Cricket 1913

M a y 17, 1913. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 191 captaining the team in Jessop ’s occasional absence. H e made a good start. H is 85 in 160 m inutes on a slow pitch at B risto l v. W arw ick sh ire was p ra ctica lly p erfect in execution; h is 55 w as th e highest in dividu al score for Gloucestershire in th e S urrey match at the O val, when he and D ip p er in the follow -o n added 106 in an h o u r; and his 86 v. H an ts at B ristol, though lu cky, w as no end valuable. T h ese scores w ere all m ade in h is first three matches. In his fifth gam e o f th e season his 21 and 41 v. Sussex at B ristol represented the highest aggregate for his sid e ; b u t'a fter that he had a b a d spell, and really the only other match in which h e did him self justice w as the Yorkshire gam e at B ristol, when he aggregated go (57 and 33 in totals o f 132 and 166), on ly B oard o f th e rest m aking as m any as 40. T h e general p u b lic is apt to undervalue the man who can o n ly turn out occasion ally, w ho has no chance o f totalling his regu lar 1,500 or 2,000 runs per season because he never p la ys enough innings. T h e glam our o f the big figures is upon them . B u t go to the home grounds o f men like C . 0 . H . S ew ell, th e R ev. F . H . G illingham , R . E , Foster— it w ould be easy to mention more, b u t three names w ill suffice— and ta lk w ith th e regular attendants there, and you w ill learn something o f the fee lin g o f hope and confidence engendered when one o f these rare birds is m aking an appearance, w ill gauge better the rare b ird ’s real worth in the eyes o f those who have seen most o f him. But in fu tu re Sew ell w ill no longer be an in frequen t player. H e is cap tain in g G loucestershire th is season, and is likely to do so fo r some yeaxs to come. G ilbert Jessop cou ld not m ake G loucestershire a match- winning side. U n less C y r il Sew ell h as better lu ck in find­ ing the necessary bow lers— and a few more batsrtien to boot— it is not lik e ly th at h e w ill be able to do so. B ut the side w ill still have a cap tain o f the good o ld fighting breed, a m an at h is best in a tig h t place, the kin d o f man who sets h is teeth h ard , and goes all out to the last oun ce; it w ill still have a cap tain whose exam ple leaves no excuse fo r the “ w a s te r ” in th e fie ld ; it w ill still have a cap tain w ith the quick-scoring h abit, and habit means much in this, as in other matters. Sew ell can cut. S ew ell does cu t, using a splendid pair o f w rists w ith te llin g effect. W atch him bat, and you w ill not g o aw ay and com plain th at cu ttin g is a lost art. M an y o f his runs on slow w ickets are m ade b y his power to deal thus w ith b a lls that the average batsman w ould merely p la y , or w ould leave alone altogether. I s he quite as quick on h is fe e t as he w a s? I am not su re ; he is nearing th e veteran stage, and most men lose some mobility then. B u t his footw ork is quicker and better than th at o f most batsmen still. H is bow lin g promise was never redeemed. H e has taken, according to my calculations, five w ickets in first-class cricket, and fo r a time he w as keen on “ h a v in g a g o at them ” ; but those five w ickets cost 60.80 runs each, and I fan cy his keen­ ness has waned. In his figures to date, which fo llo w , I have included all the South A frica n matches o f 1894, though they were not techn ically first-class. H.S. 63 87 130 107 ^c.fso" ' Inns. N.o. R. A. °94 .. *895 .. ^ 9 6 .. l898 ... 1898 (Am.) 1899 ... ! 9 0 o ... >901 ... 1902 ... 37 3 1038 30-52 14 o 167 11-92 26 2 706 29-41 36 3 1114 33-75 7 1 I84 30*66 8 o 16 o 21 o 9 o 162 20*25 393 24-56 434 20-66 I4I 15*66 H.S. I70 50 104 I I I 122 46 87 70 35 Season. 1903 .. 1904 .. 1905.. 1906 . 1909 . 1910. 1912 . Inns. N.o. R. A. . IO I 268 29-77 310 34 44 527 35 'I 3 4°9 45-44 16 8-oo 152 38 00 666 21-48 io 1 17 2 9 o 2 o 4 ° 31 o 62 86 Total 257 13 6687 27-40 170 J. N . P . The Library. Into the pages of A Few Overs* a real cricketer has put his heart; and because of that it should appeal to all real cricketers. But, one may ask, what constitutes a real cricketer? Mr. C. B. Fry says in his Foreword : “ To some people cricket is a circus show upon which they may or may_ not find it worth while to spend sixpence; to others it is a pleasant means of livelihood; to others a physical fine art full of p'ot-interest, and enlivened by difficulties; to others in some sort this game is a cult and a philosophy, and these last will never be understood by the profanum vulgus, nor by the merchant-minded, nor by the unphysically intellectual.” I take it that the old Oxonian would not consider a man a real cricketer unless he played the game, loved the game for its own sake, and in some sort held the game as a religion. But of such as do all these things is certainly Mr. D. L. A. Jephson, of Cambridge, Surrey, and the Wanderers. (By the way, he dedicates the little book to his club.) In his verses one finds a constant undertone of regret. “ Ah me, that one should ever grow too old for the great game! ” is the frequent burden of his song. “ Fools laugh, they cannot understand; Are we fools too? ” he asks, singing of the. game’s strange fascination. Nay, but if lovers of the game be fools, there is surely in their folly something of a divine wisdom better than the wisdom of the worldly-wise. Who was it that wrote : “ He batted and bowled with all his might, And his heart was the heart of a child ” ? Therein is a thought akin to some of Mr. Jephson’s. “ Give me a day in a golden June, And the sun in a turquoise sky ”— What memories those lines conjure up ! “ A lay of summer and sunshine, Of Lord’s on a July day, A wicket rolled out like a picture, A crowd that has come to stay ”— There we have it again, the zest for the dear, clean game that we inherited from our forefathers, that, for all the croakers may say, we shall hand down to them that come after us. “ Do you remember the day, old friend (You were then but a slim-built chap), That you stayed the rot, keeping up your end, And they gave you your old brown cap ? ” A memory of the Oval that, be sure. And this is right good : “ O, at times we lost, and at times we won, But I know that for us all the same, We played and we loved it, we got our fun, For the game— it was still the game! ” Here again is the true cricket spirit: “ Only twenty-three in a two-hour stay, In the face of a jeering crowd, But he’d saved the game by the close of play, And so he might well feel proud.” There are 25 poems in the slim blue volume, with a repro­ duction of “ Spy’s ” cartoon of the author on the cover, and I think you will like them all, some more, some less perhaps. “ The Brown Cap,” “ Old Groups,” and “ If I were B lind” are my first choice, I think. J. N. P. * A Few Overs, by D. L. A. lephson, price 6d. net ; W. Heifer Sons. Ltd., Cambridge ; London Agents, Simpkin, Marshall, & & Co., Ltd.