Cricket 1905

J an , 26, 1905, CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME, 13 SOME REM IN ISCENCES. The following extracts are taken from an interview by “ Not Out” which appeared in the Sydney Referee with Mr. 0. W. Beal, the manager of the Austra­ lian team of 1882. “ As a cricketer, I still possess one record— the widest ball ever bowled. In the scratch match between the Australian Eleven and the Gentlemen of Scotland, at the Grange, Edin­ burgh, in 1882,” said Mr. Beal, with a merry twinkle in his eye, “ Spofforth, Blackham, and Horan wanted a rest, and they wanted me to play. I played in a few matches that year. But I would not play, and, as manager, would not give them leave to go away unless Murdoch put me on to bowl. He agreed to the condition, and kept his woid, for he started the bowling with me. I was great on leg theory. L. M. Balfour was the batsman. I was bowling leg-breaks, but one ball pitched over at cover-point. Old Ben Terry, the umpire, called ‘ wide,’ ” and G. F. Pardon, in the Sporting Life, chronicled it as ‘ the widest wide ever seen.’ ” “ But that year,” continued Mr. Beal, twinklirg, “ I nearly lost my record. We were playing at Liverpool against the Liverpool Club. George Palmer was bowling to Barlow with a greasy ball, which slipped out of his haud to short- leg right up in the air. Barlow, in fun, threw his bat at tne ball, and hit it, and short-leg (Massie, I think) went for the catch. It was fully six or seven yards away from the wicket. You could not call it a wide as it had been played by the bat, otherwise I would have lost my record.” “ My first recollection of big cricket,” said Mr. Beil, “ was the arrival of the first English team in 1862. I remember it perfectly. Tney were bi ought up fr^m Circular Quay iu the horse tram along Pitt Street to O’Brien’s Tattersall Hotel. I remember Caffyn was the most popular. He was the star of the team, and known as ‘ Billy the Barber.’ The matches in those days were played on the Domain. A wooden fence used to be erected so as to enclose the ground from the St. Mary’s Cathedral entrance to the fountain at the Botanic Gardens gate. But, if you demanded the right to go in without paying they could not stop you. There used to be tents all over the place. Spiers aud Pond made a lot of money out of the team. The timber used for the fences and btands in those matches, as well as tie early Intercolonials, also plajed on the Domain, used to be sold after the matches of each season. The playing area used to be roped off.” “ In the 1864 team, brought out by George Parr, what struck me most,” added Mr. Beal, in his anecdotal vein, “ was E. M. Grace. He used to have a handkerchief stuck in the strap at the back of his trousers. 1 remember as a boy I used to imitate him, and could not thiuk of playing without my handker­ chief. A figure of E. M., with the handkerchief faithfully reproduced, was placed in the Sydney Waxworks. Twenty- four years afterwards, when I was at home in 1888, I reminded E. M. of his being in the waxworks out here, and of his handkerchief. He remembered seeing the figure, and said to me : 1I ’ll give you a bit of a surprise to-morrow.’ Next day I said: 'Well, Doctor, what is the surprise you’ve got for me ? ’ He was in cricketing togs on the Clifton College Ground, and answered : ‘ How do you like my uniform ? ’ I said ‘ It looks all right. But what about it ? ’ ‘ Well,’ he said, ‘ do you see this coat I have on ? ’ I scanned it—it was an old wLite flannel coat with a little blue-braided edge all round. ‘ That’s the coat I wore all through my tour in Australia ia 1864,’ and, continued the Doctor, ‘ that’s the coat that was in the Waxworks.’ He played in it in that match, and you can bet he’s got it yet.” “ I can tell you a very funny incident about E.M .,” continued Mr. Beal, with a chuckle. “ It is characteristic of him. He was hon. treasurer of the Gloucester­ shire County Club. In the match at Clifton College in 1888 old W.G. said to me : 1Look here, C.W., here’s a nice mess I ’m in ! Look at E.M. out there with pads and everything on. He isn’t picked ! ’ Percy McDonnell aud W.G. had tossed, and E.M. knew that W.G. had won it. Afcer clearing the ground of the people, the umpires aud E.M. stoppel out at the wickets. E.M. had sent himself in first, and he wasn’ t even picked in the eleven, let alone captaiu! Nobody would tell him the position. At last, Page, I think it was, said : 1Some­ body has got to stand out,’ and he stood out. E.M , waiting padded, and with his bat at the wickets, at last called out ‘ Come on, W.G. ! ’ He took it as a matter of course that he would open the innings. I mentioned to him after the match that he was not picked. He said, ‘ What ! Not picked? I ’d like to know who is going to leave me out! E.M. is going to play for Gloucestershire as long as E.M. likes.’ Aud he did, too.” “ The last night Parr’s team were ia Sydney I was taken by my father to dinner with them. Tarrant gave me a bat and a small photograph of himself. I have it still, and here it is,’’ said Mr. Baal, showing a well-preserved photo­ graph of a powerful, determined-looking man. “ I was then quite a hero amongst the youngs!srs—we called our team the Young Australians, and played on the old rac.course (Hyde Park). Parr’s team was unbeaten, but they ought to have lost one of the matches against New South Wales on the D jrnain. Tinley and Lockj er were iu last, and when they wanted one ruu to tie, Tinley spooned the ball up to mid-on, where George Curtiss missed it, and they got the run, and afterwards won the match.” “ One of the first episodes in connec­ tion with the 1882 team,” Mr. Beal remarked with some relish, “ was that soon after having Malta an army officer was talking about throwing the cricket ball 100 yards. Bonnor, in his usual grandiloquent way, said: ‘ 100 yards! 100 yards! Why, I could jerk i t ! ’ And so he could. After a little talk, it culminated in a wager of £100 that Bonnor would not throw 115 yards or mere with the first throw, and on the first day he landed on Euglish shores. I remember Bjnuor coming down on board ship, and telling me he had made the wager. O.d Caleb Peacock, of Adelaide, was stakeholder. We got to Plymouth, and it was a fine day, so Bonnor, Murdoch, Tom Garrett, and myself g )t off the boat, the others going on. We tried to get a o| oz. ball, but could not get any lighter than 5J oz. Before finally agreeing to the ground we went to several places, including the Hoe, but that was down h ill—all right for B jnnor, but it did not suit the other party. Then we went to the Racecourse, but that was slippery, and, of course, did not suit us, so at last we arrived at the birracks in Plymouth. As it was gravel, and there was no wind, all agreed that the conditions were fair. We got hold of the quartermaster — he happened to have a record in the army, for he had thrown 107 yards, I think. When we told him what the event was he became deeply interested. Bonnor got the quartermaster to put a pile of newspapers down as a target, about two feet high, at a distance of 120 yards, to aim at. He was going to throw without taking his waistcoat off. It showed you the cool belief he had in his powers. I insisted on his stripping to the singlet, though he didn’ t like the idea. He was toying with the bill. ‘ A man of my inches not being able to throw this little thiug 115 ya rd s!’ Well, he threw 119 yards, 7 inches, and won the wager. I remember the old qu irtermaster bagged for the ball, and we gave it to him. He never dreamt that anyone could throw so far, aud he wanted the ball as a s -uveuir. You ought to have seen ‘ Bon,’ the centre of admira'ion at Ply­ mouth Barracks after that throw. It was a pretty gx>d throw, seeing that Bonnor had been tix weeks on board ship.” Mr. Beal tells an umpiring story in connection with H. H. Massie’s great innings of 206 against Oxford University at Oxford, on his first appearance ia a match in England : “ Insttad of having the sight- board as we have it on our leading grounds,they had a canvas screen inside the boundary, held firm by ropes aad guys. The screen, of course, was the boundary. When Matsie was dis­ missed he drove the ball straight, a tremendous hit, and Hamilton, jumping over the rope that held the screen, caught the ball when actually past the boundary screen, Luke Greenwood, the umpire, said to me afterwards: ‘ Why did Mr. Massie go out? He weren’t out; it were boundary.’ However, Massie, thinking either that he had got enough for one go, or appreciating the brilliant catch, never appealed, but came away. That was a wonderful innings. I have never seen any one hit on the off-side like H. H. did that day. Of course he did not limit himself to the off—his score will