I
THE 3B(0)WIL3Em.
THE
CRICKET FIELD:
THE HISTORY AND THE SCIENCE
OF THE
GAME OF CRICKET.
BY
THE AUTHOR OF "THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC BATTING," "RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLEGE DAYS," ETC. ETC.
o 9 (ft
v v 7
" Gaudet .... aprici gramine campi."
" Pila velox,
Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem." — Hor.
*S
fa
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1854.
7P96"
" 'T was in the prime of summer time,
An evening calm and cool, And five and twenty happy boys
Came bounding out of school. Away they sped with gamesome minds
And souls untouched with sin ; To a level mead they came, and there
They drove the wickets in."
Hood.
London :
A. and G. A. Spottiswoode, New.street-Square.
DEDICATED
TO
J. A. B. MARSHALL, ESQ.,
AND THE
MEMBERS OF THE LANSDOWN CRICKET CLUB,
BY ONE OF THEIR OLDEST MEMBERS AND SINCERE FRIEND,
THE AUTHOK.
>
THE
PREFACE
TO
SECOND EDITION.
This Edition is greatly improved by various additions and corrections, for which we gratefully acknowledge our obligations to the Rev. R. T. King and Mr. A. Haygarth, as also once more to Mr. A. Bass and Mr. Whateley of Burton. For our practical instructions on Bowling, Batting, and Fielding, the first players of the day have been consulted, each on the point in which he respectively excelled. More discoveries have also been made illustrative of the origin and early history of Cricket ; and we trust nothing is want- ing to maintain the high character now accorded to the et Cricket Field," as the Standard Autho- rity on every part of our National Game.
J. P.
May, 18. 1854.
a 3
THE
PREFACE
TO
FIBST EDITION.
The following pages are devoted to the history and the science of our National Game. Isaac Walton has added a charm to the Rod and Line ; Col. Hawker to the Dog and the Gun; and Nimrod and Harry Hieover to the " Hunting Field : " but, the " Cricket Field " is to this day untrodden ground. We have been long expecting to hear of some chronicler aided and abetted by the noblemen and gentlemen of the Marylebone Club, — one who should combine, with all the resources of a ready writer, traditionary lore and practical experience. But, time is fast thinning the ranks of the veterans. Lord Frederick Beau- clerk and the once celebrated player, the Hon. Henry Tufton, afterwards Earl of Thanet, have passed away ; and probably Sparkes, of the Edin- burgh Ground, and Mr. John Goldham, herein-
Vlii PREFACE TO
after mentioned, are the only surviving players who have witnessed both the formation and the jubilee of the Marylebone Club — following, as it has, the fortunes of the Pavilion and of the enter- prising Thomas Lord, literally through "three removes" and "one fire," from White Conduit Fields to the present Lord's.
How, then, it will be asked, do we presume to save from oblivion the records of Cricket ?
As regards the Antiquities of the game, our history is the result of patient researches in old English literature. As regards its changes and chances and the players of olden time, it fortu- nately happens that, some fifteen years ago, we furnished ourselves with old Nyren's account of the Cricketers of his time and the Hambledon Club, and, using Bentley's Book of Matches from 1786 to 1825 to suggest questions and test the truth of answers, we passed many an interesting hour in Hampshire and Surrey, by the peat fires of those villages which reared the Walkers, David Harris, Beldham, Wells, and some others of the All England players of fifty years since. Bennett, Harry Hampton, Beldham, and Sparkes^ who first taught us to play, — all men of the last century, — have at various times contributed to our earlier
THE FIRST EDITION.
ix
annals : while Thomas Beagley, for some days our landlord, the late Mr. Ward, and especially Mr. E. H. Budd, often our antagonist in Lans- down matches, have respectively assisted in the first twenty years of the present century.
But, distinct mention must we make of one most important Chronicler, whose recollections were coextensive with the whole history of the game in its matured and perfect form — William Fennex. And here we must thank our kind friend the Rev. John Mitford, of Benhall, for his memoranda of many a winter's evening with that fine old player, = — papers especially valuable be- cause Fennex's impressions were so distinct, and his observation so correct, that, added to his practical illustrations with bat and ball, no other man could enable us so truthfully to compare ancient with modern times. Old Fennex, in his declining years, was hospitably appointed by Mr. Mitford to a sinecure office, created ex- pressly in his honour, in the beautiful gardens of Benhall ; and Pilch, and Box, and Bayley, and all his old acquaintance, will not be surprised to hear that the old man would carefully water and roll his little cricket-ground on summer mornings, and on wet and wintry days would sit in the
X
PREFACE TO
chimney-corner, dealing over and over again by the hour, to an imaginary partner, a very dark and dingy pack of cards, and would then sally forth to teach a long remembered lesson to some hob-nailed frequenter of the village ale-house.
So much for the History : but why should we venture on the Science of the game ?
Many may be excellently qualified, and have a fund of anecdote and illustration, still not one of the many will venture on a book. Hundreds play without knowing principles; many know what they cannot explain; and some could ex- plain, but fear the certain labour and cost, with the most uncertain return, of authorship. For our own part, we have felt our way. The wide circulation of our " Recollections of College Days" and " Course of English Reading " promises a patient hearing on subjects within our proper sphere ; and that in this sphere lies Cricket, we may without vanity presume to assert. For in August last, at Mr. Dark's Repository at Lord's, our little treatise on the " Principles of Scientific Batting" (Slatter : Oxford, 1835) was singled out as i( the book which contained as much on Cricket as all that had ever been written, and more be- sides." That same day did we proceed to arrange
THE FIRST EDITION.
xi
with Messrs. Longman, naturally desirous to lead a second advance movement, as we led the first, and to break the spell which, we had thus been assured, had for fifteen years chained down the in- vention of literary cricketers at the identical point where we left off ; for, not a single rule or principle has yet been published in advance of our own; though more than one author has been kind enough to adopt (thinking, no doubt, the parents were dead) our ideas, and language too !
" Shall we ever make new books," asks Tristram Shandy, "as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another ? " No. But so common is the failing, that actually even this illustration of plagiarism Sterne stole from Burton !
Like solitary travellers from unknown lands, we are naturally desirous to offer some confirma- tion of statements, depending otherwise too much on our literary honour. We, happily, have received the following from — we believe the oldest player of the day who can be pronounced a good player still— Mr. E. H. Budd: —
fc I return the proof-sheets of the History of my Contemporaries, and can truly say that they do indeed remind me of old times. I find one
PEEFACE TO
thing only to correct, which I hope you will be in time to alter, for your accuracy will then, to the best of my belief, be wholly without excep- tion : — write twenty guineas, and not twenty-five, as the sum offered, by old Thomas Lord, if any one should hit out of his ground where now is Dorset Square.
(( You invite me to note further particulars for your second edition : the only omission I can at present detect is this, — the name of Lord George Kerr, son of the Marquis of Lothian, should be added to your list of the Patrons of the Old Surrey Players; for, his lordship lived in the midst of them at Farnham; and, I have often heard Beldham say, used to provide bread and cheese and beer for as many as would come out and practise on a summer's evening : this is too substantial a supporter of the Noble Game to be forgotten."
We must not conclude without grateful acknow- ledgments to some distinguished amateurs repre- senting the science both of the northern and the southern counties, who have kindly allowed us to compare notes on various points of play. In all of our instructions in Batting, we have greatly benefited by the assistance, in the first instance,
THE FIRST EDITION.
Xlll
of Mr. A. Bass of Burton, and his friend Mr. Whateley, a gentleman who truly understands " Philosophy in Sport." Then, the Hon. Robert Grimston judiciously suggested some modification of our plan. We agreed with him that, for a popular work, and one ' ■ for play hours," the lighter parts should prevail over the heavier ; for, with most persons, a little science goes a long wTay, and our "winged words," if made too weighty, might not fly far ; seeing, as said Thucy- dides*, "men do find it such a bore to learn any thing that gives them trouble." For these reasons we drew more largely on our funds of anecdote and illustration, which had been greatly enriched by the contributions of a highly valued corre- spondent — Mr. E. S. E. Hartopp. When thus the science of batting had been reduced to its fair proportions, it was happily undertaken by the Hon. Frederick Ponsonby, not only through kind- ness to ourselves personally, but also, we feel assured, because he takes a pleasure in protecting the interests of the rising generation. By his advice, we became more distinct in our expla- nations, and particularly careful of venturing on
* B. L c. 20.
xiv PEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
such refinements of science as, though sound in theory, may possibly produce errors in practice.
" Tantce molis erat Cricetanum condere Campum."
For our artist we have one word to say : not indeed for the engravings in our frontispiece, — these having received unqualified approbation ; but, we allude to the illustrations of attitudes. In vain did our artist assure us that a fore-short- ened position would defy every attempt at ease, energy, or elegance ; we felt bound to insist on sacrificing the effect of the picture to its utility as an illustration. Our principal design is to show the position of the feet and bat with regard to the wicket, and how every hit, with one exception, the Cut, is made by no other change of attitude than results from the movement of the left foot alone.
J. P.
Barnstaple, April 1 5th, 1851.
CONTENTS,
CHAP. I
Page
Origin of the Game of Cricket 1 CHAP. IL
The general Character of Cricket - - - 16 CHAP. Ill
The Hambledon Club and the Old Players - - 40 CHAP. XV.
Cricket generally established as a National Game
by the End of the last Century - » - 56
CHAP. V.
The First Twenty Years of the present Century - 82 CHAP. VI.
A dark Chapter in the History of Cricket - - 99 CHAP. VII.
The Science and Art of Batting - - 110
xvi
CONTENTS.
CHAP. VIII. Hints against Slow Bowling
CHAP. IX. Bowling. — An Hour with "Old Clarke"
CHAP. X.
Hints on Fielding -
CHAP. XI. Chapter of Accidents. — Miscellaneous
/
THE CRICKET FIELD
— "
CHAPTER %
OEIGIN OF THE GAME OF CRICKET.
The Game of Cricket, in some rude form, is un- doubtedly as old as the thirteenth century. But whether at that early date Cricket was the name it generally bore is quite another question. For Club-Ball we believe to be the name which usually stood for Cricket in the thirteenth cen- tury ; though, at the same time, we have some curious evidence that the term Cricket at that early period was also known. But the identity of the game with that now in use is the chief point ; the name is of secondary consideration. Games commonly change their names, as every schoolboy knows, and bear different appellations in different places.
Nevertheless, all previous writers acquiescing quietly in the opinion of Strutt, expressed in his | u Sports and Pastimes," not only forget that
I B
2
THE CRICKET FIELD.
Cricket may be older than its name, but erro- neously suppose that the name of Cricket occurs in no author in the English language of an earlier date than Thomas D'Urfey, who, in his " Pills to purge Melancholy," writes thus : —
" Herr was the prettiest fellow At foot-ball and at Cricket; At hunting chase or nimble race How featly Herr could prick it."
The words " How featly " Strutt properly writes in place of a revolting old-fashioned oath in the original.
Strutt, therefore, in these lines quotes the word Cricket as first occurring in 1710. About the same date Pope wrote, —
M The Judge to dance his brother Sergeants call, The Senators at Cricket urge the ball."
And Duncome, curious to observe, laying the scene of a match near Canterbury, wrote, —
" An ill-timed Cricket Match there did At Bishops-bourne befal."
Soame Jenyns, also, early in the same century, wrote in lines that showed that cricket was very much of a " sporting " amusement : —
" England, when once of peace and wealth possessed, Began to think frugality a jest;
ORIGIN OF THE GAME.
3
So grew polite : hence all her well-bred heirs Gamesters and jockeys turned, and cnc£e£-players."
Ep. I. b. ii., init.
However, we are happy to say that even among comparatively modern authors we have beaten Strutt in his researches by twenty-five years; for Edward Phillips, John Milton's ne- phew, in his " Mysteries of Love and Eloquence " (8vo. 1685), writes thus: —
" Will you not, when you have me, throw stocks at my head and cry, 4 Would my eyes had been beaten out of my head with a cricket-ball the day before I saw thee ? ' "
We shall presently show the word Cricket, in Richelet, as early as the year 1680.
A late author has very sensibly remarked that Cricket could not have been popular in the days of Elizabeth, or we should expect to find allusions to that game, as to tennis, football, and other sports, in the early poets; but Shakspeare and the dramatists who followed, he observes, are silent on the subject.
As to the silence of the early poets and drama- tists on the crame of cricket — and no one conver- sant with English literature would expect to find it except in some casual allusion or illustration in an old play — this silence we can confirm on the best authority. What if we presumed to advance that the early dramatists, one and all, ignore
4
THE CRICKET FIELD.
the very name of cricket. How bold a negative ! So rare are certain old plays that a hundred pounds have been paid by the Duke of Devon- shire for a single copy of a few loose and soiled leaves ; and shall we pretend to have dived among such hidden stores ? We are so fortunate as to be favoured with the assistance of the Rev. John Mitford and our loving cousin John Payne Col- lier, two English scholars, most deeply versed in early literature, and no bad judges of cricket ; and since these two scholars have never met with any mention of cricket in the early dramatists, nor in any author earlier than 1685, there is, indeed, much reason to believe that u Cricket" is a word that does not occur in any English author before the year 1685.
But though it occurs not in any English author, is it found in no rare manuscript yet unpublished ? We shall see.
Now as regards the silence of the early poets, a game like cricket might certainly exist without falling in with the allusions or topics of poetical writers. Still, if we actually find distinct cata- logues and enumerations of English games before the date of 1685, and Cricket is omitted, the sus- picion that Cricket was not then the popular name of one of the many games of ball (not that the game itself was positively unknown) is strongly confirmed.
ORIGIN OF THE GAME.
5
Six such catalogues are preserved ; one in the K Anatomy of Melancholy," a second in a well- known treatise of James I., and a third in the ft Cotswold Games," with three others.
I. For the first catalogue, Strutt reminds us of the set of rules from the hand of James I. for the " nurture and conduct of an heir-apparent to the throne," addressed to his eldest son, Henry Prince of Wales, called the BA2IAIKON AX1PON, or a " Kinge's Christian Dutie towards God." Herein the king forbids gaming and rough play : " As to diceing, I think it becometh best de- boshed souldiers to play on the heads of their drums. As to the foote-ball, it is meeter for laming, than making able, the users thereof." But a special commendation is given to certain games of ball ; " playing at the catch or tennis, palle- malle, and such like other fair and pleasant field- games P Certainly cricket may have been in- cluded under the last general expression, though by no means a fashionable game in J ames's reign,
II. For the second catalogue of games, Burton in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," "the only
J book," said Dr, Johnson, " that ever took me out I of bed two hours sooner than I wished to rise," — gives a view of the sports most prevalent in the seventeenth century. Here we have a very full enumeration : it specifies the pastimes of " great men," and those of " base inferior persons ; " it
B 3
6
THE CRICKET FIELD.
mentions "the rocks on which men lose them- selves " by gambling ; how " wealth runs away with their hounds, and their fortunes fly away with their hawks." Then follow " the sights and shows of the Londoners," and the "May-games and recreations of the country-folk." More mi- nutely still, Burton speaks of "rope-dancers, cock- fights," and other sports common both to town and country ; still, though Burton is so exact as to specify all "winter recreations" separately, and mentions even " foot-balls and ballowns," saying " Let the common people play at ball and barley- brakes," there is in all this catalogue no mention whatever of Cricket.
III. As a third catalogue, we have the " Cots- wold Games," but cricket is not among them. This was an annual celebration which one Cap- tain Dover, by express permission and command of James I., held on the Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire.
IV. Fourthly : cricket is not mentioned in " The compleat Gamester,'* published by Charles Browne, in 1709.
V. " I have many editions of Chamberlayne's < State of England,'" kindly writes Mr. T. B. Macaulay, "published between 1670 and 1700, and I observe he never mentions cricket among the national games, of which he gives a long list."
VI. The great John Locke wrote in 1679,
ORIGIN OF THE GAME.
7
" The sports of England for a curious stranger to see, are horse-racing, hawking, hunting, and Bowling: at Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling two or three times a week : also, wrestling in Lincoln's Inn Fields every evening ; bear and bull-baiting at the bear garden ; shooting wTith the long bow, and stob-ball, in Tothill Fields ; and cudgel playing in the country, and hurling in Cornwall." Here again we have no Cricket. Stob-ball is a different game.
Nevertheless we have a catalogue of games of about 1700, in Stow's " Survey of London," and there Cricket is mentioned ; but, remarkably enough, it is particularised as one of the amuse- ments of " the lower classes." The whole passage is curious : —
" The modern sports of the citizens, besides drinking (!), are cock-fighting, bowling upon greens, backgammon, cards, dice, billiards, also musical entertainments, dancing, masks, balls, stage-plays, and club-meetings in the evening; they sometimes ride out on horseback, and hunt with the lord mayor's pack ctf dogs, when the common hunt goes on. The lower classes divert themselves at foot-ball, wrestling, cudgels, nine- pins, shovel-board, cricket, stow-ball, ringing of bells, quoits, pitching the bar, bull and bear bait- ings, throwing at cocks, and lying at ale-houses." (!)
B 4
8
THE CEICKET FIELD,
The lawyers have a rule that to specify one thing is to ignore the other ; and this rule of evidence can never be more applicable than where a sport is omitted from six distinct catalogues ; therefore, the conclusion that Cricket was unknown when those lists were made would indeed appear utterly irresistible, only — audi semper alteram partem — in this case the argument would prove too much ; for it would equally prove that Club- ball and Trap-ball were undiscovered too, whereas both these games are confessedly as old as the thirteenth century !
The conclusion of all this is, that the oft-re- peated assertions that Cricket is a game no older than the eighteenth century is erroneous : for, first, the thing itself may be much older than its name ; and, secondly, the " silence of antiquity " is no conclusive evidence that even the name of Cricket was really unknown.
Thus do we refute those who assert a negative as to the antiquity of cricket : and now for our affirmative ; and we are prepared to show —
First, that a single-wicket game was played as early as the thirteenth century, under the name of Club-ball.
Secondly, that it might have been identical with a sport of the same date called " Handyn and Handoute."
Thirdly, that a genuine double- wicket game
ORIGIN OF THE GAME.
9
was played in Scotland about 1700, under the name of " Cat and Dog."
Fourthly, that ei Creag," — very near " Cricce," the Saxon term for the crooked stick, or bandy, which we see in the old pictures of cricket, — was the name of a game played in the year 1300.
First, as to a single-wicket game in the thir- teenth century, whatever the name of the said game might have been, we are quite satisfied with the following proof : —
"In the Bodleian Library at Oxford," says Strutt, "is a MS. (No. 264.) dated 1344, which represents a figure, a female, in the act of bowling a ball (of the size of a modern cricket-ball) to a man who elevates a straight bat to strike it ; be- hind the bowler are several figures, male and female, waiting to stop or catch the ball, their attitudes grotesquely eager for a 6 chance.' The game is called Club-ball, but the score is made by hitting and running, as in cricket."
Secondly, Barrington, in his " Remarks on the More Ancient Statutes," comments on 17 Edw. IV. a.d. 1477, thus : —
" The disciplined soldiers were not only guilty of pilfering on their return, but also of the vice of gaming. The third chapter therefore forbids playing at cloish, ragle, half-bowle, quekeborde, handyn and handoute. Whosoever shall permit these games to be played in their house or yard
10
THE CRICKET FIELD.
is punishable with three years5 imprisonment; those who play at any of the said games are to be fined 10/., or lie in jail two years."
" This," says Barrington, " is the most severe law ever made in any country against gaming; and, some of those forbidden seem to have been manly exercises, particularly the "handyn and handoute," which I should suppose to be a kind of cricket, as the term hands is still (writing in 1740) retained in that game."
Thirdly, as to the double- wicket game, Dr. Jamieson, in his Dictionary, published in 1722, gives the following account of a game played in Angus and Lothian : —
" This is a game for three players at least, who are furnished with clubs. They cut out two holes, each about a foot in diameter and seven inches in depth, and twenty-six feet apart ; one man guards each hole with his club ; these clubs are called Dogs. A piece of wood, about four inches long and one inch in diameter, called a Cat, is pitched, by a third person, from one hole to- wards the player at the other, who is to prevent the cat from getting into the hole. If it pitches in the hole, the party who threw it takes his turn with the club. If the cat be struck, the club- bearers change places, and each change of place counts one to the score, like club-ball"
The last observation shows that in the game of
ORIGIN OF THE GAME.
