CRICKET IN ENGLAND. (Concluded.)

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 66, 27 November 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

CRICKET IN ENGLAND. (Concluded.)

Ik London'the earliest cricket fields were the Artillery Ground at Unitary, and the . White Conduit Fields. A dab was formed of the players on this latter field, and from among its members in 1787 was established the Marylebone Club, whioh, at~an. early: period, seems to hare set itself to discuss and formulate the laws of tke game. j Among the ground bowlers of the Wluqe Condnit dab was Thommß Lord, a Soots* man* who had' left Scotland on account of „ his Jacobite predilections. Lord,, being .iprjp'mised support by the new M.C.C., took • piece of ground where Dorset-square i now stands, and so set up the first "Lord's.?' When this site was needed for Wilding purposes. Lord carried his turf to afield db i .South Bank, near the Regent's Park, where lie remained until the cutting of the^canal. 4»aaed him once more to roll , up him old turf and remove it to the" LordV of ttie present day. dub and ground . rapidly . rose into the front rank, and in those days of slow travelling, when players could not extend their drouit as they oan nowaday? , a> lion's share of the patronage and praoticje of ciioket was given to Lord's* . , Before the immenie impetus given to cricket by the railirays, matches were ' ' necessarily confined very much to contests between neighbouring counties or clnbfe. The Hambledon Club had a caravan to take their Eleven about; and' when 'Farnham > ' played oh Broadhalfpenny, old Beldham told the author of the " Cricket Field" that they used t6 ride the 'twenty -seven miles both ways the same day, early an|d ' late. A journey to London was the utmost ' expedition ' attempted bj the' players <>f Hants, Surrey, 01 Kent* atod 1 though (< Walpole, writing in June, 1749, sayfe, «!' oonld tell you of Lord Montford's making 1 : cricket matches, and fetching ap parsons by express from different parts of England , to play on Biohmond Green," this mutt 1 havfi been a most exceptional case, and the custom of drawing members, of an elevejn from different pares of the kingdom, or the , t GximtencG ol each, m peripatetic body aa <I Zingiayi, only became pr&cfeie&ble when , railways gave speedy means of communica- , The All England Eleven originated in! a ( matoh played between an eleven of England, under Clarke, and twenty of Sheffield , in 1846. So muoh interest was ezoited by t . ,wie matoh, that Clarke resolved to pltfy with the same eleven against Bideßall over „ <tiie pountry. "It \rill make good fo i, , cricket, and for your trade, too," saidhe to , Mr. Dark; who. adds, "- And sure enough, the increase of my bat and ball trade bears ' witness to Clarke's long-Bighted specula- • i tton." The Zingari had the start .of tl c professionals by a year, for the meeting in the Blenheim Hotel that formed ithdolu b . took place in July, 1845. r • '■"■ < ■ ■ • -The public sohooimatohes began towards ■ the end of the la»t century. Et«n and - 'Westminster were the first opponents,' but Westminster soon ceased to pl&f, il »nd Harrow took its place. Lord Byron played in the Eton-Harrow Match of 1805. Ttie ' earliest Gentlemen against Flayers 'match was in 1798, when the Players gave T Walker, Beldham, and'Hammond, but eveW then won. The amateurs did riot again enter the lists till 1821, when they' weis again defeated; but next year' they won, though in 2623 the players gave them euofa. a beat-, ing that the match was abandoned for some , years, and only, occasionally played again with odds till, in 1841, it became regularly established as an annual event. After this sketch of the progress of cricket from the rough pastime of Elizabethan schoolboys up to the soientifio national game of to-day, it may be tateresting <jo note some of. tlw cuugaitiea , rftfagwae. v , ' , Though th» fair iex have got in etool..•iball.a speoies of cricket for themselves, ...they have frequently figured with bat and „ ball on .the legitimate cricket-field. Southey notes a. matoh between the . Matrons «nd. the Maids of Bory, in whioh the older ladies were victorious. IJi , ■ 1811 a female Eleven of Surrey lost a XOAtah tor 800 gwaeaa M-eida to 'eleven J . women oi Sants, and since then several ; /aunilar matches have been played. , . Muoh more curious are theße twp matches, in each of whioh a dog took a prominent part. Lord William Lennox, . in his ••Celebrities I have Known," tells > us that Lord Charles Kerr backed his (' servant James t Bridger and his water r • spaniel " Drake" to play w matoh against oi Mr. J. Cook and Mr, Weathetell- for fiftfr (■' guineas a aide; ofThis novel i contest came < w off, at Holt Fond Crioketing Gronnd, neir -^EMnham." Drake's" post wan to field /!.ouV and as he always caught the ball sit m iteiirst bound' lie proved- himself a most. v < •xoellent fieldsman.' Bridger went in first' .'< and scored fifty, run*, i Mr. Cock made cix h i- Itefore he was caught by Bridger. Mr. "- jWeatherell- then i took his place at thto ." -niliktlk, »ad Wfcil* &nb ball amazfiy for ft • • jfun^but," Braked was -up no much faster <(< thamhe expected^ stopped ihe balleo well, ' and delivered it so quiokly to Bridger, that i . M».WeathereU'B stumps went down, witriouti a run. Mr. Cook 'then gave up the ' match." . Mr. Pyorofb records * similar match' on Hartfield Common, near Rickmanswortb, on 21st May, 1827, « between two- gentlemen of Middlesex and Mr. Traaoia Trvtmper, a ttzmee at HarSfleZc?, who was to have the heip of his dog. Ijx the firg» innings of. the tw,o. gentlemen they got three runß/and Mr. Trumper gelt' three ior himself and two for his ' dog. 1 In their second- innings *hhr.e r . two gentlemen i'-«gain got' three runt; and Mr. Tn/mperthen going) inland getting' two rana, be^ th«'two gentlemen by two wio.ke.ta. ' 'Betting %% atet(iug r tfTe to ou« agtoat Mt.< Trumper and 1 hi* xtog.^ The u dog aTways ■tood near his master -When hewas bowling, and ran after ball wherf struck; ana* returned , with it in his mouth so 'quickly" that the 'two- gentlemen had-'greajt difficulty to run even from a long hit. The dog was a thorough-bred sbieg dogj'' Lord Wiliikm Lenn« tells [of a'tonriodamatch he witnessed ea^ly in /thecentur^' heCweezt'the one-armed and ih.o one-legged' pensioners of Greenwdih ' Hospital! Mb with most' matches then, it was for a heavy ■take— a thousand' guineas; "it took place atr Montpelier Gardens, Walwort^, and created' much diversion'/ and 'several. lost or broke their wooden •walls.'',, Tlje one-armed players won, but 'on a more, recent ddcasion, whefl'a similar mafoa played at Eennington OvM| aftet 'aome^ moQ woQt S.u&y Wotg uiox i 6 / !ix&iici7 their opponents in picking: up tne ball. " The glorious uncertainty oE cricket" has become proverbial : the finest teams ,haye t been diamwjr'ed'iaaaya time for leas thana ximi!|nticeVbut there eeemß to be only one instanco-on record o! a good eleven bein^ - all out without * single run being scored. - This was in a matoh in 1855 between Earl .'■ : Winterton's Club and the Second Epyal Surrey Militia, -in which the military . cleirsn did not brdak their " duck's eggj" ' though- they- had some good bats among. them, who, in the next innnings, scored ' a What' made it more 'extra 7 : was that Challen, one of' Lord - Winterton'B bowlers, was a fast bowler.- :

