WHEN CRICKETERS WORE SKY-BLUE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19117, 9 July 1930, Page 13

WHEN CRICKETERS WORE SKY-BLUE.

LORD’S, LONDON, IS A FAMOUS TEST GROUND. Lord’s, London, where the Australians have just won an exciting tost, is the world’s most famous cricket ground. Such is the austere dignity of Lord’s Ground that, if a barracker were to lorget where he was and yell “get a bag” to an erring fieldsman, his shout would recoil vulgarly on his ears. In the exclusive atmosphere of the “Mecca of cricket” applause is confined to clapping and a restrained “Well hit, sir,” or “Well bowled, sir”—though there have been times when incidents on the field have stirred even the staid Marylebone members into expressions more vehement. An Englishman wrote to a London newspaper a few years ago, objecting to the “snobbishness of calling the grounds Lord’s,” but the name is not a monument to England's nobility, though an earl was mainly responsible for its establishment. Back in 1787, the Earl of Winch elsea, who used to dress his team in knee breeches, silk stockings and silver caps, decided with Colonel Lennox (afterward Duke of Richmond), to acquire a private ground. Thomas Lord, one of the Earl’s retainers, was deputed to carry out the scheme. Lord obtained from the wealthy Portman family a piece of land at Dorset Square for his backers, who did not wish to appear publicly in the deal —because cricket had not then earned the title of the “noble” game. Big Wagers on Games. Those were the days of Lord Fred erick Beauclerk, who, though a clergyman in the Church of England, admitted that he made 600 guineas a year out of cricket wagers. Thomas Lord was something of an Armstrong in his day. On October 12, 1793, he was one of “four gentlemen of the Marylebone Club,” who played “five gentlemen of the Globe,” for a stake of 100 guineas. The five gentlemen of the Globe managed a total of only one in each of their two innings, in which Lord bowled down the whole ten wickets. Lord scored two of the Marylebone gentlemen’s first-innings total of three, and his side won by an innings and one run. The Marylebone cricketers of that period played in a sky-blue uniform. Expansion of the city of London and a higher rates for the ground, induced Lord to transfer his cricket field to North Bank in 1811. For similar reasons he moved in 1814 to the present location, in St John’s Wood Road. Each Lord moved he tofik his turf for the pitches with him. Saved From Builders. Years dimmed Lord’s enthusiasm, and he contemplated subdividing the field for cottages, but Williard Ward, a p rominent cricketer of the day, saved the ground from the builders by buying Lord out for £SOOO. It was fitting that Williard Ward’s innings of 278 for Marylebone against Norfolk in 1820 should stand for 105 years as the record individual score on the Lord’s ground. In 1824, James Henry Dark purchased the lease from Ward for £2OOO, and an annual payment of £425 until tae lease expired. At that time the ground was called “Dark’s,” as often a: it was “Lord's.” When a Mr Moses made Dark a good offer, Dark replied: ‘ f will sell to the Marylebone Cricket Club, but I will not sell to you.” M.C.C. held the ground on lease until 1860, when the freehold was purc lased with borrowed money. The balance of the money was paid off about a dozen years ago. Once a Bill was promoted to run a railway across Lord’s, but the project lapsed. Basement Dressing-rooms. When the 1878 Australian team astounded England by defeating M.C.C. in one day at Lord's, there was an old two-decker stand with a canvas awning, and the dressing-rooms were in the basement. Tennis courts were situated where “The Mound” now seats 10,000 spectators. Since 1921, when thousands could not gain entrance to the ground to see the test, more than £70,000 has been spent on improvements to the accommodation, including a new grandstand. , In the pavilion are quaint relics of early cricket, including queerly-fash-ioned sticks which were once the bats, and stumps from the time when two were considered sufficient for the bowler to aim at. It was only after an underarm express bowler had whizzed seven deadly shooters through one batsman’s wicket, without touching either stump, that the third stump—the middle one—was added in 1777. Trott’s Mighty Hit. On view in the pavilion is the ground gate which was shattered by a bomb from a Zeppelin in a German air raid. This gate was replaced by a memorial gate to W. G. Grace, the Colossus of cricket. Only one man has ever hit a six over the pavilion at Lord’s. He was Albert Trott, the Victorian all-round-er, who played for Australia in tests in 1895. Trott was playing for Middlesex as a professional when he made that mighty hit, which he nearly repeated whan one of his strokes struck the top of the building. Trott made those hits with a heavy bat which he • called “mother.” He used to say that his “heart was broken for batting” when they took that bat away in case he tried to make a habit of such exploits.