Cricket 1913

1 0 2 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p r i l 19, 1913 the field gathered and cheered ; and the hero of a hundred fights was so overcome b y the reception given him that — so those near him say-— he could only see through a mist of tears, and kindly opponents bowled wide of the w icket till he had pulled himself together. I like that picture. Nothing in Australian cricket for a long time past has pleased me as much ; and, half Australian b y parentage, I have always cared as much for Australia as for English cricket. To his last day the great batsman will remem­ ber that scene w ith a thrill of pride and of affection—- affection for his good comrades and for the crowd that loved him as it loved none other. I was going to write p retty fully about him myself, and I find that already I have written more than I intended to when I changed my mind. What made me change it was the reading of an article b y “ Felix ” (Tom Horan of the old days) in the Australasian, and the conviction that copious extracts from that article would please the readers of C r ic k e t far more than anything I could give them. VICTOR TRUMPER. B y F e l ix . I remember the first time ever Victor put ’em on. I mean the pads, and I am referring to the first time I saw him shape at the practice nets on the Melbourne Cricket Ground. That was at Christmas-time, 1897. He did not play in that match against Victoria, but going on to South Aus­ tralia he was included a week later in the New South Wales eleven, and performed well. While on the Melbourne ground the veteran Harry Hilliard introduced me to him, and I was struck by the frank, engaging facial expression of the young Sydneyite. After a few words he went away, and old Harry said to me, “ That lad will have to be reck­ oned with later on.” My word ! But do you know what particularly attracted my attention when first I saw Victor fielding ? You wouldn’t guess it in three. It was the re­ markably neat way in which his shirt sleeves were folded. No loose, dangling down, and folding back again after a run for the ball, but always trim and artistic. It is a small thing, perhaps, to some, but to me it counts and suggests a good deal. Let us get away from his first appearance at the nets on the M.C.C. ground, and take him at the time he was chosen fourteenth man to go to England with the 1899 Australian team. I remember well having quite a long chat about him, with M. A. Noble, in Scott’s Hotel, and I may say that M. A. at the time predicted a brilliant batting future for Victor. If my memory is right, these two great cricketers were at school together, only M. A. was a senior and Victor a junior. A t all events in the course of conversation I found that in certain matches Victor as a boy cricketer was barred. Opposing sides would not play if he were included against them. " As a fact,” added M. A., “ I have known him to be in for two days at 95 in the shade, and still going strong. They simply couldn’t get him out, and gave up the game.” That was as a schoolboy, and we have a parallel in Mel­ bourne, in the case of Warwick Armstrong, who used to be barred on some occasions when he was a member of a boys’ club out Caulfield way. So we see that as a schoolboy Victor was great in bat­ ting. When he toured England in 1899, he was also great. If you remember, it was during that tour he made his mammoth score of 300 not out against Sussex in six hours and twenty minutes, by play from first to last " of the most perfect character.” But the crowning glory of his achieve­ ment was his brilliant success in England in 1902. Then it was that the welkin rang with the tumult of sustained applause, in recognition of his glorious play. Then it was that century after century stood against his name on wickets wet or dry. Then it was that he scored a century in one of the most extraordinarily exciting test matches ever played, when ’midst the cheers and shouts of enthusiastic Lancastrians and Australian supporters at Manchester, he walked back to the pavilion with his blushing honours thick upon him. That match will never be forgotten by those who had the privilege and the pleasure of witnessing it. My old friend, Mr. Byers, who went specially to England to see the Australians play in 1902, walked round the ground at Manchester, near the finish of that memorable match, and he told me that the excitement was so intense that some lookers-on were white, and others ashen grey. What pro­ longed the agony was an interval of three-quarters of an hour through rain, when only eight runs were wanted by England. Just prior to the rain Clem. Hill got rid of Lilley by a magnificent running catch at deep square leg. He just got to the ball, and held it, while going at top speed. Tate, the last man, came in, got 4 off Saunders, and was clean bowled by that bowler. “ Never,” adds Mr. Byers, “ have I seen anything to surpass the excitement when the Aus­ tralians were proclaimed the victors, and the game was won by 3 runs.” Everywhere the Australians travelled Victor Trumper was the " observed of all observers.” That was the time, as the old Yorkshireman told me, when Sheffielders knocked off work to see Victor bat. And those workmen had a treat in watching “ the star among the stars ” in the third test match, for he got 62 out of 80 in 50 minutes, and did " just what he liked with the English bowling.” " Wis- den ” adds :— “ Trumper, in the course of the season, made many bigger scores than his 62, but on no occasion did he play a more marvellous innings.” In that tour Victor averaged 48^49 for 53 innings, without a single not out in support. He made no fewer than eleven centuries. It may be mentioned that efforts were made at the close of that tour to secure him for an English county, and I am sure we all agree with " Wisden ” in expressing extreme satisfaction that they failed. I have set forth something of what he has done in Eng­ land, and I may add that C. B. Fry went so far as to quote Latin in his praise at the close of the 1902 tour. Let us now see if ^ e can’t pick up something about him on our own M.C.C. ground. Just imagine that we are together with the veterans under the trees when Victor’s name goes up on the board. There is a hum of expectancy all round the ground. “ Here he comes,” is the cry, and the welcome is as hearty as rinkers can give. You know what that means. Soon he gets going. Presently you hear an elmer say, “ By Jove, that was a yorker he got to leg for 4.” “ Gosh, there’s another yorker served the same way. How does he do it ? ” Cricketers know well that the vast majority of batsmen are quite satisfied if they manage to stop a yorker. So it is not unreasonable to find them ex­ pressing surprise when yorkers are sent to square-leg for 4. Even such an imperturbable wicketkeeper as Carkeek was taken by surprise, and when asked what he thought of Trumper replied, “ Oh, Trumper; what do I think about him ? Why, he hits yorkers to leg for 4— that’s enough about him, isn’t it ?” Once when he sent a yorker from Fred Collins for 4, Fred was asked what he thought about it. He scratched his nice head of hair and said, “ I can’t understand it.” Victor has what you may term “ piehensile fingers.” If you shake hands with him you will find it out. He grasps the bat like a man who means business. You raiely if ever, find him get out through the bat turning in his hand. Those “ prehensile fingers ” prevent it. When he comes down on the yorker he gauges the timing to a nicety, and just at the right moment, as he comes down on the ball with full power, and has the bat at an angle which causes the ball to fly away to forward square-leg. This is my opinion, and I think it is correct. I have seen the celebrated Charlie Bannerman send a yorker hard to mid-on, but never to square-leg. He was a pocket Hercules, and came down on a ball with great power.