THE SIEGE OF THE WICKET.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 900, 14 December 1867, Page 2

THE SIEGE OF THE WICKET.

I (From "Once a Week/'.jfor September;) The batting has beaten the bowling, sky .': ! the wiseacres. Bnt is the bowling as good as it was, and is cricket better than the cricket of a quarter oi a century ago? The best test of the question.is to, conroardjfche scores in two great matches— -taking for V examples the match between. Kent aiid England in 1839, and the match between Kent and Surrey played in -July, 1807.; The elevens in each, of these years included some- of ..the finest players in England, and bt>th matches extended over three days. In the Kent and England match, one thousand and sixty-seven balls were bowled for four hundred and sixteen rims, one hundred and twelve overs being maidens. In this match, all the wickets fell, Kent winning by two runs. In the Kent and Surrey match of this year/ fifteen hundred and sixty-four baU|- were bowled, one hundred and sixty-eight 6vers being maiden, and thirty-three wipkets fell for six hundred runs. Taking the proportion of maiden overs out of the number of balls bowled, there is little or no difference between past and present cricket, though in one respect the bowling of 1867 contrasts favourably with that of 1839, there being only one " wide" in this year's match, whereas, in the olden time, there were twelve wides out of a less number of balls. Compatingthebattmginthetwomatches, the average per wicket, not counting the " not'outs," was ten runs a wicket in 1839, against eighteen a wicket in 1867. The wiseacres are, to a great exteiit, right. The batting is stronger than formerly, and it may be accounted for very easily. In the first placed railways have increased cricket ten-fold, and players of eminence, instead of appearing, as they did formerly, two or three times a year bn a country ground, may be met with daily on any cricket ground in England. The good bowlers have no longer a monopoly of their art ; cricket to them has become a regular calling, and one or more of their order may be found in every large public school and university club ground, and in many private clubs, and the result is that when an amateur finds himself placed pn the list of his county, he is quite as much at home on a public ground as he is on his village green. Referring to the "Siege of the Wicket," which is the same size, and subject to all the same dangers now as it was twentyfive or thirty years ago, let us see how it is that scores are so much longer than formerly. There are a few reasons which seem to account for the batsman's success in the E resent day. The majority of the players aye known hardly anything else but *round arm bowling and , the slow underhand, and the general use of leg pads and gloves has given them a great advantage as regards leg hitting, and playing what is called the Cambridge or Harrow "poke." Mr. Alfred Mynn was, I believe, the originator of this style. When the round arm bowling deprived the batsman of the " draw" to a great extent, Mr. Mynn would lift his left leg as high as he could, and guarding his, right leg with the bat, place the ball sqriare with the wicket, or behind him* according to the position ofthe field. This was not a very elegant performance, but it was effective. The "on poke" has now become very popular with good players ; it requires no small amount of pluck, (if the bowling is fast), and great accuracy of eye. The player must look the ball straight in the face without flinching, and keep his bat as straight as a line, as he is in double danger of leg before_.wic-.-~-ket and a nasty body blow. Nothing bullies a bowler and the field more than this " poke," if well done, particularly if the batsman can hit hard as well, as he has the opportunity of getting two of the field close to him on the on side, and will Erobably find a large space unguarded, if c can get hold of a drive. Another cause of the long scores is the excellence of the cricket grounds of the present day. A good wicket now is as true as a billiard table, and is all against the bowler and in favor of the bat ; moreover, the ground will not wear out, as it used to do formerly, owing to want of preparation. Now as regards the bowling. It is treason to say so, but I firmly believe it is not so good as formerly, speaking of the very best. The slow overhead and overhand throw which is now occasionally seen in the south, and the childish attempt to throw a ball ten feet in the air on the chance of its falling on the bails, would have been scouted by the brave yeomen of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hants, 25 years ago. I much doubt whether such bowlers as Alfred Mynn, Hillyer, Lillywhite, Cobbett, and Redgate, who all played in 1839, can be seen in any one match now. Redgate bowled Stearman, Fuller Pilch, and Alfred Mynn, in one over, and they were three of the finest players in England. The bowling then was real round arm bowling, and the hand was obliged to be kept below the shoulder. For accuracy old Lillywhite and Hillyer were never surpassed, and both of them had the credit of pitching a ball just where they pleased. Cobbett also was very true. Redgate was very elegant in his delivery, and deadly also. He took a long run before delivery, and the pace was tremendous. Both he. and Mr. Mynn bowled the purest round arm bowling possible, with the arm straight out, the difference being that Redgate ran to the wicket and Mr. A. Mynn marched about six paces and swung the ball in, pulling himself short up on his left foot. Tarrant, Wooton, Grundy and Greenwood most resemble the bowlers of the past ; but it may fairly be said that there has never been a second Lillywhite, Hillyer, Redgate, or Alfred Mynn. . No doubt the present is as straight as any bowling since round-hand was invented, but there is a very great doubt whether tho fashionable over-hand, and sometimes over-head, style is so effective as the true round-arm. There are a dozen bowlers of the present day who pound the ball down with the hand in a line with a wicket, without any break or spin on the ball, to one bowler who delivers the ball with the hand below the shoulder and the arm well out from the body. The pounding bowling is very true to the wicket, but very simple to play, whereas the lower .delivery causes the ball to spring directly it touches the ground, and if the wicket is dead, it very often shoots. . y Again, comparing the past with the present, county matches in the south have much less interest than formerly, owing to their frequency. The easy access to London enables the country people to see all the cricketing notorieties, at some time, on one of the London grounds, and there is great sameness in the style of batting. Twenty or thirty years ago people would go any distance to see.^ch, Mynn, Felix, Lillywhite, Mr. Taylqr^o.x, Wenman, Guy, Redgate, and. others, but now there are few individual players who will draw many to see themselves specially. - When- Dearman, the Yorkshireman, challenged all England at single wicket,' ancl Mr. Alfred Mynn obeyed. his call, there were five thousand people onl the Town -Mailing ground, in Kenti* before eleven o'clock in the ; morning ; ;'ahd ; when Mr. Mynn went ty ; Sheffield to )?hiy the return match,

