Cricket 1907

J an . 31, 1907. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 3 when averages and championships cease to trouble, and the players are at rest. To students of the game the story of the old Hambledon Club has always appealed with peculiar force, and every item of information concerning the doings or the careers of the men who enabled it to meet, and defeat, England on level terms has been carefully treasured and preserved. Scores and Biogra­ phies, The Cricket Field, and Nyren tell us a great. deal, but much fresh information is provided'by M l. H. T. Waghorn, ths result of whose researches has just been published by the M.C.C. under the title of The Dawn of Cricket. n>-t!■ - beed J ,i "_r '!_• The book deals with the game from very early times up to the year 1800. The accounts of matches are reproduced from the old newspapers verba'im, literatim, et “ punc - tuatim," aud very quaint some of them are. A Toronto editor once asked his readers to excuse all errors in the next issue of his paper, as at the time of publication he would be many miles away, reporting a match between Canada and the United States, but the English newspaper proprietors of 150 years or so ago were apparently even more haphazard in their methods. Were there such things as proof-sheets in those days, one wonders? And were the editors men of education ? One is tempted to ask these questions by learning that several matches were reported as being played on “ Guildford Bacon,” before hundreds of persons of “ both sects ” : and there are many other instances in the book of the unconscious humour of those old-time editors. But the value of the volume is the amount of fresh information furnished concerning the Counties, the Hambledon Club, and the old players. Mr. Waghorn has oven succeeded in unearthing the full scores of some first-class matches, but a few such given in the volume e.g., those on pages 77, 123, 139, 146, and 149— are already to be found in Scores and Biogra­ phies. One of the author’ s discoveries is the following :— On Broad-Halfpenny Down, June 24, 25, 1772. Of the many interesting items recorded in the volume, only a few can be referred to now. Several instances of heavy scoring are noted, e.g., Lord Strathavon’ s score of 150 at Aldermaston W harf in 1791, and Ensign Beckett’ s innings of 64 (caught) and 160 (run out) in a match in Ireland in 1800. One can sympathise with the gentleman who “ acci­ dently fell down dead,” and with the Duke of Manchester, whose death at Brighton, in 1788, was accelerated by “ a cold that his Grace received from sitting on the grass to see a cricket-match.” There are many inter­ esting notes concerning early cricket in Brighton, and the part played therein by the Prince of Wales and his followers, but the author is in error in stating (page 71) that the game was not played there before 1785. A double-tie match, played in 1777, when the totals were 56 and 40 against 66 and 40, is recorded, and that fast scoring was not unknown ‘ ‘ when George the Third was King ” is evident from the fact that in 1786 as many as 260 runs were made in three hours in a single-wicket match. The dress of the M.C.C. in 1798, we are told, was “ sky-blue coats with gilt buttons, nankeen waistcoats and breeches, drab beaver hats, green on the inside.” Although Mr. Waghorn has over-looked some early allusions to the game— e.g., Oliver Cromwell playing when a boy, and a few other seventeenth-century references— he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has provided the cricket historian with a great quantity of fresh and valuable material. But the “ Bibliography of Cricket” (pp. 177- 204), which is evidently a list of the cricketical items to be found in the British Museum, should not have been included, for, after Mr. Taylor’ s exhaustive articles on the subject in our columns last year, such a compilation must suffer by comparison. Lord Harris, who has edited the volume, observes in the Preface :—“ I submit that the students of the game cannot be sufficientlv grateful to Mr. Waghorn for this labour of love,” and with this expression of opinion we are in hearty agreement. separated “ W .W .” from other Surrey batsmen when at his best was greater than that which divided the two players named from their comrades. If Walter Head could have played in his best form on the easy, artificial wickets of the last six or eight years, there can be no doubt that his average would have been some­ thing abnormal, something nearer to what “ W.G.’s ” would have been, than that of any other player. One