The Guardian. And Evening Star, with, which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1925. CRICKET'S PRIME.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1925, Page 2

The Guardian. And Evening Star, with, which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1925. CRICKET'S PRIME.

When was the all-round standard of flie game at its highest ? Sonic might say. .says a, critic, during the earlier years of this century, when many bright particular stars of cricket, both English and Australian, blazed in the firmament. Others 'might prefer the period when W. (!. Grace and Spofforth were in their hey-day. But in a recent publication "Cricket’s Prime,” H.P.T. assigns a date that is much more remote. He goes further hack than the famous Hambledoii Men, into the mists of cricket antiquity; in fact, heforo ever the history of the game was formally recorded, and to a. time when we rely for our knowledge of it on allusions in (ontemporary literature or local chronicles. Perhaps the author uses the term -"prime” in a chronological rather than a, qualitative sense and means “Cricket’s Beginnings.” The days when the wicket was the green sward as nature had left it. when the howling was underarm, ;hnd when 70 r.uns was a very good score for a side to make, the calibre of cricket can scarcely he regarded as attaining the modern level in point of scientific proficiency. But its exponents took every whit as much zest in the game as do their fellow-devotees in the year of grace 102 b, and in his researches H.P.T, has unearthed much curious lore concerning the old-time cricket and cricketers. We do not know when the game originated in its first crude form, but it was very long ago. Ttr home was the south-eastern countries, pre-eminently Kent, Surrey, and Sus sex. Thence is spread to Hampshire and Essex, who, stranger,s to diffidence, argued that whatever their neighbours could do they could do equally well an’ they chose. The primitive "ericwielders” spoke different dialects, boasted different laws and customs, and even, before England was consolidated, acknowledged different Cyningsf Hence from time immemorial the game has been associated with keen .oral patriotism. Village strove with ■village. parish with parish, and. as the next logical stage of development, countv with county. When were the county contests first instituted? The author has collected some interesting evidence on this question. As early as 1744 Love the poet, sings:

Fierce Kent ambitious of the world's applause; Against the world combined asserts her cause; Gay Surrey sometimes triumphs o’er the field. And fruitful Sussex cannot brook to yield. While London, queen of cities, proudly vies. And often grasps the well-disputed prize.

London is equivalent to Middlesex, and these lines prove conclusively that at the date of composition the eountv competition was firmly established, also that Kent already had taken the field as challenger of "’the Rest of England,” But representative county

matches seem to have been a regular tiling 'at a still earlier date. In the Kent and Sussex series we hear that in 1729 Sussex enlisted Surrey and Hants men, and managed to boat their rivals, thanks to the “agility and dexterity of a groom of the Duke of- Richmond, who turned the scale of victory which for some years past had been generally on the Kentish side.’’ Clearly these contests must have been going on for some time. But to laindon (i.e. Middlesex) and Kent belongs the honour of having met in the earliest authentic county contest, for a London XT was at home to a Kent XI in 1719, at Lamb’s Conduit Fields. IVe learn of the encounter from an adventitious circumstance. The game was stopped owing to a dispute during Kent’s second innings, whereupon the men of Kent sued their opponents for £6O. the stake money. The suit was heard by Lord Chief Justice Pratt, costs, incidentally amounting to £2OO. My Lord, not understanding the game, ordered them to play it over again, which they did, Middlesex'winning by 21 runs. Xo doubt thereafter Kent trusted to the prowess of her sons rather than to the processes of law to gain the stake! However styled, therefore, the county championship was flourishing early in the 18th century, and continued to he played for many years. But-history anticipates itself. During the Napoleonic wars the contests were suspended, and were not resumed until 1820. They took the game seriously, tco. a hundred and fifty years ago. Tn the ancient Weald cricket has never been the fad of a moment or the fashion of ono grade of society. It has Ivcoti the stock pastime of all classes. The first recorded captain of the Sussex XI. was a Prince of Wales. In 1767 George ITT., alter watching a match between two village teams, treated them to a dinner at tbe local hostelry, and gave the winners a guinea and the losers half a guinea a piece—a generous lannis in those days. In 1822 a visitor in Tunbridge Wells mentions that his host eloquently deplores “the babyism’' of reading poetry when the delighted shouts of the cricketers can bo hoard, and when, hy walking halT a mile, they might become excited spectators of the manly sport. In 17.1.0 John WnloV writes to Horace Walpole, his friend : “Have spent the "hole day at a cricket match at Lowes between Kent and Sussex. . . which was won hy the latter, at which they seem a.s much pleas’d as if they had got an election. We have been at supper with them all. and have left them at one o’clock in the morning laying hot Is about the next match.” But sometimes enthusaism was carried to excess. In 1759, Walter Gale, the school-master of Mayfield, enters in his diary : “I-oft school at 2 o’clock, having heard the spellers and readers a lesson a piece, to attend a

pricket match of the gamesters of Mayfield against those of Lindfield and Chudov.” Tt is distressing to know that Gale was eventually dismissed from his post tor neglecting his duties. Perhaps lie was unfortunate in the governors of the school. Had Mr Turner, of Ea>t 1 load ley. been on the board, he would surely have taken a more lenient view of Mr Gale’s lapse. Mrs Mary Turner, his wife, in a letter to her son in 1739, tells the latter: “Last Muuday yourc father was at Air I’ayn's and plaid at cricket, and came home pleased until', for he struck the best bull in tbe Game, and wislid be bad not anny thing else to do (or) he mild play Cricket- all his Life.” That sentiment Inis' been echoed by many.