-"<-.' ■' m * l ** mmmm^^^*^y*yyyv - - - " trhipK'it :pjissed ? aldtfg:the > Ntirth Road. : And he wets worth seeing, as he was the Kan4-Omest' and noblest cricketer in the world; He wtin by .a hundred and twelve runs' in' the first iriatoli, ahd in one innings, withtthirty-six runs to spare, in the setura; ; : S Batting : and averages occupy the thoughts: of the present cricketers a great, deal more than formerly. They don't reckon how many runs they have; lost owiflg, to catches missed, and. balls badly fielded. They do not look on themselves as members of a sMall armyj who are fighting against another army on equal terms, and they are apt to go away before the match is over, and get a man to field for them if they have had tlie great desideratum — their innings. These remarks: do not apply to. all cricketers, but to far' top. many. - "Self has taken a strong hold on cricket, and public cricket too often looks as if it was contracted for at so much per day. A captain is not what a captain used to be. The average mania is as fatal to cricket as the trade imions. are to commerce, and Jones, and Brown, and Robinson go about playing in scratch. teams, in matches in which they have no interest beyond their innings; and if a captain puts either of them in last man, they think themselves badly used, whereas if they had gone in early they would probably have slipped away by a train which started an lour before the time for* leaving off. Although all these, drawbacks a.re,bjid for cricket, still on the whole, the game in general is much better now than formerly, but a- regards the very best public cricket, I cannot see, after a thirty years' fexpeiience, anything done better now than hi days gone by. Certainly the bowling is not better ; and the wicket-keeping of Mr. Jenner, Box, and Wenman, without pads or gloves, was a feat which I much doubt any man of the modern day ' being able to do, although the men of this day are yery good. It may , safely be said that no amateur has ever surpassed, if he has equalled, the play of Mr. Felix, Mr. Taylor, or Mr. Mynn ; or that any professional has excelled Pilch, Guy, Wenman, Dorrington, and a host of others who flourished with them. Looking again to the fielding, the present age cannot show better professional fielding than that ofthe old school, though as- regards the amateur cricketers, the . -improvement is very marked. The fielding of the Marylebone Club against Surrey, at the Oval, in the present year, was one of the finest sights that could be witnessed in cricket ; and as a rule, the fielding is tlie giteat feature in the Oxford and Cambridge .matches. But, 'reverting to the professional players, it certainly is the case that we see players sometimes in county matches, who are put in for their batting, and who in the field make a regular muddle of the game, being neither able to throw, catch, or stop a ball. This was not the case in days of yore. The question whether the field were equal, to watch out against the slow bowling, would never have been asked then, as it is now sometimes. One of the chief requisites for a cricketer was being a good fielder, and if he was not, he would have had no chance of playing for his county. Taking cricket for all and all, there is not much fault to find with it in 1867. It has grown more, and picked up fewer ; faults in its rapid growth, than most > sports. Shpoting-r-that is, old-fashioned shooting— has been totally altered for the worse ; Tbut village greens are much as village greens were, and squire and peasant meet qn equal terms on the time-hallowed turf,~and 'steady old men" sit" by and smoke their pipes, and say — as I am 'saying now — that as good cricket existed in their time, as in ours ; proving the truth, of the :. old saying, " Vixere fortes ante Agaraemnona." F. Gale.