Cricket 1913

7 i 8 C R I C K E T : A W E E K L Y RECORD OF THE GAME. December 1 7 , 1 9 1 3 . A C H A T W I T H MR. R. B. R I D C L E Y . A man who has upheld the cricket flag: for m any years in a qu arter where the gam e has never taken deep root, who p layed cricket till he was close on seventy, and attributes the fact th at he does not look his a g e (if it is true that he does not, he says) la rg e ly to his k eep in g un the gam e, is one who should be of in terest to the readers of this paper. Mr. R. B. R id gley is an old reader of C r i c k e t and very keen on the paper. I g o t into correspondence w ith him a couple of years or so ago, and about the sam e tim e chanced upon his nam e in the p a ges of C h a dw ick ’s Am erican C ricketers’ M a n u a l for 1872. He was then one of the vice-presidents of the P en in su lar C .C . of Detroit. It occurred to me that the R. B. R id gley holdin g this office would probably be my correspondent's father; 1872 happens to be the year in which I was born, and n aturally it seem s a lo n g tim e a go to me. But no— it was the sam e R. B. R id gley. T h is year Mr. R id g le y crossed the A tlan tic for a tour of some months on the Continent, fin ish in g up in En gland, where I met him at B righ ton and returned his generous hospitality by basely in sistin g upon in terview ing him ! “ Y e s, I have had a lo n g in n in g s,” he said; “ but I never was a cricketer of any pretensions. I cannot claim more than that I was very keen on the gam e, and helped to g iv e it a start in some quarters where it had not form erly been played. Where was I born? N ear Southampton, on O ctober 11, 1840— a H am pshire man, you see, and proud of it. But I went to the States when only sixteen, and there I have lived ever since, so I sunoose I am more Am erican than E n g lish now. My adopted country is a grea t one, with a future ever greater than its past; but I don’ t fo rg et my native land, and I have been home several tim es before th is.” “ D id you have to g o lo n g w ithout cricket after reach ing the S tates?” “ Not very long. I m anaged to start a club in the saw factory in which I served my apprenticeship at West C am ­ bridge, M assachusetts— later the nam e of the town was changed to A rlin gton . T h ere were very few men in the factory who had ever handled a bat before; but they soon got keen on the gam e. We used to borrow the factory w aggon and drive off to C helsea, Waltb.im and B raintree— towns near Boston— to play. It w asn ’t h ig h class cricket, but it was played with keenness and zest, and I still remember with pleasure these m atches fifty years and more ago. Perhaps it’s hardly worth m entioning, but in one of them I carried my bat through both in n in gs, sco rin g in the first 55, and m igh tily proud I was !” “ With reason, I think. F ifty meant more in those days than a hundred does to-day. It wras not until years after that, I know, that centuries began to be scored with any frequency across the A tlantic. T h e y were not so very com ­ mon even in E n glan d h alf a century b a c k .” “ L ater on I played for a while in Boston. T h ere was an old chap there nam ed Lum b— he must be go at least if alive now— whom I well remember. He was for a number of years prom inently identified, as P residen t and otherw ise, with the famous Lon gw ood C lub of Boston. T hen there were the W rights, H arry and G eorge, sons of old Sam W right, who was pro. to the St. G eo rge’ s C lub of N ew Y ork, then the lead in g club of the States, I should say. H arry and G eorge m ay be better remembered as base-ball p layers, but they were capital cricketers, too. B y the w ay, ta lk in g of base-ball, I m ay mention that it was Henry Chadw ick, E d itor of the Am erican Cricketers' M a n u a l , who codified the law s of that g am e .” “ B ut most of you r cricket was played in D etroit, I believe ?” “ Y es. I w as still com paratively a y o u n g man when I went there, and for m any years played for the Pen in sular C ricket C lub, D etro it’ s first club, and formed (I think) about 1858. T h e Pen in sulars moved from their origin al ground to R ecreation P ark; but that did not prove altogether satis­ factory. T h e Pen in su lar was disbanded, but very shortly after joined forces w ith the D etroit A th letic C lub, who had in the meantime acquired our old ground. T h e D .A .C . played their m atches on that as lo n g as cricket was played in D etroit; unfortunately it is no lo n ger played there, but I hope it will lift its head again before lo n g .” “ Who were the chief D etroit p layers ?” “ I think I must put T om D ale first though he was not of the original band. What a fine p layer the man was, and what a favourite with everyone who knew him I Tom won’t mind m y tellin g you that he deserted from the Household B rigade, and that when in E n glan d w ith the C anadian T eam of 1880, which the Rev. T . D . P h illip p s captained, he was arrested at Leicester for that desertion. He had been p layin g as ‘ Captain Jordan.’ H is loss la rg e ly accounted for the unfortunate end in g of the tour, which w as never properly completed. He was quite the best on the side, though it had other good ones. But it w as a w eak .sid e on the whole; C anadian cricket had not advanced far enough to ju stify the tour. T om was at H alifax (Nova Scotia) and at St. Louis (M issouri) before he came to us; in fact, he was on tour with a St. L ouis team when I first saw him in Detroit. T om D ale was p layin g for us in 1885 when Mr; E. J. Sanders’ s team played at Detroit. T om bowled verv fast and took 7 for 86, clean bow lin g W. E. Roller, the Surrey crack, and two or three others. W hile in E n glan d in 1901 I again met Roller, this tim e in the pavilion at the Oval. A lm ost the first th in g he said to me was 1 How’ s T om D ale ?’ Y es, everybody liked T om .” “ What other overseas teams visited D e tro it? ” “ T h e A ustralian T eam of 1878 came to us on their way home, but I did not play again st them . R ichard D a ft’ s T eam came in 1879— all Y orksh ire and Notts players. T om D ale bowled Selby, D aft, and B ates, and go t two or three more w ickets as well. A little later in the same y e ar we received a v isit from the Irish G entlem en’ s T eam , under the leadership of S ir G eorge Colthurst. Then there was Sanders’s team of 1885 T h ey scored nearly 300, and got fifteen of us out tw ice for about 110. I recall A. J. T horn ton ’s underhand tw isters, and the fine bow lin g of Horner of Surrey. T h e A ustralian s came again in 1893, and that gracefu l left-handed bat. W illiam B ruce, made a cen­ tury. Tom D ale was still p layin g, but he did not get a w icket that time. H arry T ro tt’ s slow s bothered our men a good deal, and T rum ble and G eorge G iffen also played havoc. E ighteen of D etroit scored about 70 in each in nin gs, the A ustralian s 300 odd in their first.” “ B ein g so near the border, you had frequent m atches with Canadian clubs, of cou rse?” “ Oh, yes. W indsor is ju st across the river from us, and we played gam es with them quite often. We also visited and received visits from other C anadian clubs, am on g then" Am herstburg, Chatham , London, Sarnia, T oronto, the dis­ tance bein g about 18 m iles to the first-nam ed place and about 250 m iles to the last. I esp ecially recall with pleasure our trips to Am herstburg, which we gen erally made in a Tally-ho. We used to g o on tour, and met many of the best C anadian players. I remember poor R u ssell O gden (who died this year) as a lad of 18, and a fine player even then. D yce Saunders I knew well. W. B. Wells ? O f course I know B illy W ells ! He still p lays, th ough he cannot be much my junior. I played my last m atch three or fou r years ago. W ells was a fine oarsman in his day, and he has been la rgely instrum ental in keep in g cricket alive in Chatham . I recall a match again st Toronto in the seventies, when D ale made 36 not out in our second total of 62. T h e day after he scored 32 v. Ham ilton in a total of 68, and the day after that 35 v. Paris in a total of 112. It w as a year or so later that he made 41 out of about 80 v. Ham ilton, I think. One of the best in nin gs played for us was Underwood A rm stro n g’ s 76 not out again st St. M ary’ s in, I believe, 1879. It was so hot that we had to abandon the match. Some years later D ale did a splendid bit of bow lin g v. W indsor— 8 w ickets for 13. T h e y were all out for 24, but beat us b y 12 runs in the end. But I was tellin g you som ething about our men, and did not get any further than T om D ale. T h ere were C. B. C alvert, a good bat, and F. C. Irvine, a capital w icket-keeper. T he latter was induced to try cricket instead of base-ball by Mr. Joshua W. Waterman, a real enthusiast, and never went back to his old game. In keep in g to D ale he stood short­ stop, but he was w onderfully quick and sure. Then there was John Stuart, one of the very best, who did yeoman service for m any years for the D .A .C .. He wras a fine fast bowler, but he could bat also, and made at least one cen tu ry.” “ D id n ’t Irvine play for U .S. v. C anada on ce?” “ Y es. F an cy your rem em bering th at! It would be at Ham ilton about 1881, I should say, but I don’ t think he kept wicket. C. B. C alvert also played for U .S . v. C an ad a.” “ Y o u saw som ething of most of the team s which visited the States, I believe ? ” “ I was prepared to go anywhere to see good cricket. T h e distance from D etroit to N ew Y o rk or Philadelphia is about