Fuller Tiloh once bowled' out eight' of Job antagonists for nothing, and the other three ably made four runs between them. ' This was in a match; ;the k Paltiswiok Olub " against Bury, in 1824; arid it la probably !'"! '" tne\seoond smallest score on record, th&ngh it is not nearly so wtnderful as the score ;'-'; '-' fa pneof thefatßou B. matches fa l^io.

On this occasion, Mr. E. H. Budd was absent, and J. Wells was given to supply his place. Lord Frederick Beauclerk, Beldbam, Bennet, the Bentleys, and the rest of tbe famous B's only made two runs between them, and the given man making four at one bit and then being put oat, the eleven that had made 137 i& their first innings thua only ran up six in their second. Elevens made np of men bearing the same initial or the same name are common enough. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" records among the novel matches -x>f"lB77 one played at Shalford, Surrey, between eleven Heaths and eleven Mitchells, which the Mitchells won. The victoria 1 had already vanquished eleven . Miiea and eleven ,'Muggeridgeß, and the j Surry newspaper he quotes sayß they were about to challenge an eleven named Lucas. The late Lord Lyttelton, with hia.twjo brothers and eight sons, played a famous match at Hagley against King Edward^s School, Bromsgrove,. in August, 1867, and won by ten, wickets. Lord Lyttelton, in a hunforoua set of verses, proceeds to > celebrate the victory, and Sing the song of Hagley cricket, , ' '' When the peer and all his olan ' Grasped the bat to guard tbe wioket . ' ' '.As no other household can, and so, on, as the canons reader may find in the ninth volume of the current eeries of " Notes and Qaeries." , 'On 6th May, 1794, 1 match was played at Urinated Park between tbe Gentlemen of tbe Hill against the Gentlemen of the Dale, for a guinea a man,' when all the players were on horseback. - Sir Horace Mann got np a similiar match, on ponies at Harrieteham, in •1800. ;• (» '_ ' r ;"; :'\ j In 1849 a game" was played on the ioe on Ohrißtoburch Meadow at Oxford ;', and, during the long frost of tbVlafe inoßt jiev'ere winter, on several occasions' immense ojowdß were attracted to, witness similar maiobee,, as ai' &r»z,ohesier Meafowß, in Deewnbfi*, 1878; between the Elevens ©1 B. Carpenter and Mr. Biggs, at Shipley, in January ; at Bnehey, and elsewhere. ... : With the doingß in India of the famous Farsee eleven, and in New Zealand of the Maori players before ns, it might appear that there is an end to the oft-repeattid assertion that orioket ia a game that can be appreciated only by the Anglo-Saxon ; but this is perhapß only tbe proverbial exception, and we may still go on telling Btories about the " benighted foreigner," like the anecdotes Onthbertßede somewhere relates of Ibrahim Paiha's visit to Lord's during bis visit to England. Among tbe efforts made to amuse -tbe Pasha, he was taken to see a orieketmatoh at Lord's. After Btaring wearily for two boars at the strenuous exertions of picked players,' he at length in despair sent a message >to the- captains of tbe elevens that he did not wish to hairy them, bat' that when they 1 were tired of running about he would be muoh obliged to them if they would begin their game. ' > , '" This sam'o 'story has been told of the Daphesae de Berii.'but that does not matter ; the anetfdote is but the Briton's belief that orioket flourishes only on beef and beer. ]