CRICKET.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5508, 21 November 1878, Page 3

CRICKET.

THE CANTERBURY WEEK. (Saturday Review.) People who make the annual cricketing pilgrimage to Canterbury a modern “ Pilgrimage of Grace ” were disappointed this year. Mr. W. G. Grace did not come up to the very mildest expectations. In the match between Kent and England ho was by no means “ at home in the affair between M.C.C. and Kent he was never away from home during the innings of his side, if a cricketer’s domicile is the pavilion. His two innings produced precisely one tun, and Hearne and Mr. Penn enjoyed the pleasure of bowling him clean. Tho time was when a bowler thus favored would have piously treasured one of the balls in a glass case, and bequeated it to posterity as an invaluable heirloom. It used to be impossible, or next to impossible, for anyone but that useful field, Umpire, to get Mr. Grace’s wicket. When Umpire was tired to death, when he would have liked to sit and give judgment in a chair (after the manner of the Pino Old English Cricketer of tho song), when his life was imperilled in the neighborhood of short leg, then, somehow, Mr. Grace occasionally got out. Umpire braced himself for an effort, and declared that the invincible one was either caught at the wicket or “leg before.” Then would Mr. Grace cast an appealing and indignant look to heaven, like one who expects some such portent as lightning in a clear sky, and would march, among thunders of applause, to the pavilion. What has caused all “the heavy change,” and how comes it that every puny whipster (not that Mr. A. Penn and Hearne are “ whipsters”) gets his wickot 1 Only a few times this year, and chiefly when he was playing Shaw and Merloy, and all the might of Notts, has Mr. Grace been himself. It looks as if Mr. Spofforth had shaken his nerve early in the season. However, it happens, the reduction of Mr. Grace to the ordinary level of good batsmen, to the class of Lockwood, Mr. Eidley, Mr. Wobbe, and the rest, has made cricket a much more oven game. Tho Canterbury week proved that" cricket for tho time has no “ champion,” either man or county. England is no longer absolutely certain to win because Mr. Grace is playing ; M.C.C. has ceased to anticipate undoubted victory ; And it would not bo impossible for the Players to recover their laurels, if the Gentlemen had not in the Lytteltons and Mr. Steel more than an equivalent for Mr. Grace. Judging from tho first match of tho week alone, and without taking other events into consideration, wo might almost fancy that Kent has a right to bo called tho leading county. People who remember (it does not need a long memory) the decadence of Kent before Lord Harris gave his time and energy to its affairs must bo surprised at tho success of tho shire. Kent now depends, almost as much as Gloucestershire, on her gentlemen, and her

