Cricket 1909

68 CR ICK ET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A pril 22, 1909. THE MELBOURNE CRICKET CLUB. A RETROSPECT. By D onald M acdonald in The Melbourne Anyus. It is 70 years ago since the first cricket match was played in Melbourne, and it is a question of opinion as to whether the Mel­ bourne Cricket Club, judged by the period of Victorian history, is a patriarch of 70 or a comparative stripling of 63. There was a Melbourne Cricket Club as far back as 1838— whether the same Melbourne club as that of to-day is not quite clear, but some of the men who took part in the first meeting to form a club were undoubtedly the same pioneers who in 1845 founded the club which has since grown with unbroken continuity. “ Bell’s Life ” of the period says that the club was “ finally formed ” on the 17th January, 1845. The significant word “ finally” at least suggests earlier, if intermittent, effort; and if the club is at all covetous of years it may lay just claim to the seventy. We notice, for example, that Mr. F. A. Powlett, who played in the first match, was afterwards a leading member of the club and a trustee of the ground. This Mr. Powlett was a man of few words and decisive action. It was dan­ gerous to bowl at him, even more dangerous to have a difference with him. Mr. A.‘Hogue differed with him in 1842 upon some matters of commercial morality, and, as men of honour were then required to back their opinions with a pistol shot, Mr. Powlett had him out one fine morning in a quiet spot at the foot of Newmarket Hill, and put two bullets through the new coat which Mr. Hogue wore in honour of his adversary—and with appre­ hensions of imminent death. In one way or another it was generally the tailor who profited from duels of the early Victorian days. If cricketers had to back positive opinions in the same way now there would be fewer cricket disputes. And Mr. Powlett was a cricketer. Whatever the records may say about Egglestone making the first hundred on the Richmond ground in the middle distance of history, the chronicles of ihe time make it clear that playing for “ The Gentlemen of the District ” v. “ The Trades­ men of the Town,” Mr. Powlett scored his 120 in 1839. The first game on record, “ Civilians v. The Military,” was played “ somewhere about Batman’s Hill ” in December, 1838, and amongst the players was Thomas Stubbs, afterwards the Melbourne auctioneer of flowery trade advertisements, who was generally dubbed “ the George Robbins of Australia. ” Mr. Stubbs got the first supply of bats aud balls from India, though most of the early players, as became enthusiasts, brought bats with them from the old country. Batman’s Hill was, from its suggestive name, appropriately the cradle of cricket as well as of the turf in Victoria, for it was years afterwards that the Melbourne Club moved across to the Emerald Hill side of the Yarra, where, somewhere in the vicinity of the Victoria Barracks, they had a grant of ten acres of land, which they enclosed with a “ four-rail pig-proof fence.” Wild animals seem to have been a menace ol the time—the indigenous wombat and the indigent pig. The Melbourne Club of that period had great difficulty in finding opponents, and resorted freely to such games as Bachelors v. Benedicts, and evenWhiskers v. Whiskerless. In 1854 theyhad moved back across the river to the present site in Richmond Park, where by way of experiment a stretch of turf, 40 yards by 5, was laid down, and the Park became at once the fashionable promenade of a Saturday afternoon. The Club induced the band of the 40th Regiment to play there— the music brought the ladies; the gentlemen followed, quite naturally, in their train, and the Parade Hotel beamed an hospitable wel­ come to all. There New South Wales and Victoria commenced the long series of games, though it was not the first Interstate match on record. In 1850 the Melbourne Club, which had been long offering to play creation and finding no response, challenged Van Dieman’s Land, and, going over in the good ship Shamrock , were beaten at Launceston by three wickets.* It is interesting, as showing that cricket runs in the blood, to note in that early Tasmanian team the names of Westbrook, Arthur, and Tabart. The Brighton Club is almost as old as Melbourne, for I note that after much discussion the clubs met on Easter Monday, 1845, when Brighton won, and their form was described as “ like to do honour to Kent at any time. ” Mr. John Highett, one of the players in this match, left his coat lying about with £500 in notes in the pocket. Quite natur- ally, the coat disappeared, and the conscien­ tious thief left it neatly folded next day on the steps of the police station, but the notes, neatly folded elsewhere, were no longer in the pocket. The experience may have chilled Mr. John Highett’s enthusiasm for cricket, for when in the following year there was a meeting at the Royal Hotel, and Mr. D. S. Campbell moved:—“ That a cricket club, to be called the Melbourne Cricket Club, be formed in Melbourne, ” Mr. William Highett, but not Mr. John, was one of the foundation members. This history gives us three distinct