Cricket 1911

C R IC K ET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. JU L Y 15, 1911. "Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. n o . 876. v o l. xxx . SATURDAY, JULY 1 5 , 1 9 1 1 . p r i c e 2 d . A Chat with /VIr. C. J. § . Wood. is it you are out so early, Mr. Wood ? I quite expected to find you still in the middle.” A beautiful July morning at Hove—blue sky over all, and the ground looking its best, except that a thicker fringe of spectators would have shown to ad­ vantage—the martlet caps of Sussex in the field, and two wearers of the fox-badge at the wickets. But not Mr. Cecil Wood, whom I had seen there overnight, and, as play had been in progress only half an hour or so, anticipated seeing him in possession still. “ Tried to do a little too much, and put up a ball from Albert Eelf in the slips. When one feels fit and in form, one is apt to attempt shots that one would leave alone at another time. But I don’t think it pays in the long ru n ; a man has his own natural style and pace of scoring— of course, the quality of the bowling affects the latter — and it is not much profit to him to attempt going faster.” Mr. Wood looked all over “ fit and in form.” The man who has made more runs for Leicestershire than any other batsman the county ever owned has always struck me as a typical cricketer. His bluish-grey eyes are clear; his face has the tanned look of the open-air man ; his figure is slim and wiry, without superfluous flesh. But perhaps the slim figure is not typical, after all. One thinks of George Hirst, Dick Burrows, Samuel Coe, worthy warriors all, and repents of too hasty generalisations. Anyway, Cecil Wood does look a cricketer, and a keen one. “ You have had a good long spell of county cricket, Mr. Wood. I sup­ pose you don’t find yourself getting at all tired of it ? ” “ Not a b it! I am as fond of it as ever I was, and that’s saying a good deal. Yes, I have had a fair spell. I played a couple of seasons for North­ amptonshire before I turned out for Leicestershire, and this is my fifteenth season with our team. ” “ You were at Wellingborough Photo by] MR. C. J. B. WOOD Grammar School as a boy, I know, and in the eleven, of course. Did you make any long scores for the school ? ” “ I made one century, I believe, though I can’t say I remember much about it. George Thompson and T. S. Fishwick were con­ temporaries of mine at W elling­ borough, and they were both very fine cricketers even as boys. Fishwick was just as good in the slips then as he was in later days, when he played for Warwickshire, and Thompson was great all-round. There was plenty of good cricket at the school, as there has been ever since. The Head, Mr. Platt, was one of the greatest enthu­ siasts for the game I ever knew ; and under him there were Messrs. W . H . Garne, A. G. Henfrey, J. B. Challen, A. W . Platt, and P. A. Fryer, all capital players. Henfrey and Fryer were themselves old Wellingborough boys, of course. Since my day the school has turned out several first- class cricketers, A. E. Fernie, who got his blue at Cambridge, T. E. Manning, and the Denton twins amoog them.” “ One of the Dentons played a beautiful innings here a few weeks ago,” the interviewer remarked. “ Yes, he did that to oblige me,” answered Mr. Wood, smiling. “ Any­ way, it looked like it. When those two youngsters first came out our late captain, Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, and I differed in opinion about them, and I had a small bet with him that within three seasons one or the other of them would make a century for Northants. I saw them at Leicester a few days before the game here, and told them I did not expect to be let down. And I wasn’t.” “ Leicestershire has been having a lot of rough luck lately ; but even so I cannot understand your not win­ ning a match or two. You, Knight, Whitehead and Coe have been making good scores ; and your new men seem distinctly promising.” “ They are. I will tell you more about them presently. But first I want to point out that the loss of Tom Jayes is a very heavy one to us. r,r > « « . He was our real match - winning [Hawking t Co , Brighton. bowler . it wasn>t for noth;ng that