Cricket 1904

A p h il 14, 1904. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 61 CRICKET AND THE CHURCH- By F. S. A sh le y -C ooper . A few weeks ago, over the open grave of William Hearn, Canon Trotter, an old Harrovian, delivered an address in the course of which he spoke in very high terms of cricket as a sport. The times indeed have changed since it was considered derogatory for a clergyman to participate in the game. Even during the past 60 years some excellent players have been obliged to almost abandon match-playing on account of their bishops not regarding it with a favouring eye. One such was the Rev. E. T. Drake, who retired from first-class cricket on taking Holy Orders, the Gentlemen in consequence losing one of their best men when opposing the Players, whilst another was the late Rev. John Morley Lee, a very good all-round cricketer who played an innings of 110 at Canterbury in 1848, and who was a most rapid runner between wickets, especially when in with Mr. R. T. King. Some excel­ lent players, however, contrived, by playing under an assumed name, to occasionally appear in great matches without angering their bishop: thus, the Rev. J. Dolphin became J. Copford, and Canon McCormick —known to the many-beaded as “ Joe” —J. Bingley or J. Cambridge. One can readily understand the Bishop of London forbidding one of his clergy to take part in a great match advertised as being played for £1,000 aside, as was the case with the Rev. J. Dol­ phin in 1831. As far back as 1747 the Rev. Henry Venn, considered the best cricketer at the University whilst at Cambridge, took leave of the game in an interesting and dramatic manner. He played for burrey against England, and, at the conclusion of the game in favour of his side, threw down his bat, saying, “ Whoever wants a bat which has done me good service may take that, as I have no further occasion for it.” His friends, enquiring the reason, he replied, “ Because I am to be ordained on Sunday, and I will never have it said of me, ‘ Well struck, Parson! ’ ” And to this resolution he strictly adhered, in spite of the remonstrances of his friends and even of the tutor and fellow of his college.* At one time it was the rule, and not the exception, for matches to be played for large stakes and for heavy wagers to be decided by the result. In these circum­ stances it was only natural that the bishops should not approve of the game, and that Miss Mitford should deliver herself of a denunciation of “ making the noble game of cricket an affair of bettings and hedgings, and maybe of cheatings.” It is gratifying to know that many eminent Churchmen were partial to the game in their youth. Good Bishop Ken, a friend of Isaac Walton (the Father of Angling), was born in 1637, and educated at Winchester, and, whilst there, “ was found attempting to wield a cricket bat.” As least, so says Lisle Bowles, as quoted in Timb’s “ School Days of Eminent Men.” Thomas Ken was a boy at Winchester in 1656, and his name is still to be seen cut out on stone in the college cloisters with that date annexed to it. He attended Charles II. on his death-bed, and it was to him the king apologised for being “ such an unconsciable long time in dying.” He is now best known as the author of our favourite morning and evening hymns. Chris­ topher Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of * Not all clergymen possessed such strict views, for in 1744 a commentator on the game wrote—“ The robust cricketer plays in his shirt. The Rev. Mr. W-----d, particularly, appears almost naked.” Lincoln, was captain of Winchester, and his brother, Charles Wordsworth, in later yeirs Bishop of St. Andrews, was for five years in the Harrow eleven. In 1825, when Harrow and Winchester met for the first time, the brothers were the rival captains. Not only were there two future bishops in the elevens, but Henry Edward Manning, afterwards the famous Cardinal, played for Harrow, and Christopher Wordsworth often recalled with interest in later years that he “ caught out Manning.” At Oxford Manning was for a time a private pupil of Charles Wordsworth, who, on one occasion, sent him a cricket bat with a poetical epistle. Wordsworth received in reply a similar epistle in twelve stanzas from Manning, of which the following is a specimen:— “ The bat that you were tind enough to send, 8^ems (for as yet I have not tried it) good ; A rd if there’s anything on earth can mend My wretched play, it is that piece of wood.” The Cardinal at all times referred to his cricket at Harrow with the greatest pleasure, and throughout his life took an interest in the game. On July 15th, 1888, being the first day of the Eton and Harrow match at Lord’s, a few old Harrovians of different generations met at a Harrow dinner. The Cardinal, who had just turned eighty, was invited. He declined to dine on the ground that he never dined out, but he would on no account forego the opportunity of meeting the members of his old school, and he recalled with pride that he had been for two years in the Harrow Eleven. He appeared as soon as dinner was over, gallantly faced the cloud of cigar smoke, was in his very best vein of anecdote and reminiscence, and stayed till the party broke up. A few years before his death he expressed a wish that an account of his career should appear in Scores and Biogra­ phies , and one was accordingly inserted. The