John and James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1882

31 friends, who eonId not endure to see him come quite to the ground. Ahia* poor Dick ! Who did not know him thirty or forty years since in Leicester .'diire and the Midland counties! Who has not been amused at his storing stories W'c above all, of pugilistic days, and how lie hacked a certain champion w ill not name him, for yet he lives and is respected,—and how, with sotrie! rlmuj as showy as a Lord Mayor’ s coach, he posted with P etek C rawley * the best of seconds, and a party of the ring— astonishing all the villages between London and Leicester—and on the morning of the fight their man was not quite well, and would not go into the ring—no fight! to the infinite disgust, o f the county, when even county magistrates on the sly lla,j mustered strongly with no little rivalry and opposing colours, when sporting men actually offered to find the money; one saying " I ’ll go £ 100 ,” and others saying "£50,” if their man would hut " put on the double cross” and go in and win, and save them from the shouts of triumph and cheers ironical which made the Leicester cricket ground ring again. How times arc altered—all this ’twere long to tell. But ’tis of D ick C heslyn as a cricketer 1 now would speak. "W e headed them by forty in the first innings,” said C heslyn , "and I had laid the money on pretty thick. I thought the bowling had beat them, and that they had tried and failed, beaten on their merits, and next innings would he the same, but B ui > i >thought otherwise.” "Yes ,” said B id d , " I well remember the match, the hacker too; hut C heslyn should have told you that after the first innings, I went up to him, much elated as lie was, and said, is Captain C heslyn , take my advice, hedge your bets, these men can never heat those: this is a game that must change about. The second innings will tell a very different story.” The prediction proved but too true. In the next innings All England scored one hundred and forty, a score which Sussex could not equal. It was in that innings that B roadiiridge threw his bat at a wide ball and w as caught out. Now this speaks of strong hatting in those days, for many an All England side, long used to round-arm bowling, would have found it hard to score as many against B roadbridoe and L illywiiite . Experience in similar cases lias taught me that men trained to play the old underhand bowling were stubborn defenders of a wicket, and made more upright and straighter players than has commonly been observed with those who began their practice with the round-arm. I remember, when, some thirty years since, leading the N orth D evon (or Iiistow) Club against the S outh (or Teignbridge), being surprised at the stubborn defence made by my friends, some of whom were only used to underhand howling; but tlie Teignbridge Eleven, quite worth a hundred runs an innings against the average howling of amateurs, one of them, Captain F i fe , was (/nit !) tit for almost any county eleven,-—were ripped out for a score of under twenty-fiyc in each of the four innings of two matches. But our underhand was good of its kind: my old frtent C awston combined speed with twist and curl, and so straight, he once too' not only three wickets, but " honestly dug them out, as Mr. B udd use j say, taking three middle stumps in one over. , j The present generation little know what the best of the old umlernan j howlers could do, especially when the ground Jmd its fair share of grass on r and real turf, which is now so rare that the hall has no fulcrum for its sp» • and in days when heavy rollers were quite unknown. Even L ord b llpe be as rough as the road, and so dangerous, I think I hear C aldkcourt , w