11
Club-ball above-mentioned, the score was made by " runs," as in cricket.
In what respect, then, do these games differ from cricket as played now ? The only excep- tion that can be taken is to the absence of any wicket. But every one familiar with a paper given by Mr. Ward, and published in " Old Nyren," by the talented Mr. C. Cowden Clarke, will remember that the traditionary u blockhole " was a veritable hole in former times, and that the batsman was made Out in running, not, as now, by putting down a wicket, but by popping the ball into the hole before the bat was grounded in it. The same paper represents that the wicket was two feet wide, — a width which is only ren- dered credible by the fact that the said hole was not like our mark for guard, four feet distant from the stumps, but cut like a basin in the turf between the stumps ; an arrangement which would require space for the frequent struggle of the batsman and wicket-keeper, as to whether the bat of the one, or the hand of the other, should reach the blockhole first.
The conclusion of all is, that Cricket is identical with Club-ball, — a game played in the thirteenth century as single-wicket, and played, if not then, somewhat later as a double-wicket game; that where balls were scarce, a Cat, or bit of wood, as seen in many a village, supplied its place; also that
12
THE CRICKET FIELD.
"handyn and handoute" was probably only another name. Fosbroke, in his Dictionary of Antiquities, said, " club-ball was the ancestor of cricket : " he might have said, " club-ball was the old name for cricket, the games being the same."
The points of difference are not greater than every cricketer can show between the game as now played and that of the last century.
But, lastly, as to the name of Cricket. The bat, which is now straight, is represented in old pictures as crooked, and " cricce" is the simple Saxon word for a crooked stick. The derivation of Billiards from the Norman billart, a cue, or from ball-yard, according to Johnson, also Nine- pins and Trapball, are obvious instances of games which derived their names from the implements with which they are played. Now it appears highly probable that the crooked stick used in the game of Bandy might have been gradually adopted, especially when a wicket to be bowled down by a rolling ball superseded the blockhole to be pitched into. In that case the club having given way to the bandy or crooked bat of the last century, the game, which first was named from the club " club-ball," might afterwards have been named from the bandy or crooked stick " cricket."
Add to which, the game might have been played in two ways, — sometimes more in the form of Club-ball, sometimes more like Cricket ;
ORIGIN OF THE GAME.
13
and the following remarkable passage proves that a term very similar to Cricket was applied to some game as far back as the thirteenth century, the identical date to which we have traced that form of cricket called club-ball and the game of handyn and handoute.
From the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. IviiL p. h9 A. D. 1788, we extract the following: —
" In the wardrobe account of the 28th year of King Edward the First, a.d. 1300, published in 1787 by the Society of Antiquaries, among the entries of money paid one Mr. John Leek, his chaplain, for the use of his son Prince Edward in playing at different games, is the following: —
" 6 Domino Johanni de Leek, capellano Domini Edwardi fil' ad Creag* et alios ludos per vices, per manus proprias, 100 s. Apud Westm. 10 die Aprilis, 1305.'"
The writer observes, that the glossaries have been searched in vain for any other name of a pastime but cricket to which the term Creag' can apply. And why should it not be Cricket? for, we have a singular evidence that, at the same date, Merlin the Magician was a cricketer !
In the romance of " Merlin," a book in very old French, written about the time of Edward L, is the following : —
" Two of his ( Vortiger's) emissaries fell in with certain children who were playing at cricket" — Quoted in Dunlop's " History of Fiction."
14
THE CRICKET FIELD.
The word here rendered cricket is la crosse; and in Richelet's Diet, of Ant. 1680, are these words:
" Crosse, a Crosier. Baton de bois courbe par le bout d'en haut, dont on se sert pour jouer ou pousser quelque balle."
" Crosseur, qui pousse — 6 Cricketer "
Creag' and Cricket, therefore, being presumed identical, the cricketers of Warwick and of Glou- cester may be reminded that they are playing the same game as was played by the dauntless enemy of Robert Bruce, afterwards the prisoner at Ken- nilworth, and eventually the victim of Mortimer's ruffians in the dark tragedy of Berkeley Castle.
To advert to a former observation that cricket was originally confined to the lower orders, Robert Southey notes, C. P. Book. iv. 201., that cricket was not deemed a game for gentlemen in the middle of the last century. Tracing this allusion to "The Connoisseur," No. 132. dated 1756, we are introduced to one Mr. Toby Bumper, whose vulgarities are, " drinking purl in the morning, eating black- puddings at Bartholomew Fair, boxing with Buckhorse," and also that " he is frequently engaged at the Artillery Ground with Faukner and Dingate at cricket, and is esteemed as good a bat as either of the Bennets." Dingate will be mentioned as an All-England player in our third chapter.
And here we must observe that at the very
ORIGIN OF THE GAME.
date that a cricket-ground was thought as low as a modern skittle-alley, we read that even
" Some Dukes at Mary'bone howled time away ;"
and also that a Duchess of Devonshire could be actually watching the play of her guests in the skittle-alley till nine o'clock in the evening.
Our game in later times, we know, has consti- tuted the pastime and discipline of many an En- glish soldier. Our barracks are now provided with cricket grounds ; every regiment and every man- of-war has its club ; and our soldiers and sailors astonish the natives of every clime, both inland and maritime, with a specimen of a British game : and it deserves to be better known that it was at a cricket match that " some of our officers were amusing themselves on the 12th June, 1815," says Captain Gordon, "in company with that devoted cricketer the Duke of Richmond, when the Duke of Wellington arrived, and shortly after came the Prince of Orange, which of course put a stop to our game. Though the hero of the Peninsula was not apt to let his movements be known, on this occasion he made no secret that, if he were attacked from the south, Halle would be his position, and, if on the Namur side, Waterloo."
16
THE CRICKET FIELD.
CHAP. H.
THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET,
The game of cricket, philosophically considered, is a standing panegyric on the English character : none but an orderly and sensible race of people would so amuse themselves. It calls into requi- sition all the cardinal virtues, some moralist would say. As with the Grecian games of old, the player must be sober and temperate. Patience, fortitude, and self-denial, the various bumps of order, obedience, and good-humour, with an un- ruffled temper, are indispensable. For intellec- tual virtues Ave want judgment, decision, and the organ of concentrativeness — every faculty in the free use of all its limbs — and every idea in con- stant air and exercise. Poor, rickety, and stunted wits will never serve : the widest shoulders are of little use without a head upon them : the cricketer wants wits down to his fingers' ends. As to physical qualifications, we require not only the volatile spirits of the Irishman Rampant, nor the phlegmatic caution of the Scotchman Couchant, but we want the English combination of the two ;
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 17
though, with good generalship, cricket is a game for Britons generally : the three nations would mix not better in a regiment than in an eleven ; especially if the Hibernian were trained in Lon- don, and taught to enjoy something better than what Father Prout terms his supreme felicity, ce Otium cum dig-gin-taties"
It was from the southern and south-eastern counties of England that the game of Cricket spread — not a little owing to the Propaganda of the metropolitan clubs, which played chiefly first at the Artillery Ground, then at White Conduit Fields, and thirdly at Thomas Lord's Grounds, (of which there were two before the present "Lord's,") as well as latterly at the Oval, Kennington, and on all sides of London — through all the southern half of England ; and during these last twenty years the northern counties, and even Edinburgh, have sent forth distinguished players. But con-* siclering that the complement of the game is twenty-two men, besides two Umpires and two Scorers ; and considering also that cricket, unlike every other manly contest, by flood or field, oc- cupies commonly more than one day ; the rail- ways, as might be expected, have tended wonder- fully to the diffusion of cricket, — giving rise to clubs depending on a circle of some thirty or forty miles, as also to that club in particular under the canonised saint, John Zingari, into whom are
c
18
THE CRICKET FIELD.
supposed to have migrated all the erratic spirits of the gipsy tribe. The Zingari are a race of ubi- quitous cricketers, exclusively gentlemen-players ; for cricket affords to a race of professionals a merry and abundant, though rather a laborious livelihood, from the time the first May-fly is up to the time the first pheasant is down. Neither must we forget the All England and United Elevens, who, under the generalship of Clarke or Wisden, play numbers varying from fourteen to twenty- two in almost every county in England. So proud are provincial clubs of this honour that, besides a subscription of some 70/., and part or all of the money at the field-gate being willingly accorded for their services, much hospitality is exercised wherever they go. This tends to a healthy cir- culation of the life's blood of cricket, vaccinating and inoculating every wondering rustic with the principles of the national game. Our soldiers, we said, by order of the Horse Guards, are pro- vided with cricket-grounds adjoining their bar- racks; and all of her Majesty's ships have bats and balls to astonish the cockroaches at sea, and the crabs and turtles ashore. Hence it has come to pass that, wherever her Majesty's servants have " carried their victorious arms " and legs, wTind and weather permitting, cricket has been played. Still the game is essentially Anglo- Saxon. Foreigners have rarely, very rarely, imitated us. The English settlers and residents
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 19
everywhere play ; but of no single cricket club have we ever heard dieted either with frogs, sour crout, or macaroni. But how remarkable that cricket is not naturalised in Ireland ! the fact is very striking that it follows the course rather of ale than whiskey. Witness Kent, the land of hops, and the annual antagonists of " All Eng- land." Secondly, Farnham, which, as we shall presently show, with its adjoining parishes, nur- tured the finest of the old players, as well as the finest hops, — cunabula Troj<$, the infant school of cricketers. Witness also the Burton Clubs, assisted by our excellent friend next akin to bitter ale. Witness again Alton ale, on which old Beagley throve so well, and the Scotch ale of Edinburgh, on which J ohn Sparkes, though com- mencing with the last generation, has carried on his instructions, in which we ourselves once re- joiced, into the middle of the present century. The mountain mists and " mountain dew " suit better with deer-stalking than with cricket : our game disdains the Dutch courage of ardent spirits. The brain must glow with Nature's fire, and not depend upon a spirit lamp. Mens sana in corpore sano : feed the body, but do not cloud the mind. You, sir, with the hectic flush, the fire of your eyes burnt low in their sockets, with beak as sharp as a woodcock's from living upon suction, writh pallid face and shaky hand, — our game
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20
THE CRICKET FIELD.
disdains such ghostlike votaries. Rise with the lark and scent the morning air, and drink from the bubbling rill, and then, when your veins are no longer fevered with alcohol, nor puffed with tobacco smoke, — when you have rectified your illicit' spirits and clarified your unsettled judg- ment,— "come again and devour up my dis- course." And you, sir, with the figure of Falstaff and the nose of Bardolph, — not Christianly eating that you may live, but living that you may eat, — one of the nati consumer e fruges, the devouring caterpillar and grub of human kind — our noble game has no sympathy with gluttony, still less with the habitual ** diner out," on whom outraged nature has taken vengeance, by emblazoning what was his face (nimium ne crede colori\ encasing each limb in fat, and condemning him to be his own porter to the end of his days. " Then I am your man — and I — and I," cry a crowd of self- satisfied youths : " sound are we in wind and limb, and none have quicker hand or eye." Gently, my friends, so far well ; good hands and eyes are instruments indispensable, but only in- struments. There is a wide difference between a good workman and a bag of tools, however sharp. We must have heads as well as hands. You may be big enough and strong enough, but the question is whether, as Virgil says,
" Spiritus intus edit, totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet?
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 21
And; in these lines, Virgil truly describes the right sort of man for a cricketer : plenty of life in him : not barely soul enough, as Robert South said, to keep his body from putrefaction; but, however large his stature, though he weigh twenty stone, like (we will not say Mr. Mynn), but an olden wicket-keeper, named Burt, or a certain infant genius in the same line, of good Cambridge town, — he must, like these worthies aforesaid, have vovs in perfection, and be instinct with sense all over. Then, says Virgil, igneus est ollis vigor : " they must always have the steam up," other- wise the bard would have agreed with us, they are no good in an Eleven, because —
" Noxia corpora tardant, Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra;"
that is, you must suspend the laws of gravitation before they can stir, — dull clods of the valley, and so many stone of carrion ; and then Virgil proceeds to describe what discipline will render those, who suffer the penalties of idleness or in- temperance, fit to join the chosen few in the cricket-field :
" Exinde per amplum Mittimur Elysium et pauci Iceta arva tenemus"
Of course Elysium means " Lords," and Iceta arvas u the shooting fields." We make no apology for classical quotations. At the Universities, cricket
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22
THE CRICKET FIELD.
and scholarship very generally go together. When, in 1836, we played victoriously on the side of Oxford against Cambridge, seven out of our eleven were classmen ; and, it is doubtless only to avoid an invidious distinction that cc Heads v. Heels," as was once suggested, has failed to be an annual University match ; though the seri studiorum- — those put to school late — would not have a chance. We extract the following : —
" In a late Convocation holden at Oxford, May 30, 1851, it was agreed to affix the University seal to a power of attorney authorising the sale of 2000Z. three per cent, consols, for the purpose of paying for and enclosing certain allotments of land in Cowley Common, used as cricket grounds by mem- bers of the University, in order to their being preserved for that purpose, and let to the several University cricket clubs in such manner as may hereafter appear expedient."
From all this we argue that, on the au- thority of ancient and the experience of modern times, cricket wants mind as well as matter, and, in every sense of the word, a good un- derstanding. How is it that Clarke's slow bowl- ing is so successful ? ask Bay ley or Caldecourt ; or say Bayley's own bowling, or that of Lilly white, or others not much indebted to pace. " You see, sir, they bowl with their heads." Then only is the game worthy the notice of full-grown men. "A rubber of whist," says the author of the *' Diary of a late Physician," in his " Law Stu- dies," " calls into requisition all those powers of
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET, 23
mind that a barrister most needs ; " and nearly as much may be said of a scientific game of cricket. Mark that first-rate bowler : the batsman is han- kering for his favourite cut — no — leg stump is attacked again — extra man on leg side — right — that's the spot — leg stump, and not too near him. He is screwed up, and cannot cut away ; Point has it — persevere — try again — his pa- tience soon will fail. Ah ! look at that ball ; — the bat was more out of the perpendicular — now the bowler alters his pace — good. A dropping ball — over-reached and all but a mistake; — now a slower pace still, with extra twist — hits furiously to leg, too soon. Leg- stump is grazed, and bail off. 6i You see, sir," says the veteran, turning round, " an old player, who knows what is, and what is not, on the ball, alone can resist all the temptations that leg-balls involve. Young players are going their round of experiments, and are too fond of admiration and brilliant hits ; whereas it is your upright straight players that worry a bowler — twenty-two inches of wood, by four and a quarter — every inch of them before the stumps, hitting or blocking, is rather dishearten- ing ; but the moment a man makes ready for a leg hit, only about five inches by four of wood can cover the wicket ; so leg-hitting is the bow- ler's chance : cutting also for a similar reason. If there were no such thing as leg-hitting, we
24
THE CRICKET FIELD.
should see a full bat every time, the man steady on his legs, and only one thing to think of ; and what a task a bowler wrould have. That was Mr. Ward's play — -good for something to the last. First-rate straight play and free leg-hitting sel- dom last long together: when once exulting in the luxurious excitement of a leg volley, the muscles are always on the quiver to swipe round, and the bowler sees the bat raised more and more across wicket. So, also, it is with men who are yearning for a cut : forming for the cut, like forming for leg-hit — aye, and almost the idea of those hits coming across the mind — set the muscles off straight play, and give the bowler a chance. There is a deal of head-work in bowling: once make your batsman set his mind on one hit, and give him a ball requiring the contrary, and he is off his guard in a moment."
Certainly, there is something highly intellectual in our noble and national pastime. But the cricketer must possess other qualifications; not only physical and intellectual, but moral qualifi- cations also. Of what avail is the head to plan and hand to execute, if a sulky temper paralyses ex- ertion, and throws a damp upon the field ; or if impatience dethrones judgment, and the man hits across at good balls, because loose balls are long in coming; or, again, if a contentious and im- perious disposition leaves the cricketer all c alone in his glory,' voted the pest of every eleven?"
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 26
The pest of the hunting-field is the man always thinking of his own horse and own riding, gallop- ing against men and not after hounds. The pest of the cricket-field is the man who bores you about his average — his wickets — his catches ; and looks blue even at the success of his own party. If unsuccessful in batting or fielding, he gives up all — 66 the wretch concentred all in self." No ! Give me the man who forgets him- self in the game, and, missing a ball, does not stop to exculpate himself by dumb show, but rattles away after it — who does not blame his partner when he is run out — who plays like play and not like a painful operation. Such a chilly, bleak, northwest aspect some men do put on — it is absurd to say they are enjoying themselves. We all know it is trying to be out first ball. Oh ! that first look back at rattling stumps — cc why, I could'nt have had right guard !" — that conviction that the ball turned, or but for some unaccountable suspension of the laws of motion (the earth per- haps coming to a hitch upon its ungreased axis) it had not happened ! Then there's the spoiling of your average, (though some begin again and reckon anew !) and a sad consciousness that every critic in the three tiers of the Pavilion, as he coolly specu- lates " quis cuique dolor victo, quce gloria palmce" knows your mortification. Oh ! that sad walk back; a " returned convict ; " we must all pace it3
26
THE CRICKET FIELD.
ie calcanda semel via leti" A man is sure never to take his eyes off the ground, and if there's a bit of stick in the way he kicks it instinctively with the side of his shoe. Add, that cruel post mortem examination into your " case," and having to answer the old question, How was it ? or perhaps forced to amue with some vexatious fellow who imputes it to the very fault on which you are so sore and sensitive. All this is trying ; but since it is always happening, an "inseparable accident " of the game, it is time that an unruffled temper should be held the te differentia " of the true cricketer and bad temper voted bad play. Eleven good-tempered men, other points equal, would beat eleven sulky or eleven irritable gentlemen out of the field. The hurling of bats and angry ebullitions show inexperience in the game and its chances ; as if any man in England could always catch, or stop, or score. This very uncertainty gives the game its interest. If Pilch or Parr were sure of runs, who would care to play? But as they make sometimes five and sometimes fifty, we still contend with flesh and blood. Even Achilles was vulnerable at the heel; or, mythologically, he could not stop a shooter to the leg stump. So never let the Satan icagency of the gaming-table brood on those " happy fields " where, strenua nos exercet inertia, there is an energy in our idle hours, not killing time but enjoying it. Look at
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 27
good honest James Dean; his " patient merit " never " goes Out sighing " nor In, either — never in a mumbling, though a " melting mood." Per- spiration may roll off him, like bubbles from a duck's back, but it's all down to the dav's work. He looks, as every cricketer should look, like a man out for a holiday, shut up in " measureless content." It is delightful to see such a man make a score.
Add to all this, perseverance and self-denial, and a soul above vain-glory and the applause of the vulgar. Aye, perseverance in well-doing — perseverance in a straightforward, upright, and consistent course of action. — See that player prac- tising apart from the rest. What an unpretend- ing style of play — a hundred pounds appear to depend on every ball — not a hit for these five minutes — see, he has a shilling on his stumps, and Hillyer is doing his best to knock it off. A question asked after every ball, the bowler being constantly invited to remind him of the least inaccuracy in hitting or danger in defence. The other players are hitting all over the field, making every one (but a good judge) marvel. Our friend's reward is that in the first good match, when some supposed brilliant Mr. Dashwood has been stumped from leg ball — (he cannot make his fine hits in his ground) — bowled by a shooter or caught by that sharpest of all Points "Aval; avSpcov,
28
THE CRICKET FIELD.
then our persevering friend — ball after ball drop- ping harmless from his bat, till ever and anon a single or a double are safely played away — has two figures appended to his name; and he is greeted in the Pavilion as having turned the chances of the game in favour of his side.
Conceit in a cricketer, as in other things, is a bar to all improvement — the vain-glorious is always thinking of the lookers-on, instead of the game, and generally is condemned to live on the reputation of one skying leg-hit, or some twenty runs off three or four overs (his merriest life is a short one) for half a season.
In one word, there is no game in which amia- bility and an unruffled temper is so essential to success, or in which virtue is rewarded, half as much as in the game of cricket. Dishonest or shuffling ways cannot prosper ; the umpires will foil every such attempt — those truly constitutional judges, bound by a code of written laws — and the public opinion of a cricket club, militates against his preferment. For cricket is a social game. Could a cricketer play a solo, or with a dummy (other than the catapult), he might play in humour or out of humour ; but an Eleven is of the nature of those commonwealths of which Cicero said that, without some regard to the car- dinal virtues, they could not possibly hold to- gether.
