Cricket 1908

I 2 + CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M ay 7, 1908. CR ICKET AND NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY . The cheaper issue of the Dictionary of National Biography is an event. Happy the man who can find room on his shelves for that great library—for library it is—and refer to its volumes without rising from his arm-chair ! It seems ungracious to find any fault with so very valuable a work, so munificent a gift to literature. But truth will out, and the fact is crick tcrs are badly treated in the great Dictionary. Their deeds are grudgingly and insufficiently re­ corded. As Emerson said that Hallam’s verdicts on literature were all dated from London, so the judgments of the Dictionary are dated from the British Museum. Lord’s is scarcely known to the editors; Lord’s name is never mentioned, the ground mentioned it seems but once. The bookman and the bookish man have full memorials; but the national game is scarcely admitted to the National Bio­ graphy. The lives of a few men excep­ tionally. distinguished, especially if already commemorated in books known to the general reader, are briefly recorded. Fel.x and Richard Daft are in the Dictionar for Felix and Daft wrote bcoks; Alfred Mynn is there, perhaps brought in by his old friend, Felix, perhaps because a name mentioned in Hood’s poems and twenty other books could not well be omitted. Fuller Pilch is there and George Parr, who, like Alfred Mynn, occupied pre-emin­ ent positions. But there is no mention of G. F. Grace, who a generation ago was known to four Englishmen out of five as one of the great Gloucestershire trio ; noi of I. D. Walker, most famous, perhaps, of another cricketing brotherhood. Nor i there a word of George Lohmann, that brilliant bowler and fieldsman and cheerful bat. Had he written a pamphlet about somebody’s book on somebody else’s poetry, he had had his niche in the Dictionary. But because he was merely a cricketer, an attractive and magnetic figure in the field, known by sight to a million or so of Englishmen in England and abroad, and by name to millions more, he ranks below the meanest scribbler whose name is in the British Museum Catalogue. Since he is not in the Dictionary, it is not surprising we learn nothing of Southerton, once deemed the best bowler of his day, or of Buttress, tho’ Calverley celebrated his “ peculiar twisters,” or of F. P. Miller, who helped to give Scores and Biographies to the world, or of Lord Frederick Beau- clerk, who fills so large a place in old cricket records. Even Hambledon is ignored. That the Ilambledon Club once filled the place now occupied by the M.C.C. is widely known, owing to the happy accident by which Nvren’s recollections were recorded in a book that is literature, charming even to those who know nothing of cricket. Nyren has been admitted within the Dictionary’s portals ; his book gave him a passport. But of the men he celebrates no one has passed the barrier. The eleven who r. presented Hambledon when Hambledon was at its best and could beat England, Nyren says, were David Harris, John Wells, Richard Purchase, John Small, junior, Harry and Tom Walker, Robinson (who was not in fact a Hambledon player), Noah Mann, Thomas Scott and Thomas Taylor. No single one of this immortal eleven is men­ tioned ! Even David Harris, “ the best bowler ever known,” Harris, who so im­ pressed those who saw him that Mr. Mit- fcrd declared it “ utterly impossible to con­ vey with the pen an idea of the grand effect ” of his bowling, goes without a line. All the other Harrises are there— authors, bishops, generals, county court judges, actors, engravers, publishers, poets, organists, doctors, clothing contractors, a treasurer of Guy’s Hospital, and several preachers ; but there was no room for men­ tion of the cricketer walking in his old age on crutches to the field, obliged to rest between the overs in an arm-chair, but still bowling and bowling well. “ A good cricketer, like a good orator, must be an honest man; but what are orators compared to the men of cricket?” asked Mr. Mitford. “ There have been a hundred, a thousand orators; there never was but one David Harris. Many men can make good speeches, but few men can de­ liver a good ball. Many men can throw down a strong enemy, but Harris cculd overthrow the strongest w!cket. Cicero once undermined the conspiracy of Catiline and Harris once laid prcstrate even the stumps of Beldham.” Beldham, too, is excluded from the Dic­ tionary,—“ the once great, glorious, and unrivalled William Beldham, called for love and respect, and for his flaxen locks and his fair complexion ‘ Silver Billy.’ ” “ Ah, where be Beldham now, and Brett, Barber and Hogsflesh, where be they?” asked the pcet. Wherever they may be, in whatever Elysium where the turf is fair and the joys of Hambledon revive, they are not in the Dictionary, not in what someone has called a national Walhalla. Even when the cricketer is present, his deeds are for­ gotten. Of William Ward, who was (though the Dictionary does not say so) —“ rich, condescending, ar.d free, And a well informed man and a City M.P. ” it is recorded in the Dictionary that he wrote a pamphlet on bi-meta!lism, but not that he was long remembered for the biggest score ever recorded in first-class cricket (his 278 for the M.C.C. v. Norfolk) until “ W .G .” eclipsed it in 1876. The Duke of Dorset is commemorated as an ambassador and his fondness for the game is mentioned ; but not his prowess ; not how “ far unlike the modern way Of blocking every ball at play, He firmly stands with bat upright, And strikes with his athletic m ight; Sends forth the ball acrossf the mead And scores six notches for the deed.” It is not for want of due and picturesque commemoration elsewhere, such as should appeal to men of letters, that the cricketers are forgotten in the Dictionary. Mr. Ais- labie, who appears in Tom Brown, is ab­ sent. So are Leer, the long-stop, “ as sure of the ball as if he had been a sand-bank,” and Aylward of the long innings, who amused the rustics of Hambledon by calling for a lemon too early in its course. Joe Guv—“ all elegance, sir, all elegance ; fit t o . play in a drawing-room before Her Majesty ”— is absent too. One of the five Lillywhites known to fame alone appears. The great wicket-keepers Box, Wenman and Lockyer are all forgotten by the editors. The pioneers and heroes of the early days, like Lord Tankerville, the men of the United Elevens, like Clarke, Wisden, Grundy, Dean and Willsher, the great pro­ fessionals who lived nearer our own time, like Ulyett and Jupp, all are cheerfully consigned to a quite unmerited oblivion. Nothing but a supplemental volume for cricketers alone can redress the injustice done by the literary folk of the Dictionary to these heroes of the playing fields. True, there are the memoirs in Scores and Bio­ graphies, but they nerd collection in one volume, and should be “ revised, corrected, and considerably augmented.” There is work yet for the “ able editor.” Mean­ while, and in spite of these omissions, let us be grateful for the great deal, the very great deal, that is so v. ry good, given us in D.N.B. Old Nicholas used to say “ Had 1 the pen of a Kelly’s Directory ” to indi­ cate his ideal of true copiousness ; but what is that beside the pen of a National Bio­ grapher ? E.B.V.C. GRANVILLE v. BROM LEY.—Played at Bromley on May 2. G r in v il l e . A. S. Johnston, st R. E. Lincoln, b Reid 5 Hill, b Neame ... 54 C. E. C. IOndle, c Neame, b Atkinson 41 H. Smith, lbw, b Atkinson ......................1 P. C*. Charlton, b Neime ............... 6 II. E. T. omson, b Fuller ..................28 P. P. Lincoln, c Ptar­ gali, b Full r .1 8 W . E. Dedrick did not b it. B ro m le y V. Longworth, c and b Fuller ... 1 F. B. W ood, c Fuller b Reid ...............4 Roy Johnston not out 0 Extras ...............14 Tot«l (9 wkts.) 172 A. A. fuller, c Smith, b C h arlton ..............19 F. Reid, b A. S. John­ ston ... ............... 6 S. Tucker, b A. S. Johnston ............... 9 C. H i'l, b A. S. Johu- s t o n .......................... 15 F. Ground, b A. S. Johnston ... ... 6 W . Strudwick, b A. S. Jolins’ on ... 3 G. Atkinson, b A. S. Johnston ... 0 P. Strudwick, c and b Dedrick ... 0 H. Pearsall, b Charlton 1 W . Lockley, c and b (hailttn 4 A. Neame, n otou t ... 0 Extras Total 2 . 63 GRANVILLE “ A ” v. BLACKHEATH. -Played at Blackheatli on May 2. G r a n v ille A.” A. D. Spencer, b CapS. Burnett, c Day, b tain D avies.............. 1 Turner 2 IS. G .le, b Captain C. Hopwood, c Day, Davies ............. 0 b Smith ............... 0 C. llelder, lbw, b F. Rowbotham, not Sm ith......................... 22 out ............... 0 H. Temple b Gill 2 A. Rodwt-11, c Smith, J. Hollingworth, c b Turner ............... 0 Honey, b Davies .. 0 P. Cavenaugh, c Osman b Smith .............. 10 Extras ............... 5 V. Thomson, c Blucke b Turner ............... 12 Total ............... 54 B l a c k h e a th . L. Honey, c Rowbo- A. O sm in,c Hopwood tliam, b Hollingworth 13 b Gale 25 J. Manson, b Gale ... 26 Capt. Davies, c Cave- C. Brocklebank, c and nausrh.b Rowbotham 11 b Hollingworth 2 S. Moore, b Row­ G. Gill, b Temple 65 botham ............... 0 W. Smith, c Thomson, M. Turner, not out ... 0 b Gale .............. 0 Rev. R. Blucke, b G a le .......................... 26 Extras ............... 6 S. E. Day, c Spencer, — b Gale .............. 13 Total ...............187 GEORGE LEW IN & Co., (Established 1869.) Club Colour Specialists and Athletic Clothing Manufacturers. OUTFITTERS BY APPOINTMENT To the Australians, 1896,1899 and 1902 ; Mr. Stoddart’s XI., 1894 - 1895, 1897 - 1898: Mr. MacLaren’s XI., 1901-1902 ; West Indian XI., 1‘ 00 and 1906 ; South Africans XI., 1901 and 1907 ; and M C.C., Lancashire, Kent, Surrey and London Counties, Wanderers, Stoics. Bromley, Sutton, and all Public S;hools’ Old Bovs’ Clubs.—Write for E stim a te d F r e e . Telegraphic Address: “ Leotiide, London Te/ejhone: P.O . City 607. 8, Crooked Lane, Monument, London Bridge, E.C.