Cricket 1909

i6 CR ICK ET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J an . 28, 1909. siderable ability (who, however, only had one for 113 in this match), played for the first time against New South Wales. Like Donahoo, Carlton migrated to Brisbane later and represented Queensland once or twice. Tarrant was a very little man, not much over five feet in height, but a batsman of no mean powers. (To be continued.) COMMERCE IN CRICKET. The squabble amongst our Colonial kins­ men cricketers over the prospective division of the spoils from the English cricket grounds next summer troubles no one except those who have bolstered Test match and other competitions heretical in cricket’s real faith. Since the Tests were hoisted to the pedestal of an importance that was supposed to eclipse the world’s greatest political events or the most profound discoveries of science it was only a question for time to dethrone them. This dethronement has come. The men of whose feats epics were composed, telling alike of the chivalry and the poetry of these Test match heroes, are now exposed as sellers of the genius with which Nature has endowed them. The undercurrents were known to many a long, long time ago. Perhaps the public, which so often takes things as they seem, will now be undeceived. The financial side of the game must have been thought of by those who troubled to think, when the M.C.C. found so much difficulty in getting up its last side to send to the Colonies; but it has been left to the Australians themselves “ to give the game away.” These cricketers who were to play in England for the honour of the game, to break a lance for sport’s sake with the best of our cricket sides in England, have stripped the whole idea of its poetry by wrangling about some difference on the question of the percentage of the takings. The M.C.C., when it rid these trips on the English side of the exploitation of private enterprise, made a bold stroke for the niora'e of Test cricket; it, moreover, insisted that the Australian authorities should do the same. And everyone is hoping that the M C.C. will see that the authority of the Australian Board of Control is maintained, even at the cost of some of the delinquents remaining behind. Broken time compensa­ tion is only professionalism in another name; and so is naturally paid amateurism. The amateur code in Australia may vary from that of the home country ; but that is no reason for its tolerance in England. Professionalism in big cricket in England has been pampered too much for long years past. It has been bad for the game ; it has been bad particularly for county cricket. The amateur influence over the professional has been a dwindling force ; it is seen in county cricket; it is seen even when the M.C.C. is organising great sides for England or for Gentlemen and Players. If “ b ig” cricket is to remain a sport, Players who are paid to assist Gentlemen in the conduct of a game must return to the old idea when Players were keen and earnest in the interests of their side, when they had not made those interests extremely subservient to what a Past President of the Marylebone Club not long ago described as “ those cursed aver­ ages,” when their loyalty to their county and to their captain were beyond question. —The Observer . SURREY.* Although this book does not profess to deal largely with cricket, followers of the game will find much between its covers to interest them. The author is evidently a cricket-lover and, if one may judge from a few remarks which he lets fall here and there, one who has more sympathies with the game as it was played many years ago than as it is now. Here is an interesting refer­ ence to Surrey’s headquarters:—“ Once the Oval was part of Kennington Common; even in 1815 the solid road which circles the ground was no more than a ditch and a quickset hedge. But a hundred years before 1845! Cricket, even then, was a game in Surrey. Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and father of George III., was introducing his favourite pastime to the nobles and the gentlemen. In 1737 Kent played Surrey and London on Kennington Common, and round the pavilion set up for the Prince of Wales there was so great a rush of spectators that a poor woman fell and had her leg broken. The Prince gave her ten guineas. That was a cricketer. And yet, within eight years, Kennington was back among the vilest bar­ barities of the Middle Ages. The ’Forty- five was to set a mark of ferocious savagery in Kennington annals hardly surpassed by Tyburn.” Of Surrey village greens, the Thames Ditton ground at Giggs Hill has had much to do with Surrey cricket. “ Giggs Hill cricket,” says the author,“ has not always been of the most scientific kind, but who shall say it was less enjoyed for that ? ” An old Giggs Hill cricketer tells us how the pitch used to be prepared for a match. “ I remember,” he says, “ seeing the late Harry