Cricket 1913

176 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M a y 10, 1913. Club Histories. S U T T O N . T h a t Hambledon w as crick et’s cradle is an exploded superstition. Surrey and K en t had played county matches lo n g before the H ampshire v illa g e ’s famous sons—not that all the Hambledon men w ere of the village, by any m eans— earned fame, before H arris bowled and Sm all batted, before Nyren led w ith w ise brain, and T om Sueter warbled, and Noah Mann fielded wondrously, and A ylw ard excited rustic derision by callin g for a lemon in the course of a long innings. Perhaps Surrey has as good a rig h t to be con­ sidered cricket’s cradle as any county. But Sutton itself w as quite an inconsiderable village in the early days of Surrey cricket, and had no share in the glories of W recclesham H olt and G odalm ing. D im ly we discern traces of cricket at Sutton about 1850. In the fifties H arry Jupp w as apprenticed to W illiam B roughton, who w as a builder by trade, and— far more important, of course— the Sutton v illag e clu b ’s umpire for m any years. Doubtless Jupp played for Sutton. B u t one sw allow does not m ake a summ er, though one Jupp could often m ake a very long stay at w icket— sometimes for exceedingly few ru n s! Let J'upp pass. D o rk in g claim s “ Y o u n g Ston ew all,” and Sutton is too high of pride to seek to rob D orkin g of honour. T h e Sutton grou nd has an antiquity more than respect­ able. T h e v illag e club played there sixty years ago, and som ewhat later Sutton Montpelier, a more am bitious organ i­ sation, which had for a tim e used a field opposite the Angel Inn in the London Road, moved to Cheam Road, dropped the “ Montpelier,” and1 became the Sutton club. T h e field w as lent by Mr. H . L . Antrobus, a keen supporter of the gam e. In 1902, a fter his death, it cam e into the m arket. Some of the prom inent members of the club formed them ­ selves into a company, bought it, thus savin g it from the builder, and leased it to the club. And there it is, destined, one hopes, alw ays to be a cricket ground— a charm ing spot w ith a capital pitch, a home of good com radeship and good cricket. T h e old thatched pavilion, now used as a tea-house, in a far corner o f the ground, w a s erected in 1865. It had form erly been the w aiting-room at Sutton Station. In 1906 the handsome new pavilion, a structure such as few club grounds can boast, replaced it— the gen erou s g ift, this, of Sir Ralph C . Forster, B art., J.P ., and the design of Mr. J. S. Brocklesby, a prom inent member of the club. T he pavilion cost £ 700. T h ere is little on record as to Sutton ’s do in gs in the sixties. A few names have been handed down as those of prom inent m em b ers; but nam es sans deeds are of little interest. In 1871 the club had fallen upon evil times. It had only about fifty m em b ers; few o f those w ere players, and several of the players w ere rabbits, one gath ers. But in 1872 Mr. A kroyd H yslop (now a vice-president of the club) began a reign of more than tw o decades as c a p ta in ; and under him there w as an imm ediate bucking-up— not spasmodic, but continuous and progressive. T h e club w a s no longer a mere v illag e side. It took on ambition— played M .C .C ., Surrey C lu b and Ground, Incogniti— had famous p layers helping it from time to tim e, and other famous players in opposition to it. Am ong the best men in the eigh ties w ere numbered F rank Abraham , Freeman Burrow s, the Rev. E. B . Cotton, L . J. P aiee (an excellent bowler), James Goodison (a capable wicket-keeper), G eorge B acon, W . A. Prince, and A. S. T abor. T h e last-named w a s the Eton and Cam bridge c r a c k ; in 1885 he made 400 in three successive innings for Sutton. In that season the club only lost one match of 22 played. A gain st the H am pstead Nondescripts they batted all one afternoon— no closure in those days— and ran up 540. IJllyw hite is silent both as regard s T ab o r’s three innings and the b ig to ta l; but most indubitably they w ere made, and the blam e for the om issions must be shared bv S utton ’s secretary and L illyw hite’s editor. In 1890 a second team w as first run. In 1893 Mr. H yslop resigned the captaincy. A fter him there cam e in turn H . N. Sharp, F elix B arry, C . J. Sm ith, the Rev. E . B . Cotton, and