periods at which a Melbourne Cricket Club was formed—1838, 1846, and 1855. Practically it was the same club suffering from revivals, never too sure about its actual existence, and repeatedly reconstituting itself for security’s sake. About the age of the present ground, though, there can be no doubt. It was selected by the club in 1854, and the Crown grant was issued in 1863. We have two views of it from the same point, at an interval of 52 years. One of the first of the leading M.C.C. cricketers was Mr. “ Tom” Hamilton, as his club mates always knew him, who played on with the M.C.C. Wednesday teams at an age when only a W. G. Grace continues to get them ; but a new era for the Club, and for the game of cricket in Victoria, com­ menced with the coming of T. W. Wills, a wiry athlete, who was suckled on the game at historic Rugby, matured in it at Cam­ bridge, f and who brought with him to Victoria accomplishments in cricket that were previously unknown. He could bowl anyhow and any hand—over, round, or under, not to mention an occasional throw, when, as rarely happened, some resolute or audacious batsman defied him. “ Am I going over the mark ? ” he would say innocently to the umpire, who was certain to watch his toe, not bis arm, next ball. ♦This was in February, 1851. The game would have been played in March, 1S50, had not the gentleman deputed to forward the Tasmanians’ acceptance of the challenge forgotten to post the letter in time. See Cricket , XXVI—69. — E d ., Cricket. t Wills was permitted to play against Oxford at Lord’s in 1866, but was never in residence at Cam­ bridge, although his name was on the books. He played for Cambridge as that side were a man short, but never appeared for the University on any other occasion.— E d ., Cricket. That particular ball was generally an un­ compromising “ chuck,” but Tom Wills was too wily to be often no balled for it. It was the fashion to be pedantic and classical in the cricket reports of the time, which were incomplete, or at least crude, without metrical quotations from the dead past. So they very properly called Tom Wills a Triton or Collosus, and many other things besides a cricketer. In bowling he was all this and more, for the first of its averages of which the Melbourne Club has record, in 1357-1858, show that he had one hundred and eighty-one wickets for 4-83 runs per wicket, and in batting an average of 22 8—the next best to W. J. Hammerslej’s 24. In those days anything over 20 was an excellent average. Though he left it after­ wards to play for Corio, at Geelong, Wills gave a great impetus to the Melbourne C.C. and to cricket in Victoria. Thus, in 1861, we find the Club engaging three of the worthies of the period, in Bryant of Surrey origin, Marshall of Notts, and Sam. Cosstick of the Bichmond Trades.* Marshall was the best wicket keeper in Australia then, Cosstick undoubtedly the best bowler, and Bryant-whose son is now the well-known Collins Street surgeon — a fine all-round player. We remember John Conway, who came to the Melbourne Club as a promising schoolboy, long afterwards describing with some detail an historic over bowled by Cosstick. “ ‘ W ide!’ said the umpire. ‘ W ide!’ shouted the umpire. ‘ Wide!’ screamed the umpire, with his hair on end and his eyes staring. ‘ Six,’ said the umpire, with a sigh of relief, for the ball was lifted out in the direction of the Dandenong Banges. ‘ Out! ’ said the umpire, finally, for the fifth one bowled him.” An old cricketer mentions meeting Sam one Satur­ day evening, playing in Bichmond Park, with a black band around his hat. “ Any­ thing serious, Sam?” he inquired. “ Oh, no,” said Sam, cheerily, “ only just heard of my old man’s death in England—84—dashed good innings, wasn’t it ? ” There is a characteristic speech of Sam’s upon record, when he umpired in a Press v. Parliament match. Sam’s health was proposed, and he said, “ Well, genl’men, I done me best, an’ I don't care a d----- for nobody.” One might linger a long time over memories of these worthies, but they are not the Mel­ bourne Cricket Club, nor yet the ground, though their portraits have an honoured place amongst the many pictures on its pavilion walls. Another era for cricket and the Club com­ menced with the visit of the first English Eleven, and the minutes show that the charge fixed for the use of the ground was £125. The takings for the match were about £10,000, and the whole of the expenses of the English team from the day it left England until it landed there again were recouped on the first day of the match. The promoters, Spiers and Pond, made enough money out of the tour to go to London and become the famous firm of caterers, and many a year afterwards it was heresy to suggest to the late Harry Boyle that any­ where else in England one could get a grilled steak so perfect in form, flavour, and cookery as at the Criterion. The greatness of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Club really commenced with the * Both Bryant and Cosstick were Surrey men, the former having been born at Caterham and the latter at Croydon. Bryant played for Surrey before settling in Australia.— E d ., Cricket.