Cricket 1906

FINEST BAT THE WORLD PRODUCES , M ay 31, 1906, CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 163 BUSSEY’S £ £ BUSSEY’S A T TH E S IG N OF T H E W IC K E T . By F. S. A sh lby -C oopbr . Leicestershire’s victory by 252 runs over Derbyshire last week, coupled with their brilliant success on Tuesday at Lord’s, reminds one that the county can boast a very respectable antiquity so far as cricket is con­ cerned. Records, indeed, show that so far back as 1789 two matches were played at Loughborough between Nottingham and Leicester, the home side losing the first by an innings and 16 runs, but winning the second by a solitary run. Games between the two towns did not take place regularly, as will be apparent when it is stated that, although they met on eight occasions, the series was spread over a periol of exactly forty years. Five of the matches were won by Nottingham, and three by Leicester, who, on their own ground in 1800, were disposed of for totals of 15 and 8! In 1791 Leicestershire opposed the M.C.C., in Burghley Park, and were defeated by an innings and 41 runs, whilst, in the following year, on the same ground, Leicester­ shire combined their forces with Rutland and beat Nottingham by four wickets. That cricket was popular in the fox-hunting county at the latter end of the eighteenth century is evident from the fact that Leicester­ shire women occasionally played the game publicly: thus, in 1792, eleven girls of Rotherby beat a similar number of Hoby, being afterwards drawn home in a triumphal car by their village swains. In 1803 Hampshire played single-handed, at Lord’s, against Nottinghamshire and Leices­ tershire, and, although the latter were assisted by Lord Frederick beauclerck, victory rested with the first-named to the extent of an in­ ningsand 20 runs. Apart fromamatch against Nottingham, at Loughborough, in 1813, we hear nothing of Leicestershire cricket from 1803 until 1824, when a remarkable game took place at Darnall against Sheffield. Like the “ old-notch” match of 1789 already alluded to, Leicester won by one run, scoring 110 and 103 against 110and 102—totals which remind one of those of the Players (204 and 112) and the Gentlemen (204 and 111) in a match at Brighton in 1881, wherein a result by a similar margin was chronicled. About this time the chief players in the county were Peter Heward, a famous wicket-keeper, and the brothers William and Thomas Gamble, both of whom were born in Leicester, and who are probably ancestors of G. F. Gamble, now playing for Surrey, who was also born in the county-town. In 1825 H. Barker— not to be confounded with Tom Barker of Nottingham—opened a new ground in Wharf Street, Leicester, where, in the same year, the town club were beaten by Sheffield by an innings and 76 runs, owing mainly to a score of 114 by E. Vincent for the visitors. Later in the season Leicester turned the tables upon their oppo­ nents, winning at Darnall by ten wickets. In 1826, Sheffieldand Leicester (379) defeated Nottingham, at Darnall, by an innings and 203 runs, in a match rendered memorable by a score of 227 by the famous Yorkshire- man, Tom Marsden, then but 21 years of age, who made his runs against Clarke and Tom Barker. In the same year XXII. of Sheffield and Leicester twice overcame England—by an innings and 12 runs at Leicester, and by six wickets at Damall, whilst in 1828 Leices­ ter, with Pilch given, played two matches with Sheffield, and won them both. The year 1828 also saw played on the Damall ground a match which many students of the I game regard as the first ever contested between North and South, but which Mr. Haygarth in his magnum opus describes as England v. Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Lillywhite and Broad- bridge played for England, and their high bowling proved altogether too much for the northerners, who were dismissed for 60 and 32, and defeated by 242 runs. The Leicester club doubtless played many matches about this time, but, unfortunately, its score-book has not been preserved. In 1827, however, the Club beat the combined forces of Balgrave and Thurmaston by an innings and 129 runs, George Welbom Owston, the Governor of Leicester Gaol, scoring 118 in about seven hours. Mr. Owston was 5 ft. 8 in. in height, weighed 12 stone, and died in 1848, aged 47. It is an interesting fact that, at the present time, the Leicester­ shire County Club contains a member of the same name—Mr. H. A. Owston—who is probably a descendant of the player above- mentioned. “ After 1829,” we read, “ the veteran Leicester Club never played together, for various reasons,” but the county, never­ theless, possessed several very accomplished exponents of the game. There was, for instance, Mr. R. T. King, who afterwards entered Holy Orders, and, although very short-sighted, has never been excelled at point. For four years he was in the Cambridge XI., and from 1847 to 1851 assisted the Gentlemen against the Players. He was a powerful hitter, and a very fast runner between the wickets, especially when in with Mr. J. M. Lee. The Rev. John Bradshaw, too, was a splendid all-round player, excelling as a wicket-keeper, but being also very good indeed as a slow bowler, and at cutting fast bowling. He was in the Cambridge XI. in 1833 and 1834, and died in 1885. His best feat was to score 198 not out and 16 not out for Leicester v. Stamford, at Leicester, in 1836, in his first innings going in first and carrying out his bat. A greater than eitherKing orBradshaw, however, wasThomas Cooper Goodrich, who, like the last-named, died in 1885. He was a slow underhand bowler, who delivered the ball from the height of the hip, and had a slight twist from leg. He is remembered chiefly by his performances for the Free Foresters, for he seldom played in a first-class match, and never for the Gentlemen against the Players. In a small game he once got out E. T. Drake, A. H. Faber, li. A. H. Mitchell, E. Tredcroft and the Hon. W . Harbord with consecutive balls. Probably no man ever excelledGoodrich so far as length andstraight­ ness were concerned:— Not less with skill and science fraught, Old Goodrich multiplies the mounting score, Adroitly gets the batsman caught, Or bowls him clean, or plants him leg-before. In a tablet to his memory in the church at Stamford his skill as a cricketer is com­ memorated. Some most interesting reminis­ cences of this great triumvirate — King, Bradshaw, and Goodrich—appeared in the Field of June 6th, 1885, fromthe penof the late Rev. Edward Elmhirst, of Shewell Rectory, himself awicket-keeper of more thanordinary ability, who was frequently told that, if he could only preach as well as he could keep wicket, he would live to be an archbishop. Captain “ Dick” Cheslyn (b. 1797, d. 1858) was intimately connected with Leicestershire cricket for a number of years, although he appeared for Sussex on three occasions in 1827. He it was who promoted the match at Leicester in 1836 between the North and South, wherein Alfred Mynn received such severe injuries from the bowling of Redgate, of Nottingham, that it was deemed necessary to amputate the thigh at the hipjoint. Mynn,