Cricket 1903

CRICKET, JAN, 29, 1 9 0 3 . “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. A ------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wo. 020 . v o l . x x i i . THURSDAY, JAN. 29, 1903. p r i c e 2 d. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR. F . R . SPOFFORTH. It may be that somewhere in the wilds of England or Australia there could be found a man who had never heard of Mr. Spofforth, but it would seem almost impossible that such a thing should be. For just as the name of Dr. Grace is known all over the world—to Archbishops of Canterbury and to street arabs— as the representative batsman, so Mr. Spofforth is known as the representative bowler. Individual cricket­ ers may claim that the greatest bowler ever known was this or that celebrity, but the cricket world at large has made up its mind that the place of honour belongs to the Australian “ demon,” Mr. Spofforth. Perhaps if he had ceased to play cricket as soon as his first-class career was over, the rising generation might have said that his skill was exaggerated b y old players, but even to-day, despite his forty-nine years — he was born on September 9th, 1853 —he bowls so finely at times that it is not difficult for anyone who meets him to imagine how good he must have been in his prime. No doubt his great pace had very much to do with his success, but he was by no means a fast bowler of the ordinary type, who bowls about five balls out of six as hard as he can, with a “ head b a ll” by way of variation. With Mr. Spof­ forth, on the other hand, practically every ball was a “ head ball,” and he brought the science of varying the pace to a point which it has never passed. Other men had varied their pace long before his day, but he improved upon their methods in the most marked manner. But not content with this, he was always planning and scheming, and thinking over ways and means of getting men out, and Mr. Murdoch has related how, on board ship, he was often roused from his sleep b y the great bowler, who was anxious to explain some clever device by which he hoped to delude some famous English batsman or other. He always had a theory that it is much better to vary the pace from a fast ball than from a slow, and if only his advice MR. F. E. BPOFFORTH. (From a photo hy Talma & Co., Sydney, Australia.) were followed b y boys there would be some wonderfully good fast bowlers in the immediate future. Naturally the conversation turned on the visit of the Australian team last year. “ They did better than they expected,” said Mr. Spofforth. “ I saw them in Australia during the season before they came over and I thought they would be beaten b y the full'strength of.England, for Maclaren’sTteam certainly ought to have won one of the matches which they lost. I thought then that the Australian bow ling was 'weak, and I am still of the same opinion, despite their great success. But, except that Noble was a disappoint­ ment as a bowler (he would have done far better if the season had been dry), all the men I who went on proved to be bowlers, even though some of them were of no particular use in Aus­ tralia. But it was a bowlers’ year, and lots of men who did well will not be heard of this year if the’ weather is good. Indeed, any man who could keep a good length could get wickets, and if there had been j ust a little more sun some of them would have had really won­ derful averages.” “ But do you think bow l­ ing has improved ? ” “ In my opinion the average of excellence has fallen off a lot. And I think that the chief reason why Englishmen did not do as well as they hoped against Australian bow ling is that at the present time English­ men, as a race, are too highly strung. They have nerves, and they seem as if they could not play as well as they can when they come to a big match. Now the Australians did play as well as they kn ew ; the English­ men did not. I do not mean to infer that the word ‘ funk ’ could be applied with regard to the big matches. A man may not be frightened, but the case is sometimes too b ig for him. I could tell you of many instances where men could not bat a bit when they first came in, although when they had once made a dozen runs or so you might bow l as you had never bowled before and they would still score against you. Of course, there were some Englishmen who played as well as they could. Jackson, for example, always does, and when he is in trouble he