Cricket 1909

A pr il 22, 1909. CR ICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 69 period when it was found necessary to appoint a paid secretary to look after its affairs. The first secretary, in the season of 1877-78, was Mr. Curtis Reid. He was one of the Reid Bros., of Reid’s Creek, a station in the North-East, of whom a romantic tale is told. In the time of the Californian gold discoveries the brothers sat down one day in a grassy glade by the creek- side to discuss the project of going to Cali­ fornia to search for gold. They were sitting at the moment over one of the richest patches of alluvial ever found in Victoria. Had they plucked up one of the grass-tufts under their feet they would have found gold in its roots. Curtis Reid only held office for a year, and was succeeded by a younger man in Major B. J. Wardill, who had played in Interstate games under the captaincy of Tom Wills, and who says that he followed his mentor ani master at his prime with something of the reverence and affection of a devoted dog. Known to almost everyone as “ the Major,” and to his intimates as “ Ben,” he was with­ out question a strong man, and could on fighting occasions be an obstinate one. As a soldier he chiefly handled cannon, yet with the rifle he was a fine shot, who attained international rank. Anyhow, at his touch the Melbourne Cricket Club and Ground fairly leaped along to prosperity, and in the years of his administrative reign the institu­ tion has never once looked back. “ Excel­ sior ! ” was the Major’s motto, but he was not the one to shout it uselessly from a mountain peak or flaunt it on a flag. He would just sit down hard upon some adam­ antine conviction, and express a guttural “ Excelsior ” that had in it some of the resolution of the bulldog. A good friend, a good fighter, but a little slow perhaps to realise that one may fight him upon a principle without the least touch of personal animus at all. He has been, above all else, a sturdy, loyal, able servant of the club, much of whose greatness is the result of his zeal, foresight, and administrative power. “ The Boss ” is a man in whom every em­ ployee of the M.C.C, believes as a leader. The “ mud-puncbers ” of his Harbour Trust battery had much the same feeling. It is interesting to note in the conclusive evidence of figures the progress of the Mel­ bourne Club and its Ground. The whole of the figures which maybe culled from balance- sheets are too long to quote, and would have a direct interest only for members of the Club. From the time when expenditure became real and progressive, the beginning of the Major’s era, it is sufficient to give the disbursements in seven year periods. From 1859 there were seven years of comparative plenty, in which the Club spent £7,905; then a seven-years period of famine, for a growing institution in a growing State, as the total fell to £6,191. The seven-year periods that follow show expenditures of £9,765, £27,879, £48,754, £58,421, and £85,691, or a total since 1859 of £244,606. Naturally, the membership of the Club leaped in much the same proportion. In full-members, country members, and juniors it had 400 all told when Major Wardill took control. In four years the roll had increased to 1,204; in 1890 the members numbered 2,604 ; in 1900 the roll had sprung to 3,440 ; now there are 4,885. What will it be thirty years hence, when the Club celebrates its centenary? Another and perhaps a more ttjagnificent Lord’s—which at first glance always gives one the impression of a great big circus, with the tent off. The men of the M.C.C., present and past, include many notable figures, but so many of them are only a memory. Very early in its history the Banks and the Law took presidential possession of it. H. F. Gurner, the Crown prosecutor, and Frank Stephen, sen., were amongst its original members. Later, Mr. D. C. Macarthur, Mr. Frank Grey Smith, and Mr. Roderick Murchison, all eminent in the tanking pro­ fession, were helmsmen. So long the late Mr. Frank Grey Smith held the tiller that in him the spirit of the Melbourne Club seemed personified. Who can have for­ gotten him—the face and figure so strangely suggestive of the central figures in the wars of a century ago — the Napoleonic im­ passivity, yet just as strongly suggestive the impression of Napoleon’s conqueror, the Iron Duke. What more awesome qualities could be combined in a bankmanager? Yet, under the mask what a kindly nature— what a quiet twinkle of humour. Frank Grey Smith was perhaps never known to laugh, but his smile was a revelation. The better known judges of to-day, in the sport­ ing sense, are Mr. Justice Cussen, president and meteoric young man of the bench— only the day before yesterday a Fitzroy footballer ; Judge Moule, with the judicial face—so judicial that hardly any of those who played with him dare address him as Billy, for one never knows what may happen in Victoria or any other country—except that the Melbourne Club, with its plethora of bankers and judges, will go on prospering. The grand old man of the Club is John Thornton, of Camperdown, the only survivor of the 1856 period, who