Cricket 1914

460 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. O c t o b e r , 1914. players would not approach the number asked for, even could all join. Mr. Chambers, realising this, circularised all the counties w ith the suggestion th at their secretaries should appeal to clubs in the county. A copy of this letter is appended. Derwent Chambers, Derwent Street, Derby. September 12, 1914. D ear Sir,— • T h e W a r — C r i c k e t e r s ’ B a t t a l i o n . Y o u will have received from Mr. F . E. L acey a circular letter on the above matter. I t appears that Lord K itchener would give encourage­ ment to the project provided th a t a battalion of at least xooo men could be formed. This is perhaps too great a number for the first and second class counties to raise, bu t m ay I venture to suggest, tin if the secretary of every County Cricket Club would, through the Press, invite applications from the private clubs in his county, it m ight be possible to meet Lord K itchener’s demands. I have addressed a letter (copy enclosed) to the news­ papers circulating in Derbyshire, and I trust there m ay be a liberal response. I am sure all cricketers would be glad to know th at the national summer pastime was well represented a t the front.— Yours faithfully, R. B. CHAM BER S, Chairman of Derbyshire Cricket Club. M r. B a c o n has suggested th a t the football community should be asked to co-operate. B u t perhaps the effort, more or less discouraged at the outset, has come too late. I t will make little difference in one w ay if it has. The men will be scattered here and there instead of shoulder to shoulder, as one would have liked to see them ; but th ey will not hang back because the proposed corps fails. S i n c e writing the above, and on the eve of going to press, a letter from Mr. Chambers informs us th at of the Derbyshire ground staff Morton, Wild, Horsley, Severn, Blacklidge, Bracey, and Reader have all decided to volun­ teer for the Battalion, and th at half-a-dozen or so members of Derbyshire clubs have also sent in their names. A ll returns have been asked for b y Mr. Lacey for October 1st. M r. C h a m b e r s adds th at Captain R . R . B aggallay is at the front w ith the n t h Hussars; G ilbert Curgenven has joined the Westm inster Dragoons ; W . T . T aylor has been offered a temporary commission as Second Lieutenant in the 14th Battalion of the Notts and Derbyshire Regiment, and N. M. Hughes-Hallett is also joining. A u b r e y F a u l k n e r has obtained a commission in the Worcestershire Regiment. T h e splendid lo yalty of the Indian rulers has been strikingly attested. The Berlin crowd expected rebellion in India. Instead, from every one of the 700, great and small, came offers of service ; and from outside the Empire’s borders the Dalai Lam a of T ibet offered a contingent of 1000 Tibetans, while the ruler of Nepal makes our cause his own. The Gurkhas come from Nepal ; but it is not alone in men that th a t state is helping. A t least one cricketer will be found among the Maharajas on active service— he of Patiala, to wit. Nor, as m ight be expected, is th a t great batsman whom we still think of as “ R anji ” behind the rest. In a speeeh to his subjects a t Jamnagar the Maharaja Jamsaheb of Nawanagar (to give him his due title) said :— “ I have placed the humble and limited resources of m y state at the disposal of the Empire. I have promised to raise and maintain a force of 1000 able-bodied men to fight for the Empire and to give 200 horses and fifteen motor cars over and above two squadrons of Imperial Service Lancers.” Y e a r s ago Norman Gale wrote : O Statesmen who devise and plot To keep the White above the Black, Who tremble when your bolt is shot Lest love and loyalty grow slack, There’s not a deed of craftsmanship, There’s not a thing Red Tape can do, Shall knit the Hindoo w ith the Celt As much as this— the Cambridge Blue ! O v e r - s t r o n g , perhaps. A fter all, it would seem, the men who uphold the British Raj in the land of H ind have made the denizens of that land believe that, imperfect though it m ay be and being human must be, the British Raj has meant well b y them— has done its best. Bu t cricket has helped to knit tighter the bonds th at bind the A ryan— ay, and the non-Aryan— races of the peninsula which is in itself a continent to the white race which has assumed the governance of their destinies. A m o n g the cricketers who have already laid down their lives in their country’s service are Colonel Sir E. R . Brad­ ford, Captain A . M. Byng, Captain C. H. Browning, and Lieut. H . Mockler-Ferryman. Captain A . C. G. Luther was reported killed, bu t this was happily untrue. Lieut. J. C. W . MacBryan (Somerset) is among the wounded. There are other cases, doubtless ; but it is not easy for one pair of eyes and one brain to keep the tally. F r o m Australia comes news of the death of B . B. Cooper, the old Rugbeian, who a t one time held w ith W . G. the record for a first w icket partnership in big cricket. An­ other recent death is that of W . S. Eadie, the Derbyshire batsman, and John Holland (Leicestershire, Lancashire, and Cheshire) died a few weeks ago. Obituary notices are perforce held over. W . P a u l O ’N e i l l , captain of the Germantown C.C.’s first eleven, was married on August 6 to Miss Marianna Lippincott, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J . Bertram Lippincott, of Philadelphia. Congratulations ! C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s also to Frank Woolley and H. E . Roberts, the Sussex colt, on their recent marriages. W oolley’s was mentioned in our last issue. The bride was Miss Sybil Fordham. That of Roberts took place on September 9 at A ll Saints, Hove, and Mrs. Roberts was formerly Miss Nellie Parsons, daughter of Detective- Inspector and Mrs. Parsons. F o u r of the Haverford boys (so says the American Cricketer) paid a flying trip to the continent on the con­ clusion of the tour, reached Switzerland, and were held up there by the War. Rough luck ! But doubtless the four cricketers— W . C. Brinton, S. E. Stokes, J. Stokes, and H. Miller— have got out of it ere this. T h e article on “ Cricket and Baseball ” which appeared in our issue of July 18 was lifted entire, w ithout any acknowledgment, b y the Victoria (B.C.) Tim es. From their columns it found its w ay into the American Cricketer, duly credited to the Times, as is the A .C .’s honourable way. Bu t didn’t the A .C . people, good friends of ours, see it in our pages ? We pause for a reply. H.I.M. The Empress of Russia has favoured the proprietors of Dr. J. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne with a large order for that famous medicine to be sent to Russia. As is well known, Dr. Browne’s Chlorodyne is a sure preventive and curative of dysentery and other intestinal complaints.