UN MATCH DE CRICKET.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 218, 12 September 1872, Page 2

UN MATCH DE CRICKET.

C From the Pall Mall Gazette), It is a great day in tho village and on the estate of Grenouilly, not maoy miles from Paris, for, after beiDg closed for iwoand twenty monihs, the Cricket Club (pronounce Crickefcfce Ciob) instituted by the Anglophilist Marquis de Grenouilly is to be re-opened, with a match between

eleven gentletnetfplayerV of; ;Fr ance, and a teamsfnom tperijjdiouij^Albion. Educational efforts deserves success^ and if it be an educationai : .>woi'k to havo^attempfced to substitute the playing of cricket for the drinking of absinthe as the occupation of a Freuch afternoon, then this, too, deserves a. greater me© J of success thau has yet attended it, save in half a dozen mstaacea K of which M. de Grenouilty's For remainder of news see. fourth page.

club is one.^> The French somehow do not bite aY cricket, and even M. de Grenouilly's i>ath > has;been strewn -with many* of those painful obstacles which beset reformers. His club was founded not long'before the war'; but when the tidings of Beichsofen arrived, and men began to throw a searching glance back. upon the past with a view to detecting what faults of their own and what treason: in others had caused their ruin, then what more natural than that this club of M. de Grenouilly's should have loomed up before the municipal mind with an ominousness full of import ? For what were these light-haired aliens, who spoke v foreign jargon and skipped about the Marquis's grounds in unknown flannels but Prussian spies? And that artillery which they cast at each other's legs, and warded off with implements like wooden battle-axes, what was that but a preparation for the sterner war that was about to ravage France ? So on the 4th of September, when the Republic, one and indivisible, arose for the good of men, a raid was made upon M. de Grenouilly's castle by the entire village population. His bats, balls, and stumps were seized ; his scoring telegraph with box of cyphers (evidently a complete set of private signals with the foe) were placed on a cart, and the Marquis * himself, along with a brace of English friends who were staying with him, were lugged off to give an account of their conduct before the Municipal Council gathered in suspicious couclave. Happy for him that M. de Grenouilly could speak, and that his eloquence on th'iß occasion was of that kind which generally appeals to the civic heart. He drew out his pocket-book and paid 10,000 f. down for the Wounded Relief Fund; he invited the council to luncheon, and vowed that he and they should all drink perdition to Prussia in fermented liquors, and he wound up by declaring that he was going to enlist in Trochu's army on the morrow-— which he did, though it must be acknowledged that not even by this did he completly disarm some of the longer heads on the council, who averred that there was more in these . red cannon balls than feeble folk might think. Bravery at Montretout and Buzenval has furnished cogent proof that a man can be a cricketer without ceasing to be a patriot. The Marquis, restored to the possession of his stumps, his bats, and his balls— not to mention his castle, which the valiant municipality kindly placed at the disposal of the Prussians during his absence — has entered upon a new and more determined course of cricketing than ever. He asserts thas it is by cc jeu viril et fortifiant that he hopes to contribute his share towards the national regeneration ; and he has indoctrinated most of the neighbouring gentry and peasantry with these views, not so much by propounding the abstract beauties of the game as by offering prizes in money and works of art to all who should attain a certain degree of proficiency in it. Thus, last year, as it would have been invidious to re-open the club in a festive manner so soon after pubHe calamity, the season was spent in practising. A professional was brought ever from England; and the arrangement was this: that any French player who held his own for half-an-hour against the bowling of that worthy, should receive five francs in coin, or, if. he liked it better, the totalized value of his winnings at the end of the season in the shape of a silver cup. Besides this, all— high or low — who liked to come and be taught, were free to beef, beer, cheese, and sandwiches unlimited during the progress of the game. It is Whitsuntide; the sun is golden and the sky blue; the wickets are pitched on a fresh plat of lawn, smooth, well watered, and elastic, marquees for scoring, ice- 1 eating, and lunching adorn the grounds; merry tricolor streamers mark off the limits to be kept clear; barouches from Paris and the neighborhood begin to drive up with ladies drawn by the twofold attraction of the regenerating game itself and the dinner and ball which are to follow. Finally, the Orpheonists of the canton, with their gold° braided caps and instruments of music, march melodious as soon as the eleven from Albion shall break in _ sight. And note that this is no apocryphal English eleven, but a genuine team comprising three members of the M.C.C., two authentic I.Z.s, caught - and introduced to . the Marquis at the Cercle des Moutards, a sprinkling of acquaintances late of Oxford and Cambridge, very famous with their bats; and to tail off with j a small but swift-bowling Etonian, brother to one of the other performers, and provisionally in Paris during convalescence. from measles. : 'y Let .. us state at once that the demeanor of this young gentleman, though habitually ,reserved-----;-n6t.^Bay.:;-prond^lapßpß;< at [flight; oi the [eIOTjM& into i.'» a. ■■ merriment^ which ,/ ; ■ causes his ''eyesti>} 'DT^OTt^in^hisj^heiad: , *' i ■ like gooseber r^s^atid^ror^ ; - ; his ftoe in \Vinfr4fc^&^ .■ ■ ' fact is th^j^<eirci£fea^^ i; ■' „tß^J<#iM;^ • ■ w?Der/ hw covered hi|maDlf

single-stick mask of enormous size aid topgKnesfl/f pl^iie 5 ?exglai&B? ,the meaning of &is immediately, arid -with a^ Frenchman's usual aunniness, by observing that if it be prudent to pad the legs and hands, how much" more then, the head and face, which run continual dangers when the ground is lively: ; "and as to the. boots," addß he, "we have adopted thoee. because they are more practicol than pads, for I ask you, gentlemen, who has. not felt heavy, in the legs *nd awkward during the first five minutes of his innings^ by reason of the teguments he had just strapped on ? And yet the! first five minutes are surely these when the player's mind* should be most free from pre-occupa-tion ? That is why we wear large boots, and wear' them batting, bowling, andfieldiDg until they become as a second nature." All this is said while M. de I Grenouilly hospitably conducts his guests to their dressing tent, amidst the enthusiastic braying of the brass band, who btrike up « The Roast Beef of Old England," patiently learned and rehearsed lor six weeks past. The Marquis might have added that in booting his followers he was not without some intention of accustoming them to the marching boots they will have to wear in the next war which will take them to Berlin. And indeed their entire costume is patriotic, and designed to inspire martial ardour, for it consists of a blue shirt, white sash-belt, scarlet flannel continuations, and a straw hat with tri. color ribbon, very bold to look upon. (To be concluded in our next.) s