Canadian Cricket Field Volume 1 1882

6 HE G IQfDIAfR G12IKET FIELD. The iMessrs. Rav, of the saio place, it is îuniderstood, are shortly stepped in, and, at a cost of a little ovr .£31,100, bought it right going to follow suit. out for theiselves, so that Lord's should ho a cricket groui'd for Mr. D. W. Saunders has roturned to his native Guelph, after over. spendling two years at law in Toronto. And now vwith regard te the iaterials. First of ail, the ball. Mr. P. ÆE. Irving, who s ably captained for Newmarket last ,Thte ball was nuch sinaller than the one used at the present tiio, year, is practising law in Victoria, B.C. being somethmg of the size of the ordinary rounder ball. Our anti- ¡ quarian friends considor that the ball was adopted because the cat wouild not go far enougli. The cat was inade stumnpieranîd stuipier, CRICKET, AIND HOW TO EXCEL IN IT. until it was at last eut doun te a badly shaped ball, and the first cicket-baIll was consequenîtly a wooden one. Tho bat in tho last nv Di. W. G. GRACE. century was very like a club, and thore were at first ne rules as te I its size or width. Althougli its crooked shape lias an odd look, it bl by pe )wasi not badly adapted for the style of pIlay, which, being puroly I. -INTRtoUcTOY. TH.u O.l1E ITSELF. offensive, required sonething with which a good deal of hard hitting The game of cricket in somte formn or another was played as far could b got through. back as the thirteenth century. Edward II., who lost Bannock- David Harris, one of the old HainbIedon mon (who, by the way, bur and was nurdered at Berkeley, is clained by some enthusiasts is once credited with havimg bowled te Toma Walker, "l Old Ever- ast creag " eter, frem the occur- lastimg," one huindred and seventy balls for one run), was the cause sthtirat royal cricketvr, or ratier ofea th altratru fron tho shpo<fce a.Rauifntth ronce of an obscure entry, in which his tutor, Johnt Leek, appears of the alteration the shape of the bat. Harns, if not the i- as drawing a hundred shillings froi the treasury for expenses " ad ventor, was the introducer of longth balls, and against his bowling creag et alios ludos per vices," in 1305, whenl cricket, if creag was: the old hockey-stick arrangement was of no use. This introduction cricket, must have been a fairly well-known game. Some peole of length bowling had a great deal to do with the progres3 of the say that in old days the game was usually called Club Bail, and was. gane, for net only iad the bat te be altered, but the had played inucl as rounders is iow ; others have an idea that tip-eat, to be raised far above thoir old twelve inches, and the old-fashioned which is in much faveur in sonme districts, is the game te which backward slashmg play was superseded. Old Smali, one of the cricket owes its origin ; while a third party go so far as to assert best hands at the draw that ever lived, is said te have first made a that we have got single wicket froni club hall, and double-wicket straiglt bat. Once the inventive spirit was let loose, things grew front tip.cat, urder its old nane of cat-dog. ; apace, thoughi soine of the novelties were not received with the Be tihis as it may, it was not until the early part of last century :cordiality that thjeir originators anticipated. One nian at Reigate that cricket was played anythig like it is at r prtîtfad previus (his aname was White ; lie deserves te bu imortalised) appeared at te this we necd nt linger on antiquarian researches. Hanmpsire a match with a bat larger than the wickets. This was too much of to~~~~~ seitue tirst mule irase onad asti teia tueahs width cf thei was, I believe, the first count y te fomn a regular club and play the a good thing, and so the first rule was made as to the width of th gaime in proper style ; at least the old Hambledon is the earliest bat, and the Hanibledon Club had an iron fraine made, through club we hear about as being of any account, though cricket wias ' which all bats were passed before being allowed te ho used. One layed at some of the public schools long previens te 1750, about of the first men te have a practical exenplification of its utility whicl date the Hambledon iwas started. Au old paintmg gves ns . as Surrey Robinson, who designed a bat specially for cutting, at the Hanibledon cleven in their club costume of knee-breeches, v hiei lie was agreat proficient ; but the bat would net pass through stockings, buckled sh(îes, and velvet caps, by no means such an he frame, and the Hanibledon men " cut" fron it in a sense un- elaborate uniformni as that of Lord Wiinchelseia's teant, who ased to expected by Robinson. However, Robinson, with hisbat all hîacked play in silver laced hats They played at first oi Broadhailfpenny about by pocket-knives, made top score, and won the match against Down, afterwards on Windinill Down, both close te the village, the damagers of lis bat. Robinson was the inventor of the spikes and for man years hi the samne position with regard te othier n the shoes, and of the leg-guards, which, as he left themr, con- clubs