150 NOT OUT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 3, 3 July 1937, Page 10

150 NOT OUT

THE M.C.C. AND LORD'S

CENTURY AND HALF OF " CRICKET

SOME RECOLLECTIONS

11 xne M.C.C. (Marylebone Cricket Club) completed in May last a century and a half of existence which may be L said to cover the history of modern • cricket. In that time cricket grew • from small beginnings .in numerous ' clubs playing on village greens in the . country and open spaces in or about . the towns to the vast Imperial organisation of a national game it is today with magnificent grounds in the cities of the iimpire and Test matches 1 watched by thousands and followed by ■ millions. In this growth the M.C.C. has played the leading part. It is literally the mother of modern cricket, and, if it is the mothe-, the cradle of the game is the famous M.C.C. ground in the north of London, near Regent's Park, the ground . known as Lord's from the name of its founder and first ■ proprietor, Thomas Lord, a London merchant, of Yorkshire birth, who might be said also to have officiated at-the birth of the M.C.C. in 1787, The hundred, and fiftieth anniversary of the M.C.C. and Lord's has been made the occasion of celebration throughout the cricket world and, incidentally, of an excellent survey of the growth - of the game in a special supplement of "The Times," from which a few salient particulars are culled. THE HAMBLEDON MEN. Cricket in 1787 had taken shape as a regular game principally through the action of the Hambledon Club, in. Hampshire, which began somewhere about the middle of the eighteenth century. The Hambledon men somehow or other rationalised cricket from its earlier crudities, and so improved their technique that they were able to take on the Rest of England and beat them. "What really caused modern cricket to germinate at' Hambledon," says Sir John Squire in "The Times," "we may. never, know:, so. many early records perished when the M.G.C. had a fire in the twenties of the last century. But Richard Nyren. was in at the start; and, in its palmy days, when it could heat all-comers, Sueter, Brett, Hogsflpsh, Barber, Small (who charmed an angry bull with music), Aburrow, Buck, Lear, Tom Taylor, and others, played and won, for it, even though 'Lumpy' was tempted away from Lord Tankerville by Sir Horace Mann." What we know of the Hambledon men is derived from the first cricket classic, John Nyren's "The Young Cricketer's Tutor" and "Cricketers of My Time," racy of the game and the times. All that remains of Hambledon now is the old Bat and Ball Inn on Broadhalfpenny Down and the stone which commemorates the site of the old ground. Eight years ago on New Year's Day, of all days, there was a'game of cricket —"Hampshire Eskimos" versus "Invalids"—to protest against the way professional football was nibbling at the cricket season at both ends. It was fortunately a day of brilliant sunshine and something of the old spirit of the men of Hambledon was recovered. In the evening the match was celebrated in traditional manner by a dinner at the inn with the bowl flowing freely. "There was high feasting held on Broadhalfpenny during the solemnity of one of our grand matches," says Nyren before entering into a rhapsody on punch—"Stark stuff; that would stand on end—punch that would make a cat speak!" EVOLUTION OF THE GAME. No game can be played quite without rules and there were laws of cricket even in the eighteenth century. There .was a two-stump wicket with a single bail, of dimensions 22in hign by 6in wide. No dimensions were laid down for the breadth or lengtli of the bat, but the ball was to weigh between five and six ounces. Four jails constituted an over and were to continue to do so until 1889, when the four became five, and six in 1900, with the eight-ball over authorised for Australia in 1922. There was no leg-before-wicket rule. Alterations in. the rules came in the typical English way of precedent to precedent when occasion rose for change. The size of the bat was determined, according to Nyren, when one. Shock White, of Reigate, armed himself with a bat as wide' as the wicket. Then the width of the bat was limited' in 1774 to 4i inches, but the maximum length, 38 inches, was not laid down for another seventy years. The lbw r.ule came in because—to. quote Nyren—"one of the .best .hitters had been so.shabby as to put his leg in the way and so take advantage of the bowlers." The lbw rule was further extended over a century later when "pad-play" came into vogue and there is now a still more drastic provision. The twostump wicket, with no "middle peg" for the bowlers to hit, became threestump at some unspecified period. In 1820 the double bail was adopted, with a wicket enlarged to 27 ■ inches by eight inches. So it remained for a hundred years, when the unequal combat between bat. and ball led to an extension of an inch each way. None of these changes came without opposition, but the greatest contro : versy was over bowling ' as. it rose from under-arm to. round-arm, and finally to over-arm. Thus gradually the game developed, in . the English manner with a code like the growth of the Common Law.. Technically, the instruments of the game improved pari passu. The first balls were of wood covered by dry skin; now. they are composed of cork and' yarn arranged in layers and cased in smootii leather. The bat has passed through a similar process of evolution and so have the batsmen's pads and gloves and the protective devices, of the wicketkeeper. Grounds themselves have improved out of all recognition, and the question is often raised as to whether they are not now too good for the game, whether they do .not remove some of the uncertainties, of

cricket.

SOME GREAT NAMES

Through all these years of evolution the M.C.C. has been both the guiding spirit and the deciding judge of the game, and Lord's has been the meeting ground and convincing heath of great rivals for a century or more. It is here the universities and the public schools hold their annual matches, and here that the Gentlemen meet the Players. All the giants of cricket have trod the sward at Lord's in historic contests through the years. Here was Dr. W. G. Grace, the Grand Old Man of cricket, an imposing figure for over a generation, and one of thd "characters" of cricket history, who, .if any man. made cricket his life. Then there was Ran.iitsinh.ii. the favourite of the late nineties, who by sheer genius enlarged the technicme of batsmanship. A. C. Maclaren. "Bobby" Abel. Hayward. Shrewsbury. Jcssop. S. M. J. Woods the Palairets. the Fosters, and a score of others, more modern, step across the stage at Lord's.

With them are the Australians from over the seas, a whole gaUxy of talent. Clem Hill. Murdoch, Trumble, Trumper, S. E. Gregory, of the old days, and the incomparable Bradman of our own time. And now: the New