Cricket 1904

CRICKET, A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. APRIL 28, 1904. “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. n o . 6 5 5 . v o l . x x i i i . THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1 9 0 4 . p r i c e 2d. “ TH E OLD BUFFER .” By the death of Mr. Fred Gale on Sunday last, in his eighty-first year, one of the few remaining links between the present and the past has been broken. Mr. Gale was perhaps better known to cricketers as “ The Old Buffer” than by his own name, for under that signature he wrote so much about cricket, and in such an entertaining manner, that he had a world-wide reputation. His favourite subject was village cricket, about which he was so well qualified to write by long experience of a most varied kind that his comments upon it were always received with the greatest attention. But he wrote with equal facility about all other varieties of the game, and he had met and talked with so many of the famous players of the old days, that what he had to say about them was always of interest. H is friends used to tell him that he was a lucky man because he was able to relate anecdotes about famous players who, having departed this life, could not contradict him. But he did not mind this in the least, for he knew that it was only chaff. A good deal of astonishment has often been expressed that he could relate so many of the quaint sayings of FullerPilch, whom historians have represented as being an extremely quiet man, with no conversation at all—a man who looked on and listened to others with­ out giving an opinion. When he was asked to explain this apparent contradiction, Mr. Gale could only affirm that Pilch did say the things which he has attributed to him, and that when he could be drawn out, he would talk freely. But in the course of the last two or three years I have had occasion to mention Fuller Pilch 1o two or three old gentlemen who knew him well, and they all assured me that if you could once get him going, Pilch was most entertaining and quite a humourist in a dry way, so that I think Mr. Gale’s reputation for veracity need not be questioned. Mr. Gale was in the Winchester College eleven, and played against Eton and Harrow. After he left school he lived in London and had no cricket for a long time. When he was asked to play in a two-day match at the “ Beehive,” W al­ worth, he had not held a bat in his hand for four years. On the first day it rained incessantly, but on the next morning he gave a professional five shillings to bow l to him for a couple of hours, after which he went in end scored over 80 not out, making some very big hits. H e once told me that after he had made two big hits in this match, Tom B ox, the famous oldSussex wicket-keeper, who was behind him, suddenly said, “ Y ou are a very bold young man, sir. M ight I ask if you know who is behind the stumps ? ” Anyone who has seen one of the old pictures of Tom B ox can easily imagine how the old man would have fumed at what he would consider the impudence of a young cricketer in leaving his ground when such a great man was on duty at the wicket. The result of Mr. Gale’s play in this match was that, despite of want of practice, he was at once put down as one of the Kent team to play against Notts. But he did not play much county cricket, chiefly because his father, a clergyman with a fine sense of honour, would not allow him to have his expenses paid, and yet could not afford to let him run about the country playing cricket. His father might, perhaps, have been persuaded to give way on this point, but the climax was reached when, after being invited to play for Kent against Gentlemen of England in the Canter­ bury Week, he found on arrival that his name had been crossed out to make room for a nominee of one of the members. Boiling over with indignation, Mr. Gale shook the dust off his feet at the Committee, and turned his back on county cricket. He now devoted himself almost entirely to the encouragement of village cricket in Surrey, living first at Reigate for two years and then for 16 years at Mitcham, where his name has not yet been forgotten. He frequently played for the village club, and in after years he de­ lighted to talk about the exciting matches which used to take place on the green. Some years ago he told me of an incident which occurred at Mitcham