Cricket 1903

70 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. A p r il 16, 1903. THE GENTLEMEN OF PH ILA­ DELPHIA. Bv “ INCOG.” Is it really twenty years since the Gentlemen of Philadelphia came to England to give us a taste of the quality of the cricket they had been able to develop on the other side of the big drink ? Not quite, but close on it. It was in 1883 that the first visit of American cricketers to the Old Country took a practical shape, though the team did not play their opening match till June 2nd of the following year. English cricketers had crossed the Atlantic several times before that to the great benefit of American cricket. From 1859 to 1881 six teams from the Old Country, in addition to two of the returning Australians, had visited the United States, leaving behind them a perpetual legacy in the style of such masters of the cricket art as Caffyn and Willsher, Daft and W. G. Grace, of Appleby and Alfred Shaw, among others. The Australian team of 1878 on their journey home had given the American public a sample of the cricket they had been able to rear in such men as W. L. Murdoch, F. B. Spofforth, H. F. Boyle and their comrades. The success of the first Australian team in England in 1878 was bound to give encouragement to others to see how cricket was played on its native soil and by the best exemplars the game was able to produce. But it was not until 1883 that a favour­ able opportunity arrived to justify the idea of sending a team of Philadelphian cricketers to England taking any definite shape. At that time the game, which has never appealed to the bulk of the American people by reason of its slow and steady methods, had only a limited followirg even in Philadelphia, where American cricket was mainly nurtured for some years. It was indeed a plucky under­ taking of the five enthusiasts who made themselves practically responsible for this first tour of American cricketers in England in 1884. Happily, though the eldest of the Newhalls—a brotherhood as famous in American as the Graces, the Lytteltons or the Walkers in English cricket—had given up active cricket, there were still two of them left to represent the best standard of American cricket. Charles Newhall, the fast bowler, who had borne the brunt of the attack in all the big matches in Philadelphia for over twenty years, was still going strongly, with little, if any, real diminution of pace. His brother, B. S., who had batted so brilliantly against the Australians in 1878, was also able to make the trip, another piece of good fortune, by reason of his eminent and special fitness for the position of captain. In addition to the two Newhalls, the following were selected to uphold the honour of Philadelphian cricket. As a matter of history, it will be well, perhaps, to give the personnel of the first team in full, with the club each member represented:— Brewster, Francis E., Young America. Broekie, Wm., Jr., Germantown. Brown, Hazen, Young America. Clark, E. W., Jr., Young America. Fox, J. M., Merion. Law, Sutherland. Merion. Lowry, W. C., Merion. Morgan, Wm. C., Germantown. McNutt, Howard, Young America. Newhall, Chas. A., Young America. Newhall, Robt, S., Young America. Scott, J., Allison, Belmont. Stoever, D. P., Belmont. Thayer, J. B., Merion. The matches were played in Ireland, Scotland, and England against amateur teams, and with fair success. Of the eighteen games played eight were won, five drawn, and five lost. In three of the unfinished games it deserves to be added the Philadelphians had all the best of it on paper, so that the record was really better than it would seem to be on paper. Two of their performances stand out in bold relief before my mind— the first victory over the Gentlemen of Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, the second their plucky uphill fight eventuating in a splendid win over the Gentlemen of Surrey at the Oval. The success at Cheltenham must have been particularly gratifying from the fact that W. G. and E. M. Grace, as well as W. B. Gilbert and J. Cranston, were all playing. At the Oval they had 229 to make for the last innings, and with six of the best batsmen out for comparatively few, their case seemed hopeless. It was the brilliant hitting of Howard McNutt, who carried out his bat for 75, that turned the scale, and gave them a brilliant victory with three wickets to spare. In J. A. Scott they had a batsman of really attractive style; in B. S. New­ hall, Thayer, Stoever, Brockie, McNutt, Brewster, and Law resolute players with plenty of nerve, all able and ready to hit. W. C. Lowry, who took over a hundred wickets in the tour, was far and away the best bowler. He was, indeed, a slow, left-hand bowler of very much above the average, and with plenty of practice and experience would have been in the very front rank. An interval of five years occurred before the visit of 1884 was repeated. This time tho tour was of comparatively short duration, lasting, in fact, only some five weeks. The captaincy was again in the hands of a Newhall, D. S., who fully maintained the family reputation as a player of many parts, besides being a tactful and judicious captain, well able to keep his men in hand. E. W. Clark, T. E. Brewster, D. P. Stoever, and W. C. Morgan, who were members of this team as well, all upheld the form they had shown in the previous tour, par­ ticularly Clark, who was successful with both bat and ball. The great successes of the second tour were two new men, G. Stuart Patterson and W. Scott. Patterson is perhaps the best all round player Philadelphian cricket has pro­ duced. A r^illy good bat, with any amount of resource, he was also a useful slow round arm bowler, as well as a fine field. Scott was hardly inferior, and, indeed, as a cricketer would have beeD valuable to any eleven, being equally consistent at the wicket as well as in the field. So far the ambition of the Philadel­ phians had been satisfied with testing their strength against amateur teams only. The next step was to get experi­ ence of the methods of the very best English players on the cricket field. On the occasion of the third visit, which was in 1897, Mr. G. S. Patterson was Captain, His responsibilities were infi­ nitely greater than those of his prede­ cessors. Since their last appearance in England, Philadelphian cricket gener­ ally had shown a great improvement and it was naturally felt that the time had come when it would be advisable to see how their cricket would come out when tested against some of the strongest of English combinations. With this view matches were arranged against Lanca­ shire, Sussex, Middlesex, Notts., York­ shire, Hampshire, Warwickshire, Glou­ cestershire, Somersetshire, Surrey, Kent, M.C.C. & G., Oxford and Cambridge Uni­ versities and Oxford Past and Present. As was perhaps only to be expected, the record was not a very successful one. At the same lime, it is only fair to recall that they experienced the worst of luck in every way. At the outset the weather and the wickets were all against them, in the middle of the tour they lost the valuable services of their captain just as he had got into his best form, and later on half the team were down from accidents of one sort or another. Even as it was, though they only won two of the fifteen matches played, they showed very creditable form on several important occasions. They beat Sussex and Warwickshire and had rather the best of their drawn games with Yorkshire, Notts, and Somerset. The most satisfactory impressions left at the end of the tour were by the batting of Messrs. J. A. Lester, A. M. Wood and F. H. Bohlen, and the all-round cricket of J. B. King. Lester had shown him­ self in the Haverford College tour of the previous year to be a batsman of really high class, and his consistent success with the Gentlemen of Philadelphia on this visit more than confirmed his reputation. Wood, if lacking the style of F. H. Bohlen—-who was not, perhaps, in the best of health—or of G. S. Patter­ son, was a steady aud reliable bat and invaluable throughout the tour. Mr. J. B. King’s all-round cricket was the best on the side. As a bowler he was in a class by himself. He made the ball swerve a good deal, and as he kept a good length and mixed his bowling judiciously, besides having a high delivery, he was always dangerous. With lots of nerve and pluck he made runs, too, often when they were badly wanted. As he was quite a good field too, he was, without a doubt, the success of the tour. But for the visit of the Australian team in all probability the other team repre­ senting the Gentlemen of Philadelphia would have been in England last year. Under the circumstances they were well advised to defer their tour for a season. How they are going to fare this year with a programme arranged on the same lines as in 1897 remains, of course, to be