Rev. J. C. Ryle, who appeared for Eton against Harrow and Winchester in 1833 and 1834, and for Oxford against Cambridge in 1836 and 1838, was afterwards Bishop of Liverpool, and wrote innumerable pamphlets ; the present Bishop of Winchester is his son. John Coleridge Patteson, of Eton and Oxford, was murdered in 1871 by the savages of Nukapu, near the island of St. Cruz, being then Bishop of Melanesia—a title held at the present time by the old Kent cricketer, Cecil Wilson, who is credited with having married “ the prettiest girl east of Suez.” All students of the game will remember how C. T. Studd, one of the finest amateur players we have ever had, suddenly abandoned par­ ticipating in great matches in order to become a missionary in China. He believed that he would not be obliged to master the intricate Chinese language, but that he would miraculously receive the gift of that tongue. Although so far removed from his native land, he occasionally played, but always in Chinese dress and pigtail, as he had adopted the native costume in accordance with the rules of the mission of which he was a member. At present he is living in Madras, and is still capable of doing well in serious cricket. Who is there would be so bold as to state that such men as Ken, Charles Wordsworth, Manning, Christopher Words­ worth, Ryle, Henry Lascelles Jenner (a former Bishop of Dunedin), Patteson, Studd, and Wilson have not derived a considerable measure of their success in life from indulging when young in cricket, which is capable of endowing players with many fine qualities, of which unselfishness is one of the most marked? At the present time many of the clergy are numbered amongst the most enthusiastic supporters of the game. Elevens composed entirely of Church of England ministers often take the field; it is, in fact, well known that such a team has more than once been drawn entirely from the clergy attached to St. Mary’ s, Southsea. That cricket is a game from which great benefits, both morally and physically, can be derived is evident to everybody who has more than a passing acquaintance with the pastime. About thirty years ago a member of the Church Congress, speaking at Croydon, urged the country parson not to refuse his place as an active member of the parish eleven, “ for so shall he find that the fine hit to leg, which opened the mouths of the rustic spectators on the Saturday, will leave them a little open on the Sunday morning ; and that he whom the parson has taught to twist will be the more ready to listen to his dissuasives from tortuous conduct.” In this connection a story is told of a miner, who, after being on most unfriendly terms with the parson for many years, one day asked him to visit him, as he had met with a severe accident, A fter several visits the clergyman had the curiosity to enquire the motive which had dispelled his antipathy. “ O h !” said the miner, “ that hit o’ yourn to square-leg for six a fortnight ago converted me.” The force of the remark can be understood when it is added that at the time the hit was made the miner had placed himself on the leg side within a few feet of the ecclesiastic. Remembering the above incident, one can sympathise with the rector who said that what the parish wanted was not a theologian, but a fast bowler with a break from the off. A hit for six, or a good bowling feat, may at times effect as much good as an archbishop’s sermon. Probably the best cricketing clergyman there has ever been was Lord Frederick Beauclerck, the finest all-round player in the world a hundred years ago, and for twenty- two years Vicar of St. Albans. Lord Frederick was of a very choleric nature, and, if things did not go altogether to his liking, would express himself in far from pacific terms. Living in times far different from the present, he did not think it derogatory to arrange money matches, both at cricket and running. He once served Mr. E. H. Budd so shabby a trick that the latter, good fellow though he was, could not help stating that “ Lord Frederick’s behaviour was most un­ becoming in a man in Holy Orders.” In 1818, as is generally known, the famous “ Squire” Osbaldeston, in a sudden fit of rage caused by being defeated at single wicket, erased his name from the list of members of the M.C.C., and, in so doing, ob­ literated the only two other names beginning with O. In later years Osbaldeston regretted his hasty act, and asked his friend Budd to wait on Lord Frederick and Mr. William Ward, two leading members of the club, in order to see whether he could not induce them to place his name again on the books. Ward was agreeable, but Lord Frederick, who had a “ spite” against the Squire, would not countenance such a thing—“ The insult was too great . . . . etc., etc.” Budd told Usbaldeston the result of his visit in the presence of a clergyman, a mutual friend, who remarked, a propos of Lord Frederick’s attitude, “ I should not have thought his Lordship capable of so mean an act—and he a D.D. to o ! ” Osbaldeston’ s terse and enigmatical (?) reply was fcimply “ D.D. can stand for many things besides Doctor of Divinity ! ” The Rev. T. A. Anson was in his day a wonderful wicket-keeper, who earned immortality in the match at Lord’s between Gentlemen and Players, in 1843, by stumping G. Butler off one of Alfred Mynn’s tremendous shooters, using the left hand only; C. G. Lane, whom Richard Daft des-