Cricket 1913

November 15 , 1913 . C R ICKE T : A W EEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 701 T h e best school team of the year? Hard to say— more than hard— im possible ! Eton were a very good side indeed, improving: as the season advanced. Harrow— weak. W in­ chester— not quite up to usual standard. Repton— • disappointing. M alvern— really good, but everybody else outshone by K n igh t, which sounds paradoxical, but is righ t nevertheless. R adley— a stronger side than for years past; quite one of the best, I should say. W estm inster— also a good side; R adley beat them in a well-contested game. W ellin gborough— good, but not as great as in 1912. R ugby, T on b rid ge, H aileybury— all strong. I should pick out the following- (not in order of merit, for that I refuse to attempt) as the best six— E ton, H aileybury, M alvern, R adley, R u gby Westm inster. T a k e you r choice am ong them , or prefer others to them , as you please. Here, for what it is worth, is a table of some of the prin­ cipal results:— Eton beat Harrow and W inchester. R u gb y beat M arlborough and Clifton. H aileybury beat Cheltenham and U ppingham . Cheltenham beat C lifton and M arlborough. R adley beat Westm inster. W estm inster beat Charterhouse. Charterhouse beat W ellington. W ellington beat H aileybury. U ppingham beat Shrew sbury. U ppin gham drew with M alvern. Malvern drew w ith Repton. SOM E C R IC K E T R EM IN IS C E N C E S . B y G . A . B r o o k in g . Scene: Lim e Street Station, Liverpool. T im e: Between 25 and 30 years ago. D ram atis personae: R ailw ay police­ man and sm all boy in knickerbockers. R. P . : Y o u can ’t g o through here, you know, unless you’ve business inside, my lad. R. P . : But I have ! I want to buy a paper called CRICKET. Sm all boy allowed to pass. Perhaps the policeman read C r i c k e t him self. A n yw ay, the sm all boy (whose nam e was G eorge B rooking) has done so ever since, and is keener to­ day than ever. T h at w as the first number he bought, and twopence was twopence in those days, as he well remembers ! C ricket and C r i c k e t — the gam e and the paper— I could not b egin to tell all that they have meant for m e ! We had no close season, m y brothers and I, in the days of our boy­ hood; w inter and summ er alike we played in the little garden at the back of the house. Once— rare lapse !— I did not want to play (I can ’ t remember why), but was promptly brought to my b earin gs by the scath in g words of my brother Bob: “ A ll I can say is that you can ’t call you rself an enthusiastic cric k e te r!” He has played the gam e across the A tlan tic since, that same brother Bob of m ine— a wanderer born if ever there was one— and I, a stay-at-home, have played it whenever and wherever I could. A few years ago I used to play for H elsby, a v illag e eight m iles the other (the south) side of Chester. A n even in g’s p ractice necessitated a 47 m iles’ cycle ride and the p assage of the Mersey; but I had out­ lived the reproach— never deserved, I think— of not being an enthusiastic cricketer, and the labour was not too great for me. Some of the th in gs I remember— the deeds and the men who did them? Well, I think A . G. Steel stands out most vividly in my recollection. What a cricketer he was ! He could come into the gam e with scarcely any practice and show his best form again st the strongest opponents, a faculty given to few men, though W. H. Patterson was another example of it. When Y o rksh ire first played at A igb u rth again st Liverpool and D istrict (1887) Steel made 44 and 68, and those innin gs live in m y memory. T hree years later he took 5 for 13 for G entlemen v. P layers at L o rd ’s— a great feat. In th at A igb u rth gam e Peate and Emmett, both n earing the end of their careers, were p laying, and unlu cky “ B illy ” B ates, and G eorge U lvett, and Joe Hunter, and J. M. Preston, and Irwin G rim shaw— all five under the sod now ' Dr. E . M. G race was one of the sharers with A. G. Steel of my hero-worship. When shall we look upon the L ittle D octor’ s lik e a gain ? People loved him; “ lik e d ” is too feeble a word; brusque though he was at tim es, he had the kindest of hearts. A G loucestershire professional once told me: “ E. M .’ s a real gentlem an; he never m akes any of us feel our p osition.” T h e tribute was a genuin e one; until a lesson was needed E. M. would never seek to make any man “ feel his position,” and the man who never g o t “ above him self ” was treated by him as man and brother. M any were the L ittle D octor’s days of success on the good greensw ard, but I think to the end of his life he must have remembered best of all that glorious day at A igb u rth in 1889, when he won the gam e for his side, and as he came up the pavilion steps W. G ., in jo y and pride unrestrainable, snatched his elder brother’ s cap from his head and waved it wildly. C lear-cut in memory is that nerve-trying test at M an­ chester in 190 2, when E n glan d went under by three runs. Such a stru g g le as it w as ! T o me its central figure has alw ays been Lockwood. H is bow ling on the Frid ay after­ noon was sim ply wonderful. T h e spectators were thrilled with delight. A nd that catch of Leonard B rand in the slips, dism issin g T rum p er! A t the close of the 19 0 3 season C . B . F ry wrote that W arner’s team for A ustralia did not include the best fast bow ler, for, carefully nursed, Lockwood could still claim that place. He never wrote anyth in g truer. A ll that is mortal of H arry G raham lies under the tu rf in far-aw ay N ew Zealand yet he is still to me a livin g figure in memory. “ T h e L ittle D ash er,” F elix (Tom Horan) named him , and how w ell the name fitted ! Batting' and field ing alike were dash in g, brilliant, unforgetable. I see him in the ’ 93 test at O ld T rafford , so alert at third man and on the boundary; there comes back to me as in a cinem ato­ grap h picture his great attempt to catch W illiam Gunn off what was only half a chance anyway. Poor G raham ! He made a mess of his life, I know. T h e b righ t prom ise went down into a lonely grave. But which of us is free from fault, and who th at is successful owes n othin g to good fortune ? Leved-headed W illiam Gunn— he fairly carried E n glan d on his back in that same t e s t ! He would hardly look at T u rn e r’ s short-pitched off-balls; his attitude said plainly, “ None for W illiam , thank y o u !” A whole over he let take care of them selves; no n ib b lin g at them for that six-feet-odd of T rentsid e m an h o od ! What a trimm er it was with which G eorge G iffen bowled dear old W alter Read in that same m a tc h ! W. W. played forw ard to smother it; it beat him all ends up, and he turned round to see his stumps go. Tw o very fast bowlers— T om R ichardson and A rthur Mold— played for En glan d in that gam e, a most unusual circum stance; and how splendidly M acG regor kept to both ! I could go on for a lo n g time yet, but I w ill call a halt here. BLANCO For Cleaning and Whitening White Buckskin and Canvas Shoes, Cricket Pads, and all other articles of a similar nature. It Is prepared In a v e ry ca refu l m anner, and extra precau tion s are taken to en su re an evenness o f colou r. 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