Cricket 1914

262 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. J une 20, 19 14 . A n o th e r G r e a t C r ic k e te r Dead. O n l y the other d a y the death of R . E. Foster struck sorrow to the hearts of all cricketers. Now we have to mourn the passing of another of the indisputably great ones, a man of an older generation than R. E ., but, like him, a famous schoolboy, county, 'Varsity, Gentlemen of England and A ll England player. There is no necessity to com­ pare the two men. They never played together or against one another in a great match. Allan Gibson Steel’s first- class career was run before that of the brilliant Malvernian began. In one respect the latest of our honoured and regretted dead had the advantage over him who so recently preceded him to the land where— so one cannot but hope— M r . A . G. S t e e l a t 25. the game they loved so well is still played. It may be a heathen conception ; yet to a cricketer, surely, heaven would scarcely be heaven w ithout cricket ! Foster was a brilliant batsman and field, but only a moderate bowler ; A . G. Steel was first-rate in all three departments. The common voice placed him at his best below W . G. Grace alone. There were other great all- rounders then— C. T. Studd and George Giffen come to mind at once— there have been others since ; but it would be difficult to say of any one of them that he was Steel’s superior. One finds it amazing, on looking back, that so great a reputation should have been made in so short a time. Literally, it was the work of four or five years at most. Steel never played right through a season when once his undergraduate days were over. The law claimed him for its own, and thereafter his appearances were less and less frequent, though he played for England in 1888, ten years after his first season in the Cambridge team, for the Gentle­ men as far on as 1891, and for Lancashire in 1893. A llan Gibson Steel was born a t Liverpool, September 24, 1858, and died of heart failure at 12, Cleveland Gardens,, Hyde Park, London, on June 15, 1914, in his fifty-sixth year. He was the fourth of seven brothers, all of them good cricketers, and three besides himself— D. Q., E . E., and H. B .— first-class cricketers. It was by the merest chance that he was sent to Marlborough instead of to Upping­ ham, where his brother D. Q. was. There have been other Marlburians of high fame, but his name would be put at the head of the list by everyone. He got his colours at school when only fifteen, and against Rugby at Lord’s in 1874 scored 41 not out, the highest, score of the whole game, in his first innings. It is singular to note that he only sent down 20 balls in this match, from which one infers that he developed his batting before his bowling. In 1875 he totalled 620 for the school, with average over 36, and scored two centuries (157 and 152,) and also took 44 wickets at under 11 each. In the holidays he ran up another century for Lockerbie (Dumfriesshire) v. Lochmaben. He captained Marlborough in 1876 and 1877, and was half a side in himself in both seasons, getting many runs and taking many wickets. Against Ru gby he made 84 and 28 in the earlier year, o and 128 in the later. In these days he would probably have been played for the county not later than his second year at Marlborough. But those were days of fewer matches w ith more amateurs available ; and he did not go through his ordeal of fire till August, 1877, when at Old Trafford he was top scorer in the Lancashire v. Sussex match with a splendid 87. Not for him were the toils and struggles, the hopes and fears, that the average ’Varsity player must undergo before he gains his blue. He walked straight into the Cambridge eleven, and in his first match scored 2 and 46 and took 8 wickets for ^95. This was against an Eleven of England which included W. G. and G. F. Grace, W . R. Gilbert, Midwinter, and Martin and William McIntyre. While he did well enough as a batsman, it was chiefly as a bowler that he earned fame in 1878. This youngster, fresh from school, was undoubtedly the bowler of the year— ■ unless Spofforth, then on his first visit, may be reckoned to have divided honours w ith him. Here are some of his performances that season :— For Cambridge : 12 for 85 v. Yorkshire, 10 for 44 v. M.C.C. (at Cambridge), 10 for 58 v. Surrey, 14 for 80 v. M.C.C. (at Lord’s), 13 for 73 (5 for 11, second innings): v. Oxford ; For Lancashire : 13 for 72 v. Notts (Manchester), 14 for 112 v. Yorkshire (Manchester), 9 for 114 v. Gloucester­ shire (Manchester). For Gentleman v. Players : 9 for 105 (Oval). His bowling record that year was really phenomenal.. Those varied slows of his, with the keen brain th a t after­ wards won him the silk of a K.C. behind them, puzzled everybody. One cannot go through his great deeds year b y year, though the years of his first-class career were but few in number. For Cambridge he played four seasons, captaining the side in his third, totalled 1203 runs in 38 completed innings, average 31-65, and took 198 wickets for 2202 runs, average 11-12. For Lancashire (never appearing all through a season) he batted 72 times (5 not outs), totalled i960 runs, with average 29-25, and took 237 wickets at a trifle over 13 each. He made only one century for the county, and that long after he had become a very occasional player. But, like a famous contemporary and opponent of his, W. H. Patterson, Steel did not need weeks of practice to make him fit for a first-class game. A few hours at the nets were enough. For Gentlemen v. Players he totalled 589 runs in 27 innings (5 not out), and took in all 92 wickets. B u t he was the man for great occasions, and as a batsman his very best work was done for England against Australia. He went to the antipodes w ith the Hon. Ivo Bligh’s team in 1882-3, an<S scored 135 not out in a test m atch a t Sydney.