Cricket 1910

CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. JUNE 16 , 1910 . " T o g e t h e r j o i n e d i n C r i c k e t ' s m a n l y t o i l .” — Byron. No. 842. vol . xxix. THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1910. one penny . CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. M e . HAMISH STUART. Mr. Hamish Stuart, the well-known authority on Rugby football, salmon fish­ ing and other Highland sports by flosd and moor, is so familiar to cricketers that he hardly needs any introduc­ tion. From his youngest days he has been a practical exponent of the sports about which he writes. His chief subjects are Rugby football, cricket, salmon fishing, sea trout fishing, loeh fishing— his work on this variety of angling is the standard work on the subject—and shooting, while in his younger days in Scotland, where figure skating was developed by the Glasgow Skating Club in the seventies, he enjoyed a unique reputa­ tion as a figure skater, par­ ticularly in fine backward work and “ anvil ” combina­ tions. Mr. Stuart is not only a skilled salmon-fisher, &c., but is regarded as one of the leading authorities on the life history of the salmonidce. As a Rugby player he was famous for his long kicking and was generally regarded in Scotland as the longest kick with either foot of his day. He has had rather a curious cricket career and admits that, though play­ ing a good deal, he never took the game sufficiently seriously North of the Tweed. He went in for big hitting, and, though bowling a little, was of greatest value to the sides for whom he played - Stirling County, &c __for his fielding. After playing for The B.ir v. The Garrison, for this is the title of the Bar v. the Army match in Scotland, on the Grange ground, Edinburgh, in 1890, Mr. Stuart did not play again until some six or seven years ago. Once he resumed playing, however, he became singularly keen and, so far as his journalistic duties permit, will “ play anywhere at any time.” He is a very big hitter, especially on the leg side, and when really going a very fast scorer. His best bit of quick scoring last season was against Haycand. Going in first for Ealing Park on a difficult wicket and against a total of 55, he made 56 out of 79 in 25 minutes, hitting five 6’s and four 4’s. He is a very keen and active field for his age, for he will be forty-eight this August. “ My experience of English cricket? Well, only some twenty years or so, but it has been close and intimate. I must say that within that period I have noted a change for the worse in county cricket. There is little of the old enterprise, except in the case of certain sides. County captains do not play to win, and there has been an all too marked tendency to play for safety with a view to the preservation of the precious percentage, especially in the ease of sides with a chance of the Championship. I attribute this lack of enterprise — and playing for safety is opposed to the traditional spirit of cricket —to the domination of the competitive idea, and hence am one of the few who would make no moan if the County Championship were abolished. The Press, I admit, have been partly responsible for the exaggerated importance given to the competition and the placing of the result above the play itself. It is almost as easy to bowl for a draw as to bat for a draw, though, of course, the intention is not so obvious except to the expert eye.” “ What is your opinion of the Lancashire scheme ? ” “ Well, there would, in my view, be no necessity to discuss schemes of reckoning for the Championship if captains played to win, gave the eccentricity of the game a real chance of asserting it­ self, were willing to run the ordinary risks incidental to trying to win and treated each match, on what I call the ‘ Shuter ’ principle, as a separate struggle for supremacy. It is the con­ tinuity of competition which produces slow, unenterpris­ ing, 1safety ’ cricket with one eye on the percentage and the other on the match not yet begun. It is the duty of a captain to win the match in progress; to­ morrow’s match and the game of the following week should be ignored. But most captains — there are some notable exceptions who should be placed on pedestals — are the slaves of tbe com­ petitive idea — especially of its continuity. They won’t declare until a draw is as­ sured and they decline to run any risks. This is not cricket in the true sense, but it is competitive cricket. Personally, I hold, and always have held, that cricket is not a game for competitive purposes in this sense at all. If captains made the winning of the match in progress their sole aim we should have brighter and, what is more to Photo by] 1“ Cricket." MB. HAMISH STUART, M.A., IX.B.