Cricket 1908

CR ICKET: A W EEK LY RECORD OF T H E GAME. MAY 7, 1908. “ Together joined in Cricket’s m an ly toil.”— Byron. No. 7 7 7 . VOL . X X V I I . THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1908. O n e P e n n y . SUR R E Y CRICKET. Surrey possesses excellent claims to be re­ garded as the “ Cradle of Cricket,” seeing that the game is known to have been played in the county at least two hundred land before mentioned lett to John Parvish, inn holder, deceased, that he knew it for fifty years or more. It lay waste, and was used and occupied by the inhabitants of Guildford to saw timber in, and for saw- pits, ar.d for makinge of frames of tim­ ber for the said inhabitants. When he was a statement that he had joined in “ a game called crickett” would have betrayed a general lack of knowledge of the pastime. The expression used proves that cricket was a well-known game at the end of the sixteenth century, whilst the evidence of John Derrick testifies that it was enjoyed [Hawkins, Brighton. Mair.hal. Hayward. Boyirgfcon (Scorer). T H E S U R R E Y T E A M . Hhyes. Holland. Hobbs. Sm'th (W . C.}. N. A. Knox. Lord Dalmeny. J. N. Crawford, Stiudwick. Baker. Photo by] Rushby. Lees. years before the Hambledon and Maryle- bone Clubs came into existence. In the Pavilion at the Oval is a reduced fac-simile °f a document relating to a dispute in 1598 respecting a plot of land at Guildford in which the following appears:—“ Anno. 40 Eliz., 1598. John Derrick, gent., one of {he Queen’s Majestie’s coroners of the county of Surrey, aged fifty-nine, saith this a scholler in the Free School of Guildford, he and several of his fellows did run and play there at crickett and other plaies. And also that the same was used for the bating of bears in the said towne until the said John Parvish did inclose the said par- cell of land.” The manner in which John Derrick expressed himself is noticeable. He played “ at crickett and other plaies” : by Surrey schoolboys during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. It was, of course, a primitive kind of cricket—far different from the game as at present seen in its glory and perfection at Lord’s—and from the fact that it was played on a ground used for sawpits and bear-baiting one may surmise that the wickets were not smooth nor the scoring heavy.