Cricket 1906

CR IC K E T : a weekly record of th e game . MAY 24, 1908. “ Together joined in Cricket’ s manly toil.” — Byron. X 0.719. VO L . X X V . THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1906. p r i c e 2 a. THE HON. F. S. JACKSON. If only as a grateful appreciation of the unvarying success of his leadership of the English elevens in the Test matches of last year, the biography which Cassell and Co. have just issued under the above title would be as welcome as it is oppor­ tune. Nor in the eternal fitness of things could a better historian have been found than in the author of “ Cricket of Yesterday and To­ day.” Mr. Percy Cross Standing has a graceful pen, which lightly turns to most subjects of popu­ lar interest. Latterly he has, happily for the game, given of his best to the cause of cricket and the enlightenment of cricket­ ers. His eulogy of K. S. Ranjitsinbji was a charm­ ing sketoh of a particu­ larly interesting per­ sonality in cricket. In his tribute to the Hon. F. S. Jackson we are inclined to think that he has, if anything, gone one better. However that may be, he has cer­ tainly produced “ a full, true, and p a rticu la r account,” and, what is more, one which main­ tains its interest as well as its high standard of merit, of a cricketer who stands out conspicuously as the Bayard of the game —Sans peur et sans reproche. Since he first went, as a small boy, to Lockers Park as a pre­ paration for Harrow School, nothing of the smallest interest in Stan­ ley Jackson’s cricket career has escaped Mr. Standing’s eagle eye. How the boy was father to the man is soon placed beyond doubt. The story how he bowled out the Principal of Lockers Park no less than eighteen times, to receive in return eighteen bottles of ginger beer from the Head who had promised a bottle to any boy able to bowl him out, makes one almost young again one’ s self. At Harrow his influence was no less marked. His infinite variety off, as well as on, the cricket field could hardly fail to make him popular. And here in (.Reproducedfiom 11Biography of Hon. F. S. Jackson ’ by permission o f Messrs. Cassell and Co.) parenthesis one may pause to recall with pleasure that Mr. Standing has not omitted to perpetuate the delightful story of his reply to an appreciation of his successful all-round cricket in his last Eton and Harrow match. “ I don’t care so much for myself,” he is said to have answered, “ but it’ll give the Guv’nor such a lift.” H i s “ B l u e ” a t Cambridge was given him by another hardly less famous, and certainly no less strenuous cricketer, S. M. J. Woods, whose popularity with the cricket public at one time would fairly bear comparison with that of last year’s English captain. Inallud- ing to Stanley Jackson’s Cambridge days, Mr. Standing tells a neat little story characteristic of Sammy Woods’ sports­ manlike instincts. See­ ing Jackson gloomily reflecting in the pavilion over an “ egg,” the result of his batting against Yorkshire, “ Sammy ” c h e e r ily r em a r k e d , “ What’s the matter with you, Jacker ? Is it that “ B lue” you are feeling anxious about ? You can have it now if you like,” adding, with a kindly laugh, “ but you know it isn’t usual for it to be given until after the next match.” There were giants in those days at Cambridge, among them such stal­ warts, in addition to Woods and Jackson, as F. G. J. Ford, G. Mac­ Gregor, A. J. L. Hill, and C. M. Wells. His visit to India with Lord Hawke’s Team at the end of 1892, it is hardly necessary to add, gave the greatest satis­ faction to all classes of cricketers, native as well as Anglo-Indian. “ It