Cricket 1909

34 CR ICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M arch 25, 1909. Iniie3. A brother of the late George Lohmann was in Jamaica for some time. Demerara has ha I Lees Whitehead, of Yorkshire, and Williams, a man sent out last year from the M.C.C. Barbados has never had a coach, and Trinidad only one— Paiton I think his name was. Personally, I improved b / watching our best men and through reading of the methods of the best Eng ish cricketers, ani I think this is the way most of our best men have arrived at the top of the tree.” “ Are there many clubs in Trinidad ? ” “ Yes, a great many In Port of Spain, our capital, there are about a dozen good clubs, aud every village or small town also boasts of one or two We usually play for a Cup every season, much in the F am e way as the League matches in the Midlands. The same system applies in the other Colonies Our gr<at drawback is that there is no leisured cl ss who play the game, and, in the absence of pros we can commence a match only w.;en we can contrive to get away from our various businesses, and this usually means a start at 2 to 2 30 on Saturday, which is the only day we play. The light fails very rapidly between 5.30 aud 0, so we have very few slow bats, most men having a go at the dangerous ball out­ side the off stump as time is too short to watch them go by. Of course this affects our bowling too, as our bowlers cannot afford to wait for a man to get himself out, and consequently they bowl at the wicket a great deal too much, which tends to produce a large number of fast to medium-pace bowlers. These failings were clearly seen in both West Indian teams which visited England, and especially in the earlier part of the tours. Later on our men learnt to wait a bit, and of course did better. As long as we play this class of cricket, teams visiting England will invariably lose their first five or six games while getting int > the swing of three-dav matches, which is a very different thing from what they are accustomed to. Practice is limited to about an hour in the afternoon, and if ten minutes at the nets is obtained once or twice a week you may consider you have bad your full share. In Trinidad, St Vincent, an 1 Grenada matting wickets are used, b it the turf wickets of Barbados, Demerara, and Jamaica, when they are not affected by water, compare favourably with th e best in England, beiug very fast. With very little rain on them they are infinitely more difficult than the worst English wicket I have seen, the ball at one time popping straight up from the pitch and at another keeping low, whilst the amount of break that can be obtained is wonderful. In short, it does everything but what is expectej of it. Under our 1 topical sun the wicket changes with remarkable celerity, a soft, difficult wicket very often becoming hard and fast in the course of a couple of hours.” *•Is the umpiring satisfactory in the West Indies ? ” “ General'y speaking, fairly so. In our important matches, by which I mean our Inter-Colonial and those when English teams visit us, it is quite good, as it is generally done by some keen and responsible cricketer who usually vclunteers his services. In our club matches, especially in Trinidad, we have to take whom we can get, and very often the decisions are far from satisfactory. “ Do you often go away from Trinidad to play ? ” “ Not very. Our Iuter-Colonial matches used to be played alternately in Barbados, Demerara and Trinidad — Jamaica is not included, being too far away—every other year; but lately this has been altered to every year. If one is good enough, too, there is the chance of being asked to represent the West Indian Eleven in one of the other Colonies, for such a side usually meets each visiting English team three times—once in each of the larger Colonies. Sometimes a team is got up by a private individual to visit one of the neighbouring islands, but these opportunities are few and far between.” “ Do the general public in the West Indies underst ind the game ? ” “ Yes; they are very keen, aud our cricketing crowds grow lirger every year. The Barbados crowd is perhaps the keenest and most appreciative one I have ever played before. They do know a good stroke and are fairly impartial, and the threepenny enclosure contains many a sound critic of the game.” “ Have you enjoyed your trips to Eng­ land ? ” “ Very much indeed. The amount of travelling one did was quite an education in itself, and the quantity of sight-seeing that was crowded into each tour was astonishiug. There were enthusiasts ready and willing to take us to whatever was worth seeing wherever we went, and many of my most pleasant recollections of the tours concern the many very charming and hospitable people I met. I think that few people in England realise what difficulty we experience in getting a really good side together for a long trip. The majority of our best men are unable to play for any length of time, and, for business reasons, are obliged to give up the game when they should be approaching their prime. Only three members of the first team to England were available for the second ; of the others only one