Cricket 1904

CRICKET, a w e e k ly reo o rd of t h e g a m e . SEPT. 22, 1904. H e 8 — £ = d M ( — _ > H © !-“ < = _ - © | kLL 1 \ 8 f s A + Y '/ ? £ C O J U m r i i f t s © %u u l ^ ^ S e S C 3 H @ “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. Ko. 670. VOL. X X III. THURSDAY, SEPT. 22, 1904. 2 a. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR . E. A. H ALL IW E LL . Although one occasionally meets with an individual cricketer who thinks that this or that wicket-keeper is better than Mr. Halliwell, there can be very little doubt that to the vast majority of players he is the finest wicket-keeper of the day. His reputation is not by any means merely of the present season, for even when he came to England with the first team from South Africa in 1894 he was regarded as a wicket-keepor quite out of the common run. In the second South African tour in 1901 he did so well that most people said he was at least the best amateurwicket-keeper, while a large number of good judges of the game un­ hesitatingly said that he had no superiors. It was but a step from this to find him described during the present tour as having no equals. In reviewing the South African lour of 1901 “ W is­ den” sa id :— “ In one respect the team were exceedingly well off, Halliwell, as in 1894, proving himself a wicket-keeper of the very first rank. Indeed, it seemed to be the general opinion that he was better than any­ one taking part in English cricket last year. H e scorns the modern practice of standing back to quick bow l­ ing, and, even with Kotze on, was always close up to the stumps.” After the same tour Cricket described him as “ one of the very best wicket-keepers ever seen on a cricket field,” a remark which is even more sweeping than “ Wisden's ” com ­ ments, for it brings to the mind the names of Blackham, Pilling, Pooley, and other famous wicket-keepers. Like all really great wicket-keepers, Mr. Halliwell is so B im ple and direct in his methods that an untrained spectator who is watching him naturally comes to the conclusion that any idiot oould keep wicket. No matter what the ball may do, or how fast it may be, it goes so easily and naturally into the wicket­ keeper’s hands that the thing seems absurdly easy—all that you have to do is to put your hands in the right placa and freeze on to the ball when it comes into them. This is exactly what Mr. Halliwell does, and does better than any other wicket-keeper of the present day. But batsmen are not even safe against him when he is standing back, as one of them discovered not long ago when, after walking out to Kotze and missing him, he was casually going to return to his ground when he discovered to his disgust that Mr. Halliwell was contemplating a disarranged wicket with the air of a man who has been standing close to it all the time. Mr. Halliwell’s skill as a wicket-keeper is inherited, for his father, who played under the name of Bisset, was for several years the Middlesex wicket-keeper in the days of the Walkers, and from all accounts a very good wicket-keeper too. The father was also, like the son, a man who could hit, and old Middlesex players can remember many aston­ ishing drives of his on the old ground at the Oattle Market. In “ The Walkers of Southgate” reference is made to an innings played by the father on this ground in 1868, for Middlesex v. Kent, as follow s: “ The feature of the match was the partnership of Mr. E. Rutter and Mr. ‘ H. Brown,’ who, usually playing in the name of Bisset, was really Mr. Halliwell, the father of the well-known amateur w icket­ keeper. These two batsmen hit vigorously, the former (in the words of the Field) ‘ making a leg for six, and the latter a square-leg for seven, an on-drive for six, two on-drives for four each.’ It may be stated that there was a favourite com er at Islington with a considerable slope towards it, and when a ball went in this direction it was trying work for any batsman who happened to be getting stout. Mr. Bisset once hit an eighter on this ground, his partner being Mr. Rutter, who still re­ members what an effort it was to keep on running at full speed, although he was in perfect condition at the time.” When Mr. Halliwell came over with the South African team of 1894 he was second in the batting averages with 38 innings, 759 runs, highest score 111, nine times not out, average 26*5. He was generally placed high on the list of the order of goin g in, not unfrequently being sent to the wicket as first man.