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 29
Such a national game as cricket will both hu- manise and harmonise the people. It teaches a love of order, discipline, and fair play for the pure honour and glory of victory. The cricketer is a member of a wide fraternity : if he is the best man in his club, and that club is the best club in the county, he has the satisfaction of knowing his high position, and may aspire to represent some large and powerful constituency at Lord's. How spirit-stirring are the gatherings of rival counties ! And I envy not the heart that glows not with delight at eliciting the sympathies of exulting thousands, when all the country is thronging to its battle-field studded with flags and tents. Its very look makes the heart beat for the fortune of the play ; and for miles around the old coachman waves his whip above his head with an air of in- finite importance if he can only be the herald of the joyous tidings, " We've won the day."
Games of some kind men must have, and it is no small praise of cricket that it occupies the place of less innocent sports. Drinking, gambling, i and cudgel-playing, insensibly disappear as you encourage a manly recreation which draws the labourer from the dark haunts of vice and misery to the open common, where
" The squire or parson o' the parish, Or the attorney,"
may raise him, without lowering themselves, by
30
THE CRICKET FIELD.
taking an interest, if not a part, in his sports. " Nature abhors a vacuum," especially of mirth and merriment, resenting the folly of those who would disdain her bounties by that indifference and apathy which mark a very dull boy indeed. Nature designed us to sport and play at cricket as truly as to eat and drink. Without sport you have no healthful exercise : to refresh the body you must relax the mind. Observe the pale dys- peptic student ruminating on his logic, algebra, or political economy while describing his period- ical revolutions around his college garden or on Constitution Hill : then turn aside and gladden your eyes and ears with the buoyant spirits and exulting energies of Bullingdon or Lord's. See how nature rebels against " an airing," or a mile- stone-measured walk ! While following up a covey, or the windings of a trout-stream, we cross field after field unconscious of fatigue, and retain so pleasing a recollection of the toil, that years after, amidst the din and hum of men, we brighten at the thought, and yearn as did the poet near two thousand years ago, in the words, —
" O rus, quando te aspiciam, quandoque licebit, Ducere sollicitce jucunda oblivia vitce."
That an intelligent and responsible being should live only for amusement, is an error indeed, and one which brings its own punishment in that sink-
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 31
ing of the heart when the cup is drained to the dregs, and pleasures cease to please.
'4 Nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum."
Still field-sports, in their proper season, are Na- ture's kind provision to smooth the frown from the brow, to allay " life's fitful fever," to —
" Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And by some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffed bosom from that perilous stuff, Which weighs upon the heart."
And words are these, not a whit too strong for those who live laborious days, in this high-pressure generation. And, who does not feel his daily burthen lightened, while enjoying, pratorum viva voluptas, the joyous spirits and good fellowship of the cricket-field, those sunny hours when "the val- leys laugh and sing," and, between the greensward beneath and the blue sky above, you hear a hum of happy myriads enjoying their brief span too !
Who can describe that tumult of the breast, described by JEschylus,
vtapoQ fiveXog arspvcav
EVTOg CLVCKJGbJV —
those yearning energies which find in this sport their genial exercise !
How generous and social is our enjoyment ! Every happy moment, — the ball springing from the bat, the sharp catch sounding in the palm, long reach or sudden spring and quick return, the
32
THE CRICKET FIELD.
exulting throw, or bails and wicket flying, — these all are joys enhanced by sympathy, purely re- flected from each other's eyes. In the cricket- field, as by the cover's side, the sport is in the free and open air and light of heaven. No incon- gruity of tastes nor rude collision interferes. None minds that another, how "unmannerly" soever, should "pass betwixt the wind and his nobility." One common interest makes common feeling, fusing heart with heart, thawing the frostwork of etiquette, and strengthening those silken ties which bind man to man.
Society has its ranks and classes. These dis- tinctions we believe to be not artificial, but natural, even as the very courses and strata of the earth itself. Lines there are, nicely graduated, ordained to separate, what Burns calls, the tropics of no- bility and affluence, from the temperate zones of a comfortable independence, and the Arctic circles of poverty : but these lines are nowhere less marked, because nowhere less wanted, than in the cricket-field. There we can waive for awhile the precedence of birth, —
" Contented with the rank that merit gives."
And many an humble spirit, from this temporary preferment, learning the pleasure of superiority and well-earned applause, carries the same honest emulation into his daily duties. The cricket-field suggests a new version of the words
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 33
" JEqua tellus Pauperi recluditur JRegumque pueris"
" A fair stage and no favour." Kerseymere dis- dains not corduroys, nor fine clothes fustian. The cottager stumps out his landlord ; scholars dare to beat their masters ; and sons catch out those fathers who so often catch out them. William Beldham was many hours in the day "as good a man" as even Lord Frederick Beauclerk ; and the gallant Duke of Richmond would descend from his high estate to contest the palm of manly prowess with his humblest tenantry, so far acknowledging with Robert Burns, —
" The rank is but the guinea stamp. The man's the gowd for a' that."
Cricket forms no debasing habits : unlike the bull-fights of Spain, and the earlier sports of Eng- land, it is suited to the softer feelings of a refined age. No living creature suffers for our sport: no frogs or minnows impaled, or worms writhing upon fish-hooks, — no hare screaming before the hounds, — no wounded partridge cowering in its agony, haunts the imagination to qualify our pleasure.
Cricket lies within the reach of average powers. A good head will compensate for hand and heels. It is no monopoly for a gifted few, nor are we
34
THE CRICKET FIELD.
soon superannuated. It affords scope for a great diversity of talent. Bowling, fielding, wicket- keeping, free hitting, safe and judicious play, and good generalship — in one of these points many a man has earned a name, though inferior in the rest. There are good batsmen and the best of fields among near-sighted men, and hard hitters among weak and crippled men ; in weight, nine stone has proved not too little for a first-rate, nor eighteen stone too much; and, as to age, Mr. Ward at sixty, Mr. E. H. Budd at sixty-five, and old John Small at seventy years of age, were useful men in good elevens.
Cricket is a game available to poor as well as rich; it has no privileged class. Unlike shoot- ing, hunting, or yachting, there is no leave to ask, licence to buy, nor costly establishment to sup- port : the game is free and common as the light and air in which it is played, — the poor man's portion: with the poorer classes it originated, played " after hours" on village greens, and thence transplanted to patrician lawns.
We extract the following : — •
" The judge of the Brentford County Court has decided that cricket is a legal game, so as to render the stakeholder liable in an action for the recovery of the stakes, in a case where one of the parties had refused to play."
Cricket is not solely a game of skill — chance
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 35
has sway enough to leave the vanquished an if and a but. A long innings bespeaks good play ; but * out the first ball " is no disgrace. A game, to be really a game, really playful, should admit of chance as well as skill. It is the bane of chess that its character is too severe — to lose its games is to lose your character ; and most painful of all, to be outwitted in a fair and undeniable contest of long-headedness, tact, manoeuvring, and common sense — qualities in which no man likes to come off second best. Hence the restless nights and unforgiving state of mind that often follows a checkmate. Hence that " agony of rage and disappointment from which," said Syd- ney Smith, " the Bishop of broke my head
with a chess-board fifty years ago at college."
But did we say that ladies, famed as some have been in the hunting field, know anything of cricket too ? Not often ; though I could have mentioned two, — the wife and daughter of the late William Ward, all three now no more, who could tell you — the daughter especially — the forte and the failing of every player at Lord's. I accom- panied them home one evening, to see some records of the game, to their humble abode in Connaught Terrace, where many an ornament reminded me of the former magnificence of the Member for the City, the Bank Director, and the great Russia merchant ; and I thought of his mansion in the
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
once not unfashionable Bloomsbury Square, the banqueting room of which many a Wykehamist has cause to remember ; for when famed, as the Wykehamists were, for the quickest and best of fielding, they had won their annual match at Lord's (and twenty years since they rarely lost), Mr. Ward would bear away triumphantly the winners to end the day with him. But, talking of the ladies, to say nothing of Miss Willes, who revived over-hand bowling, their natural powers of criticism, if honestly consulted, would, we think, tell some home truths to a certain class of players who seem to forget that, to be a Cricketer one must still be a man ; and that a manly, graceful style of play is worth something independently of its effect on the score. Take the case of the Skating Club. Will they elect a man because, in spite of arms and legs centrifugally flying, he can do some tricks of a posture-master, however wonderful ? No ! elegance in simple movements is the first thing : without elegance nothing counts. And so should it be with cricket. I have seen men, accounted players, quite as bad as some of the cricketers in Mr. Pips's diary. " Pray, Lovell," I once heard, " have I the right guard ? " " Guard indeed ! Yes ! keep on looking as ugly and as awkward as you are now, and no man in England can bowl for fright ! " Apropos, one of the first hints in archery is, " don't make faces
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET, 37
when you pull your bow." Now we do seriously entreat those young ladies, into whose hands this book may fall, to profess, on our authority, that they are judges of the game as far as appearance goes ; and also that they will quiz, banter, tease, lecture, never-leave-alone, and otherwise plague and worry all such brothers or husbands as they shall see enacting those anatomical contortions, which too often disgrace the s;ame of cricket.
Cricket, we said, is a game chiefly of skill, but partly of chance. Skill avails enough for interest, and not too much for friendly feeling. No game is played in better humour — never lost till won — the game's alive till the last ball. For the most part, there is so little to ruffle the temper, or to cause unpleasant collision, that there is no place so free from temptation — no such happy plains or lands of innocence — as our cricket-fields. We 2;ive bail for our s;ood behaviour from the moment that we enter them. Still, a cricket-field is a sphere of wholesome discipline in obedience and good order ; not to mention that manly spirit which faces danger without shrinking, and bears disap- pointment with good nature. Disappointment ! and say where is there more poignant disappoint- ment, while it lasts, than, after all your practice for a match, and anxious thought and resolution o avoid every chance, and score off every possible all, to be balked and run out, caught at the slip,
38
THE CRICKET FIELD.
or stumped even off a shooter. " The course of true love (even for cricket) never did run smooth." Old Robinson, one of the finest batsmen of his day, had six unlucky innings in succession : once caught by Hammond, from a draw ; then bowled with shooters, or picked up at short slip : the poor fellow said he had lost all his play, thinking iS the fault is in ourselves, and not our stars ; " and was with difficulty persuaded to play one match more, in which — whose heart does not rejoice to hear? — he made one hundred and thirty runs !
w But, as to stirring excitement," wrrites a friend, " what can surpass a hardly-contested match, when you have been manfully playing an up-hill game, and gradually the figures on the telegraph keep telling a better and a better tale, till at last the scorers stand up and proclaim a tie, and you win the game by a single and rather a nervous wicket, or by five or ten runs! If in the field with a match of this sort, and trying hard to prevent these few runs being knocked off by the last wickets, I know of no excitement so intense for the time, or which lasts so long afterwards. The recollection of these critical moments will make the heart jump for years and years to come; and it is extraordinary to see the delight with which men call up these grand moments to memory; and to be sure how they will talk and chatter, their eyes glistening and pulses getting quicker, as if
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 39
they were again finishing 4 that rattling good match.' People talk of the excitement of a good run with the Quorn or Belvoir hunt. I have now and then tumbled in for these good things ; and, as far as my own feelings go, I can safely say that a fine run is not to be compared to a good match; and the excitement of the keenest sportsman is nothing either in intensity or duration to that caused by a c near thing ' at cricket. The next good run takes the place of the other; whereas hard matches, like the snow-ball, gather as they go. This is my decided opinion ; and that after watching and weighing the subject for some years, I have seen men tremble and turn pale at a near match,
4 Quum spes arrectce juvenum exultantiaque haurit Corda pavor pulsans ' —
while, through the field, the deepest and most
awful silence reigns, unbroken but by some nervous fieldsman humming a tune or snapping
his fingers to hide his agitation."
" What a glorious sensation it is," writes Miss Mitford, in 6 Our Village,' " to be winning, win- ning, winning! Who would think that a little bit of leather and two pieces of wood had such a delightful and delighting power?"
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40
THE CRICKET FIELD.
CHAP. III.
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB AND THE OLD PLATERS.
What have become of the old scores and the earliest records of the game of cricket ? Bentley's Book of Matches gives the principal games from the year 1786; but where are the earlier records of matches made by Dehaney, Paulet, and Sir Horace Mann ? All burnt !
What the destruction of Rome and its records by the Gauls was to Niebuhr, — what the fire of London was to the antiquary in his walk from Pudding Lane to Pie Corner, such was the burn- ing of the Pavilion at Lord's, and all the old score books — it is a mercy that the old painting of the M. C. C. was saved — to the annalist of cricket. " When we were built out by Dorset Square," says Mr. E. H. Budd, "we played for three years where the Regent's Canal has since been cut, and still called our ground ' Lord's,' and our dining-room 6 the Pavilion.' Here manv a time have I looked over the old papers of Dehaney and Sir H. Mann ; but the room was burnt, and the old scores perished in the flames.
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB.
41
The following are curious as the two oldest scores preserved j — one of the Norths the other of the South : —
NAMES OF THE PERSONS WHO PLATED AGAINST SHEFFIELD.
In 1771 at Nottingham, and 1772 at Sheffield,
Nottingham, Aug. 26, 1771.
|
Huthwayte |
Coleman |
|
|
Turner |
Turner |
|
|
Loughman |
Loughman |
|
|
Coleman |
Roe |
|
|
Roe |
Spurs |
|
|
Spurr |
Stocks |
|
|
Stocks |
Collishaw |
|
|
Collishaw |
Troop |
|
|
Troop |
Mew |
|
|
Mew |
Bamford |
|
|
Raw son. |
Gladwin. |
|
|
Sheffield. |
Nottingham. |
Nottingham. |
|
1st inn. 81 |
1st inn. 76 |
1st inn. 14 |
|
2nd 62 |
2nd 112 |
|
|
3rd 105 |
||
|
248 |
188 |
Tuesday, 9 o'clock, a. m. commenced, 8th man 0, 9th 5, 1 to come in, and only 60 a head, when the Sheffield left the field.
Sheffield, June 1, 1772.
Sheffield. Near 70
Nottingham gave in.
42
THE CRICKET FIELD.
KENT AGAINST ALL ENGLAND.
Played in the Artillery- Ground \ London^ 1746.
ENGLAND.
1st Innings.
RUNS.
Harris 0 b
Dingate 3 b
Newland 0 b
Cuddy 0 b
Green 0 b
Wayinark 7 b
Bryan 12 s
Newland 18 -
Harris 0 b
Smith ......... 0 c
Newland 0 b
Byes 0
40
by Hadswell
Ditto
Mills
Hadswell
Mills
Ditto
Kips
- not out ...
Hadswell .
Bartrum..
Mills
Byes ...
2nd Innings.
RUNS.
4 b by Mills.
11 b Hadswell.
3 b Ditto.
2 b Danes.
5 b Mills.
9 b Hadswell.
7 c Kips.
15 c Ld. J. Sackville.
1 b Hadswell.
8 b Mills.
5 — not out. 0
70
KENT.
1st Innings.
2nd Innings.
|
Lord Sackville |
RUNS. 5 c |
by Way mark |
RUNS. 3 b by Harris. |
|||
|
Long Robin ... |
7 |
b |
Newland.. |
9 |
b |
Newland. |
|
Mills |
0 |
b |
Harris ... |
6 |
c |
Ditto. |
|
0 |
b |
Ditto |
5 |
not out. |
||
|
3 |
c |
7 |
not out. |
|||
|
2 |
b |
Newland . |
0 |
b |
Newland. |
|
|
6 |
b |
0 |
c |
Smith. |
||
|
0 |
c |
Waymark |
5 |
b |
Newland. |
|
|
12 |
b |
10 |
b |
Harris. |
||
|
Mills |
7 |
- not out.... |
2 |
b |
New land. |
|
|
11 |
b |
8 |
c |
Harris. |
||
|
0 |
Byes.... |
3 |
53
58
THE HAMBLEDON CLL'B.
43
Cricket was introduced into Eton early in the last century. Horace Walpole was sent to Eton in the year 1726. Playing cricket, as well as thrashing; bargemen, was common at that time. For in TTalpole's Letters, vol. i. p. 4., he says, —
rt I can't say I am sorry I was never quite a school-boy ; an expedition against bargemen, or a match at cricket, may be very pretty things to recollect ; but, thank my stars, I can remember things that are very near as pretty."
The fourth Earl of Carlisle learnt cricket at Eton at the same time. The Earl writes to George Selwyn, even from Manheirn, that he was up, play- ing at cricket, before Selwyn was out of his bed.
And now, the' oldest chronicler is Old Nyren, who wrote an account of the cricketers of his time. The said Old Jsyren borrowed the pen of our kind friend Charles Cowclen Clarke, to whom John Keats dedicated an epistle, and who rejoiced in the friendship of Charles Lamb ; and none but a spirit akin to Elia could have written like w Old Nyren." ISTyren was a fine old Eng- lish yeomen, whose chivalry was cricket; and Mr. Clarke has faithfully recorded his vivid de- scriptions and animated recollections. And, with this charming little volume in hand, and inkhorn at my button, in 1837 I made a tour among the cottages of William Beldham, and the few sur- viving worthies of the same generation ; and, hav-
44
THE CRICKET FIELD.
ing also the advantage of a MS. by the Rev. John Mitford, taken from many a winter's evening with Old Fennex, I am happy to attempt ^the best account that the lapse of time admits, of cricket in the olden time.
From a MS. my friend received from the late Mr. "William Ward, it appears that the wickets were placed twenty-two yards apart as long since as the year 1700; that stumps were then only one foot high, but two feet wide. The width some persons have doubted ; but it is rendered credible by the auxiliary evidence that there was, in those days, width enough between the two stumps for cutting the wide blockhole already mentioned, and also because — whereas now we hear of stumps and bails — we read formerly of " two stumps with one stump laid across."
We are informed, also, that putting down the wickets to make a man out in running, instead of the old custom of popping the ball into the hole, was adopted on account of severe injuries to the hands, and that the wicket was changed at the same time — 1779-1780 — to the dimensions of twenty-two inches by six, with a third stump added.
Before this alteration the art of defence was almost unknown : balls often passed over the wicket, and often passed through. At the time of the alteration Old Nyren truly predicted that
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB.
45
the innings would not be shortened but better played. The long pod and curved form of the bat, as seen in the old paintings, was made only for hitting, and for ground balls too. Length balls were then by no means common ; neither would low stumps encourage them : and even upright play was then practised by very few. Old Nyren relates that one Harry Hall, a ginger- bread baker of Farnham, gave peripatetic lectures to young players, and always insisted on keeping the left elbow well up ; in other words, on straight play. " Now-a-days," said Beldham, " all the world knows that ; but when I began there was very little length bowling, very little straight play, and little defence either." Fennex, said he, was the first who played out at balls ; before his day, batting was too much about the crease. Beldham said that his own supposed tempting of Providence consisted in running in to hit. " You do frighten me there jumping out of your ground, said our Squire Paulet :" and Fennex used also to relate how, when he played forward to the pitch of the ball, his father " had never seen the like in all his days ; " the said days extending a long way back towards the beginning of the century. While speaking of going in to hit, Beldham said, " My opinion has always been that too little is attempted in that direction. Judge your ball, and, when the least overpitched, go in
48
THE CRICKET FIELD.
and hit her away." In this opinion Mr. C. Taylor's practice would have borne Beldham out : and a fine dashing game this makes ; only, it is a game for none but practised players. When you are perfect in playing in your ground, then, and then only, try how you can play out of it, as the best means to scatter the enemy and open the field.
" As to bowling,'' continued Beldham, " when I was a boy (about 1780), nearly all bowling was fast, and all along the ground. In those days the Hambledon Club could beat all England ; but our three parishes around Farnham at last beat Hambledon."
It is quite evident that Farnham was the cradle of cricketers. " Surrey," in the old scores, means nothing more than the Farnham parishes. This corner of Surrey, in every match against All England, was reckoned as part of Hampshire; and, Beldham truly said " you find us regularly on the Hampshire side in Bentley's Book."