that thi M.C.C. does now. Between the years 1786 and 1794 sisted of two pieces of wood piaced anglewise te protect the shiun- they played Ail England several tines, and, what is more to thei a very noisy conrvance,. wrlch had the dia..dvantage cf throwing hionour, generally beat themn. The gane was also played in Kent, off the log-byes at a prodigious pace. and very early in Surrey, particularly round about Farnhan. The The wickets seenr always to have bcon twenty-twu yards apart "Three Parishes" (Farnhani, Godalnmug and Hartley Ron) are as now, the length ... aurvey r's "chaim," but the stunps havo faimous in cricket aunais, and proved a thornii i the side of their i aried greatly i position. Wo first find theui two in znumber, two ieighibours, the Hanbledon men, whoin they frequently defeated. foot froni eacli other and one foot higli. with a long stick across the Middlesex and Notts followed, after a short interval, the good tops, which, like the present bails, lad te be knocked off te bowl exaimpile set by the south of the Thamues, and clubs were gradually out a ian. Between the stuips-and her the resemblance to formned over the whole country. rounders and tip-cat was net quite broken off-there was a large One of the earliest of the London clubs was that called the White hole in which, te put a man out when off lis ground, the ball iad Conduit, whici came imto exstence about 1780, and whose matches te bo popped (hence afterwards " popping " crease). The wicket- were played not only on their owi grounud in White Conduit Field,, keeper hiad a lively tine of it in those days, net se much fron the but also on the Artillery Parade Ground at Finsbury. Ini 1767, a swift ground halls coming riglt througli the wickets (and they could Scotchian nanied Thoiias Lord, who iras connected in soute iwav' coine through as often as they liked, for unless the stumps were witi the Wite Conduit Club, mlîany thiiik as a bowler, rented a struck or the bail knockcd off the batsian continued in and no field where Dorset Square noiw stands, and started it as a cricket. advantago was gained by the bowler) as froin this saine popping ground. The bst plavers of the White Conduit Club formied at arrangement; for in running a man out the ball lad to b put in the new 2rouid a rew club, and called it the " Marylebone Cricket the hole, and as the bat had also te be grounded in the hole in Club," and on the old Dorset Square field, on Thonas Lord's first naking a run, the bat net uifrequently iras popped on the knuckles grouind, they >iayed their tirst match. The g.ouind was eventually Of the wicket-keeper. The very natural remonstrances of the required fer building vurposes, and Lord, and with hiim the club, wicket-keepers at lat led te the hole being abolished, and the man cleared off to another grotund, where South Bank, Regent's Park, iras put ont by knocking off the bail. About the saie time the now is. Here he stayed threce years, until the Regenît s Canal was stumps were brouglit nearer together, and in 1775 the niddle cut, ihen lie mtoved off once more, in 1827, to St. John's Wood stump was added, and the heighit increased from twelve te twenty- Road, whiere the M. C. C. now play. two inches, the now width of six inches being retained. About a It iras at Sott Bank, m 1825, between the first nd second days dozen years after the wickets consisted each of three stumps twenty- of the Winchester and Harrow mnatch.-curiously enough, the very ,four incles igih and seven inches wide, and two bails were used. year that the old Haibledon Club broke up-that the Pavilion was In 1814 the wickets lad grown te twenty-six inchies by oight, and burnt, and nearly ail the old scores and records of the gaine perishied. about 1817 they were once more altered to twenty-seven imches by It is, perhaps, iworth notung, that soune of the origmal turf whicli eiglit, whici is their present size. At the sanie time, te compon- was on Lord's ground i Dorset Square was takeni by Lord to South sate for the extra inchi on the stumps, an extra two muches was given Bank, to be afterwards again taken up and renoved by him te St. te the distance between the creases. John's Wood Rond, and had oun the present ground. Lord had inot Round-armi bowling came into force about 1825, about which bcon long at St. John's Wood before ho wishied te retire, and there timne gloves were first used. It iad frequently been tried provi- was great danger of our famnous grounl being built over. Mr. osly, but had been adjudged unfair, and it was not until the under- Vard, however, very gonerously boughit the Icase at a very high land style was found easily playable that the round-arm came in. price, and staved off tie evil day. Seame years afte, the remaiider Ton Walker, the man who got the run off Harris's one hundred of the lease was boughît by Mr. Dark, and when the grouiid, in and seventy balls, was the most colubmated of the early round-arm 1864, came agan into the market, tige M.C.C. mado a great effort, bowlers, but the Hambledon people objected and legislated, and