Cricket 1905

2 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J an . 26, 1905. question was discussed in after years, various accounts were given. Bat Cob- den tells me that he is perfectly sure that F. H. Hill, who carried his b it, hit the first ball of the over so hard that it would have gone to the boundary, and the match would have been over. But Bourne, fielding at mid-off, made a fine effort, and stopped it cleverly with one hand, although it was impossible to save the single. Bourne caught S. E. Butler off the next ball, and then Cobden bowled W. A. Stewart and T. H. Belcher with the last two balls of the over—there were only four balls to the over then.” * “ In your first University match you made the two highest scores for Cam­ bridge ? ” “ Yes. 50 and 36. It was very wet weather, I remember, and the scoring on both sides was low. A. F. Walter, the present proprietor of the Times, was the Oxford fast bowler, and in cur second innings he took five wickets for 35. I was one of the victims. I remember that I bsgan hitting directly I got to the wickets, and that I drove a ball through the Bide of one of the carriages.” “ Had you a preference for any parti­ cular kind of bowling ? ” “ I liked slow bowling better than fast, and bowling which broke into you better than that which broke away. You had more time with slow bowling than with fast and were not so likely to make a mistake. But I never liked old Barratt —one of the very slowest left-hand bowlers I ever met—for there was no one who had so much twist on the ball. But other men used to hit him pretty often. I remember that the first time I ever played against him I had to go in after Russy Walker for the South against the North. Russy, who had backed his runs against Jupp’s, had only to make four to be level with him, but the first ball broke in and bowled him. Like everybody else, I was immensely amused. Then I went in and was stumped first ball.” “ You used to bowl underhand P” “ Fast underhand. The reporters de­ scribed them as ‘ sneaks.’ Occasionally I met with success, and the first time I ever bowled at the Oval Humphrey, Jupp and C. G. Lane fell to me, as far as I remember. In another match at the Oval the crowd became very angry because I bowled three of their favourites, Jupp, Humphrey, and Pooley, and they began to shout ‘ Take t h e ------ off.’ Willsher, the famous old Kent bowler, then walked to the ring and said to to them, ‘ Look here. If you can’t behave * In the “ Scores of the Oxford and Cambridge Cricket Matches from 1829,” compiled by Mr. Henry Perkins, the late secretary of the M.C.C., there is a footnote to the 1870 match as follows. “ The finish ofthis match wasmost extraordinary. Oxford in their second inoiags had three wickets to go down, and wanted 3 runs to tie and 4 to win, with one batsman well set. Mr. Hill received the first ball from Mr. Cobden’s over, and bit it so hard that it would have gone to the boundary, but Mr. Bourne, with one band, so nearly stopped it that one run only resulted. Mr. Bourne caught Mr. Butler oft the next, and Mr. Cabden bowled the last two batsmen first ball.” It will be seen that this account exactly tallies with Mr. Cobden’s recollection as told by Mr. Thornton. yourselves in a respectable way we shall not play any more. See ? ’ They saw, and became quiet, but I wonder what a crowd would say nowadays if a player of the visiting side were to talk to them like that.” “ How long is it since you played in a cricket match ? ” “ The la3t time I played was in a little match three years ago at George Bulteel’s place at Slough. It was a nice warm day, the wicket was uncommonly good, the bowling moderate, and the ground very small. I think I made about fifty runs. I remember that after the match someone asked me to give one of my bats for the Daily Express Fund which was baing raised on behalf of the Cricketer’s Benevolent Society. So I said that I had only the old one that I had been using that day, and that as I should not want it any more they could have it. A Mr. Gladstone, of Sunbury, bought it there and then for the fund for f 1 17s. 6d.” “ On which of your innings do you look back with the greatest pleasure ? ” “ My innings of 107 at Scarborough in twenty-six hits in 1887 for Gentlemen of England against I Zingari. I was in for a little over an hour, and my runs were made out of about 133: there were three sixes and seventeen fours among the hits. In club cricket the umings which I en­ joyed the most was played at Rickling Green. We