" 1 told you, sir," said Beldham, w that in my early days all bowling was what we called fast, or at least a moderate pace. The first lobbing slow bowler I ever saw was Tom Walker. When, in 1792, England played Kent, I did feel so ashamed of such baby bowling ; but, after all, he did more than even David Harris himself. Two years after, in 1794,, at Dartford Brent, Tom Walker,
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB.
47
with his slow bowling, headed a side against David Harris, and beat him easily."
" Kent, in early times, was not equal to our counties. Their great man was Crawte, and he was taken away from our parish of Alresford by Mr. Amherst, the gentleman who made the Kent matches. In those days, except around our parts, Farnham and the Surrey side of Hampshire, a little play went a long way. Why, no man used to be more talked of than Yalclen ; and, when he came among us, we soon made up our minds what the rest of them must be. If you want to know, sir, the time the Hambledon Club was formed, I can tell you by this ; — when we beat them in 1780, I heard Mr. Paulet say, 4 Here have I been thirty years raising our club, and are we to be beaten by a mere parish ? ' so, there must have been a cricket club, that played every week regu- larly, as long ago as 1750. We used to go as eageriv to a match as if it were two armies fight- ing ; we stood at nothing if we were allowed the time. From our parish to Hambledon is twenty- seven miles, and we used to ride both ways the same day, early and late. At last, I and John Wells were about building a cart : you have heard of tax carts, sir ; well, the tax was put on then, and that stopped us. The members of the Ham- bledon Club had a caravan to take their eleven about ; they used once to play always in velvet
48
THE CRICKET FIELD.
caps. Lord Winchelsea's eleven used to play in silver laced hats ; and always the dress was knee- breeches and stockings. We never thought of knocks ; and, remember, I played against Browne of Brighton too. Certainly, you would see a bump heave under the stocking, and even the blood come through; but I never knew a man killed, now you ask the question, and I never saw any accident of much consequence, though many an all but, in my long experience. Fancy the old fashion before cricket shoes, when I saw John Wells tear a finger nail off against his shoe-buckle in picking up a ball ! "
" Your book, sir, says much about old Nyren. This Nyren was fifty years old when I began to play ; he was our general in the Hambledon matches ; but not half a player, as we reckon now. He had a small farm and inn near Hambledon, and took care of the ground."
" I remember when many things first came into the game which are common now. The law for Leg-before-wicket was not passed, nor much wanted, till Ring, one of our best hitters, was shabby enough to get his leg in the way, and take advantage of the bowlers ; and, when Tom Taylor, another of our best hitters, did the same, the bowlers found themselves beaten, and the law was passed to make leg-before-wicket Out. The law against jerking was owing to the frightful pace
THE HAMBLEDOK CLUB.
49
Tom Walker put on, and I believe that he after- wards tried something more like the modern thro wing-bowling, and so caused the words against throwing also. Willes was not the inventor of that kind of round bowling ; he only revived what was forgotten or new to the young folk."
" The umpires did not formerly pitch the wickets. David Harris used to think a great deal of pitching himself a good-wicket, and took much pains in suiting himself every match day."
" Lord Stowell was fond of cricket. He em- ployed me to make a ground for him at Holt Pound."
In the last century, when the waggon and the packhorse supplied the place of the penny train, there was little opportunity for those frequent meetings of men from distant counties that now puzzle us to remember who is North and who is South, who is Surrey or who is Kent. The matches then were truly county matches, and had more of the spirit of hostile tribes and rival clans. " There was no mistaking the Kent boys," said Beldham, " when they came staring in to the Green Man. A few of us had grown used to London, but Kent and Hampshire men had but to speak, or even show themselves, and you need not ask them which side they were on." So the match seemed like Sir Horace Mann and Lord Winchelsea and their respective tenantry — for
E
50
THE CRICKET FIELD.
when will the feudal system be quite extinct ? and there was no little pride and honour in the parishes that sent them up, and many a flagon of ale depending in the farms or the hop grounds they severally represented, as to whether they should, as the spirit-stirring saying was, " prove themselves the better men." "I remember in one match," said Beldham, " in Kent, Ring was playing against David Harris. The game was much against him. Sir Horace Mann was cut- ting about with his stick among the daisies, and cheering every run, — you would have thought his whole fortune (and he would often bet some hun- dreds) was staked upon the game ; and, as a new man was going in, he went across to Ring, and said, 6 Ring, carry your bat through and make up all the runs, and I'll give you 10/. a-year for life.' Well, Ring was out for sixty runs, and only three to tie, and four to beat, and the last man made them. It was Sir Horace who took Aylward away with him out of Hampshire, but the best bat made but a poor bailiff, we heard.
" Cricket was played in Sussex very early, before my day at least ; but, that there was no good play I know by this, that Richard Newland, of Slinden in Sussex, as you say, sir, taught old Richard Nyren, and that no Sussex man could be found to play him. Now, a second-rate player of our parish beat Newland easily : so you may judge
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB.
51
what the rest of Sussex then were. But before 1780 there were some good players about Ham- bledon and the Surrey side of Hampshire. Crawte, the best of the Kent men, was stolen away from us ; so you will not be wrong, sir, in writing down that Farnham, and thirty miles round, reared all the best players up to my day, about 1780."
" There were some who were then called 6 the old players,' " — and here Fennex's account quite agreed with BeldhamV, — "including Frame and old Small. And as to old Small, it is worthy of observation, that Bennett declared it was part of the creed of the last century, that Small was the man who ' found out cricket,' or brought play to any degree of perfection. Of the same school was Sueter, the wicket-keeper, who in those days had very little stumping to do, and Minshull and Colshorn, all mentioned in Nyren." " These men played puddling about their crease and had no freedom. I like to see a player upright and well forward, to face the ball like a man. The Duke of Dorset made a match at Dartford Brent between ' the Old Players and the New.' — You laugh, sir," said this tottering silver-haired old man, "but we all were New once; — weli, I played with the Walkers, John Wells, and the rest of our men, and beat the Old ones very easily."
Old John Small died, the last, if not the first of
E 2
52
THE CRICKET FIELD.
the Hambledonians, in 1826. Isaac Walton, the father of Anglers, lived to the age of ninety-three. This father of Cricketers was in his ninetieth year. John Small played in all the great matches till he was turned of seventy. A fine skater and a good musician. But, how the Duke of Dorset took great interest in John Small, and how his Grace gave him a fiddle, and how John, like a modern Orpheus, beguiled a wild bull of its fury in the middle of a paddock, is it not written in the book of the chronicles of the playmates of Old Nvren? — In a match of Hambledon against All England, Small kept up his wicket for three days, and was not out after all. A pity his score is unknown. We should like to compare it with Mr. Ward's.
" Tom Walker was the most tedious fellow to bowl to, and the slowest runner between wickets I ever saw. Harry was the hitter, — Harry's half-hour was as good as Tom's afternoon. I have seen Noah Mann, who was as fast as Tom was slow, in running a four, overtake him, pat him on the back, and say, ' Good name for you is Walker, for you never was a runner.' It used to be said that David Harris had once bowled him 170 balls for one run ! David was a potter by trade, and in a kind of skittle alley made between hurdles, he used to practise bowling four different balls from one end, and then picking them up he would
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB.
53
bowl them back again. His bowling cost him a great deal of practice ; but it proved well worth his while, for no man ever bowled like him, and he was always first chosen of all the men in England." — Nil sine labore, remember, young cricketers all. — " ' Lambert ' (not the great player of that name), said Nyren, 6 had a most deceitful and teasing way of delivering the ball ; he tum- bled out the Kent and Surrey men, one after another, as if picked off by a rifle corps. His perfection is accounted for by the circumstance that when he was tending his father's sheep, he would set up a hurdle or twTo, and bowl away for hours together.'
" There was some good hitting in those days, though too little defence. Tom Taylor would cut away in fine style, almost after the manner of Mr. Budd. Old Small was among the first mem- bers of the Hambledon Club. He began to play about 1750, and Lumpy Stevens at the same time. I can give you some notion, sir, of what cricket was in those days, for Lumpy, a very bad bat, as he was well aware, once said to me, ' Beldham, wrhat do you think cricket must have been in those days when I was thought a good batsman ? ' But fielding was very good as far back as I can remember." — Now, what Beldham called good fielding must have been good enough. He wras himself one of the safest hands at a catch.
54
THE CRICKET FIELD.
Mr. Budd, when past forty, was still one of the quickest men I ever played with, taking always middle wicket, and often, by swift running, doing part of long field's work. Sparks, Fennex, Bennett, and young Small, and Mr, Parry, were first rate, not to mention Beagley, whose style of long stopping in the North and South Match of 1836, made Lord Frederick and Mr. Ward justly proud of so good a representative of the game in their younger days. Albeit, an old player of seventy, describing the merits of all these men, said, " put Mr. King at point, Mr. C. Ridding long-stop, and Mr. W. Pickering cover, and I never saw the man that could beat either of them."
"John Wells was a most dangerous man in a single wicket match, being so dead a shot at a wicket. In one celebrated match, Lord Frederick warned the Honourable H. Tufton to beware of John ; but John Wells found an opportunity of maintaining his character by shying down, from the side, little more than the single stump. Tom Sheridan joined some of our matches, but he was no good but to make people laugh. In our days there were no padded gloves. I have seen Tom Walker rub his bleeding fingers in the dust ! David used to say he liked to rind him."
" The matches against twenty-two were not uncommon in the last century. In 1788 the
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB.
55
Hambledon Club played two-and-twenty at Cold Ash Hill. 'Drawing' between leg and wicket is not a new invention. Old Small, (b. 1737, d. 1826,) was famous for the draw, and, to increase his facility he changed the crooked bat of his day for a straight bat. There was some fine cutting before Saunders' day. Harry Walker was the first, I believe, who brought cutting to perfection. The next genuine cutter — for they were very scarce (T never called mine cutting, not like that of Saun- ders at least) — was Robinson. Walker and Ro- binson would wait for the ball till all but past the wicket, and then cut with great force. Others made good Off-hits, but did not hit late enough for a good Cut. I would never cut with slow bowling. I Relieve that Walker, Fennex, and myself, first opened the old players' eyes to what could be done with the bat; Walker by cutting, and Fennex and I by forward play : but all improve- ment was owing to David Harris's bowling. His bowing rose almost perpendicular: it was once proncunced a jerk ; it was altogether most extraor- dinary.— For thirteen years I averaged forty-three a matoh, though frequently I had only one innings; but _ never could half play unless runs were really wanted."
E 4
56
THE CRICKET FIELD,
CHAP. IV.
CBICKET GENERALLY ESTABLISHED AS A NATIONAL GAME BY THE END OF THE LAST CENTURY.
Little is recorded of the Hambledon Club after the year 1786. It broke up when Old Nyren left it, in 1791 ; though, in this last year, the true old Hambledon Eleven all but beat twenty-two of Middlesex at Lord's. Their cricket-ground on Broadhalfpenny Down, in Hampshire, was so far removed from the many noblemen and gentlemen who had seen and admired the severe bowling of David Harris, the brilliant hitting of Beldbam, and the interminable defence of the Walkers, that these worthies soon found a more genial sphere for their energies on the grounds of Kent, Surrey, and Middlesex. Still, though the land was de- serted, the men survived ; and imparted a know- ledge of their craft to gentles and simples far and near.
Most gladly would we chronicle that these good men and true were actuated by a great and a patriotic spirit, to diffuse an aid to civilisation - — for such our game claims to be — amonsrfcheir
HAMBLEDONIANS DISPERSED.
57
wonder-stricken fellow-countrymen; but, in truth, we confess that " reaping golden opinions " and coins, " from all kinds of men," as well as that indescribable tumult and those joyous emotions which attend the ball, vigorously propelled or heroically stopped, while hundreds of voices shout applause, — that such stirring motives, more power- ful far with vain-glorious man than any "dissolv- ing views" of abstract virtue, tended to the migra- tion of the pride of Hambledon. Still, doubtful though the motive, certain is the fact, that the old Hambledon players did carry their bats and stumps out of Hampshire into the adjoining coun- ties, and gradually, like all great commanders, taught their adversaries to conquer too. In some instances, as with Lord Winchelsea, Mr. Amherst, and others, noblemen combined the utile dulci, pleasure and business, and retained a great player as a keeper or a bailiff, as Martingell once was engaged by Earl Ducie. In other instances, the play of the summer led to employment through the winter ; or else these busy bees lived on the sweets of their sunshine toil, enjoying otium cum dignitate — that is, living like gentlemen, with nothing to do.
This accounts for our finding these Hampshire men playing Kent matches ; being, like a learned Lord in Punch's picture, "naturalised every- where," or " citizens of the world. "
58
THE CRICKET FIELD.
Let us trace these Hambledonians in all their contests, from the date mentioned (1786 to 1800), the eventful period of the French Revolution and Nelson's victories ; and let us see how the Bank stopping payment, the mutiny of the fleet, and the threatened invasion, put together, did not prevent balls from flying over the tented field, in a far more innocent and rational way on this, than on the other side, of the water.
Now, what were the matches in the last cen- tury — " eleven gentlemen against the twelve Caesars ? " No ! these, though ancient names, are of modern times. Kent and England was as good an annual match in the last, as in the present century. The White Conduit Fields and the Artillery Ground supplied the place of Lord's, though in 1787 the name of Lord's is found in Bentley's matches, implying, of course, the old Marylebone Ground, now Dorset Square, under Thomas Lord, and not the present by St. John's Wood, more properly deserving the name of Dark's than Lord's. The Kentish battle- fields were Sevenoaks — the land of Clout, one of the original makers of cricket-balls, — Coxheath, Dandelion Fields, in the Isle of Thanet, and Cobham Park ; also Dartford Brent and Pennen- den Heath : there is also early mention of Graves- end, Rochester, and Woolwich.
Next in importance to the Kent matches were
SURREY. HAMPSHIRE.
59
those of Hampshire and of Surrey, with each of which counties indifferently the Hambledon men used to play. For it must not be supposed that the whole county of Surrey put forth a crop of stumps and wickets all at once: we have already said that malt and hops and cricket have ever gone together. Two parishes in Surrey, adjoining Hants, won the original laurels for their county ; parishes in the immediate vicinity of the Farn- ham hop country. The Holt, near Farnham, and Moulsey Hurst, were the Surrey grounds. The match might truly have been called " Farnham's hop-gatherers v, those of Kent." The former, aided occasionally by men who drank the ale of Alton, just as Burton- on-Trent, life-sustainer to our Indian empire, sends forth its giants, refreshed with bitter ale, to defend the honour of the neigh- bouring towns and counties. The men of Hamp- shire, after Broadhalfpenny was abandoned to docks and thistles, pitched their tents generally either upon Windmill Downs or upon Stoke Downs; and once they played a match against T. Assheton Smith, whose mantle has descended on a worthy representative, whether on the level turf or by the cover side. Albeit, when that gen- tleman has a " meet " (as occasionally advertised) at Hambledon, he must unconsciously avoid the spot where "titch and turn" — the Hampshire cry — did once exhilarate the famous James Aylward,
60
THE CRICKET FIELD.
t
among others, as he astonished the Farnham wag- goner, by continuing one and the same innings as the man drove up on the Tuesday afternoon and down on the Wednesday morning ! This match was played at Andover, and the surnames of most of the Eleven may be read on the tombstones (with the best of characters) in Andover Church- yard. Bourne Paddock, Earl Darnley's estate, and Burley Park, in Rutlandshire, constituted often the debateable ground in their respective , counties. Earl Darnley, as well as Sir Horace I Mann and Earl Winchelsea, Mr. Paulet and Mr. East, lent their names and patronage to Elevens ; sometimes in the places mentioned, sometimes at Lord's, and sometimes at Perriam Downs, near Luggershal, in Wiltshire.
Middlesex also, exclusively of the Marylebone Club, had its Eleven in these days ; or, we should say, its twenty-two, for that was the number then required to stand the disciplined forces of Hamp- shire, Kent, or England. And this reminds us of an " Uxbridge ground," where Middlesex played and lost ; also, of " Hornchurch, Essex," where Essex, in 1791, was sufficiently advanced to win against Marylebone, an occasion memorable, be- cause Lord Frederick Beauclerk there played nearly his first recorded match, making scarce any runs, but bowling four wickets. Lord Frederick's first match was at Lord's, 2 nd J une, 1791. " There
HAEROW. THE OLD ETONIANS. 61
was also/' writes the Hon. K. Grimston, " ' the Bowling-green ' at Harrow-on-the-Hill, where the school played : Richardson, who subsequently became Mr. Justice Richardson, was the captain of the School Eleven in 1782."
Already, in 1790, the game was spreading northwards, or, rather, proofs exist that it had long before struck far and wide its roots and branches
i in northern latitudes ; and also that it was a game as popular with the men of labour as the men of leisure, and therefore incontestably of home growth : no mere exotic, or importation of the favoured few, can cricket be, if, like its namesake, it is found 66 a household word " with those whom Burns aptly calls "the many-aproned sons of mechanical life."
In 1791 Eton, that is, the old Etonians, played
I Marylebone, four players given on either side; and all true Etonians will thank us for informing
• them, not only that the seven Etonians were more 1 than a match for their adversaries, but also that I this match proves that Eton had, at that early - date, the honour of sending forth the most distin- guished amateurs of the day ; for Lord Winchel-
• sea, Hon. H. Fitzroy, Earl Darnley, Hon. E. I Bligh, C. Anguish, Assheton Smith — good men
and true — were Etonians all. This match was ; played in Burley Park, Rutlandshire. On the fol- lowing day, June 25th, 1791, the Marylebone
62
THE CRICKET FIELD.
played eleven yeomen and artisans of Leicester ; and though the Leicestrians cut a sorry figure, still the fact that the Midland Counties practised cricket sixty years ago is worth recording. Peter Heward, of Leicester, a famous wicket-keeper, of twenty years since, told me of a trial match in which he saw his father, quite an old man, with another veteran of his own standing, quickly put out with the old-fashioned slow bowling a really good Eleven for some twenty runs — good, that is, against the modern style of bowling ; and cricket was not a new game in this old man's early days (say 1780) about Leicester and Nottingham, as the score in page 41. alone would prove; for such a game as cricket, evidently of gradual develop- ment, must have been played in some primitive form many a long year before the date of 1775, in which it had excited sufficient interest, and was itself sufficiently matured in form, to show the two Elevens of Sheffield and of Nottingham. Add to this, what we have already mentioned, a rude form of cricket as far north as Angus and Lothian in 1700, and we can hardly doubt that cricket was known as early in the Midland as in the Southern Counties. The men of Nottingham — land of Clarke, Barker, and Eedgate — next month, in the same year (1791) threw down the gauntlet, and shared the same fate ; and next day the Marylebone, " adding," in a cricketing sense, "in-
TILLAGE PLAY.
63
suit unto injury/' played twenty-two of them, and won by thirteen runs.
In 1790, the shopocracy of Brighton had also an Eleven; and Sussex and Surrey, in 1792, sent an eleven against England to Lord's, who scored in one innings 453 runs, the largest score on record, save that of Epsom in 1815 — 476 in one innings ! " M. C. C. v. twenty-two of Notting- ham," we now find an annual match ; and also " M. C. C. v. Brighton," which becomes at once worthy of the fame that Sussex long has borne. In 1793, the old Westminster men all but beat the old Etonians : and Essex and Herts, too near not to emulate the fame of Kent and Surrey, were content, like second-rate performers, to have, though playing twenty-two, one Benefit between them, in the shape of defeat in one innings from England. And here we are reminded by two old players, a Kent and an Essex man, that, being schoolboys in 1785, they can respectively testify that, both in Kent and in Essex, cricket appeared to them more of a village game than they have ever seen it of late years. " There was a cricket- bat behind the door, or else up in the bacon rack, in every cottage. We heard little of clubs, except around London ; still the game was played by many or by few, in every school and village green in Essex and in Kent, and the field placed much as when with the Sidmouth I played the Teign-
64
THE CRICKET FIELD.
bridge Club in 1826. Mr. Whitehead was the great hitter of Kent ; and Frame and Small were names as often mentioned as Pilch and Parr by our boys now." And now (1793) the game had penetrated further West ; for eleven yeomen at Oldfield Bray, in Berkshire, had learned long enough to be able to defeat a good eleven of the Marylebone Club.