Stowell with an old beer barrel fixed on a trolley and filled with water, wheeling it across the wicket. He would well douse the pitch, and after running a small garden roller he had borrowed up and down a few times the wicket was ready. This proceed­ ing took place the day before the match, so that batting must occasionally have been a venturesome business. In those days a match meant what it still means in some villages, an adjournment in the evening to the neighbouring inn, a supper, beer, and songs. How many old inns still keep the name ‘ The Jolly Cricketers,’ and how many for little reason! ” There is an amusing story told concerning Jupp, who was born at Dorking and played great crickct for the county. “ The match — at Cotmandene— was for his benefit, and he was batting. Playing back at a ball, he trod on his wicket, and a bail fell. He picked up the bail, replaced it, and was reminded that he was out. ‘ Out! At Dorking? Not me ! ’ Nor did he go out, but made a hundred instead.” The forms of Lumpy and Beldham, of Lambert, Caffyn, Csesar, H. H. Stephenson, the Reads, John Shuter, and a host of other famous players flit through the pages of this charmingly - written and beautifully - illustrated volume. Practically everything that the average man could wish to know concerning Surrey is to be found recorded, but a few remarks on the subject of cricket at Addington might well have been included. The village played no mean part in the development and popularisation of the game in the county, and, furthermore, can boast a three-hundred-years-old inn which has been known for the last century and a-half as “ The Cricketers : ” prior to about 1750 it was called “ The Three Tuns.”__________ * Highways and Byways in Surrey. By Eric Parker. With Illustrations by Hugh Thomson. London : Macmillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin’s Street. Price, 6s. CRICKET IN SINGAPORE. Down on the ground on Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting the popular “ red and white” representative, Norman Bath, who has this week come back in the Mon­ golia for a brief holiday, to shake off the languor seemingly inseparable from any lengthened stay in the enervating climate of the East. During his two and a-half years in Singapore he has played a fair share of cricket ; but his business involves a good deal of travelling by land and sea, and so Norman has not been able to follow up the game in a practical way to the extent that such a devoted adherent of the manly game would like. However, his googlers and leg- breaks are now as well known in Singapore as in the Skinnerian arena. Norman him­ self did not tell me this ; but I know it all the same. They have a splendid club in Singapore, with a member-roll of about 800, and Norman reckons Griffith Jones quite class enough for our interstate game. In fact, he regards the young English amateur as a second Harry Graham. All the Singapore crack wants is constant playing in good company to make him a star. This is high praise. Another English amateur in Singapore, named Bead, is also eulogised by Norman as a batsman. The wickets in Singapore, and, indeed, in all parts of India, are true turf wickets, and in leading centres are kept in admirable order. Once, playing for Calcutta, Norman bowled googlers at the natives, and he laughs to this day at the funny antics they cut in gauging the flight of the ball, and in endeavouring to play it after it pitched. The natives play straight - aheai bowliug all right; but “ googlers ” are to them a com­ plete puzzle. By natives you mustn’t take me as meaning Parsees. Norman regards the Parsees as the best cricketers in India, better than any local English eleven that can be brought against them.—“ Felix ” in The Australasian. JO HN W I S D E N ’ S CRICKETERS’ALMANACK F or 1 9 0 9 . Edited by SYDNEY H. PARDON. T H E Record of First-Class Cricket. Being the ONLY Publication giving the full Scores and Bowling Analyses of every first-class Cricket Match played in 1908. P rice 1/- P o st F ree 1/4 C o n ta in s : Five Cricketers of the year, with Photographs, Lord Hawke, J. B. Hobbs, J. T. Newstead, Alan Marshall, and Walter Brearley. Full Statistics of Ranjitsinliji’s Scores in first-class Cricket. Public School Crickct, by C. T o ppin . “ Cricket in the Sixties and at the Present Day.” N OW R E A D Y . 21 CRANBOURN ST., L0NDJN, W.C. « O Y A L B A . n R E I D ’ S O V A L . W H I T E . The celebrated preparation for cleaning Cricket and all Buff Leather Goodi, W an anted not to rub off or cake. As used at Ken- nington Oval, and highly recommended by K. 8. Ranjitsinhjl, Dr. W . Q. Grace, O. B. Fry, Lord Dalmeny, Australian XL, 1905, G. L. Jessop, Ac., Ac. P acked in zin c boxes, 6d. p e r box. J. J. REID, 878, Kennington Rd., London. Printed and Published by M e b b it t & H a tc h e r , L td ., 167,168 and 169, Upper Thames Street, London, B.C., January 28th, 1909.