would not compare a great batting genius like Walter Read with men of the plodding type, any more than one would compare a cart-horse with a thoroughbred, a craftsman with an inventive genius. To Walter Head and George Lohmann the resuscitation of Surrey cricket is mainly due, and all lovers of the Oval owe a debt of gratitude to their great names. Their early deaths —Lohmann when still in early prime, Walter Head when he should still have b3en in tbe full vigour of manhood—prove 'io us how liberally they gave of their best to the game, spending and being spant for Surrey and for England. Singularly enough, both succumbed to the same fell malady—pneumonia. Mention must not be omitted of Mr. Read’s skill as a fieldsman. In his young days he was brilliant in the long-field; in his later years he was grand at point. In early days he bowled slow-rouud of the A. P. Lucas type; later on he took to lobs with much success and once, in the Scarborough Week of 1891, did the hat-trick. He played Association foot­ ball, was a good skater, pedestrian and billiard-player, whilst at smokiug con­ certs he was the life and soul of the gathering. The writer will always re­ member his kindness to himself on a certain occasion at Lord’s, when the Australians were playing M.C.C. in the September of 1890. Meeting Mr. Read in the hotel and inquiring for Boyle, Mr. Head took the trouble of taking the writer into the Pavilion and himself brought Boyle to him, and was moit agreeable and genial in many ways, as indeed the universal testimony of all who knew him was that he always was at all times. The famous player leaves a widow, a son, and three daughters to mourn their loss, which, it is to be hoped, will be, in some degree at least, assuaged by the knowledge of the esteem and respect as a man in which Mr. Walter Read was held, apart from the regret universally felt for the loss of a cricketer of such unique and commanding abilities, and the sorrow of the cricket-world that they can see his face no more. THE D AW N OP CRICKET.*- To many followers of cricket the history of the game is a subject which never loses its charm. Accounts of the doings of Small and Harris, of Beldham and Lumpy, can always be read and re-rcad with never-failing interest, especially in the non-cricket season, * The Dawn of Cncket (pp. v., 204). By H. T. \Vaghom. Edited by Lord Harris. Published by the M.O.O. 5s. H ambledon (w ith Yalden and Edmeads). 1 st inns. 2 nd in T. Brett ........ ... 11 ... ... 2 \V. Yalden ... 5 ... ... 9 J. Small ........ ... 78 .. ... 31 T. Sueter........ 2 ... 9 R. Nyren........ ... a ... 4 G. Leer ........ ... i ... ... 0 J. Edmeads ... 0 ... ... 6 P. Stewart ... 12 ... ... 11 E. Aburrow .. ... 27 ... ... 0 W. Hogsflesh .. ... 0 ... ... 4 W. Barber ... 1 ... ... 0 Byes, etc. ... 0 ... ... 0 Totals 146 ... ... 79 E ngland . T. W hite........ 1 st inns. ............... 35 ... 2 nd inns. ... 6 J. Fuggles . 5 ... ... 12 — Minshull . 16 ... ... 1 J. Miller .. .. 11 ... ... 0 — Gill ........ 5 ... ... 2 — Palmer . 13 ... ... 8 T. May ........ . 15 ... ... 18 — Childs........ . 2 ... ... 0 J. Fram e........ 2 ... ... 4 “ Lumpy” . 5 ... ... 7 R. May ........ 0 ... ... 5 Byes, etc. 0 ... ... 0 Total 109 ... ... 63 Hambledon won by 53 runs. In the newspaper account the match is described as one between Hambledon and the Counties of Kent, Middlesex and Surrey, and, except in the case of the Mays, no initials are given. Three years before, Sueter and Leer, when playing against Surrey, made 128 together for the first Hambledon wicket. F. S. A .-C. THE CR ICK E TE R ’S D I A R Y * T h e fact that “ The Cricketers’ (G.G.B ) Diary,” published by G. G. Bussey ana Co., Ltd., has reached its sixteenth year, is of itself sufficient to thow that this handy cricket annual has established itself thoroughly in public favour. It could hardly be otherwise, as the Diary, which goes easily into the waistcoat pocket, appeals to every class c f player, as well as to the ordinary follower of the game, with equal interest. How such a quantity of statistical matter, all of practical use, can be compressed into this booklet, though it runs into two hundred pages, can only be understood on careful exami­ nation. The Diary, which gives a daily space for engagements and memoranda the year through, would of itself more than repay the small cost of this useful pocket yearly. •The Cricketer’s Diary for J907. G. G. Bussey and Co., London. 6 d. R ICHARD DAFT’S “ Nottinghamshire Marl.”— Particulars apply, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Notts. [A dvt