In 1795, the Hon. Colonel Lennox, memorable for a duel with the Duke of York, fought — where the gallant Colonel had fought so many a less hostile battle — on the cricket ground at Dartford Brent, headed Elevens against the Earl of Win- chelsea ; and now, first the Marylebone eleven beat sixteen Oxonians on Bullingdon Green.
In 1797, the Montpelier Club and ground attract our notice. The name of this club is one of the most ancient, and their ground a short distance only from the ground of Hall of Cam- berwell.
SwafFham, in Norfolk, is now mentioned for the first time. But Norfolk lies out of the usual road, and is a county which, as Mr. Dickens said of Golden Square, before it was the residence of Cardinal Wiseman, " is nobody's way to or from any place." So, in those slow coach and pack-horse days, the patrons of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Marylebone, who alone gave to what else were " airy nothing, a local habitation and a name,"
GENTLEMEN V. PLAYEES.
65
could not so easily extend their circuit to tHe land of turkeys, lithotomy, and dumplings. But it happened once that Lord Frederick Beauclerk was heard to say, his eleven should beat any three elevens in the county of Norfolk ; whence arose a challenge from the Norfolk men, whom, sure enough, his Lordship did beat, and that in one innings ; and a print, though not on pocket-hand- kerchiefs, was struck off to perpetuate this ho- nourable achievement.
Lord F. Beauclerk was now one of the best players of his day ; as also were the Hon. H. and I. Tufton. They frequently headed a division of the Marylebone, or some county club, against Middlesex, and sometimes Hampstead and High- gate.
In this year (1798) these gentlemen aforesaid made the first attempt at a match between the Gentlemen and the Players ; and on this first occasion the players won ; though when we men- tion that the Gentlemen had three players given, and also that T. Walker, Beldham, and Ham- mond were the three, certainly it was like playing England, " the part of England being left out by particular desire."
Kent attacked England in 1798, but, being beaten in about half an innings, we find the Kentish men in 1800, though still hankering after the same cosmopolitan distinction, modestly accept
66
THE CRICKET FIELD.
the odds of nineteen, and afterwards twenty-three, men to twelve.
The chief patronage, and consequently the chief practice, in cricket, was beyond all com- parison in London. There, the play was^nearly all professional : even the gentlemen made a pro- fession of it ; and therefore, though cricket was far more extensively spread throughout the villages of Kent than of Middlesex, the clubs of the me- tropolis figure in the score books as defying all competition. Professional players, we may ob- serve, have always a decided advantage in respect of judicious choice and mustering their best men. The best eleven on the side of the Players is almost always known, and can be mustered on a given day. Favour, friendship, and etiquette in- terfere but little with their election ; but the eleven gentlemen of England are less easy to muster, —
w Linquenda Parish et domus et placens Uxor? —
and they are never anything more than the best eleven known to the party who make the match. Besides, by the time an amateur is at his best, he has duties which bid him retire.
Having now traced the rise and progress of the game from the time of its general establishment to the time that Beldham had shown us the full
CRICKET IN FORMER DAYS.
67
powers of the bat, and Lord Frederick had (as Fennex always declared) formed his style upon Beldham's ; and since now we approach the era of a new school, and the forward play of Fennex, — which his father termed an innovation and pre- sumption "contrary to all experience," — till the same forward play was proved effectual by Lam- bert, and Hammond had shown that, in spite of wicket keepers, bowling, if uniformly slow, might be met and hit away at the pitch ; — now, we will wait to characterise, in the words of eye-witnesses, the heroes of the contests already mentioned.
On " the Old Players " I may be brief ; because, the few old gentlemen (with one of whom I am in daily communication) who have heard even the names of the Walkers, Frame, Small, and David Harris, are passing away, full of years, and almost all the written history of the Old Players consists in undiscriminating scores.
In point of style the Old Players did not play the steady game, with maiden overs, as at present. The defensive was comparatively unknown : both the bat and the wicket, and the style of bowling too, were all adapted to a short life and a merry one. The wooden substitute for a ball, as in Cat and Dog, before described, evidently implied a hitting, and not a stopping game,
The Wicket, as we collect from a MS. furnished by an old friend to the late William Ward, Esq.,
F 2
68
THE CRICKET FIELD.
was, in the early days of the Hambledon Club, one foot high and two feet wide, consisting of two stumps only, with one stump laid across. Thus, straight balls passed between, and, what we now call, well pitched balls would of course rise over. Where, then, was the encouragement to block, when fortune would so often usurp the place of science ? And, as to the bat, look at the picture of cricket as played in the old Artillery Ground ; the bat is curved at the end like a hockey stick, or the handle of a spoon, and — as common implements usually are adapted to the work to be performed — you will readily believe that in olden time the freest hitter was the best batsman. The bowling was all along the ground, hand and eye being everything, and judgment nothing ; because, the art originally was to bowl under the bat. The wicket was too low for rising balls ; and the reason we hear sometimes of the Block-hole was, not that the block-hole originally denoted guard, but because between these two- feet-asunder stumps there was cut a hole big enough to contain the ball, and (as now with the school boy's game of rounders) the hitter was made out in running a notch by the ball being popped into this hole (whence popping crease) before the point of the bat could reach it.
Did we sav Running a Notch ? unde Notch ? What wonder ere the days of useful knowledge,
CRICKET IN FORMER DAYS. 69
and Sir William Curtis's three R's, — or, reading, writing, and arithmetic, — that natural science should be evolved in a truly natural way ; what wonder that notches on a stick, like the notches in the milk-woman's tally in Hogarth's picture, should supply the place of those complicated papers of vertical columns, which subject the bowling, the batting, and the fielding to a pro- cess severely and scrupulously just, of analytical observation, or differential calculus ! Where now there sit on kitchen chairs, with ink bottle tied to a stump the worse for wear, Messrs. Caldecourt and Bayley ('tis pity two such men should ever not be umpires), with an uncomfortable length of paper on their knees, and large tin telegraphic letters above their heads ; and where now is Lilly- white's printing press, to hand down every hit as soon as made on twopenny cards to future gene- rations ; there, or in a similar position, old Frame, or young Small (young once: he died in 1834, aged eighty) might have placed a trusty yeoman to cut notches with his bread-and-bacon knife on an ashen stick. Oh! 'tis enough to make the Harnbledon heroes sit upright in their graves with astonishment to think, that in the Gentlemen and Players' Match, in 1850, the cricketers of old Sparkes' Ground, at Edinburgh, could actually know the score of the first innings in London, before the second had commenced !
70
THE CRICKET FIELD.
But when we say that the old players had little or nothing of the defensive, we speak of the play before 1780, when David Harris flourished: for William Beldham distinctly assured us that the art of bowling over the bat by " length balls " originated with the famous David ; an assertion, we will venture to say, which requires a little, and only a little, qualification. Length bowling, or three-quarter balls, to use a popular, though exploded, expression, was introduced in David's time, and by him first brought to perfection. And what rather confirms this statement is, that the early bowlers were very swift bowlers, — such was not only David, but the famous Brett, of earlier date, and Frame of great renown : a more moderate pace resulted from the new discovery of a well pitched bail ball.
The old players well understood the art of twisting, or bias bowling. Lambert, " the little farmer," says Nyren, " improved on the art, and puzzled the Kent men in a great match, by twist- ing the reverse of the usual way, — that is, from the off to leg stump." Tom Walker tried what Nyren calls the throwing-bowling, and defied all the players of the day to withstand this novelty ; but, by a council of the Hambledon Club, this was forbidden, and Willes, a Kent man, had all the praise of inventing it some twenty years later. In a match of the Hambledon Club in 1775, it was observed, at a critical point of the game3
MEASUREMENT OF WICKETS. 7 1
that the ball passed three times between Small's two stumps without knocking off the bail ; and then, first, a third stump was added ; and, seeing that the new style of balls which rise over the bat rose also over the wickets, then but one foot high, the wicket was altered to the dimen- sions of 22 inches by 6, at which measure it remained till about 1814, when it was increased to 26 inches by 8, and again to its present
1317 1814
178 I
1780
2F7WIDE 1700 BY , I FT HIGH
27 INCHES BY 8 26 8
22
I FT BY 6 INCHES
72
THE CRICKET FIELD.
dimensions of 27 inches by 8 in 1817 ; when, as one inch was'added to the stumps, two inches were added to the width between the creases. The changes in the wicket are represented in the foregoing woodcut. In the year 1700, the runner was made out, not by striking off the transverse stump — we can hardly call it a bail — but by popping the ball in the hole therein represented.
David Harris' bowling, Fennex used to say, introduced, or at least established and fixed, a steady and defensive style of batting. <c I have seen," said Sparkes, " seventy or eighty runs in an innings, though not more than eight or nine made at Harris's end. " Harris," said an excellent judge, who well remembers him, " had nearly all the quickness of rise and the height of delivery, which characterises over-hand bowling, with far greater straightness and precision. The ball ap- peared to be forced out from under his arm with some unaccountable jerk, so that it was delivered breast high. His precision exceeded anything I have ever seen, in so much that Tom Walker declared that, on one occasion, where turf was thin, and the colour of the soil readily appeared, one spot was positively uncovered by the repeated pitching of David's balls in the same place." " This bowling," said Sparkes, " compelled you to make the best of your reach forward ; for if a man let the ball pitch too near and crowd upon
DAVID HAK&IS.
73
him, he very rarely could prevent a mistake, from the height and rapidity with which the ball cut up from the ground." — This account agrees with the well-known description of Nyren. " Harris's mode of delivering the ball was very singular. He would bring it from under his arm by a twist, and nearly as high as his arm-pit, and with this action push it, as it were, from him, How it was that the balls acquired the velocity they did by this mode of delivery, I never could comprehend,, His balls were very little beholden to the ground ; it was but a touch and up again ; and woe be to the man who did not get in to block them, for they had such a peculiar curl they would grind his fingers against the bat."
And Nyren agrees with my informants in ascribing great improvement in batting, and he specifies, " particularly in stopping 35 (for the act of defence,, we said, was not essential to the batsman in the ideas of one of the old players), to the bowling of David Harris, and bears testimony to an assertion, that forward play, that is meeting at the pitch balls considerably short of a half volley, was little known to the oldest players, and was called into requisition chiefly by the bowling of David Harris. Obviously, with the primitive fashion of ground bowling, called sneakers, for- ward play could have no place, and even well- pitched balls, like those of Peter Stevens, alias
THE CRICKET FIELD.
Lumpy, of moderate pace might be played with some effect, even behind the crease ; but David Harris, with pace, pitch, and rapid rise combined, imperatively demanded a new invention, and such was forward play about 1800. Old Fennex, who died, alas ! in a Middlesex workhouse, aged eighty, in 1839 (had his conduct been as straightforward and upright as his bat, he would have known a better end), always declared that he was the first, and remained long without followers; and no small praise is due to the boldness and originality that set at nought the received maxims of his forefathers before he was born or thought of; daring to try things that, had they been ordinarily reasonable, would not, of course, have been ignored by Frame, by Purchase, nor by Small. The world wants such men as Fennex; men, who will shake off the prejudices of birth, parentage, and education, and boldly declare that age has taught them wisdom, and that the policy of their predecessors, however expensively stereotyped, must be revised and corrected and adapted to the demands of a more inquiring generation. " My father," said Fennex, " asked me how I came by that new play, reaching out as no one ever saw before/' The same style he lived to see practised, not elegantly, but with wonderful power and effect by Lambert, " a most severe and resolute hitter;" and Fennex also boasted that he had a
DAVID HAKRXS,
75
most proficient disciple in Fuller Pilch : though I suspect that j as 6S poeta nascitur non jit? — that is, that all great performers appear to have brought the secret of their excellence into the world along with them, and are not the mere puppets of which others pull the strings — Fuller Pilch may think he rather coincided with, than learnt from, William Fennex.
Now the David Harris aforesaid, who wrought quite a revolution in the game, changing cricket from a backward and a slashing to a forward and defensive game, and claiming higher stumps to do justice to his skill — this David, whose bowling was many years in advance of his generation, hav- ing all the excellence of Lilly white's high delivery., though free from all imputation of unfairness — this David rose early, and late took rest, and ate the bread of carefulness, before he attained such distinction as — in these days of railroads, Thames tunnels, and tubular gloves and bridges — to de- serve the notice of our pen. " For," said John Bennett, " you might have seen David practising at dinner time and after hours, all the winter through and " many a Hampshire barn," said Beagley, " has been heard to resound with bats and balls as well as threshing."
" Nil sine magno, Vita labore dedit mortalibus"
And now we must mention the men, who, at
76
THE CRICKET FIELD.
the end of the last century, represented the Filch, the Parr, the Wennian, and the Wisden of the present day.
Lord Beauclerk was formed on the style of Beldham, whom, in brilliancy of hitting, he nearly resembled. The Hon. H. Bligh and Hon. H, Tufton were of the same school. Sir Peter Burrell was also a good hitter. And these were the most distinguished gentlemen players of the day. Earl Winchelsea was in every principal match, but rather for his patronage than his play : and the Hon. Col. Lennox for the same reason. Mr. R. Whitehead was a Kent player of great celebrity. But Lord F. Beauclerk was the only gentleman who had any claim in the last century to play in an All England eleven. He was also one of the fastest runners. Hammond was the great wicket-keeper ; but then the bowling was slow : Sparkes said he saw him catch out Robinson by a draw between leg and wicket. Freemantle was the first long stop ; but Ray the finest field in England ; and in those days, when the scores were long, fielding was of even more consideration than at present. Of the professional players, Beldham, Hammond, Tom and Harry Walker, Freemantle, Robinson, Fennex, J. Wells, and J. Small were the first chosen after Harris had passed away ; for, Nyren says that even Lord Beauclerk could hardly have seen David Harris in his prime. At
STYLE OF THE OLD PLAYERS.
77
this time there was a sufficient number of players to maintain the credit of the left hands. On the 10th of May, 1790, the Left-handed beat the Eight by thirty-nine runs. This match reveals that Harris and Aylward, and the three best Kent players, Brazier, Crawe, and Clifford, — Sueter, the first distinguished wicket-keeper, — H. Walker, and Freemantle were all left-handed : so also was Noah Mann.
The above-mentioned players are quite sufficient to give some idea of the play of the last century. Sparkes is well known to the author of these pages as his quondam instructor. In batting he differed not widely from the usual style of good players, save that he never played forward to any very great extent. Playing under leg, according to the old fashion (we call it old-fashioned though Pilch adopts it), served instead of the far more elegant and efficient " draw." Sparkes was also a fair bias bowler, but of no great pace, and not very difficult. I remember his saying that the old school of slow bowling was beaten by Ham- mond's setting the example of running in. " Ham- mond," he said, " on one occasion hit back a slow ball to Lord F. Beauclerk with such frightful force that it just skimmed his Lordship's un- guarded head, and he had scarcely nerve to bowl after. Of Fennex we can also speak from our friend the Eev. John Mitford. Fennex was a fair
78
THE CRICKET FIELD.
straightforward hitter, and once as good a single- wicket player as any in England. His attitude was easy, and he played elegantly, and hit well from the wrist. If his bowling was any specimen of that of his contemporaries, they were by no means to be despised. His bowling was very swift and of high delivery, the ball cut and ground up with great quickness and precision. Fennex used to say that the men of the present day had little idea of what the old underhand bowling really could effect ; and, from the specimen which Fennex himself gave at sixty-five years of age, there appeared to be much reason in his assertion. Of all the players Fennex had ever seen (for some partiality for bygone days we must of course allow) none elicited his notes of admiration like Beldham. We cannot compare a man who played underhand, with those who are formed on over- hand, bowling. Still, there is reason to believe what Mr. Ward and others have told us, that Beldham had that genius for cricket, that wonder- ful eye (although it failed him very early), and that quickness of hand, which would have made him a great player in any age.
Beldham related to us in 1838, and that with no little nimbleness of hand and vivacity of eye, while he suited the action to the word with a bat of his own manufacture, how he had drawn forth the plaudits of Lords' as he hit round and helped
BELDHAM V. BROWNE.
79
on the bowling of Browne of Brighton, even faster than before, though the good men of Brighton thought that no one could stand against him, and Browne had thought to bowl Beldham off his legs. This match of Hants against England in 1819 Fennex was fond of describing, and certainly it gives some idea of what Beldham could do. " Osbaldeston," said Mr. Ward, " with his tremendously fast bowling, was defying every one at single wicket, and he and Lambert challenged Mr. E. H. Budd with three others. Just then I had seen Browne's swTift bowling, and a hint from me settled the match. Browne was engaged, and Osbaldeston wras beaten wTith his own weapons." A match was now made to give Browne a fair trial, and " we were having a social glass," said Fennex, " and talking over with Beldham the match of the morrow at the 6 Green Man,' when Browne came in, and told Beldham, with as much sincerity as good-humour, that he should soon send his stumps a-flying." " Hold there," said Beldham, fingering his bat, "you will be good enough to allow me this bit of wood, won't you ? " " Certainly," said Browne. " Quite satisfied," answered Beldham, " so to-morrow you shall see." " Seventy-two runs," said Fennex, — and the score-book attests his accuracy, — " was Beldham's first and only innings ;" and, Beagley also joined with Fennex,. and assured us, that he
80
THE CRICKET FIELD.
never saw a more complete triumph of a batsman over a bowler. Nearly every ball was cut or slipped away till Browne hardly dared to bowl within Beldham's reach.
We desire not to qualify the praises of Beld- ham, but when we hear that he was unrivalled in elegant and brilliant hitting, and in that wonder- ful versatility which cut indifferently, quick as lightning, all round him, we cannot help remark- ing, that such bowling as that of Kedgate or of Wisden renders imperatively necessary a severe style of defence, and an attitude of cautious watch- fulness, which must render the batsman not quite such a picture for the artist as might be seen in the days of Beldham and Lord F. Beauclerk.
So far we have traced the diffusion of the game, and the degrees of proficiency attained, to the beginning of the present century. To sum up the evidence, by the year 1800, cricket had be- come the common pastime of the common people in Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, and had been introduced into the adjoining counties ; and though we cannot trace its continuity beyond Rutlandshire and Burley Park, certainly it had been long: familiar to the men of Leicester and Nottingham as well as Sheffield ; — that, in point of Fielding generally, this was already as good, and quite as much valued in a match, as it has been since; while Wicket-keeping in particular had been
PROGRESS OF THE SCIENCE. 81
ably executed by Sueter, for he could stump off Brett, whose pace Nyren, acquainted as he was with all the bowlers to the days of Lillywhite, called quite of the steam-engine power, albeit no wicket-keeper could shine like Wenman or Box, except with the regularity of overhand bowling ; and already Bowlers had attained by bias and quick delivery all the excellence which underhand bowling admits. Still, as regards Batting, the very fact that the stumps remained six inches wide, by twenty-two inches in height, undeniably proves that the secret of success was limited to comparatively a small number of players.
G
82
THE CRICKET FIELD,
CHAP. V.
THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Before this century was one year old, David Harris, Harry Walker, Purchase, Aylward, and Lumpy had left the stage, and John Small, in- stead of hitting bad balls whose stitches would not last a match, had learnt to make commodities so good that Clout's and Duke's were mere toy- shop in comparison. Noah Mann was the Cal- decourt, or umpire, of the day, and Harry Bent- ley also, when he did not play. Five years more saw nearly the last of Earl Winchelsea, Sir Horace Mann, Earl Darnley, and Lord Yar- mouth; still Surrey had a generous friend in Mr. Laurell, Hants in Mr. T. Smith, and Kent in the Honourables H. and J. Tufton. The Pavi- lion at Lord's, then and since 1787 on the site of Dorset Square, was attended by Lord Fre- derick Beauclerk, then a young man of four-and- twenty, the Honourables Colonel Bligh, Colonel Lennox, H. and J. Tufton, and A. Upton. Also, there were usually Messrs. R. Whitehead, Gr. Ley- cester, S. Vigne, and F. Ladbroke. These were the great promoters of the matches, and the first of the amateurs. Cricket was one of Lord By-
BYRON. WILBERFORCE.
83
ron's favourite sports, and that in spite of his lame foot : witness the lines, —
" Together join'd in cricket's manly toil, Or shared the produce of the river's spoil."
Byron mentions in his letters that he played in the eleven of Harrow against Eton in 1805. The score is given in Lillywhite's Public-School Matches.
