Cricket 1904

CRICKET, A WEEKLY RECORD OF T HE GAME. JUNE 9, 1904. “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. No. 6 6 1 . VOL. x x i i x . THURSDAY, JUNE 9 , 1 9 0 4 . p r i c e aa. a c h a t a b o u t a . e . k n i g h t . It is hardly likely that any enthusiastic cricketer, seeing in the morniDg papers that Knight was not out on the previous evening, has ever rushed to the ground where he was playing in order specially to watch the Leices­ tershire batsman at tbe wicket. For Knight has the reputation of being a man who, although he plays a scientific game, is not by any means attractive to spectators. It may be that there is something of stiffness in his manner of meeting the ball, or it may be only that he generally makes his runs with slowness and deliberation. He is essentially a man of the present day, for although he had been well known for several years to students of the game as a very useful player, it was not until last year that his play was ever seriously dis­ cussed b y the cricket world at large. To many people he seemed a new man when he began to make a great many runs for Leicestershire, for in the season of 1902 he had very seldom distinguished himself, and his earlier performances, good as they often were, had been forgotten. But he did so well last year in the early part of the season which in the almanacs is known as the sum­ mer, that he was chosen, some­ what to the surprise of the man in the street, to represent the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord’s. In this match he had the good fortune to come off so well that he scored 139 by cricket of a studiously careful kind. He was so slow to score that he was four hours and a- half at the wickets, and his determination to run no risks attracted considerable attention. Hitherto he had been regarded only as an ordinary county player, but he created such a good impression b y his skill and coolness in the big match, that when names of players who were likely to accompany the M.C.C. team to Aus­ tralia were bandied about, he was not by any means forgotten in the newspapers, so that nobody was unprepared when it was seen that he was one of the chosen men. A ll the world knows that he had few chances of distinguishing himself in Australia, although when his opportunity at last came he did himself justice. This year he has again done well, although, perhaps, not quite as well as last year, but his play in the recent match between Leicestershire and London County was such as to lead one to hope that he will soon make many more big scores. Knight is not a man who shims by reason of dariug strokes. H e plays a scientific game and is content to use strokes which are safe; he cares nothing for brilliancy. His recent newspaper articles have shown that he thinks very deeply about the mysteries of the game, and many critics are o f opinion that of all the men who wrote comments upon the matches played in Australia by the M .C .C . team he showed by far the best judgment, and that amid the fl id descriptions with which his notes abounded, a large amount of solid common s“nse was to be found. In everytbinghedoesheis thorough and it is perhaps a pity that he is not a bowler, since he would certainly have not been content with endeavouring to bowl maidens; he would Lave thought out schemes for the destruction of every bat 6 man to whom he was opposed, just as he has struggled to puzzle out the best way in which to meet the attack of the various bowlers who are opposed to him. As a writer, Knight has a decidedly original style, and he could give points even to the men who described cricket matches in the old days of Bell's Life. H e does not in the least mind m ixing his metaphors, and speaks o f Richardson, the Surrey bowler, as follows :— “ Haply, for some of us, that awful bite and nip from the A . E. KNIGHT. (From a photo by E. Hawkins & Co., Brighton).