Cricket 1907

CRICKET j A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. JUNE 2 0 , 1907. “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly to il.” — Byron. Ho. 7 5 3 . VOL. X X V I. THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1907. PR ICE 2d CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR. RICHARD BROOKS. Probably every county in England has, at one time or another, been deprived of the services of some great amateur cricketer owing to business reasons. Surrey experienced such a loss in the case of Mr. Brooks, who, although from time to time invited to play for the County, had his cricket restricted al­ most entirely to club matches. Frequent participa­ tion in first-class cricket would have interfered greatly with his practice as a solicitor, and preferring, in the circum­ stances, to regard cricket as of secondary importance—as a recreation rather than the be-all and end-all of life—he contented himself with a very occasional appearance in matches of noie. This was, of course, the deci-ion that every wise man similarly situated would have come to. But the game suffered in consequence, for Mr. Brooks was not only in quite tbe forefront of amateur wicket-keepers, a very keen player, and an excellent judge of the game, but a batsman who would probably have developed into a run-getter above the aver­ age had he been able to play regularly in the best com­ pany. He has now kept wicket for thirty seasons, and it is a tribute to his skill that his hands show little effect of the great amount of work he has got through. Daring the twenty-one years he has assisted the Wan­ derers—the well-known Metropolitan club for which Mr. Stanley Colman has done so much—he must have dismissed hundreds and hundreds of men, for he has taken as many as nine wickets in a match, and six in succession more than once. The records of the game show that in one season he kept wicket through nine innings without allowing an extra fortunate enough to see him stump Mr. T. L. Taylor in the Yorkshire v. Eogland match at Lord’s, in 1901, witnessed a piece of cricket upon which the critics were unanimous in bestowing the highest praise. “ Will you tell me something concern­ ing your early cricket ? ” “ I was born in Lincolnshire — at Sntton-on-Sea—and it was in that county that I first became acquainted with the game. At my grandmother’s house it was possible to ob­ tain some practice, and I used to play there with my uncle, H. E. Casswell, who was very fond of the game and a fine cricketer. Some­ times we would be joined by the late Cecil Rhodes : with­ out being anything like so good a player as his brother, the late Colonel Frank Rhodes, he enjoyed the game and practised keenly. My uncle was a master at Cran- leigh School, in Surrey, and it was there that I was sent in the ’seventies. Although he had but one arm, he was a great run-getter in club cricket, and once made seven hundreds in a single season: I saw him make 163 not out and 172 not out on consecu­ tive Saturdays against Jim Street, of the County Eleven. Street and Jupp were the players engaged at Cran- leigh, and were excellent coaches. In 1876, when I was taking part in a house- match in which the Masters played, it was discovered that we had no wicket-keeper. Somebody suggested that I should take the gloves. I did so, and seemed to tumble to the duties intuitively. The game lasted several afternoons, and in an innings of 401 for nine wickets I stumped two or three off my uncle’s lobs. I was thirteen years of age then, and have kept wicket ever since. Although this means a rather long innings—thirty-one years—I think I am as good now as I have ever been. Excellent scratch games used of any description, and that he has played six three-figure innings for the club, his average for which has varied from IS to 48. Upon his necessarily few appear­ ances in first-class cricket he has invari­ ably acquittei himself with credit: thus, when playing for London County against Worcestershire, at the Crystal Palace, in 1900, he did not allow a single bye iu MR. RICKARD BROOKS. Photo by ] [. Ramdent Eastlourne . either innings (208 and 177) of the County, and two years later, in the Gentlemen v. Players match at the Oval, only seven byes were recorded against him in a total of 359, and he caught two and stumped one. Few wicket-keepers have excelled him in the promptitude with which he can gather the ball and put the wicket down, and those who were