The excellent William Wilberforce was fond %f cricket, and was laid up by a severe blow on the leg at Rothley while playing with his sons : he says the doctor told him a little more would have broken the bone.
Cricket, we have shown, was originally classed among the games of the lower orders ; so we find the yeomen infinitely superior to the gentlemen even before cricket had become by any means so much of a profession as it is now. Tom Walker, Beldham, John Wells, Fennex, Hammond, Ro- binson, Lambert, Sparkes, H. Bentley, Bennett, Freemantle, were the best professionals of the day. For it was seven or eight years later that Mr. E. H. Budd, and his unequal rival, Mr. Brand, and his sporting friend, Osbaldeston, as also that fine player, E. Parry, Esq., severally appeared; and later still, that Mr. Ward, Howard, Beagley, Thumwood, Caldecourt, Slater, Flavel, Ashby, Searle, and Saunders, successively showed every
G 2
84
THE CRICKET FIELD.
resource of bias bowling to shorten the scores, and of fine hitting to lengthen them. By the end of these twenty years, all these distinguished players had taught a game in wThich the batting beat the bowling. " Cricket/' said Mr. Ward, " unlike hunting, shooting, fishing, or even yachting, was a sport that lasted three days ; " the wicket had been twice enlarged, once about 1814, and again in 1817 ; old Lord had tried his third, the present, ground ; the Legs had taught the wis- dom of playing rather for love than money ; slow* coaches had given way to fast, long whist to short; and ultimately Lambert, John Wells, Howard, and Powell, handed over the ball to Broadbridge and Lilly white.
Such is the scene, the characters, and the per- formance. " Matches in those days were more numerously attended than now," said Mr. Ward : the old game was more attractive to spectators, because more busy, than the new. Tom Lord's flag was the well known telegraph that brought him in from three to four thousand sixpences at a match. John Goldham, the octogenarian inspector of Billingsgate, has seen the Duke of York and his adversary, the Honourable Colonel Lennox, in the same game? and had the honour of playing with both, and the Prince Kegent, too, in the White Conduit Fields, on which spot Mr. Goldham built his present
ROYAL AND NOBLE PATRONS. 85
house. For the Prince was a great lover of the game, and caused the " Prince's Cricket Ground" to be formed at Brighton. The late Lord Barry- more, killed by the accidental discharge of a blunderbuss in his phaeton, was an enthusiastic cricketer. The Duke of Richmond, when Colonel Lennox, a nobleman whose life and spirits and genial generous nature made him beloved by all, exulted in this as in all athletic sports : the bite of a fox killed him. Then, as you drive through Russell Square^ behold the statue of another patron, the noble-born and noble-minded Duke of Bedford ; and in Dorset Square, the site of old Lord's Ground, you may muse and fancy you see, where now is some "modest mansion," the identical mark called the " Duke's strike," which long re- corded a hit, 132 yards in the air, from the once famous bat of Alexander, late Duke of Hamilton. Great matches in those days, as in these, cost money. Six guineas if they won and four if they lost, was the player's fee ; or, five and three if they lived in town. So, as every match cost some seventy pounds, over the fire-place at Lord's you would see a Subscription List for Surrey against England, or for England against Kent, as the case might be, and find notices of each interesting match at Brookes's and other clubs.
This custom of advertising cricket matches is of very ancient date. For, in the " British Cham
G 3
86
THE CRICKET FIELD.
pion" of Sep. 8. 1743, a writer complains that though " noblemen, gentlemen, and clergymen may divert themselves as they think fit," and though he <c cannot dispute their privilege to make butchers, cobblers, or tinkers their companions," he very much doubts u whether they have any right to invite thousands of people to be spectators of their agility." For, "it draws numbers of people from their employment to the ruin of their families. It is a most notorious breach of the laws — ■ the advertisements most impudently recit- ing that great sums are laid." And, in the year following (1744), as we read in the " London Ma- gazine," Kent beat all England in the Artillery Ground, in the presence of " their Royal High- nesses the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cum- berland, the Duke of Richmond, Admiral Vernon, and many other persons of distinction. How pleasing to reflect that those sunny holidays we enjoy at Lord's have been enjoyed by the people for more than a century past !
But what were the famous cricket Counties in these twenty years ? The glory of Kent had for a while departed. Time was when Kent could challenge England man for man ; but now, only with such odds as twenty-three to twelve ! As to the wide extension of cricket, it advanced but slowly then compared with recent times. A small circle round London woiild still comprise all the
MR. WARD'S LONGEST SCORE, 87
finest players. It was not till 1820 that Norfolk, forgetting its three Elevens beaten by Lord Frede- rick, again played Marylebone ; and, though three gentlemen were given and Fuller Pilch played — then a lad of seventeen years — -Norfolk lost by 417 runs, including Mr. Ward's longest score on record, — 278. uBut he was missed," said Mr. Budd, " the easiest possible catch before he had scored thirty." Still it was a great achievement ; and Mr. Morse preserves, as a relic, the identical ball, and the bat which hit that ball about, a trusty friend that served its owner fifty years ! Kenning- ton Oval, perhaps, was then all docks and thistles. Surrey still stood first of cricket counties, and Mr. Laurell — Robinson was his keeper ; an awful man for poachers, 6 feet 1 inch, and 16 stone, and strong in proportion — most generous of supporters, was not slow to give orders on old Thomas Lord for golden guineas, when a Surrey man, by catch or innings, had elicited applause. Of the same high order were Sir J. Cope of Bramshill Park, and Mr. Barnett, the banker, promoter of the B. matches ; the Hon. D. Kinnaird, and, last not least, Mr. W. Ward, who by purchase of a lease saved Lord's from building ground ; an act of generosity in which he imitated the good old Duke of Dorset, w4io, said Mr. Budd, " gave the ground called the Vine, at Sevenoaks, by a deed of trust, for the use of cricketers for ever."
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THE CKICKET FIELD.
The good men of Surrey, in 1800, monopolised nearly all the play of England. Lord Frederick Beauclerk and Hammond were the only All Eng- land players who were not Surrey men.
Kent had then some civil contests — petty wars of single clans — but no county match ; and their great friend R. Whitehead, Esq., depended on the M. C. C. for his finest games. The game had become a profession : a science to the gentlemen, and an art or handicraft to the players; and Farnham found in London the best market for its cricket, as for its hops. The best Kent play was displayed at Rochester, and yet more at Woolwich ; but chiefly among our officers, whose bats were bought in London, not at Sevenoaks. These games reflected none such honour to the county as when the Earls of Thanet and of Darnley brought their own tenantry to Lord's or Dartford Brent, armed with the native willow wood of Kent. So, the Honourables H. and A. Tufton were obliged to yield to the altered times, and play two-and-twenty men where their noble father, the Earl of Thanet, had won with his eleven. " Thirteen to twenty-three was the number we enjoyed," said Sparkes, " for with thirteen good men well placed, and the bowling good, we did not want their twenty-three. A third man On, and a forward point, or kind of middle wicket, with slow bowling, or an extra slip with fast,
THE HOMERTON CLUB.
89
made a very strong field: the Kent men were sometimes regularly pounded by our fielding."
In 1805 we find a curious match : the a twelve best against twenty-three next best." Lord Fred- erick was the only amateur among the " best"; but Barton, one of the "next best" among the latter, scored 87 ; not out. Mr. Budd first appeared at Lord's in 1802 as a boy: he reappeared in 1808, and was at once among the longest scorers.
The Homerton Club also furnished an annual match : still all within the sound of Bow bells. " To forget Homerton," said Mr. Ward, " were to ignore Mr. Vigne, our wicket-keeper, but one of very moderate powers. Hammond was the best we ever had. Hammond played till his six- tieth year ; but Browne and Osbaldeston put all wicket-keeping to the rout. Hammond's great success was in the days of slow bowling. John Wells and Howard were our two best fast bowl- ers, though Powell was very true. Osbaldeston beat his side with byes and slips — thirty-two byes in the B. match." Few men could hit him before wicket ; whence the many single-wicket matches he played ; but Mr. Ward put an end to his reign by finding out Browne of Brighton. Beagley said of Browne, as the players now say of Mr. Fellows, they had no objection to him when the ground was smooth.
The Homerton Club also boasted of Mr. Lad-
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
broke, one of the great promoters of matches, as well as the late Mr. Aislabie, always fond of the game, but all his life " too big to play," — the re- mark by Lord Frederick of Mr. Ward, which, being repeated, did no little to develop the latent powers of that most efficient player.
The Montpelier Club, also, with men given, annually played Marylebone.
Lord Frederick, in 1803, gave a little variety to the matches by leading against Marylebone ten men of Leicester and Nottingham, including the two Warsops. t€ T. Warsop," said Clarke, " was one of the best bowlers I ever knew." Clarke has also a high opinion of Lambert, from whom, he says, he learnt more of the game than from any other man.
Lambert's bowling was like Mr. Budd's, against which I have often played : a high underhand de- livery, slow, but rising very high, very accurately pitched, and turning in from leg stump. " About the year 1818, Lambert and I," said Mr. Budd, sc attained to a kind of round-armed delivery (described as Clarke's), by which we rose de- cidedly superior to all the batsmen of the day. Mr. Ward could not play it, but he headed a party against us, and our new bowling was ig- nored." Tom Walker and Lord Frederick were of the tediously slow school ; Lambert and Budd were several degrees faster. Howard and John Wells were the fast underhand bowlers.
MR. BUDD AND LORD F. BEAUCLERK. 91
Lord Frederick was a very successful bowler, and inspired great confidence as a general: his bowling was at last beaten by men running into him. Sparkes mentioned another player who brought very slow bowling to perfection, and was beaten in the same way. Beldham thought Mr. Budd's bowling better than Lord Frederick's ; Beagley said the same.
His Lordship is generally supposed to have been the best amateur of his day ; so said Calde- court ; also Beagley, who observed his Lordship had the best head and was most valuable as a general. Otherwise, this is an assertion hard to reconcile with acknowledged facts ; for, first, Mr. Budd made the best average, though usually placed against Lambert's bowling, and playing almost exclusively in the great matches. Mr. Budd was a much more powerful hitter. Lord Frederick said, " Budd always wanted to win the game off' a single ball : " Beldham observed, " if Mr. Budd would not hit so eagerly, he would be the finest player in all England." When I knew him his hit- ting was quite safe play. Still Lord Frederick's was the prettier style of batting, and he had the character of being the most scientific player. But since Mr. Budd had the largest average in spite of his hitting, Beldham becomes a witness in his favour. Mr. Budd measured five feet ten inches, and weighed twelve stone, very clean made and
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
powerful, with an eye singularly keen, and great natural quickness, being one of the fastest runners of his day. Secondly, Mr. Budd was the better fieldsman. He stood usually at middle wicket. I never saw safer hands at a catch ; and I have seen him very quick at stumping out. But, Lord Frederick could not take every part of the field : but was always short slip, and not one of the very best. And, thirdly, Mr. Budd was the better bowler. Mr. Budd hit well from the wrist. At Woolwich he hit a volley to long field for nine, though Mr. Parry threw it in. He also hit out of Lord's old ground. " Lord had said he would forfeit twenty guineas if any one thus proved his ground too small: so we all crowded around Mr. Budd," said Beldham, " and told him what he might claim. c Well then,' he said, 6 1 claim it, and give it among the players.' But Lord was shabby and would not pay." Mr. Budd is now (1854) in his sixty-ninth year : it is only lately that any country Eleven could well spare him.
Lambert was also good at every point. In batting, he was a bold forward player. He stood with left foot a yard in advance, swaying his bat and body as if to attain momentum, and reaching forward almost to where the ball must pitch.
Lambert's chief point was to take the ball at the pitch and drive it powerfully away, and, said Mr. Budd, "to a slow bowler his return was so
MR. BUDD.
93
quick and forcible, that his whole manner was really intimidating to a bowler. Every one re- marked how completely Lambert seemed master of the ball. Usually the bowler appears to attack, and the batsman to defend ; but Lambert seemed always on the attack, and the bowler at his mercy, and " hit," said Beldham, " what no one else could meddle with."
Lord Frederick was formed on Beldham's style. Mr. Budd's position at the wicket was much the same: the right foot placed as usual, . but the left rather behind, and nearly a yard apart, so that instead of the upright bat and figure of Pilch, the bat was drawn across, and the figure hung away from the wicket. This was a mistake. Before the ball could be played Mr. Budd was too good a player not to be up, like Pilch, and play well over his off stump. Still Mr. Budd explained to me that this position of the left foot was just where one naturally shifts i it to have room for a cut : so this strange attitude was supposed to favour their fine off hits. I say Off hit because the Cut did not properly belong to either of these players : Robinson and Saunders were the men to cut, — cutting balls clean away from the bails, though Robinson had a maimed hand, burnt when a child : the handle of his bat was grooved to fit his stunted fingers. Talking of his bat, the players once discovered by measure-
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
ment it was beyond the statute width, and would not pass through the standard. So, uncere- moniously, a knife was produced, and the bat reduced to its just, rather than its fair, proportions. "Well," said Robinson, "FH pay you off for spoiling my bat : " and sure enough he did, hitting tremendously, and making one of his largest innings, which were often near a hundred runs.
In the first twenty years of this century, Hamp- shire, like Kent, had lost its renown, but only be- cause Hambledon was now no more ; nor did Sur- rey and Hampshire any longer count as one. To confirm our assertion that Farnham produced the players, — for in 1808, Surrey had played and beaten England three times in one season, and from 1820 to 1825 Godalmingis mentioned as the most powerful antagonist; but whether called Godal- ming or Surrey, we must not forget that the locality is the same — we observe, that in 1821, M. C. C. plays * The Three Parishes," namely, Godalming, Farnham, and Hartley Row ; w^hich parishes, after rearing the finest contemporaries of Beldham, could then boast a later race of players in Flavel, Searle, Howard, Thumwood, Mathews.
« About this time (July 23. 1821)," said Beldham, "we played the Coronation Match; c M. C. C. against the Players of England.5 We scored 278 and only six wickets down, when the game was given up. I was hurt and could not
HANTS V. NOTTINGHAM.
95
run my notches ; still James Bland, and the other Legs, begged of me to take pains, for it was no sporting match, 6 any odds and no takers ; ' and they wanted to shame the gentlemen against wasting their (the Legs') time in the same way another time."
But the day for Hampshire, as for Kent, was doomed to shine again. Fennex, Small, the Walkers, J. Wells, and Hammond, in time drop off from Surrey, — and about the same time (1815), Caldecourt, Holloway, Beagley, Thumwood, Shearman, Howard, Mr. Ward, and Mr. Knight, restore the balance of power for Hants, as after- wards, Broadbridge and Lillywhite for Sussex.
"In 1817, we went," said Mr. Budd, "with Osbaldeston to play twenty -two of Nottingham. In that match Clarke played. In common with others I lost my money, and was greatly dis- appointed at the termination. One paid player was accused of selling, and never employed after. The concourse of people was very great: these were the days of the Luddites (rioters), and the magistrates warned us, that unless we would stop our game at seven o'clock, they could not answer for keeping the peace. At seven o'clock we stopped ; and, simultaneously, the thousands who lined the ground began to close in upon us. Lord Frederick lost nerve and was very much alarmed ; but I said they didn't want to hurt us. No ;
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
they simply came to have a look at the eleven men who ventured to play two for one." — His Lordship broke his finger, and, batting with one hand, scored only eleven runs. Nine men, the largest number perhaps on record, Bentley marks as " caught by Budd."
Just before the establishment of Mr. Will's roundhand bowling, and as if to prepare the way, Ashby came forth with an unusual bias, but no great pace. Sparkes bowled in the same style; as also, Matthews and Mr. Jenner somewhat later. Still the batsmen were full as powerful as ever, reckoning Saunders, Searle, Beagley, Messrs. Ward, Kingscote, Knight. Suffolk became very strong with Pilch, the Messrs. Blake, and others, of the famous Bury Club ; while Slater, Lilly- white, King, and the Broadbridges, raised the name of Midhurst and of Sussex.
Against such batsmen every variety of under- hand delivery failed to maintain the balance of the game, till J. Broadbridge and Lillywhite, after many protests and discussions, succeeded in establishing what long was called "the Sussex bowling."
" About 1820," said Mr. Budd, "at our anni- versary dinner (three-guinea tickets) at the Clarendon, Mr. Ward asked me if I had not said I would play any man in England at single wicket, without fieldsmen. An affirmative produced a
osbaldeston's match.
97
match p. p. for fifty guineas. On the day- appointed Mr. Brand proved my opponent. He was a fast bowler. I went in firsts and, scoring seventy runs with some severe blows on the legs, — nankeen knees and silk stockings, and no pads in those days, — I consulted a friend and knocked down my own wicket, lest the match should last to the morrow, and I be unable to play. Mr. Brand was out without a run ! I went in again, and making the 70 up to 100, I once more knocked down my own wicket, and once more my opponent failed to score ! !
The flag was flying — the signal of a great match — and a large concourse were assembled ; and, considering Mr. Ward, a good judge, made the match, this is probably the most hollow victory on record.
But Osbaldeston's victory was far more satis- factory. Lord Frederick with Beldham made a p. p. match with Osbaldeston and Lambert. " On the day named," said Budd, " I went to Lord Frederick, representing my friend was too ill to stand, and asked him to put off the match. u No ; play or pay," said his Lordship, quite inexorable. " Never mind," said Osbaldeston, " I won't forfeit : Lambert may beat them both ; and, if he does, the fifty guineas shall be his." — I asked Lambert how he felt. " Why," said he, " they are anything but safe." — His Lordship wouldn't
H
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THE CRICKET FIELD,
hear of it. " Nonsense," he said, " you can't mean it." " Yes ; play or pay, my Lord, we are in earnest, and shall claim the stakes ! " and in fact Lambert did beat them both. For, to play such a man as Lambert, when on his mettle, was rather discouraging ; and " he did make desperate exertion," said Beldham : " once he rushed up after his ball, and Lord Frederick was caught so near the bat that he lost his temper, and said it was not fair play. Of course, all hearts were with Lambert."
" Osbaldeston's mother sat by in her carriage, and enjoyed the match ; and then," said Beldham, " Lambert was called to the carriage and bore away a paper parcel: some said it was a gold watch, — some, bank notes. Trust Lambert to keep his own secrets. We were all curious, but no one ever knew:" — nor ever will know. In March, 1851, I addressed a letter to him at Rei- gate. Soon, a brief paragraph announced the death of " the once celebrated cricket player Wil- liam Lambert."
SAD DOINGS.
99
CHAR VI.
A DARK CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF CRICKET.
The lovers of cricket may congratulate them- selves that matches, at the present day, are made at cricket, as at chess, rather for love and the honour of victory than for money.
It is now many years since Lord's was fre- quented by men with book and pencil, betting as openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom, and ready to deal in the odds with any and every person of speculative propensities. Far less satis- factory was the state of things with which Lord F. Beauclerk and Mr. Ward had to contend, to say nothing of the earlier days of the Earl of Winchelsea and Sir Horace Mann. As to the latter period, "Old Nyren" bewails its evil doings. He speaks of one who had " the trouble of proving himself a rogue," and also of " the legs of Mary- lebone," who tried, for once in vain, to corrupt some primitive specimens of Hambledon inno- cence. He says, also, that the grand matches of his day were always made for 500/. a side. Add to this the fact that bets were in proportion ; and that
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
Jim and Joe Bland, of turf notoriety, with Dick Whitlom of Covent Garden, Simpson, a gaming- house keeper, and Toll of Esher, as regularly attended at a match as Crockford and Gully at Epsom and Ascot; and the idea that all the Surrey and Hampshire rustics should either want or resist strong temptations to sell, is not to be entertained for a moment. The constant habit of betting will take the honesty out of any man. A half-crown sweepstakes, or betting such odds as lady's long kids to gentleman's short ditto, is all very fair sport ; but, if a man, after years of high betting, can still preserve the fine edge and tone of honest feeling he is indeed a wonder. To bet on a certainty all admit is swindling. If so, to bet where you feel it is a certainty, must be very bad moral practice.
" If gentlemen wanted to bet," said Beldham, " just under the pavilion sat men ready, with money down, to give and take the current odds : these were by far the best men to bet with ; because, if they lost, it was all in the way of business : they paid their money and did not grumble. Still, they had all sorts of tricks to make their betting safe. " One artifice," said Mr. Ward, " was to keep a player out of the way by a false report that his wife was dead." Then these men would come down to the Green Man and Still, and drink with us, and always said, that those who backed
A DEEP-LAID TRAP.
