that time in India were the Public and Private Schools. Brighton College was not recognised as a Public School, and Mr.Ons­ low used to captain thePrivate School team. Returning to England, he entered Parlia­ ment in 1874 as member for Guildford, a constituency which he represented until the last Reform Bill. While he was member for Guild­ ford, he was on the com­ mittee of the cricket club there, but he found that some of his constituents who were ^not quite of his way of thinking politically, endeavoured to carry politics into their discussions, so he did not often attend meetings. At that time in Guild­ ford politics entered into everything. But he continued to take an M.C.C. team to Guildford every year. Mr. Onslow took a strong line against giving up any ground at Lord ’ s to the Great Central Railway. He has worked hard on the Surrey committee for some twenty years, and as a member of various committees of the London Playing Fields he has been very active indeed. He was born at Chittore, in Madras Presidency, on June 12th, 1839. His height is six feet, and he weighed twelve stone when playing for the ’Varsity. The Brighton College X I. was very strong at the time Mr. Onslow was in it. “ Charlie Carpenter was our captain,” he said, “ and among the other members of the eleven were E. B. Fawcett, George Cotterill, A. Bateman and W. Hodson. While I was at Cambridge we had four Old Brightonians in the..'eleven at the same time—George Cotterill, E. B. Faw­ cett, A. Bateman and myself. We made a new ground at the College when I was there, and it has been much improved since.” “ Were there any professionals to coach you at Brighton College during your time ? ” “ We had Tiny Wells, the old Sussex bowler and batsman, Ellis, and, I think, Stubberfield as well. But of course things were altogether different then. We had no pavilion, and our arrange­ ments were much more primitive than they are now. The fagging system was in full force, but as I got into the eleven almost at once, I never had to fag at all. I was chosen entirely for my fielding, but of course there were not very many boys to select from, so that one hai5 more chance of getting into the eleven. We played matches against the Sussex Club, Tonbridge School, and all the other good clubs in the neighbourhood; I ’m not sure that we didn’t play Lancing College, but that may possibly have been after my time. I think it was while I was at Brighton College that Tiny Wells, when batting against Caffyn in a Surrey match, broke the handle of his bat, part of it flying over his shoulder and knocking off the bails. This seems an almost im­ possible thing to happen, but it did happen. The incident is referred to in Scores and Biographies'' “ Who were the profes­ sional bowlers at Cambridge while you were there ? ” “ We were very fortunate in our bowlers, for we had some of the best men of the day, including Buttress, George Tarrant, Jackson and Tom Hayward. I think that Buttress was the best bowler I ever saw ; he had medium pace with a beautiful length and a tremendous bias from the leg which made him extremely difficult, and he varied his pitch in a remarkable way. Tarrant