Cricket 1907

21 0 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J uke 20, 1907. to ba arranged at the School on Wednes­ days and Saturdays, and in them I used to obtain a very fair crop of wickets— sometimes five or six. Once I was obliged to see the doctor, owing to toothache. Dr. Merriman, who was the first head-master the school ever had— he was there for over twenty years, but retired about ten years ago, when he became Vicar of Freshwater—kindly accompanied me to have the tooth looked at. 1Be careful,’ he said to the dentist, ‘ he is our best wicket-keeper.’ I thought it was about the best thing he ever said of m e! I remained in the Cranleigh Eleven until 1880, when I went to York to be articled to a solicitor.” “ Were you able to obtain much cricket ia Yorkshire ? ” “ Oh ! yes, plenty. I joined the York­ shire Gentlemen’s C.C., whose head­ quarters were at York, and played for them whenever I could tpare the time. Among my fellow members were G. A. B. Leatham, W. F. Forbes. Marlin Hawke (as he then wa») and J. Frank, a very fast bowler, whose action was once questioned by the Australians, but whicn, in my opinion, was quite fair. Leatham gener­ ally used to Keep wicket iu the match between Gentlemen and Players of York­ shire, and I in the others. In 1884 I played for the Yorkshire Colts bgainst the Veterans of the County, who had Allan Hill, Lockwood, Pinder, Iddigon, Atkinson, Emmett, Qrimshaw, and Ulyett playing for them. It was a small scoring match. In the first ionings I went in second wicket down and carried out my bat for the top score, and in the second again played tbe largest innings. In my last season in Yorkshire I played for four clubs, and had the highest batting average for three of them and one of 23 for the other—the Yorkshire Gentlemen’s C.C. It was, by- the-way, whilst I was at York that I became known as “ R. B.” Brooks, although I have only one Christian name —Richard. Living in the same city was another E. Brooks, a school-master, aud it was in order to prevent confusion that I assum e! a second initial. At times each of us would receive and open letters intendtd for the other, which was not pleasant: but the adoption of the “ B ” happily remedied matters. In 1886. a two - day match between the Gentlemen and Players of Yorkshire took place at Bradford, and both W. T. Graburn, who also settled in Surrey a year or two later, and I played. In the first innings I was not out, and in the second went in firi>t with Martin Hawke. Those were the days of Bates, Peel, Em­ mett, Prate, L >ckwood, Ulyett, Preston, G. R. Baker, Hall, Joseph Hunter, and others. We had scored about 130 together for the first wicket by lunch time, Hawke, who drove superbly, having made 91 not out. As we were going to the pavilion he said to me, ‘ If I get my hundred to-day my governor will be so pleased that he’ll pay my tailor’s bill.’ Directly after lunch it so happened that he made a terrific return to Peel, who held the ball, although his left hand was so severely split that he was unable to take any further part in the match. Fifteen years later, Lord Hawke and I were playing against each other in the match at Lord’s between Yorkshire and Eagland, which had been arranged to benefit the family of William Yardley, and I asked him if he remembered the Bradford incident. ‘ O il! yes,’ he exclaimed; ‘ it was the finest innings I ever played in my life.’ But he c )uld not recollect whether the tailor’s bill had been settled in consequence; he thought ‘ probably not.’ ” “ How did you come to be identified with Surrey cricket? ” “ I came up to London in 1887, and lived with a brother who wa i studying at St. Thomas’s : we shared rooms near the Oval, so as to be near the cricket. I happened to meet H. A. Smith, known as ‘ J u lg e ’ Smith, and on his invitation went to play at the Crystal Palaoa for the ClaphamWanderers (no wtheWanderers). Fortunately I did fairly well, goiog in fifth wicket down and making about 40, and capturing some meu at the wicket, including Fox before he had scored, and Mitchell for a few. Stanley Caiman was so pleased with my form that at the end of my innings he ran out on to the grouud and invited me to play again it Surrey Club and Ground. I accepted, and, although I oi 1not make many runs, I was fortunate enough to bring off a couple of stumps on the leg-side. It was about that time that cricketers were talk­ ing of ‘ a wonderful young ’ un, playiug f jr the Clapham Wanderers, named D. L. A. Jephson.’ I think that Jephson was for some years, without exception, tbe finest club cricketer I have ever seen. He played a different game in such matches from what he did in first-clasi cricket. I once saw him make over 300 not out in a little over three hours for the Wanderers against Norwood, when every­ body else on the side who batted did not score a hundred between them! His lobs, too, have proved wouderfu'ly suc­ cessful, and he must have taken hundreds and hundreds of wickets and mide considerably over twenty thousand runs for the Wanderers alone.” “ You have played for Surrey oace or twice, I believe ? ” “ I was asked to do so on a few occi- sionB, but, owing to my profession, the Law, was able to appear ouly spasinodi- callyin great matches. I played for Surrey against Gloucestershire at the Oval iu 1889, and have also appeared for London County on a few occasions. It was in one of the latter’s matches—against Worcestershire at the Crystal Palace iu 1900 —that E. W. Dillon made a na ue for himself by scoring 108 and not out 29 on his first appearance in a match of much importance. ‘ W.G.,’ then fifcj- two years old, made 72 and not out 110, and we won easily. In the following year I was chosen to keep wicket for England in the Yardley benefit match at Lord’s, and again there was some note­ worthy batting. Fry scored 105—his sixth successive hundred—and Jessop played a remarkable innings of 233 in two hours and a-half. I went in last but one, and, although I made only 4, the wicket put on over 60, and Jessop scored his Iasi 57 runs out of 59 ia balf- an-hour. In my early days cloth-covere 1 wicket-keeping gloves were used, and they certainly did not protect the hands so well as the modern kinds do. I remember that, when playing for the Yorkshire Gentlemen’s C.C., aad using some of the cloth-covered variety, the umpire carried in his pocket a glass fl isk which contained water, in order to sprinkle the gloves every four or five overs. Afterwards, the rubber-faced ones came into use. I had a pair of the latter for the Gloucestershire match pre­ viously referred to, and 1Frizz/ ’ Bnsh was so pleased with them that he borrowed them, and stumped me with my own gloves.” “ Doubtless you have had many curious experiences during your thirty years’ cricket ? ” “ Keeping wicket in a village match as a youth I remember one of the locils imbibed too much beer at lunch. Afc«r the interval he went in to bat. He played forward at the ball, and, missing it, I whipped off the bails and appealed for a stump. Toe umpire gave him not out, whereupon the batsman turned round to me and, raising his bat in a threatening manner, said, ‘ Look here, you young davil, if you try any of your monkey games on with me again I ’ll brain you ’—and he looked as if he meant it. Needless to say, I did not appeal again. On another occasion much amusement was created in a country match by the Vicar, who was temp irarily relieving the regular umpire. An appeal was made for leg-before w icke:: Bowler: — ‘ How’s that ? ’ Vicar : —1How’s what ? ’ Bowler: —‘ How’s that for l.b.w. ? ’ Vicar : —‘ What constitutes l.b.w. ? ’ Adjournment for production of and per­ usal of the rules of l.b.w. by the Vicar. After au interval, which seamed about 10 minutes, Vicar :—‘ Without tha slightest hesita­ tion, I say ‘ not ou t! ’ About the year 1895 a scratch side, com­ posed chiefly of Wanderers, went down to Bucknalls, near Watford, to play against the Panthers on the private ground of Mr. Frank Taylor. The Panthers went in first and scored exactly a hundred. We made 640, aud after­ wards got them out a second time for 40, thereby winning—it was only a one-day match—by an innings aud 500 runs. I don’ t think the score appeared in any of the sporting papers, bu„ 1 can vouch for the facts. Jephson played for us in a pair of dancing-putnps and male 113, run out, and Cobb, who afterwards appeared for Buckinghamshire, score 1 about 120. George Beldam was also a member of the successful side. Tae following year, when we went down to play them again, we found they had enlisted the services of Titchmarsh and W. A. J. West.” F. S. A.-C.