101
us, or u the nobs/' as they called them, sold the matches ; and so, sir, as you are going the round beating up the quarters of the old players, you will find some to persuade you this is true. But don't believe it. That any gentleman in my day ever put himself into the power of these blacklegs, by selling matches, I can't credit. Still, one day, I thought I would try how far these tales were true. So, going down into Kent, with " one of high degree," he said to me, " Will, if this match is won, I lose a hundred pounds ! " " Well," said I, "my Lord, you and I could order that." He smiled as if nothing were meant, and talked of something else ; and, as luck would have it, he and I were in together, and brought up the score between us, though every run seemed to me like " a guinea out of his Lordship's pocket."
In those days, foot races were very common. Lord Frederick and Mr, Budd were first-rate runners, and bets were freely laid. So, one day, old Fennex laid a trap for the gentlemen: he brought up, to act the part of some silly conceited youngster with his pockets full of money, a first- rate runner out of Hertfordshire. This soft young gentleman ran a match or two with some known third-rate men, and seemed to win by a neck, and no pace to spare. Then he calls out, " I'll run any man on the ground for 25/., money down." A match was quickly made, and money laid on
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
pretty thick on Fennex's account. Some said, *6 Too bad to win of such a green young fellow !'? others said, " He's old enough — serve him right." So the laugh wTas finely against those who were taken in ; " the green one" ran away like a hare !
" You see, sir," said one fine old man, with brilliant eye and quickness of movement, that showed his right hand had not yet forgot its cunning, " matches were bought, and matches were sold, and gentlemen who meant honestly lost large sums of money, till the rogues beat themselves at last. They overdid it ; they spoilt their own trade ; and, as I said to one of them, 6 a knave and a fool makes a bad partnership ; so, you and yourself will never prosper.' Well, surely there wTas robbery enough : and, not a few of the great players earned money to their own disgrace ; but, if you'll believe me, there was not half the selling there was said to be. Yes, I can guess, sir, much as you have been talking to all the old players over this good stuff (pointing to the brandy and water I had provided), no doubt
you have heard that B sold as bad as the
rest. I'll tell the truth : one match up the country I did sell, — a match made by Mr. Osbaldeston at Nottingham. I had been sold out of a match just before, and lost 107., and happening to hear it I joined two others of our eleven to sell, and get back my money. I won 10/. exactly, and of this
TEMPTATIONS TO SELL.
103
roguery no one ever suspected me ; but many was the time I have been blamed for selling when as innocent as a babe. In those davs, when so much money was on the matches, every man who lost his money would blame some one. Then, if A missed a catch, or B made no runs, — and where's the player whose hand is always in? — that man was called a rogue directly. So, when a man was doomed to lose his character and to bear all the smart, there was the more temptation to do like others, and after c the kicks ' to come in for i the halfpence.' But I am an old man now, and heartily sorry I have been ever since : because, but for that Nottingham match, I could have said with a clear conscience to a gentleman like you, that all that was said was false, and I never sold a match in my life ; but now I can't. But, if I had fifty sons, I would never put one of them, for all the games in the world, in the way of the roguery that I have witnessed. The temptation really was very great, — too great by far for any poor man to be exposed to, — no richer than ten shillings a week, let alone harvest time. — I never told you, sir, the way I first was brought to London. I was a lad of eighteen at this Hampshire village, and Lord Winchelsea had seen us play among our- selves, and watched the match with the Hamble- don Club on Broad-halfpenny, when I scored forty-three against David Harris, and ever so
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
many of the runs against David's bowling, and no one ever could manage David before. So, next year, in the month of March, I was down in the meadows, when a gentleman came across the field with Farmer Hilton: and, thought I, all in a minute, now this is something about cricket. Well, at last it was settled I was to play Hamp- shire against England, at London, in White- Conduit-Fields ground, in the month of June. For three months I did nothing but think about that match. Tom Walker was to travel up from this country, and I agreed to go with him, and found myself at last with a merry company of cricketers — all the men, whose names I had ever heard as foremost in the game — met together, drinking, card-playing, betting, and singing at the Green Man (that was the great cricketer's house), in Oxford Street, — no man without his wine, I assure you, and such suppers as three guineas a game to lose, and five to win (that was then the sum for players) could never pay for long. To go to London by the waggon, earn five guineas three or four times told, and come back with half the money in your pocket to the plough again, was all very well talking. You know what young folk are, sir, when they get together : mischief brews Stronger in large quantities : so, many spent all their earnings, and were soon glad to make more money some other way. Hundreds of pounds
PROFESSED GAMBLERS.
105
were bet upon all the great matches, and other wagers laid on the scores of the finest players, and that too by men who had a book for every race and every match in the sporting world; men who lived by gambling ; and, as to honesty, gambling and honesty don't often go together. What was easier, then, than for such sharp gen- tlemen to mix with the players, take advantage of their difficulties, and say, 'your backers, my Lord this, and the Duke of that, sell matches and over- rule all your good play, so why should'nt you have a share of the plunder ? ' — That was their con- stant argument. 6 Serve them as they serve you.' — You have heard of Jim Bland, the turfsman, and his brother Joe — two nice boys. When Jemmy Dawson was hanged for poisoning the horse, the Blands never felt safe till the rope was round Dawson's neck: to keep him quiet, they persuaded him to the last hour that no one dared hang him ; and a certain nobleman had a reprieve in his pocket. Well, one day in April, Joe Bland traced me out in this parish, and tried his game on with me. 6 You may make a fortune,' he said, ' if you will listen to me : so much for the match with Surrey, and so much more for the Kent match — ' < Stop,' said I: < Mr. Bland, you talk too fast ; I am rather too old for this trick ; you never buy the same man but once: if their lord- ships ever sold at all, you would peach upon
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THE CEICKET FIELD.
them if ever after they dared to win. You'll try me once, and then you'll have me in a line like him of the mill last year.' No, sir, a man was a slave when once he sold to these folk : ' fool and knave aye go together.' Still, they found fools enough for their purpose ; but" rogues can never trust each other. One day, a sad quarrel arose between two of them, which opened the gentlemen's eyes too wide to close again to those practices. Two very big rogues at Lord's fell a quarrelling, and blows were given ; a crowd drew round, and the gentlemen ordered them both into the pavilion. When the one began, 6 You had 20/. to lose the Kent match, bowling leg long hops and missing catches.' tf And you were paid to lose at S waff- ham.' — 'Why did that game with Surrey turn about — three runs to get, and you didn't make them ? ' Angry words come out fast ; and, when they are circumstantial and square with previous suspicions, they are proofs as strong as holy writ. In one single- wicket match," he continued, — "and those were always great matches for the sporting men, because usually you had first-rate men on each side, and their merits known, — dishonesty was as plain as this : just as a player was coming in, (John B. will confess this if you talk of the match,) he said to me, c You'll let me score five or six, for appearances, won't you, for I am not going to make many if I can?' 6 Yes,' I said, tfyou
FALSE PLAY ON BOTH SIDES.
107
rogue, you shall if I can not help it.' — But, when a game was all but won, and the odds heavy, and all one way, it was cruel to see how the fortune of the day then would change about. In that Kent match, — you can turn to it in your book (Bentley's scores), played 28th July, 1807, on Penenden Heath, — I and Lord Frederick had scored sixty- one, and thirty remained to win, and six of the best men in England went out for eleven runs. Well, sir, I lost some money by that match, and as seven of us were walking homewards to meet a coach, a gentleman who had backed the match drove by and said, c Jump up, my boys, we have all lost together. I need not mind if I hire a pair of horses extra next town, for I have lost money enough to pay for twenty pair or more.5 Well, thought I, as I rode along, you have rogues enough in your carriage now, sir, if the truth were told, I'll answer for it ; and, one of them let out the secret, some ten years after. But, sir, I can't help laughing when I tell you : once, there was a single-wicket match played at Lord's, and a man on each side was paid to lose. One was bowler, and the other batsman, when the game came to a near point. I knew their politics, the rascals, and saw in a minute how things stood ; and how I did laugh to be sure. For seven balls together, one would not bowl straight, and the other would
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
not hit ; but at last a straight ball must come, and down went the wicket."
From other information received, I could tell this veteran that, even in his much-repented Nottingham match, his was not the only side that had men resolved to lose. The match was sold for Nottingham too, and that with less success, for Nottingham won : an event the less difficult to accomplish, as Lord Frederick Beauclerk broke a finger in an attempt to stop an angry and furious throw from Shearman, whom he had scolded for slack play. His Lordship batted with one hand. Afterwards lock-jaw threatened ; and Lord Frede- rick was, well nigh, a victim to Cricket !
It is true, Clarke, who played in the match, thought all was fair : still, he admits, he heard one Nottingham man accused, on the field, by his own side of foul play. This confirms the evidence of the Rev. C. W., no slight authority in Notting- ham matches, who said he was cautioned before the match that all would not be fair.
u This practice of selling matches," said Beld- ham, " produced strange things sometimes. Once, I remember, England was playing Surrey, and, in my judgment, Surrey had the best side ; still I found the Legs were betting seven to four against Surrey ! This time, they were done ; for they betted on the belief that some Surrey men had sold the match: but, Surrey then played to win."
MR. GULLY AT LORD'S.
109
" Crockford used to be seen about Lord's, and Mr. Gully also occasionally ; but, only for the society of sporting men : they did not understand the game, and I never saw them bet. Mr. Gully was often talking to me about the game for one season ; but/' said the old man, as he smoothed down his smockfrock, with all the confidence in the world, 4C I could never put any sense into him ! He knew plenty about fighting, and after- wards of horse-racing ; but a man cannot learn the odds of cricket unless he is something of a player."
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
CHAP. VII. BarroXoym,
OR
THE SCIENCE AND ART OF BATTING.
A writer in " Blackwood " once attributed the success of his magazine to the careful exclusion of every bit of science, or reasoning, above half an inch long. The Cambridge Professors do not exclusively represent the mind of Parker's Piece ; so, away with the stiffness of analysis and the mysteries of science: the laws of dynamics might puzzle, and the very name of physics alarm, many an able-bodied cricketer ; so, invoking the genius of our mother tongue, let us exhibit science in its more palatable form.
All the balls that can be bowled may, for all practical purposes, be reduced to a few simple classes, and plain rules given for all and each. There are what are called good balls, and bad balls. The former, good lengths, and straight, while puzzling to the eye ; the latter, bad lengths and wide, while easy to see and to hit.
But, is not a good hand and eye quite enough,
SCOPE FOR INSTRUCTIONS. Ill
with a little practice, without all this theory? Do you ignore the Pilches and the Parrs, who have proved famous hitters from their own sense alone ? — The question is, not how many have suc- ceeded, but how many more have failed. Cricket by nature is like learning from a village dame ; it leaves a great deal to be uataught before the pupil makes a good scholar. If you have Calde- court's, Wisden's, or Lillywhite's instructions, viva voce, why not on paper also ? What, though many excellent musicians do not know a note, every good musician will bear witness that the consequence of Nature's teaching is, that men form a vicious habit almost impossible to correct, a lasting bar to brilliant execution. And why ? — because the piano or the violin leaves no dexterity or rapidity to spare. The muscles act freely in one way only, in every other way with loss of power. So wTith batting. A good ball requires all the power and energy of the man ! And, as with riding, driving, rowing, or every other exercise, it depends on a certain form, attitude, or position, whether this power be forthcoming or not.
The scope for useful instructions for forming good habits of hitting before their place is pre- occupied with bad — for, " there's the rub " — is very great indeed. If Pilch, and Clarke, and Lillywhite, averaging fifty years each, are still indifferent to pace in bowling, — and if Mr. Ward,
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
as late as 1844, scored forty against Mr, Kir- wan9s swiftest bowlings while some of the most active young men, of long experience in cricket, are wholly unequal to the task ; then, it is un- deniable that a batsman may form a certain in- valuable habit, which youth and strength cannot always give, nor age and inactivity entirely take away.
The following are simple rules for forming correct habits of play ; for adding the judgment of the veteran to the activity of youth, or putting an old head on young shoulders, and teaching the said young shoulders not to get into each other's way.
All balls that can be bowled are reducible to " length balls " and " not lengths."
Not lengths, are the toss, the tice, the half volley, the long hop, and ground balls.
These are not length balls, not pitched at that critical length which puzzles the judgment as to whether to play forward or back, as will presently be explained. These are all " bad balls ; n and among good players considered certain hits ; though, from the delusive confidence they inspire, some- times they are bowled with success against even the best of players.
These not lengths, therefore, being the easiest to play, as requiring only hand and eye, but little judgment, are the best for a beginner to practise ;
POSITION.
113
so, we will set the tyro in a proper position to play them with certainty and effect.
Position. — Look at any professional play er, — observe how he stands and holds his bat. Much, very much, depends on position, — so look at the figure of Pilch. This is substantially the attitude of every good batsman. Some think he should bend the right knee a little ; but an anato- mist reminds me that it is when the limb is straight that the muscles are relaxed, and most ready for sudden action. Various as attitudes appear to the casual observer, all coincide in the main points marked in the figure of Pilch in our frontispiece. For, all good players, —
1st. Stand with the right foot just within the line. Further in, would limit the reach and en- danger the wicket : further out, would endanger stumping.
2dly. All divide their weight between their two feet, though making the right leg more the pillar and support, the left being rather lightly placed, and more ready to move on, off, or forward, and this we will call the Balance-foot.
3rdly. All stand as close as they can without being before the wicket ; otherwise, the bat cannot be upright, nor can the eye command a line from the bowler's hand.
4thly. All stand at guard as upright as is easy to them. We say easy, not to forbid a slight stoop,
I
THE CRICKET FIELD.
— the attitude of extreme caution. Height is a great advantage, 66 and a big man/' says Dakin, " is foolish to make himself into a little man." If the eye is low, you cannot have the commanding sight, nor, as players say, " see as much of the game," as if you hold up your head, and look well at the bowler.
5thly. All stand easy, and hold the bat lightly, yet firmly, in their hands. However rigid your muscles, you must relax them, as already ob- served, before you can start into action. Rossi, the sculptor, made a beautiful marble statue of a batsman at guard, for the late Mr. William Ward, wTho said, " You are no cricketer, Mr. Sculptor ; the wrists are too rigid, and hands too much clenched."
After standing at guard in the attitude of Pilch, Jiff. 1. shows the bat taken up ready for action. But, at what moment are you to raise your bat ? Caldecourt teaches, and some very good players observe, the habit of not raising the bat till they have seen the pitch of the ball. This is said to tend both to safety and system in play ; but a first-rate player, who has already attained to a right system, should aspire to more power and freedom, and rise into the attitude of Jiff. 1. as soon as the ball is out of the bowler's hand. Good players often begin an innings with their bat down, and raise it as they gain confidence.
SIMPLE RULES.
115
Fig. 1.
Preparing for Action.
Meet the ball ivith as full a bat as the case admits. Consider the full force of this rule.
1st. Meet the ball. The bat must strike the ball, not the ball the bat. Even if you block, you can block hard, and the wrists may do a little ; so5
* The toes are too much before Wicket, and foot hardly within the crease. Foreshortening suits our illustration better than artistic effect.
116
THE CRICKET FIELD.
with a good player this rule admits of no ex- ception. Young players must not think I recom- mend a flourish, but an exact movement of the bat at the latest possible instant. In playing back to a bail ball, a good player meets the ball, and plays it with a resolute movement of arm and wrist. Pilch is not caught in the attitude of what some call Hanging guard, letting the ball hit his bat dead, once in a season.
2dly. With a full bat. A good player has never less wood than 21 inches by 4^ inches before his wicket as he plays the ball, a bad player has rarely more than a bat's width alone. Remember the old rule, to keep the left shoulder over the ball, and left elbow well up. Good players must avoid doing this in excess ; for, some play from leg to off, across the line of the ball^ in their over care to keep the shoulder over it. Fix a bat by pegs in the ground, and try to bowl the wicket down., and you will perceive what an unpromising antagonist this simple rule creates. I like to see a bat, as the ball is coming, hang perpendicular as a pendu- lum from the player's wrists. The best compli- ment ever paid me was this : — " Whether you play forward or back, hitting or stopping, the wicket is always covered to the full measure of your bat." So said al friend well known in North Devon, whose effective bowling, combined with
STRAIGHT PLAT.
117
his name, has so often provoked the pun of " the falls of the Clyde."
3dly. As full a bat as the case admits : yon cannot present a full bat to any but a straight ball. A bat brought forward from the centre stump to a ball Off or to leg, must be minutely oblique and form an angle sufficient to make Off or On hits.
Herein then consists the great excellence of batting, in presenting the largest possible face of the bat to the ball While the bat is descending on the ball, the ball may rise or turn, to say nothing of the liability of the hand to miss, and then the good player has always half the width of his bat, besides its height, to cover the deviation; whereas, the cross player is far more likely to miss, from the least inaccuracy of hand and eye, or twist of the ball.
And, would you bring a full bat even to a toss ? Would you not cut it to the Off or hit across to the On?
This question tries my rule very hard certainly ; but though nothing less than a hit from a toss can satisfy a good player, still I have seen the most brilliant hitters, when a little out of practice, lose their wicket, or hit a catch from the edge of the bat, by this common custom of hitting across even to a toss or long hop.
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
To hit tosses is good practice, requiring good time and quick wrist play. If you see a man play stiff, and " up in a heap," a swift toss is worth trying. Bowlers should practise both toss and tice.
We remember Wenman playing well against fine bowling ; when an underhand bowler was put on, who bowled him Avith a toss, fourth ball.
To play tosses, and ground balls, and hops, and every variety of loose bowling, by the rigid rules of straight and upright play, is a principle, the neg- lect of which has often given the old hands a laugh at the young ones. Often have I been amused to see the wonder and disappointment occasioned, when some noted member of a University Eleven, or the Marylebone Club, from whom all expected of course the most tremendous hitting " off mere underhand bowling," has been easily disposed of by a toss or a ground ball, yclept a 6S sneak."
A fast ball to the middle stump, however badly bowled, no player can afford to treat too easily. A ball that grounds more than once may turn more than once ; and, the bat though properly 4| inches wide, is considerably reduced when used across wicket ; so never hit across wicket. To turn to loose bowling, and hit from leg stump square to the on side with full swing of the body, is very gratifying and very effective ; and, perhaps you may hit over the tent, or, as I once saw, into a
BAD BOWLING OFTEN EFFECTIVE.
119
neighbour's carriage; but, while the natives are marvel-stricken, Caldecourt will shake his head, and inwardly grieve at folly so triumphant.
This reminds me of a memorable match in 1834, of Oxford against Cowley, the village which fostered those useful members of university society; who, during the summer term, bowl at six- pences on stumps sometimes eight hours a day, and have strength enough left at the end to win one sixpence more.
The Oxonians, knowing the ground or knowing their bowlers, scored above 200 runs in their first innings. Then Cowley grew wiser; and even now a Cowley man will tell the tale, how they put on one Tailor Humphreys to bowl twisting underhand sneaks, at which the Oxonians laughed, and called it " no cricket ;" but it actually levelled their wickets for fewer runs than were made against Bayley and Cobbett the following week. The Oxonians, too eager to score, and thinking it so easy, hit across and did not play their usual game.
Never laugh at bowling that takes wickets. Bowling that is bad, often for that very reason meets with batting that is worse. Nothing shows a thorough player more than playing with caution even badly pitched underhand bowling.
One of the best judges of the game I ever knew was once offered by a fine hitter a bet that he
i t
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
could not with his underhand bowling make him "give a chance" in half an hour.
" Then you know nothing of the game," was the reply ; " I would bowl you nothing but Off tosses, which you must cut ; you would not cut those correctly for half an hour, for you could not use a straight bat once. Your bet ought to be,- — no chance before so many runs."
