Cricket 1907

274 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J uly 18, 1907. the device of the popping crease. It is known that the fact that Lumpy thrice at a crisis of the game bowled through, without hitting, Small’s wicket, caused the addition of the third stump. So that the present arrangement of the stumps seems to have come, by a fairly continuous and natural evolution, from the hurdle which, in Mr. Norton’s view, was not a wicket. The addition of the middle stump was, un­ doubtedly, a great change, and its importance was recognised at the time. A newspaper advertisement of 1777 was headed “ Cricketing with Three Stumps” ; the thrifty editor, however, made use of the old “ cu t” or picture which, Mr. Norton tells us, was commonly used in cricket advertisements, merely adding a line to indicate the new arrangement. (Mr. Norton does some in­ justice to the artist in saying that the bats­ man is depicted at sixty or eighty yards from his wicket). Nothing in Kentish cricket history is more noticeable than the univer­ sality of the game throughout the county. From Gravesend to Hythe, from Tunbridge Wells to Margate, every town and village seems to have been a home of cricket and the scene of a great match. Mr. Norton gives a long list of such matches played in the eighteenth century. In 1787 an effort was made to inaugurate a county club at Coxheath, where a county match was to be played once a week, the plan being “ to allow 5s. for the winners and two shillings and sixpence for the losers, to pay all expenses of horse hire, etc., to allow one shilling each man for Ealing, and sixpence for his Drink.” Even this generosity failed, owing, perhaps, to an unwise choice of head-quarters; and, indeed, it has been a fortunate Kentish tradition to divide its matches between many grounds. In 1836 a re-inauguration, more successful, took place at Town Mailing, Mr. Norton’ s home, and he gives us many pleasant reminiscences of the game there. In 1858-9 the present club was formed ; and in 1870 an amalgamation was effected with the Beverley Club at Canterbury, on condition that the Canterbury Week, one of the delights of Kentish cricket, should be main­ tained in its integrity. Between Men of Kent and Kentish Men there is no record of cricket rivalry; but between East Kent and West some jealousy clearly existed attested on the amalgamation by a rule requiring the presi­ dent to be chosen alternately from each half of the county.1Mr. ^Herbert Knatchbull- Hugessen, who had an important share in the union bf the clubs, tells the story of this and of other interesting incidents. The captain-author, despite his intimate knowledge, is at some disadvantage, perhaps, compared with the mere author. His modesty compels him to suppress bis own deeds, and tends to depress him to the mere annalist; recording *the number of matches won, and the names highest in the averages. The reader may think justice is not done to the great deeds of Mr. J. R. Mason with bat and ball, the occasional glorious hitting of Mr. Marchant, Mr. Burnup’s consistent scoring, Or Mr. Patterson’s astonishing ability to resume playing in his best form, without practice, when the Long Vacation set him free. (The law, closely associated in the person of three captains with Kentish cricket, has much to answer for in keeping Mr. Patterson and Mr. Mason from the field). But no such criticism applies to the enter­ taining chapters by Lord Harris and Mr. Norton, though not enough is said of Lord Harris’s services as the Great Revivalist of Kent. Mr. Norton’s long acquaintance with the game gives him the opportunity of telling many interesting things of the time before first-class cricket was limited to county games. It must be a delight to a veteran to recall and record incidentally such a triumph as this: “ I remembered Pilch’s warning, and did not undertake the excessive wear and tear of single-wicket upon more than a few occasions, on one of which I broke two bats, and sent a man three miles on foot to get another one of my own, playing with a borrowed one till ho came back and found me still in.” One is not surprised that Lord Harris recalls that Mr. Norton was a steady batsman; he adds that he was a successful change bowler, and owing to a curious corkscrew action of the arm before delivery he had acquired the nick­ name “ Old Wriggles.” Mr. Norton tells, too, how he once missed a catch, a “ unique experience ” with him, though, as he truly adds, ‘ ‘ probably it has occurred often with other men.” Lord Harris takes up the tale in 1871 and brings it down to 1889, when other duties withdrew him from tbe field. He tells some capital stories of Harry Jupp, then one of the delights of the Oval. “ Jupp loved batting, and v as quite difficult to get to leave the wicket if there was a chance of the umpire deciding in his favour. I caught him once close under his bat, quite a foot from the ground, but “ Juppy” stood there unconcerned, and my friends say that I spoke in a voice so terrible, “ Jupp, go out: I am not going to ask that ; that he had to go.” It is not recorded that anyone dare to invent a nickname for Lord Harris. At Jupp’s expense, too, is the story of how Mr. 0 .1 . Thornton, creeping in from his post near the umpire, caught him as he played his favourite stroke under his leg, with the fieldsmen’s hand almost touching the batsman’s pads. But on another occasion the laugh was against Mr. Thornton, who, again at short-leg, was eating an apricot when play recommenced. The first ball was on the leg side, but Jupp merely looked round. “ Why didn’t you hit it, Juppy?” said someone. “ ’Cos 1 thought Mr. Thornton hadn’t finished his apricot.” In any history of Kent, Canterbury and its traditions must play a big part. Canter­ bury Week is, of course, much more than a week’s cricket, and Col. Newnham-Davis writes of its social side and of the Old Stagers, Lord Harris describes the Australian tour of the English team in 1878-9, and Lord Darn- ley the tour of 1882-3, while Mr. Burnup describes the interesting visit, more strictly germane to Kentish history, of the County Eleven to America in 1903. Mr. Ashley- Cooper writes on the long series of Kent v. England matches, while in an appendix we have Love’s poem on one of the first of these, in 1744, when Kent won—owing to a missed catch—and “ firmly ” fixed “ their everlasting fame.” Mr. Ashley-Cooper contributes also “ The Register of Kent County C ric k e te r s , 1729-1 9 0 6 .” This “ Register,” a chapter of 118 pages of small type, with some 700 entries, is an astonishing monument of industry and research. One may doubt whether, since Mr. Haygarth compiled “ Scores and Biographies,” any such addition to our stock of cricket knowledge has been attempted. In it “ will be found the name of every player who is known to have appeared for Kent, and of every president and secretary of the County Club since its foundation in 1859.” fince many of the great cricketers of other counties appeared at times as “ given men” for Kent, and are so qualified for inclusion in the “ Register,” it tends to become a Biographical Dictionary of Cricketers. Devotees of the game, who have felt aggrieved at some neglect in the “ Dictionary of National Biography,” will find compensation here in some extremely interesting reading. The great names of Kentish cricket are many: Sir Horace Mann, Felix, Mynn—Alfred Mynn the Great, “ The Lion of Kent,” Fuller Pilch, Wenman, Willsher, Lord Harris, the Hearnes, the Blighs, Frank Penn and his brothers, Adams, Fennex, Long Robin, Farmer Bennett, Banks, Yardley, Foord-Kelcey, the Mills of Benenden, the Lubbocks, and all the worthies immortalised in Love’s poem and “ The Kentish Cricketers,” bsside those familiar in to-day’s score - sheets. Fortunate in many ways, in the assistance of county families, in its grounds, in its pro­ fessionals, in its wicket-keepers from Kips to Huish, the county has been conspicuously happy in its long line of good left-handed bowlers—WilLher, Wootton, Wright, G. G. Hearne, Martin, Blythe. Indeed, to have a good supply of left-handers is a Kentish custom, almost as old as gavelkind. Were there not four such bowlers playing yesterday ? Alec Hearne, with his 13,897 runs and l,0i&6 wickets, at present heaOs the list both of batsmen and bowlers for the county. One wishes he were still in the eleven. Informa­ tion concerning the size of the various county grounds, and pictures of them would not have been unwelcome, though the camera seems not to see cricket or crickel-fields quite as the spectator does. Mr. Ashley-Cooper writes also on “ Chron­ ology and Memorabilia,” and a chapter “ Form at a Glance,” by the same hand, LORD JOHN PHILIP SACKVILLE. (Kent XI., 1734 to 1744.) [Reproduced bykind'permissionfrom “ The History of Kent County Cricket. ]