A . C . Havers, none of them holding office very long. But in 1899 G . R . B lades becam e captain and V . R . B rom age hon. sec., and these tw o had a more lastin g tenure. B rom age is now match secretary, and Blades still plays regularly for the club, though he resigned the captaincy when he went to live farther out from town after his wedding. R. M. Bell, who acted a s his “ best m an ,” then succeeded him as captain. T h e club ow es and recogn ises a big debt to this most gen ial of cricketers. Under B ’ades it progressed greatly, and it has never looked1 back. T he reins are still held in the skilled hands o f the man to whom he handed them over. R . M . Bell (“ D ick ” to his intimates) w ill not have it that his is the greatest name in Sutton c ric k e t; he places that o f his predecessor ahead of his own. But I think Mr. Blades would vote w ith me. Richard B e'l has alw ays been loyal to the club, pu ttin g it first, although playing a good deal of cricket outside its matches. H e has been a w ise and popular captain. He is an excellent field and most capable bat, though he cannot be persuaded up from his place am on g the tail. And what a bowler he has been and is still 1 I have m anaged to induce him to let me have a record of w hat he has done in the cricket fie'd since he left school. It is not absolutely complete, because for the first few years (1892 to 1896) he kept no figures outside the Sutton matches. But as it stands it show s him to have taken 2,378 w ickets (1,682 of them for Sutton), scored 11,606 ru n s (8,264 ° f them for Sutton), and held 428 catches. In all m atches in 1906 he took 253 w ickets, in 1903 217, in 1904 192, in 1905 189, and in seven other seasons numbers ra n g in g from 140 to 150. H is bag of w ickets for the club has seven tim es ex ­ ceeded the 100. In the four seasons 1903-06 he took altogether 851 w ickets and totalled 4,138 runs, topping the thousand in 1903 andi 1905. B ut he is not by a long w ay the only good all-rounder the club has had. Sutton has been particularly fortunate in the possession of men who could and can use both bat and ball w ith effect. W itness such names a s those of G . R . Blades, V . R . B rom age, J. Bell, J. T . Illington, F . R . S. W hitbourn, J. S. Brocklesby, M. F . S. Jewell, C . C . Roberts, P. C . Burnett, P. R . W aterer, A. S. Jackson, D . D . Napper, W . B . H aycraft, R. S. D ally, L . V . Straker, T . C . Stafford, J. A. Knight— all of whom have had their successes a s bowlers, some of them long periods of success, all of w h om have made m any runs, and nearly all o f whom have scored centuries at one time or another. I have not mentioned am on g these R . A. Sheppard and G . H . Hadfield, because each deserves a paragraph to himself. Sheppard heads the batting averages given hereafter, and few men have ever done better for any club than he during his six or seven seasons w ith Sutton. Nearly 44 per innings, half-a-score or more of centuries, and 239 w ickets at under 12 e a c h ! Four more w ickets w ill g iv e Hadfield his 1000 for Sutton, unless I have go n e w ron g in m y calculation. F or five con­ secutive years (1900 to 1904) he took over a hundred per season. O f late he has been less frequently available, and perhaps he is scarcely the deadly bow ler of o ld ; but he is still a rare good man on a side. H is batting average over 1 period of 15 years w orks out a t only just under 27. O f the batsmen w h o have never fancied them selves much in the bow lin g line Lionel Jackson deserves first mention. O w in g to the claim s of business most of his cricket has been w ith the h a lfd a y elev e n s; but Jackson is no second- rater. H e is good enough to keep w icket for a county team, and has been so any tim e this last ten years or more, and he is a really brilliant batsman. J. A. K n igh t has been mentioned before. He has often g o t w ickets ch eap ly; but I fancy he would prefer to be classed w ith the batsmen rather than w ith the all-round men. Now adays, he says, he is only “ Donald K n ig h t’s fa th e r” ; but D . J. K . must have felt quite proud of having so hefty a parent when last season J. A. K . played right through an innin gs for Sutton and scored over 80. Then there is J. G . M . Bell, who has made 5,000 runs or so for the club, and there is E . Allen, who