Cricket 1913

C R I C K E T : a w e e k l y r e c o r d o f t h e c a m e . — m u c h i s t h , 1913. Together joined in Cricket’ s manly toil.”— Byron. No- 3 a S E ""s' SATURDAY , MARCH 15, 1913. 0 ] A Chat about W . H. Fryer. The Oldest Living Kent Professional. It cannot be claimed for Harry Fryer, as he was generally called, that he was ever in the forefront of first-class cricket. Rather did he belong to the rank and file, the men who seldom get all the credit they deserve, because their modest 20’ s and 50’ s, which helped to win matches, are apt to be over­ shadowed by the cen­ turies and double centuries of the great scorers, which in many cases only helped to draw them. But Fryer did good service to Kent in the sixties, when Kent cricket was none too strong, and he would probably have attained to a higher place if it had not been for the acci­ dent which cost him the sight of an eye when in his prime. Anyway, Harry Fryer has a distinction that only the hand of death can take from him. He is the oldest living Kent professional, and only one Ken t amateur, C oL A . F . Jenner (who played bu t one match for Kent, b y the way), is his senior. Fryer was bom at w . H. Greenwich on March 29, 1828, so that he will soon be celebrating his eighty- fifth birthday. He has lived for many years at Cox- heath, some three or four miles south of Maidstone, on the Cranbrook road, and it was in that locality that he first made his name as a cricketer. A search through j several volumes of “ Scores and Biographies ” has Iresulted in the unearthing of several minor matches in whichhe figured with distinction. I find his name first in July, 1850, when he was 22. He played then 1for Stilebridge, the local club, v. East K en t at Canterbury. v Tom Adams and Edgar Willsher were among his comrades ; Fuller Pilch and Martingell were included in the opposition. Pilch was a veteran then ; he had been playing cricket for nearly forty years ; did he not, as a boy of seventeen, field out to Mr. W . Ward’ s monumental 278 v. Norfolk ? In this, his first recorded match. Fryer took the w icket of Mr. W. de Chair Baker (who a good many years later said- of him that Harry Fryer, with only one eye, was a great deal better umpire than the average man with two), and another batsman, and scored 7 in his one innings. In 1851 I find him playing, with C. G. Whittaker and W. S. FRYER. Norton, for Watering- bury v. Penshurst (a Duke or two in the Penshurst team, of course), and scoring 50 for Stilebridge v. Town Mailing. The follow­ ing year saw his first appearance for the county against Sussex at Hove. He made a single in his first innings, and in his second was sent in first with Felix, who