gentlemen are not of the semi-professional sort. It is our misfortune never to have seen Mr. IT. Penn bat or Mr. A. Penn bowl, but these two cricketers are the Alpha and Omega of the team ; the former going to the wicket first, the latter last of all. Or they may be compared to the greater Ajax, who was the shield and defence of his side, and the minor Ajax, who hurled the dexterous missile. The rest of the Eleven are chiefly Cambridge or Oxford men. Mr. Yardloy does not now play much, and is no longer the terrible opponent who overcame Mr. Butler, Mr. Francis, and the Oxford Eleven long ago. Lord Harris has improved very much on hia undergraduate skill, and is a brilliant and tolerably certain run-getter. Mr. Foord-Kelcey has recovered the speed and skill as a bowler of which an unlucky accident one year deprived him at Oxford, and he has added to his accomplishments a habit of running up large and rapid scores. Mr. ’Bligh, of this year’s Cambridge Eleven, is, next to Mr. Steel, perhaps the most meritorious of Freshmen —a quick fielder, and a bat so trustworthy that many persons call him “ reliable.” Mr. Mackinnon has for years been a very useful batsman ; and Hearne is, both with bat and ball, perhaps the most noteworthy of the younger 'players. The precise uses of Ingram and Mr. Tufnell can hardly bo gathered from the scoring sheets of the week, though the latter on one occasion achieved double figures, and is also a change bowler. From a glance at the scores, however, we are tempted to think that Kent might have dispensed with two men, and might have played England with even numbers, instead of employing thirteen against eleven. Yet England was so strong on paper that discretion or modesty might have easily persuaded the Kent men to place their trust in stronger battalions. The team which represented England was headed by Mr. Grace. He only got thirty-five runs in the two innings, but his bowling and his fielding at point are of immense service to any side. Perhaps he bowls too long, and he often seems expensive, but his “ analysis ” at the end of the year justifies his confidence in himself. Men lose patience when confronted by his patient and varying delivery, and tempted by his leg-balls. Thus he took all the later wickets of the Kent men, while his fielding at point paralyses the batsman who likes a cut, but cannot hit with freedom when the two safe hands are waiting like a trap for the ball. The other bowlers on the English side were Shaw and Morley, who go as well together as the component parts of an effervescing drink. Neither the swift nor the slow Notts bowler ever seems to tire, and though both have their days of tribulation, they are the best pair in England. The Canterbury week was rather a time of affliction for them, and Hearne and Lord Harris hit them about with much impartiality. Still it is plain that England could not have been stronger in bowling, unless Bates and Mr Steel had played, both being most useful bats as well as difficult bowlers. In batting too England could scarcely have been stronger; for, even if Mr, Grace and Mr. Webbe were once more unlucky, there was Mr. Ridley to depend on ; there was Selby, perhaps this year the best man among the Players ; there was Shrewsbury, a very rapid run-getter j there was Wild, who is almost the most dangerous player now in practice j there was Mr. G. P. Grace, a vivacious and busy hitter ; there was Flowers, the joy of Notts. In short, on paper England looked invincible, yet Kent won with consummate ease. Mr, Penn and Hearne, with Mr. Foord-Kelcey (who caught and bowled his old captain), twice got lid of England for scores under two hundred. Extremely steady play was shown by Mr. Ridley, Mr. G. F. Grace, Shrewsbury, Selby, and Midwinter, but the two extra men in the field must have curbed the run-getting. On the other side, almost all the honor and amusement of batting fell to Hearne and Lord Harris. England was easily defeated by six wickets ; and the next match, between Kent and M.C.C., proved that the play was true, not the result of accident. M.C.O. had the same bowling as England, with the addition of Mr. Powys’ swift, but now rarely successful deliveries. Mr. Ootterell and Mr, R. H. Mitchell were good substitutes for Selby and Wild ; but Kent would probably have won by ten wickets had she not invited Mr, A. Penn and Ingram to repeat their performance of the first innings, and secure four “ ducks’ eggs ” between them. Mr. Cotterell failed to make one of his monstrous scores, Mr. Grace did nothing ; Shaw and Morley were of little avail, and the amateurs of M.C.O. were obliged to bowl for themselves. Cricket has this year been unusually uncertain. The great counties have now and then emulated the feat of Oxford in the University match, and have made pitiable scores. The Australians lately got out for 59 (disposing of their eighteen opponents for 33). Sussex, a county in the very deeps of failure, dismissed a strong Yorkshire team for 94, but put on a wretched 35 and a more wretched 24. Surrey has once or twice been scarcely more resolute or fortunate in defence. The bowlers are clearly beginning to have their turn, in spite of the long innings which were made in June. There is probably no county eleven that might not, on a given day, find Lancashire too strong with Barlow, Mclntyre, Mr. Appleby, and Mr. Steel. If county matches were played regularly, on the system of ties, it is not at all impossible that the bowling of Derbyshire might win the cup.' There are some successul young bowlers among the Players, as Hearne and Bates, as well as among the Amateurs. The example of the Australians has called attention to this department of the game. Itisnotnecessary that every young bowler should try to make straightness mathematically correct on the Australian plan. To lift the hand over the head, and to deliver the ball from a commanding eminence, is like the hard overhand stroke in lawn tennis. It pays, but it is not pretty. Not a peculiar style, but a steady devotion to an interesting, but till lately rather neglected, part of the game is needed. Fielding, too, demands a revival Wo do not remember a year in which so .many good matches have been spoiled and discredited by , missed catches, by slovenly failure to pick up a ball, by wild throwing at the toes of the wicket-keeper, or. some yards over his head. Make good fielding general, and you diminish the tyranny of the bat, the arrogance of the men of averages. This year has been remarkable, then, for taming the pride of batsmen. Hence should follow an improvement in the game. It has long been complained that some amateurs are paid like professionals. The practice is not a pleasant one to comment on ; and personal remarks in the very worst taste have been freely made by writers who perhaps know as little of cricket as of good manners. The excuse for the practice was the existence of an amateur whoso position and skill put him outside the ordinary run of players. Clubs could nob dispense with hia aid ; which again, could only be procured bn certain inevitable conditions. The popularity of cricket (and receipts of gate-money) were increased wherever this amateur went There was no reason, however, to extend a practice based on unusual facts. There was only one player of this kind last year, and now apparently there are none. It is, therefore, high time that amateurs of no great ability, and of manners often the reverse of pleasing, should cease to be subsidised by clubs. It is not at all impossible to do without them, and it would be better to risk defeat than to secure victory by encouraging this system. A county club might perhaps pay the travelling expenses of all its players, so that there should be no invidious distinction. Men who did not need the money could, if they pleased, double their subscriptions. Even if the existence of a class of paid amateurs were not otherwise offensive, the position is, in the long run, ruinous to the prospects and independence of the “gentlemen” who take money. What kind of old age do men who live on cricket look forward to ? It is perfectly easy to dispense with them ; the experience of the year shows it, and the discovery is the best thing that could befall gentlemen-players.