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 g a m e . — J a n u a r y 1 8 t h , 1 9 1 3 . ‘ Together joined in Cricket’ s manly toil.”— Byron. NO. 3 1 . V O L . !!. New S e r i e s . SATURDAY , JANUARY 18, 1913. P « 'C E 2 d . No. 920 Old Series. A Chat with Mr. A. F. Somerset. T h e in terview I had w ith Mr. Somerset at th e C oun ty Club at W orth in g last w eek was not m y first ta lk w ith th a t gen tle­ man, and I b elieve I could h ave w ritten th is screed w ithou t seeing h im again, for on previous occasions he h ad to ld me a good deal — esp ecially abou t W est Ind ian cricket— and m y m em ory, like his, is a v e ry serviceab le one. B u t 1 should not h a v e been able to g iv e all th a t is here, of course. Th ree or fou r w eeks ago I chanced to m en tion to m y pub lisher th a t I had arranged to in terview Mr. Somerset for th e J an u a ry number o f C r i c k e t . “ W h y , I rem ember seeing him p la y on B roadw a ter Com ­ mon tw e n ty yea rs a go ,” he replied ; “ and he was g rey t h e n ! S u rely it is not he who is cap tain ing the team to th e W est Indies, b u t his son ? ” “ H is son is go in g ,” was m y a n sw e r ; “ bu t it is cer­ ta in ly Mr. A . F . Somerset who c a p ta in s ; and he Mr. A. F. isn’t g re y— to an y ex ten t worth m en tion ing— even now .” “ He used to bow l w ith the old-fashioned round-arm action— som ething a fter W . G .’s sty le, bu t v e ry much f a s t e r ; the oth er bow ler w as a pro., I fancy [— p r e tty good, too— M itc h e ll; and th e m atch was again st H an d sw o rth .” A m an sittin g a t the next desk looked up. “ So it w a s,” he said. “ I remember it too. I was p la y in g for H and sw orth ! ” T h e last speaker w as A . E . D an iell, known to a good m an y readers of this paper as th e O ld C oun ty C rick ­ eter, and the coincidence is curious enough to be worth noting. Mr. Som erset’s b irth- d a te is not in W isd e n ; and when , know ing th a t he w a s a W ellington ian , I looked up his school record in th e red L illyw h ite, I sta rted n early ten years too fa r on. H ow ever, I found him at length— not in 1879 or thereabou ts, as I had exp ected , bu t in 1871 and ’72. O f his p la y in ’71 I find recorded : “ A fair b a t, bu t rath er too stiff in style. A first-rate lon g-stop .” H e averaged betw een 17 and 18 then, SOMERSET. and ap p a ren tly had not been d iscovered as a bow ler. In 1872 his b a ttin g a verage jum ped to 45 (or ju st under 34— the figures g iv en are 13-4-305, bu t th e a verage is set ou t as 45, and a t this