was still playing, and to-day many of them are seeking their living far from the West Indies. Although such a short time has elapsed since the visit of the last team, four or live of the men who formed it would already be found unavailable for a similar tour.” “ Have you many interesting experiences whilst touring ? ” “ One of my most interesting and also most unpleasant experiences t >ok p ace in 1896, when I was one of a team taken by Mr. A. B. St. Hill, of B arbados, a gentlemen who has done a great deal of good for est Indian ciicket by taking touring Elevens from one islaud to another, from Barbados to St. Vincent We arranged to go by a schooner, end as St. Vincent is only 100 miles or so away dead before the wind the voya.e is usually done in anything from twelve to sixteen hours. We left Barbados at 8 p.m. on a Wednesday, and confidently expected to be in St. Vincent at 11 a.m. the next day at the latest. At least, so our captain assured us ; but our confidence was sadly misplaced, for next morning, when we asked to be shown St. Vincent, the skipper silently pointed out Barbados about a dozen miles astern. It had been a dead calm the whole night. And now comes the worst part of the tale, for the skipper also had mis­ placed his confidence as he had no food on board, and was waiting to get to St. Vincent to revictual the boat. The calm lasted until 5 p.m. on Thursday, and it was a very, very hungry and worn out team that landed at 3 a.m. on the Friday. Luckily our hosts had had a sumptuous supper prepared for us on Thursday night, and, if my recollection serves me aright, we did justice to it. The St. Vincent Eleven on this occasion had among its members C. A. and B. Ollivierre, and C. A., who afterwards qualified for Derbyshire, played a couple of fine innings against us, and so came into prominence.” “ Whilst on tour in England the black men in our team were very often subjected to a good deal of chaff. On one occasion, while travelling through London in a brake, a couple of them were on the front seat when a ragged urchin, after taking a long look at one of them, shouted— ‘ Hi, Darkey, was you born in a coffee-pot ? ’ The gentle­ man in question used to sit inside afterwards. On another occasion, when being shown over the Houses of Parliament, we were taken in to tea by Sir Benjamin Stone. The same man was sitting at the foot of the table facing Sir Benjamin, who was at the head, and he remarked, ‘ Oh, if only my poor old mother could see me now ! ’ “ In 1905 I was one of a team which visited Jamaica, and one of the members was overjoyed when he heard that on the homeward journey to Trinidad the boat would call at St. Lucia, the reason for his elation being that his better half, whom he had not seen for several months and had not expected to see for several months more, was there on a visit. But alas! for his expectations, for the boat was quarantined and the nearest he got to his wife was about four feet. He sat on a half-lowered gangway, and the lady stood on the quay, whilst a stern-faced policeman was on sentry over him to see that he did no more than talk, and an admiring team lined the rail above his head. He took his chaff very well, how­ ever.” CRICKET IN MANILA. MANILA v. HONG KONG. Played on Paco Field, Manila, on February 7th and won by Hong Kong by an innings and 3 runs. Score and analysis :— M a n il a . First innings. Second innings. Crean, 1) Bagnall..................10 b Anderson....... 13 Crewe-Read, c Anderson, b A le x a n d e r , c Bagnall .......................... 1Byrne,bHaugh- ton .................... 2 T.iit, b Bagnall .................. 5c Baird, b Ander­ son ...............13 Tliursfield, b Bagnall ... 0 b Leipmann ... 23 Layard, b Bagnall .......... 4 b Leipmann ... 1 Jones,c Bagnall,b Baird ... 0 c Anderson, b Haughton ... 0 Easton, c Haughton, b c Baird, b Haugh- Baird ..................................15 ton ............. 15 Hawkins, b B agnall.......... 0 b Anderson........... 1 Wright, c Anderson, b c Baird, b Haugh- B a ird .................. ........... 4 ton ... ............. 0 Knox, b B agnall.................11 b Leipmann ... 6 Redfern, not o u t................. 3 notout ........... 1 B 2, nb 2 .................. 4 Byes ........... 4 Total H ono K ong . Total , 70 Capt. Beasley, bThurs field ..........................28 Capt. G reen w a y , b Thursfield.................. 0 Lieut. Haughton, b Thursfield ........... 0 Lieut.Anderson, c Wright, b Thursfield 34 Lieut. B a g n a l l, b Thursfield .......... 7 Capt. Baird, b Thurs­ field .......................... 0 M a n ila . First innings. Col.Chamier,b Thurs­ field ........................... 5 Capt. Brierley, run out .................; ... 31 Lieut. Byrne, b Crean 5 Lieut. Leipmann, st Hawkins, b Crean 15 Capt. Dwyer, not out 1 B 2, w 2 ........... 4 Total ...130 Second innings. O. R. W. O. R W. Bagnall......... . 13 20 7 ......... 1 7 0 Baird ......... . 13 24 3 ......... 7 15 0 Haugliton C 15 4 Leipmann . 0 2(5 3 Anderson . 8 12 3 H ong K ong . O. R. W. O. R. W. Thursfield ... li 27 7 1Jones......... . 3 0 0 C rean ........... 12 30 2 Redfern .. 0 4(> 0 Crewe - Read 3 18 0 |Layard . 1 5 0