MY CRICKET OF LATE YEARS. (Continued.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2010, 1 September 1892, Page 30

MY CRICKET OF LATE YEARS. (Continued.)

When playing at Middlesbrough and Darlington wo always stayed at Saltbum-by-the-Sea, and this same year I got into conversation with an old gentleman in the smoke-room of the hotel there, who told mo he was over 80 years of ago, and that 25 or 30 years ago he was in the habit of coming to Nottingham very often and staying at the Flying Horse Hotel. After mentioning the names of several people I knew whom he used to meet at, that house he said, "I used to meet Daft, the great cricketer, there then. I would give anything to see him. again. He must be a very old man now !" Mr Wright, who was in the room, on hearing this, said, "Why, he can't be so very old, for I saw him get 89 runs at Middlesbrough to-day." "Impossible!" said the old gentleman. "Ifc is true," Mr Wright went on ; " and another thing, it is Mr Daft who is now talking to you." The old gentleman's delight and astonishment on hearing this were unbounded. Skegness is a place where for years past now I havo played some of my pleasantest matches. The ground there is one of the finest, and the wickets are always excellent. We had the Australians down there in 1886. The match was Australians v. Sixteen of Skegness and District. It was at the end of September when this match took place, but the ground was as hard as it had been all the summer. The Australians arrived rather late on the Sunday

night, aud were met by a large crowd of the natives. Giffen afterwards told me he was surprised to hear several persons remark, « • Why, they're not black after all ! " Whether they had been mixing up the Australians with the Parsees or not I am unable to say. The match was a most enjoyable one all through. We had a very strong sixteen, R. J. Mcc and Tom Emmott being our principal bowlers, the former taking most of the wickets. We had a very exciting finish on the third day, the sixteen winning just before " time," the honour of making the winning hit falling to myself. I took an eleven to Skegness last summer to play a two days' match, aud in our first innings we were disposed of for tho extraordinary small total of 33. To show the glorious uncertainty of cricket, when we followed on the next inning we put on 115 before our first wicket fell, and when stumps were drawn we had totalled 250 for the loss of only half our wickets. , It is rather curious that tho two only matches I have played in against .Durham County havo been won by us after having had to follow our innings. ... I now meet as many queer cricketers in these latter-day matches as I did in my earlier ones, and often now, as then, witness some curious performances in the field. I saw in one of these games a few years ago ono of the linest catches (made by a gentleman who seldom or never was known to hold one before) I ever witnessed in my life. This gentleman was standing at short slip, when the batsman played a ball oft a very fast bowler straight into his (the fielders) stomach. He instinctively put his hands there to Have Smself, and in his hands the ball stuck. For some moments he seemed unable to realise what had happeued, but when he did realise it he threw up the ball with the greatest coolness imaginable, as much as to say these sort of catches were what he was perfectly accustomed to Ho was greatly offended afterwards by hearing one of his own side say he was sure that at tho time he made the catch he was asleep. I told him that if I were in his place I should take such a remark as a compliment, for, said I, "If you can make catches like that when you are asleep what on earth can't you do when you-are awake ! " Cricketera are great practical jokers, to be sure. Two years ago X ,took an Eleven to play

tit Ilkeston. We went to the Sir John Warren Hotel to change, when it commenced to rain, and kept on during the rest of the day. In a fcorner of the billiard-room at this hotel was an old dirty-looking picture. Now, our scorer, who was with us, fancied himself a great "connoisseur in works of art of this kind, ana he no sooner saw this specimen than he seemed intensely anxious to buy it. After some time Mr Hall, the landlord, agreed to let him have it for the sum of ss, and appeared glad to get rid of it at the price. Our scorer was highly delighted with his bargain, which he now exhibited to the rest of the team. The picture represented two or three figures in a kitchen, the principal one being a fat old woman peeling potatoes into a basin, and on this basin was something written which our Bcorer declared to be the name of the pamter. "It seems a queer place for him to put his name," someone remarked. "Not at all, replied our art critic. " I have seen names put on far more curious places than that, sometimes even on the head of one of the figures in a painting." " There's room for his address, too, on the head of the owd gal here," said Tom Foster, our umpire, pointing to the old woman before-mentioned. This remark was treated with contemptuous silence. The purchaser proceeded to wrap up his treasure in brown paper, and, after having done so, carried it down to the bar to be taken care of till the time of our departure. One of our party, however, contrived to get hold of it, and cut the picture out of the frame. The former he placed in his cricket bag and the frame he again wrapped in the paper. This having been accomplished, he came and told the rest of us what he had done.

The rain keeping on, we, after gome hours had passed, decided to go home, and started for tho station, the scorer carrying, as he thought, the picture under his arm. In the railway carriage one of us, pretending not to have properly examined the painting when at the hotel, asked him to show it to the company now for a minute inspection. This, after much persuasion, he agreed to do, and proceeded to untie the parcel. While he was doing so our umpire, being, of course, in the joke, ran his walking stick right through the supposed work of art. The scorer/ glaring fiercely at him, told him he should pay dearly for what ho had done, tore off the paper and discovered the empty frame. His rage on finding this out was terrible, and after telling \u that we were a set of robbers and thieves, ho declared he would inform the first policeman be saw of the whole affair. The picture, he swore, was worth five and twenty guineas if it was worth a penny, and the nearer we got to Nottingham the more it increased in value, so that by the time wo arrived at that town it had reached the price of 50 guineas, and the painter of it was declared to be Temirs. It was fully intended that we should have restored it to him on our arrival home, but when taken out of the cricket bag it was found to be so greatly damaged that we thought it advisable not to do so. At length wo decided to subscribe for him the 5s he had given for it, and after doing so the Btorm passed quietly over. The picture was afterwards found not to be au oil painting at all, and of no value whatever.

(To le continued.)