Cricket 1914

’Twas long past noon of a wild November day When Hawke came swooping from the West ; He heard the breakers thundering in Quiberon Bay But he flew the flag for battle, line abreast. Down upon the quicksands raging out of sight Fiercely beat the storm-wind, darkly fell the night But they took the foe for pilot and the cannon’s glare for light When Hawke came swooping from the West. — From Admirals All, by Henry Newbolt. T h a t was the first Baron Hawke, the great admiral, not in those days Lord Hawke, for the date of the creation was 1776, and the heroic action of Quiberon B ay was fought in 17.59. The Lord Hawke of to­ day— Eton, Cambridge, and Yorkshire, for many years captain of the county team, and this year President of the M.C.C., an honour which it is understood he has several times refused— is the seventh. He was bom in Lincoln­ shire (August 16, i860) ; but if ancestry goes for anything he is “ right Yorkshire,” for his father and mother alike were Y o rk ­ shire, L ady Hawke being a daughter of Henry Dow- ker, Esq., of Laysthorpe. A big game hunter of repute and a keen rider to hounds, Lord Hawke’s chief role in the public’s eye has nevertheless al­ ways been that of cricketer. To the great game he has devoted a considerable pro­ portion of an active life, and he has had his reward in the appreciation of those who know what he has done for cricket in general and for Yorkshire and overseas cricket in especial. It cannot be said th at as a boy a t Eton the Hon. Martin Bladen Hawke, as he then was, seemed marked out for any considerable distinction in the field. He was in the eleven two years, it is true ; but he was no schoolboy prodigy. In 1878 he averaged between 11 and 12, and in 1879— a wretched year, most unsuitable to his style of batting, in which the drive has always played a prominent part— under 9. His best score in the earlier year was 32 ( v. Harrow at Lord’s), in the later one (when he made 4 and 12 v. Harrow) 37. He first played big cricket in 1881, when he scored 32 for Yorkshire v. I Zingari at Scarborough. In the follow­ ing year, though he did not distinguish himself in the early Cambridge trial matches, an excellent inn­ ings of 58 v. Surrey at the Oval, the highest score of the match, made of 89 while he was in, earned him his blue. Against Oxford his scores were 15 and 30. For Yorkshire that season his best and highest was 66 v. Gloucestershire at Sheffield, Photo by ] [E. Hawkins & Co., Brighton’ L o r d H a w k e .