CRICKET WITH 200 A SIDE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6536, 18 February 1928, Page 7

CRICKET WITH 200 A SIDE

How Englishmen have carried cricket to tho ends of the earth, and how, on at least one occasion, their action evoked the issue of a royal proclamation suppressing the game, is related by Mr. P, S. Ashley, Cooper in his interesting volume, * ‘ Cricket Highways and Byways.” Extraordinary effects, followed the introduction of cricket by men of H.M.S. Diamond into Samoa in 1884. The natives took to it with such avidity that they endeavoured to improve it “Matches of 200 a side took place, with four or five umpires and three batsmen at each end, the contests lasting for weeks. Work was neglected and steps had to bo taken to compel the natives to return to reason. Men who played were expelled from Church and tho King had to issue a decree.” Malictoa, King of Samoa, issued ft proclamation, “To all the districts of Samoa. Notice: “It is strictly prohibited for a village to tiftvel and play cricket with another village. It is strictly prohibited for two villages to play cricket together. It is also prohibited for a village to play among them selves. Should any village or district fail to keep this law in any respect; they will be fined a sum not exceeding 45 dollars or in default be sent to gaol for three months with hard labour.” This law was afterwards relaxed, and to-day Apia is the centre of a cricket association, with two white and four Samoan teams. An Oxford and Cambridge team played “All the World” at Rome as far back as 1843. The Surrey team were to have played a match in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris late in the eighteenth the outbreak of the French Revolution stopped the project, and It was not until 1818 that tho Duke of Wellington witnessed s match at Cambrai between British military officers. French people regarded tho game as dangerous, and the tale is told of a gendarme who solemnly warned a bowler, “Not so fast, sir, if you please, not so fast.” Cricket was carried to the Iberian Peninsula by British officers in Napoleonic war days. Lord Goschen. when on a special mission to Constantinople in 1880, fostered the game in Turkey. Three of the Russian Czars were interested, and Nicholas 11, had a cricket pitch made at the .Imperial Palace at Peterhof. Persia saw its first cricket match in 1856, when it is related, that the British expeditionary force, who con quered Herat, found it necessary to bore holes for the stumps in a large get rock and to field in deep sand under a burning sun. India has played cricket since 1792, so that the gams there was already three-quarters of a century old when Canon Ainger wrote his famous limerick: There was an old man of Bengal Who purchased a bat and a ball, Some gloves and some pads— It was one of his fads — For he never played cricket at all! England carried cricket to China and Burma and to islands all over tho Pacific, and in Napoleon’s days it was ■first played in St. Helena. Its introduction into South Africa dates from tho early part of tho last century, while British officers of regiments stationed there first played tho game in Australia in 1803, and thus sowed the sends from which in after years blossomed such players as W. L. Murdock, Frank Spofforth, George Gillen, and Victor Trumper. j There are some good stories of I cricket umpires. A country umpire 'once called “No Ball,” as the bowler stepped over the crease. “Wide,” ho added, as the ball appeared to be so. But the batsman leached out and struck the ball. “Well hit,” shouted tho umpire, and “Well caught,” as a fieldsman brought off a catch. Then he exclaimed, “Bout, Hover,” and strolled meditatively towards square leg.