CHUCKS IN FROM SHOUT SLIP.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2115, 14 October 1875, Page 2

CHUCKS IN FROM SHOUT SLIP.

The Duke of Wclliugton, walking through the Eton playing fields, remarked to a friend that " there it was that the battle of Waterloo vr.as won," and there cau be but little doubt that much of that muscular power, stern resolution, and unflinching pluok which, we so proudly claim a3 characteristics of the AngloSaxon race can be traced to the lovo, which seems in us inherent, of manlj field sports and exercises. Of these, spite of what the deTotees of other games—noble and manly too in their several ways—may say, cricket stands facile princeps. And whyp Because a true cricketer—not merely a man or boy who plays cricket—plays not for himself, but for his side to win—and hence cricket, played as cricket should be played, is, of all games, the most unselfish. This characteristic is no doubt shared in by football, but it is unlikely that football, from various causes, such as weather, &c. which we have not space here to particularize, will ever be so widely popular both with players and non-players, as is our national game of cri-lcet, or as " Tom Brown" so justly calls it, the "birthright of British boys." The late Prince Consort, hard as he tried to identify himself with the manners and customs of the race to whom he was by marriage allied, and frequent as were his visits to "Lords," could never understand or appreciate this national game of ours, any more than the Frenchman who failed to discover what amusement there could be in eleven men getting themselves unpleasantly hot merely because one man knocked about with a club a piece of leather which some one else threw to him.- And was it not Canrobert himself, or soni»-general equally illustriousjwhodeclaredthat" the eccentricity of the English was as much manifest in'their sports as it was in their use of cavalry in battle ?" From whatever causes it may be we know not, but somehow the result is the same, that none other than the Anglo-Saxon race and their descendants care much for out-door amusements in their boyhood, where hard knocks may be readily obtained with no other reward than the " barren honour" of receiving them, and hence to our minds arises the undoubted superiority as a race of the Anglo-Saxon and his descendant, in physique, over every race in the world. Firmly as we believe in this faith in which we have been from boyhood taught, surely persuaded as we are of the truth of the old Roman maxim " mens sana in corporo sano," and believe that a healthy body and a healthy. state of mind go hand in hand, we are unfeiguodly glad to gpe that this season the prospects of cricket at the Thames are brighter than they have been before. It is not niorely for our own selfish pleasure that we hail with joy the opening match of the season, which, should the weather be nne, will be played at Parawai Gardens on Saturday next. Wo confess that we greatly enjoy a good gamp of cricket, the harder fought and more even the match the better, but wo value more the kindly feeling, the social intercourse and the good fellowship which cricket promotes, and promotes too more than any other business or pleasure under the sun. Few of those who have been absent oven ten or twelve years from England know how popular the game is at the present time, and the number of cricket grounds now in existonce, and the number of Saturday afternoon matches now played regularly, can no longer be numbered even by hundreds. "Time honored. Lords" is so much altored that the cricketer of twenty years ago would not recognise it, while the new ground of Prince'y, with its umbrella tents and shaded walks, and billiard table turf, seems to leave nothing to be desired in the way of wickets. So much for the present, wo are not too much disposed to be a laudator temporis acli, and praise the past simply because we live in the present, but to all the cricketers who may play on the new ground at Parawai, to all the youag cricketers that ground may help to form, we would' hold up for their imitation the example of one who learnt his cricket on a wicket no better than they will have atParawai, and who in spite of the prestige of W. G. Grace on wickets painfully true, and the almost unendurable defence of Ottaway, we make bold to say there was, take him as a uiau, player, and geu- I

tleman in one, the finest cricketer that ever lived. We mean the late Alfred Mynn. He is now no more, but there are those who even at thin distance can remember the "kindest hearted cricketer " that ever breathed, aud concerning whom in a funeral, sermon it was said with truth*., as many there were ready to testify, " that he never wfcs known wilfully to say.; an unkind word or do an unkind deed." There is a picture ,of him in the cricket ground at Brighton taken just before his last match, hanging up in the Salutation Hotel, Shortland. Despite his great height and strength and weight—he was 6ft2^ins, and weighed over twenty stone— he was one of the most active fieldsmen in England, and unmatched as au amateur runner at 150 yds. Peace be to his ashes, "We give the accompanying lines written at the time of his death, which appeared first, of all in the London papers, and were subsequently printed for private circulation. Teinpora mutanttir, of all the players mentioned in the verses not one save.Daft is of any account now ; Miller after a visit to Australia and New Zealand, during which he played at Auckland, has let out his waiscoat and hung up the bat he used so well; while of the Kent Eleven, Wenman alone is now, we believe, alive—