still comes down to see his Interstate match. One could dedicate a pige to men and memories of the Club. W. J. Hammersley, sportsman and gentle­ man, the very pink of honour, and a little intolerant towards anything that was not good form on the cricket ground or off it. Amongst the old-time players who yet live and thrive one remembers best B B. Cooper, who retired from active service the other day a grizzled veteran, all the better and fitter for his years of cricket. “ Gibbie,” tall and dark, who still handles pestle and mortar up Carlton way, who used to practise occasionally with a pick handle, and who sent his well-beloved snuff-box to Dave Gregory, captain of the first Australian Eleven, because he firmly believed it to be a mascotte. It was lost in London, and cricket history is strangely silent as to the how and where. Many members remember W. H. Hull, the short, quiet figure, auother of the pioneers who drank in cricket imper­ ceptibly, like Frank Grey Smith—and never created a disturbance. But it is always to the players rather than the still, quiet workers that memory and imagination turn. T. J. D. Kelly, the lithe, cat-like, and im­ perial point, who once went out to field as substitute for an Australian Eleven, dropped quite naturally into his old position, caught a man in a few minutes, aud was at once sent by the English captain into the out­ field. And there, too, about the middle distances of M.C.C. history were those fine sporting brothers the Loughnans and the M‘Evoys, whom, long after the strenuous days of playing for points, it was such a pleasure to meet, and if you were very lucky to beat, in sociable Wednesday games. George Alex­ ander, the utilitarian, was for long a familiar .figure in week-day games. He was a practi­ cal man, who on a visit to England with an Australian team thought it absurd that his­ toric castles should remain unroofed while corrugated iron was so cheap. And amongst the quiet white men of the Melbourne C.C. was “ Hughie’s father,” who only the other day, ripe in years and regard, came home from his last fishing and laid down his rod. In the Club memories there are no distinc­ tions of rank, though many affectionate regards. Sometimes of a Sunday morning long ago the two Macs—M‘Alpine of Mel­ bourne, and M‘Auley of East—squatted at opposite ends of a wicket, one attended by a terrier and a cigar, the other by a baby— and lost themselves in reverence of the perfect pitch. Each always referred to the other as “ Old Mac over the way.” One might go on and on, and yet not a tenth of the tale is told; but the one fact remains that the Melbourne Club and its ground are an imperishable institution with a pic­ turesque history. OBTTUAEY. T he R ev . T . L . F rench . The Rev. Thomas Lee French was born at Eye, in Suffolk, on June 10th, 1821, and educated at Winchester (where he did not get into the Eleven) and Cambridge. He was a member of the University side from 1842 to 1844, and in 1843 was joint captain with G. J. Boudier. He played in three matches against Oxford, and was on the winning side in 1842 and 1843 ; the game of 1844 was ruined by rain and left drawn. No notice of the deceased is given in Scores and Biographies , and nothing is known of his style of play, but from a perusal of scores it is evident that he was p’.ayed for his batting. His innings in the three University matches were 9 and 10 at Lord’s in 1842, 4 and 32 (top score) at Bullingdon in 1843, and 1 in the drawn game at Lord’s in his last year. In after years he frequently appeared in the Suffolk County Eleven. He had held the living of Thrandeston for the long period of sixty-four years and was the last Freeman of the borough of Eye. He was J.P. for Suffolk, being the senior member of the Hartismere Bench and one of the first members of the East Suffolk County Council. For some years he had wintered in the South of France and it was at Mentone that he was seized with an illness which terminated fatally on the 7th inst. J. D. B. L ieu t .-C ol . M. T . H. W yatt . Lieut.-Col. Wyatt was born at North Wraxall, Wilts., on April 26th, 1829, and, after receiving private tuition, proceeded to Oxford, where he was in the Eleven in 1850 and 1851, being Captain the latter year in the absence of W. Ridding, who was pre­ vented by illness from playing in the University match. Against Cambridge in 1850 Wyatt scored 13 and 1, and in his second year 0 and 14. Oxford won in the former season by 127 runs, but lost in the latter by an innings and 4 runs, Blore and Pontifex bowling in great form. From 1861 until 1870 he appeared for Cheshire. He served in the Crimean War with the Devon Militia, and retired with the rank of Lieut.- Colonel. He was sometime steward to the Earl of Sefton, and later Assistant Land Commissioner under the Board of Agriculture. An excellent athlete, he was also one of the founders of the University Athletic Sports, which developed into the Inter-University Athletic Sports. He was winner of the two miles, 100 yards, and one or two other short races at the first College meeting ever held at Oxford—that of Exeter College in 1850. J. D . B .