had to make about 250 to win in two hours and-a-half and won with twenty-five minutes to spare. My score was 163 not out, and Arthur Appleby and Jack Dale were the other two men who made runs. I remember that I was talking to my cousin, J. C. Partridge, just before the innings about the chances of making the runs, and I said that it was ten to one against us. The result was that I laid him five pounds to half a sovereign that we did not make the runs, and of course I had to pay up.” “ UuW is it that one so seldom hears of Rickling Green now ? ” “ Well, it is a long way from London, •a few miles from Bishop's Stortford, and the only reason why so many good matches were played there in former days was that Sir Walter Gilbey used to interest himself in the game, and we always used to stay at his place at Elsen- ham. But country house cricket was very much to the fore in my days. I remember once playing at Lord Sondes’ place when Lord Harris was bowling round arm in the most erratic manner. He was pitching the ball shorter and shorter, and as I was at point I judiciously stepped back a little. Presently he said, ‘ Stand in nearer.’ ‘ Not I, while you are bowling short like that,’ I replied. So he said, ‘ Well, let Ned Knight go there.’ ‘ All right,’ was my reply, and Knight took my place and went in close. The very next ball was hit tremendously hard on to his knee-cap, and he had to be carried off the ground. During these matches a band used to play, and once when I was batting, and feeling like making a large score, I went to Lord Sondes and asked him to stop the band. ‘ It’s impossible to play while the music is going on,’ I said. The band was stopped at once. And I was bowled in the very next over.” “ Will you tell me something about the great hitters that you have seen ? ” “ I think I should place Bonnor and Lyons first among them. Bonnor is said to have made longer hits than Lyons, but as far as I can understand they were never measured, and it is vary difficult to guess distances, as I have often seen in the case of my own hits, some of them when measured proving to be much longer than they seemed, while others were not as long. But I saw Bonnor hit A. P. Lucas out of the ground at Scarborough three or four times, and they were all very big hits. Alfred Lubbock could hit about as hard as most people, and I once saw him drive W. H. Wathen out of the Chislehurst ground over the lodge gate in the Empress Eugenie’s park—a very big hit iudeed. Jessop can hit more balls than anyone I have seen, but perhaps he can hardly be classed as a hitter pure and simple. I ’ve seen W.G. make some tremendous hits when he has been letting himself g o ; I once saw him hit A. G. Steel to square leg out of the ground at Scarborough, and nobody had ever done this before. The ball was breaking away a little and he had a go at it, just happening to catch it full. Among other men who could hit with immense power were George Uilyett, Percy McDonell, W. J. Ford and C. E. Green. I don’t think that men nowadays hit as hard as these.” Mr. Thornton has played cricket in many parts of the world. He never went on a tour, although, naturally enough, he was asked to go to Australia several times. Indeed, he was once offered £3,000 if he would go there with one of the English teams, but he played cricket for the love of the game and not for profit. ‘ ‘ I have practised at Bombay, Hongkong, Colombo, Sydney, Melbourne, and many other places,” he said. “ I re­ member that at Hongkong I had two nigger professionals to bowl to me on a bit of matting. They bowled exceedingly well, and I had quite as much exercise as I wanted, for the weather was about as hot as it could be. There are a lot of black professionals at Colombo, and they are excellent practice bowlers although their action is very much like a throw. I remember that when I was practising at Sydney I was interviewed by a reporter for the Australian Star, with most entertaining results. The reporter drew largely on his imagination, and among other items of interest that he gave to the readers of the paper was the information that although “ he played for Kent in his earliest days, he sub­ sequently transferred his allegiance to Nottinghamshire, proving his usefulness in both districts.” Which was news to me. “ In one of the matches at Scar­ borough,” said Mr. Thornton, “ Stoddart, W. G. and I had all failed to make a good score. It was just about the time when amateur photography came into vogue, and we were asked to pose dozens