Cricket 1905

C R IC K E T , A W EEKLY REOORD OF T H E QAME. JU LY 20, 1905. f t ! | | § f '/ ? £ C O X l !)$©$(. =** “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. h o 697 . T o il. x x i v . THUESDAY, JULY 2 0 , 1905. p b i c b ad. THE PRESIDENT OP THE M.C.C. ( an appreciation .) By O ne op H is F biends . When, according to immemorial cus­ tom, Lord Granby, the outgoing Presi­ dent of the M.C.C., nomi­ nated Mr. Charles Ernest Green as his successor, no more popular selection could have been made, for the new president possesses every possible attribute required for the proud position of figure-head of the greatest cricket institution in the world. As a schoolboy at Upping­ ham, C. E. Green was as great a boy-cricketer as any who ever lived; for influ­ ence for good in the school, he was like young Brooke in “ Tom Brown.” No sooner did he leave school than he proceeded to take the first great step to make Uppingham as famous in cricket as it had been made in other respects by Edward Thring; he sent them H. H. Stephenson, and from that hour Uppingham has pro­ duced continually a supply of glorious cricketers, famous at school, at the Universities, and almost more so by their old-boy team, known as the Uppingham Rovers, who at one time boasted an un­ beaten record of eight years, and were capable of holding their own against any com­ bination, be it England or Australia, amateurs or professionals. After extra­ ordinary success in the ’Varsity encounters, for Sus­ sex, and Middlesex, Charley turned his attention to the county of his birth, and set about him with such good will that Essex soon became a famous first-class county. Nor is cricket alone the one and only sport he in­ dulged in. Do we not know with what signal energy, success, and liberality he acts, and has acted for years, as Master of the Essex hounds ? In an immortal work, in which there is a description of a friendly contest between All Muggleton and Dingley Dell, in a comparison of the artists engaged on either side, is it not distinctly pointed out that both the chief bowler and batsman were famous for other accomplishments than games only ? We read : “ Have you never heard of Dump- kins and determination ? Have you never learnt to associate Podder with property ? ” Has not Charles Green taken a leading part in the great shipping industry initiated by his ancestors ? But shipping does not begin with a G ; but on consideration, after dispelling gig, galley, galleon, gondola, etc., we come to a real big G—the Orient S.S. Garonne, which carried, in 1880, a precious freight to these shores; inter alios, Murdoch, Spof­ forth, Blackham, McDonnell, and Bannerman! Did we not then pray :— Navis, quaa tibi creditos Debes Colonios fmibus Angii­ tis, Reddas incolumes precor. I had a brother at Uppingham and went, in my first year at Oxford, to stay there in 1864. I had made C. E. G.’s acquaint­ ance at Walthamstow, where he lived, as will be seen anon. The X I. v. X X II. match was just going to be­ gin; the X X II. were one short and asked me to play. The X I. won the toss; C. E. G. went in. I was a stranger and they put me on to bow l; Edward Thring, Head Master, was keeping wicket. I bowled a softball which Charley got hold o f ; a little kid put a hand out at mid-on or mid-off, and it stuck—C. E. G. had to go ! He made 3,000 runs in all cricket at Uppingham that year with one bat, and I have got it here now. I had it at Oxford. He gave it me in 1864 or 1865, and I was offered £5 for it at Oxford by E. M. Kenney, it was such a beauty; I, of oourse, (. Reproduced , by permission o f the proprietors,from the zvell-known engraving .in “ Baity's Magazine in' 1889.) MR. O. B. GREEN.