Peter Heward, an excellent wicket-keeper of Leicester, — of the same day as Henry Davis, one of the finest and most graceful hitters ever seen, as Dakin, or any midland player will attest, — once observed to me, " Players are apt to forget that a bad bowler may bowl one or two balls as well as the best ; so, to make a good average, you must always play the same guarded and steady game, and take care especially when late in the season." "Why late in the season?" "Because the ground is damp and heavy — it takes the spring out of good bowling, and gives fast underhand bowling as many twists as it has hops, besides making it hang on the ground. This game is hardly worth playing it is true ; but a man is but half a player who is only prepared for true ground." " We do not play cricket," he con- tinued, "on billiard tables; wind and weather, and the state of the turf make all the difference. So, if you play to win, play the game that will carry you through ; and that is a straight and up-
HITTING HALF-VOLLEYS.
121
right game ; use your eyes well ; play not at the pitch, nor by the length, but always (what few men do) at the ball itself, and never hit or c pull the ball ' across wicket."
Next as to the half -volley. This is the most delightful of all balls to hit, because it takes the right part of the bat, with all the quickness of its rise or rebound. Any player will show you what a half-volley is, and I presume that every reader has some living lexicon to explain common terms. A half-volley, then, is very generally hit in the air, soaring far above every fieldsman's head ; and to know the power of the bat, every hitter should learn so to hit at pleasure. Though, as a rule, high hits make a low average. But I am now to speak only of hitting half-volleys along the ground.
Every time you play forcibly at the pitch of a ball you have more or less of the half-volley ; so this is a material point in batting. The whole secret consists partly in timing your hit well, and partly in taking the ball at the right part of the rise, so as to play the ball down without wasting its force against the ground.
Every player thinks he can hit a half-volley along the ground ; but if once you see it done by a really brilliant hitter, you will soon understand that such hitting admits of many degrees of per- fection. In forward play, or driving, fine hitters
122 THE CRICKET FIELD.
seem as if they felt the ball on the bat, and sprung it away with an elastic impulse ; and, in the more forcible hits, a ball from one of the All England batsmen appears not so much like a hit as a shot from the bat : for, when a ball is hit in the swiftest part of the bat's whirl, and with that part of the bat that gives the greatest force with the least jar, the ball appears to offer no resistance; its mo- mentum is annihilated by the whirl of the bat, and the two-and-twenty fieldsmen find to their surprise how little ground a fieldsman can cover against true and accurate hitting.
Clean hitting requires a loose arm, the bat held firmly, but not clutched in the hand till the moment of hitting ; clumsy gloves are a sad hin- drance, the hit is not half so crisp and smart. The bat must be brought forward not only by the free swing of the arm working well from the shoulder, but also by the wrist. (Refer to fig. 1. p. 115.) Here is the bat ready thrown back, and wrists proportionally bent ; from that position a hit is always assisted by wrist as well as arm. The effect of the wrist alone, slight as its power appears, is very material in hitting ; this probably arises from the greater precision and better time in which a wrist hit is commonly made.
As to hard hitting, if two men have equal skill, the stronger man will send the ball farthest. Many slight men drive a ball nearly as far as
THEORY OF HITTING.
123
larger men, because they exert their force in a more skilful manner. We have seen a man six feet three inches in height, and of power in proportion, hit a ball tossed to him — not once or twice, but repeatedly — a hundred yards or more in the air. This, perhaps, is more than any light man could do, But, the best man at putting the stone and throwing a weight we ever saw, was a man of little more than ten stone. In this exer- cise, as in wrestling, the application of a man's whole weight at the proper moment is the chief point : so also in hard hitting.
The whirl of the bat may be accelerated by wrist, fore-arm, and shoulder : let each joint bear its proper part.
Nuts for strong teeth. — All effective hits must be made with both hands and arms ; and, in order that both arms may apply their force, the point at which the ball is struck should be oppo- site the middle of the body.
Take a bat in your hand, poise the body as for a half-volley hit forward, the line from shoulder to shoulder being parallel with the line of the ball. Now whirl the bat in the line of the ball, and you will find that it reaches that part of its circle where it is perpendicular to the ground, — midway between the shoulders ; at that moment the bat attains its greatest velocity ; so, then alone can the strongest hit be made. Moreover, a hit
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
made at this moment will drive the ball parallel to and skimming the ground. And if, in such a hit, the lower six inches of the bat's face strike the ball, the hit is properly called a " clean hit," being free from all imperfections. The same may be said of a horizontal hit, or cut. The bat should meet the ball when opposite the body. I do not say that every hit should be made in this manner ; I only say that a perfect hit can be made in no other, and that it should be the aim of the bats- man to attain this position of the body as often as he can. Nor is this mere speculation on the scientific principle of batting ; it arises from actual observation of the movements of the best batsmen. All good hitters make their hits just at the mo- ment when the ball is opposite the middle of their body. Watch any fine OiF-hitter. If he hits to Mid- wicket, his breast is turned to Mid- wicket ; if he hits, I mean designedly, to Point, his breast is turned to Point. I do not say that his hits would always go to those parts of the field ; because the speed and spin of the ball will always, to a greater or less degree, prevent its going in the precise direction of the hit ; but I only say that the ball is always hit by the best batsmen when just opposite to them. Cutting forms no exception: the best cutters turn the body round on the basis of the feet till the breast fronts the ball, — having let the ball go almost as
CLEAN HITTING.
125
far as the bails, — and then the full power of the hitter is brought to bear with the least possible diminution of the original speed of the ball. This is the meaning of the observation, — that fine cutters appear to follow the ball, and at the latest moment cut the ball off the bails ; for, if you do not follow the ball, by turning your breast to it at the moment you hit, you can have no power for a fine cut. It makes good " Chamber prac- tice" to suspend a ball oscillating by a string : you will thus see wherein lies that peculiar power of cutting, which characterises Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Felix, and Mr. C. Taylor ; as of old, Searle, Saunders, and Robinson. Robinson cut so late that the ball often appeared past the wicket.
And these hints will suffice to awaken attention to the powers of the bat. Clean hitting is a thing to be carefully studied ; the player who has never discovered his deficiency in it, had better examine and see whether there is not a secret he has yet to learn.
The Tice. Safest to block : apt to be missed, because a dropping ball ; hard to get away, be- cause on the ground. Drop the bat smartly on the ground, and it will make a run, but do not try too much of a hit. The Tice is almost a full pitch ; the way to hit it, says Caldecourt, is to go in and make it a full pitch : I cannot advise this for beginners. Going in even to a Tice puts
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
you out of form for the next ball, and creates a dangerous habit.
Ground balls, and all balls that touch the ground more than once between wickets, I have already hinted, are reckoned very easy, but they are always liable to prove very dangerous. Some- times you have three hops, and the last like a good length ball : at each hop the ball may twist On or Off with the inequalities of the ground ; also, if bowled with the least bias, there is much scope for that bias to produce effect. All these peculiarities account for a fact, strange but true, that the best batsmen are often out with the worst bowling. Bad bowling requires a game of its own, and a game of the greatest care, where too commonly we find the least ; because " only un- derhand bowling," — and "not by any means good lengths ; " it requires, especially, playing at othe ball itself, even to the last inch, and not by cal- culation of the pitch or rise.
Let me further remark that hitting, to be either free, quick, or clean, must be done by the arms and wrists, and not by the body ; though the weight of the body appears to be thrown in by putting down the left leg ; though, in reality, the lea* comes down after the hit to restore the balance.
Can a man throw his body into a blow (at cricket) ? About as much as he can hold up a horse with a bridle while sitting on the same
SECKET OF HAED HITTING. 127
horse's back. Both are common expressions; both are at variance with the laws of nature. A man can only hit by whirling his bat in a circle. If he stands with both feet near together, he hits feebly because in a smaller circle ; if he throws his left foot forward, he hits harder because in a wider circle. A pugilist cannot throw in his body with a round hit ; and a cricketer cannot make anything else but round hits. Take it as a rule in hitting, ' that what is not elegant is not right ; for the human frame is rarely inelegant in its movements when all the muscles act in their natural direction. Many men play with their shoulders up to their ears, and their sinews all in knots, and because they are conscious of desperate exertion, they forget that their force is going any- where rather than into the ball. It is often re- marked that hard hitting does not depend on strength. No. It depends not on the strength a man has, but on the strength he exerts, at the right time and in the right direction ; and strength is exerted in hitting, as in throwing a ball, in exact pro- portion to the rapidity of the whirl or circle which the bat or hand describes. The point of the bat moves faster in the circle than any other part ; and, therefore, did not the jar, resulting from the want of resistance, place the point of hitting, as experience shows, a little higher up, the nearer the end the harder would be the hit. The wrist,
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
however slight its force, acting with a multiplying power, adds greatly to the speed of this whirl.
Hard hitting, then, depends, first, on the free- dom with which the arm revolves from the shoulder, unimpeded by constrained efforts and contortions of the body ; next, on the play of the arm at the elbow ; thirdly, on the wrists. Ob- serve any cramped clumsy hitter, and you will recognise these truths at once. His elbow seems glued to his side, his shoulder stiff at the joint, and the little speed of his bat depends on a twist and a wriggle of his whole body.
Keep your body as composed and easy as the requisite adjustment of the left leg will admit ; let your arms do the hitting ; and remember the wrists. The whiz that meets the ear will be a criterion of increasing power. Practise hard hit- ting,— that is, the full and timely application of your strength, not only for the value of the extra score, but because hard hitting and correct and clean hitting are one and the same thing. Mere stopping balls and poking about in the blockhole is not cricket, however successful ; and I must admit, that one of the most awkward, poking, vexatious blockers that ever produced a counter- feit of cricket, defied Bayley and Cobbett at Oxford in 1836, — three hours, and made five and thirty runs. Another friend, a better player, addicted to the same teasing game, in a match at
HOW TO USE YOUR EYES.
129
Exeter in 1845, blocked away till his party, the N. Devon, won the match, chiefly by byes and wide balls ! Such men might have turned their powers to much better account.
Some maintain that anything that succeeds is cricket ; but not such cricket as full-grown men should vote a scientific and a manly exercise ; otherwise, to " run cunning 99 might be Coursing, and to kill sitting Shooting. A player may happen to succeed with what is not generally a successful style, — winning in spite of his awkwardness, and not by virtue of it.
But there is another cogent reason for letting your arms, and not your body, do the work, — namely, that it makes all the difference to your sight whether the level of the eye remains the same as with a composed and easy hitter ; or, unsteady and changing, as with the wriggling and the clumsy player. Whether a ball undulates in the air, or wThether there is an equal undulation in the line of the eye which regards that ball, the confusion and indistinctness is the same. As an experiment, look at any distant object, and move your head up and down, and you will understand the confusion of sight to which I allude. The only security of a good batsman, as of a good shot, consists in the hand and eye being habituated to act together. Now, the hand may obey the eye when at rest, but have no such habit when in un-
K
130
THE CRICKET FIELD.
steady motion. And this shows how uncertain all hitting must be, when, either by the movement of the body or other cause, the line of sight is sud- denly raised or depressed.
The same law of sight shows the disadvantage of men who stand at guard very low, and then suddenly raise themselves as the ball is coming.
The same law of sight explains the disadvantage of stepping in to hit, especially with a slow drop- ping ball : the eye is puzzled by a double motion — the change in the level of the ball, and the change in the level of the line of sight.
So much for our theory : now for experience ! Look at Pilch and all fine players. How charac- teristic is the ease and repose of their figures — no hurry or trepidation. How little do their heads or bodies move! Bad players dance about, as if they stood on hot iron, a dozen times while the ball is coming, with precisely the disadvantage that attends an unsteady telescope. " Then you would actually teach a man how to see?" We would teach him how to give his eyes a fair chance. Of sight, as of quickness, most players have enough, if they would only make good use of it.
To see a man wink his eyes and turn his head away is not uncommon the first day of partridge shooting, and quite as common at the wicket. An undoubting judgment and knowledge of the prin- ciples of batting literally improves the sight, for
UPRIGHT PLAT.
131
it increases that calm confidence which is essential for keeping your eyes open and in a line to see clearly.
Sight of a ball also depends on a habit of un- divided attention both before and after delivery, and very much on health. A yellow bilious eye bespeaks a short innings : so, be very careful what you eat and drink when engaged to play a match. At a match at Purton in 1836, five of the Lans- downe side, after supping on crab and champagne, could do nothing but lie on the grass. But your sight may be seriously affected when you do not feel actually ill. So Horace found at Capua : —
" Narnque pild lippis inimicum et ludere crudisT
Straight and Upright Play. — To be a good judge of a horse, to have good common sense, and to hit straight and upright at Cricket, are qualifications never questioned without dire offence. Yet few, very few, ever play as upright as they might play, and that even to guard their three stumps. To be able, with a full and up- right bat, to play well over and to command a ball a few inches to the Off, or a little to the leg, is a a very superior and rare order of ability.
The first exercise for learning upright play is to practise several times against an easy bowler, with both hands on the same side of the handle of the bat. Not that this is the way to hold a bat
132
THE CRICKET FIELD.
in play, though the bat so held must be upright ; but this exercise of rather poking than playing will inure you to the habit and method of upright play. Afterwards shift your hands to their proper position, and practise slipping your left hand round into the same position, while in the act of coming forward.
But be sure you stand up to your work, or close to your blockhole ; and let the bowler ad- monish you every time you shrink away or appear afraid of the ball. Much practice is required before it is possible for a young player to attain that perfect composure and indifference to the ball that characterises the professor. The least nervousness or shrinking is sure to draw the bat out of the perpendicular. As to shrinking from the ball — I do not mean any apprehension of injury, but only the result of a want of know- ledge of length or distance, and the result of un- certainty as to how the ball is coming, and how to prepare to meet it. Nothing distinguishes the professor from the amateur more than the com- posed and unshrinking posture in which he plays a ball.
Practice alone will prevent shrinking : so en- courage your bowler continually to remind you of it. As to practising with a bowler, you see some men at Lord's and the University grounds batting hour after hour, as if cricket were to be taken by
A CONVENIENT EXERCISE.
133
storm. To practise long at one time is positively injurious. For about one hour a man may prac- tise to advantage ; for a second hour, he may rather improve his batting even by keeping wicket, or acting long stop. Anything is good practice for batting which only habituates the hand and eye to act together.
The next exercise is of a more elegant kind, and quite coincident with your proper game. Always throw back the point of the bat, while receiving the ball, to the top of the middle stump, as in figure, page 114 ; then the handle will point to the bowler, and the whole bat be in the line of the wicket. By commencing in this position, you cannot fail -to bring your bat straight and full upon the ball. If you take up your bat straight, you cannot help hitting straight ; but if once you raise the point of the bat across the wicket, to present a full bat for that ball is quite impossible.
One advantage of this exercise is that it may be practised even without a bowler. The path of a field, with ball and bat, and a stick for a stump, are all the appliances required. Place the ball before you, one, two, or more feet in advance, and more or less On or Off, at discretion. Prac- tise hitting with right foot always fixed, and with as upright and full a bat as possible : keep your left elbow up, and always over the ball.
K 3s
134
THE CRICKET FIELD.
This exercise will teach, at the same time, the full powers of the bat ; what style of hitting is most efficacious ; at what angle you smother the ball, and at what you can hit clean ; only, be careful to play in form ; and always see that your right foot has not moved before you follow to pick up the ball. Fixing the right foot is alone a great^ help to upright play ; for while the right foot remains behind, you are so completely over a straight ball, and in a form to present a full bat, that you will rarely play across the ball. Firmness in the right foot is also essential to hard hitting, for you cannot exert much strength unless you stand in a firm and commanding position.
Upright and straight hitting, then, requires, briefly, the point of the bat thrown back to the middle stump as the ball is coming ; secondly, the left elbow well up ; and, thirdly, the right foot fixed, and near the blockhole.
Never play a single ball without strict atten- tion to these three rules. At first you will feel cramped and powerless ; but practice will soon give ease and elegance, and form the habit not only of all sure defence, but of all certain hitting : for, the straight player has always wood enough and to spare in the way of the ball; whereas, a deviation of half an inch leaves the cross-player at fault. Mr. William Ward once played a single- wicket match with a thick stick, against another
ART OF STRAIGHT PLAY.
135
with a bat ; yet these are not much more than the odds of good straight play against cross play. At Cheltenham College the first Eleven plays the second Eleven " a broomstick match."
When a player hits almost every time he raises his bat, the remark is, What an excellent eye that batsman has ! But, upright play tends far more than eye to certainty in hitting. It is not easy to miss when you make the most of every inch of your bat. But when you trust to the width alone, a slight error produces a miss, and not un- commonly a catch.
The great difficulty in learning upright play consists in detecting when you are playing across. So your practice-bowler must remind you of the slightest shifting of the foot, shrinking from the wicket, or declination of your bat. Straight bowling is more easy to stand up to without nervous shrinking, and slow bowling best reveals every weak point, because a slow ball must be played: it will not play itself. Many stylish players are beaten by slow bowling; some, be- cause never thoroughly grounded in the principles of correct play and judgment of lengths ; others, because hitting by rule and not at the ball. Sys- tem with scientific players is apt to supersede sight ; so take care as the mind's eye opens the natural eye does not shut.
Underhand bowling is by far the best for a
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THE CRICKET FIELD.
learner, and learners are, or should be, a large class. Being generally at the wicket, it produces the straightest play : falling stumps are " no flat- terers, but feelingly remind us what we are." Caldecourt, who had a plain, though judicious, style of bowling, once observed a weak point in Mr. Ward's play, and levelled his stumps three times in about as many balls. Many men boast- ing, as Mr. Ward then did, of nearly the first average of his day, would have blamed the bowler, the ground, the wind, and, in short, any thing but themselves ; but Mr. Ward, a liberal patron of the game, in the days of his prosperity, gave Caldecourt a guinea for his judgment in the game and his useful lesson. "Such," Dr. Johnson would say, "is the spirit and self-denial of those whose memories are not doomed to decay" with their bats, but play cricket for " immortality."
Playing Forward and Back. — And now about length-balls, and when to play forward at the pitch, and when back for a better sight of the rebound.
A length-ball is one that pitches at a puzzling length from the bat. This length cannot be re- duced to any exact and uniform measurement, depending on the delivery of the bowler and the reach of the batsman.
For more intelligible explanation, I must refer you to your friends.
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Every player is conscious of one particular length that puzzles him, — of one point between himself and the bowler, in which he would rather that the ball should not pitch. " There is a length-ball that almost blinds you," said an expe- rienced player at Lord's. There is a length that makes many a player shut his eyes and turn away his head ; 66 a length," says Mr. Felix, " that brings over a man most indescribable emotions." There are two ways to play such balls: to discriminate is difficult, and, "if you doubt, you are lost." Let a be the farthest point
to which a good player can reach, so as to plant his bat at the proper angle, at once preventing a catch, stopping a shooter, and intercepting a bailer. Then, at any point short of A, should the bat be placed, the ball may rise over the bat if held to the ground, or shoot under if the bat is a little raised. At b the same single act of plant- ing the bat cannot both cover a bailer and stop a shooter. Every ball which the batsman can
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reach, as at A, may be met with a full bat forward; and, being taken at the pitch, it is either stopped or driven away with all its rising, cutting, shooting, or twisting propensities unde- veloped. If not stopped at A, the ball may rise and shoot in six lines at least ; so, if forced to play back, you have six things to guard against instead of one. Still, any ball you cannot cover forward, as at b, must be played back ; and nearly in the attitude shown in page 115. This back play gives as long a sight of the ball as possible, and enables the player either to be up for a bailer or down for a shooter.
More Hard Nuts. — Why do certain lengths puzzle, and what is the nature of all this puzzling emotion ? It is a sense of confusion and of doubt. At the moment of the pitch, the ball is lost in the ground; so you doubt whether it will rise, or whether it will shoot — whether it will twist, or come in straight. The eye follows the ball till it touches the ground : till this moment there is no great doubt, for its course is known to be uniform. I say no great doubt, because there is always some doubt till the ball has passed some yards from the bowler's hand. The eye cannot distin- guish the direction of a ball approaching till it has seen a fair portion of its flight. Then only can you calculate what the rest of the flight will be. Still, before the ball has pitched, the first doubt
PHILOSOPHY OF FORWAKD PLAY. 139
is resolved, and the batsman knows the ball's direction ; but, when once it touches the ground, the change of light alone (earth instead of air being the background) is trying to the eye. Then, at the rise, recommences all the uncertainty of a second delivery ; for, the direction of the ball has once more to be ascertained, and that requires almost as much time for sight as will sometimes bring the ball into the wicket.
All this difficulty of sight applies only to the batsman ; to him the ball is advancing and fore- shortened in proportion as it