CRICKET, AS IT WAS AND IS.

Southland Times, Volume 3, Issue 101, 14 October 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

CRICKET, AS IT WAS AND IS.

i „-■'■ l (From Qnee a Week.) Once upon a time — that magic period of ourchiidisK romances and fairy tales • i-igentWmen attired 'iv knee-breeches -and "cocked-hats, and ornamented about */-'■>* the head wjth .pigtails, might have been fleen- dotting the surface of a village.green or heath, on which were placed **• two little skeleton hardies of two feet, wide and a foot high, at a distance of two-and-twerity yards asunder. The. materials which were provided for ,their amusement were the skeleton hurdles 1 aforesaid, two rude clubs of about the ' size and' weight' of the levers with 1 > .which i artillerymen work the heavy guns, and a small hard ball of a size and weight now unknown. This was the cricket of our forefathers about 120 jears'ago, and from this -rude beginning •of a sport which much -depended on gambling for' excitement, and which -was by no means unmixed with quarreling, our great national game has sprung up, and acquiiei not only a firm growth in every part of England, but has overrun our English possessions in all parts of the world. "When our troops were at Scutari, en, route, for the Crimea, we' read with ■ touch amusement the remarks of the solemn Turks who, for the first time,' witnessed an English cricket match. ' , Of course they thought we were a nation of maniacs ; but that impression £• is common amongst people who do not N ! ; uuderstarid! us. v The wonder of the \/, first batch of Russian jrisoners, as we, : Njieard, was no'less great at beholding „ two Elevens quietlj playing a match in , : fche^ English lines whilst the guns were .booming in Sebastopol, though probably 'they are more accustomed to the sight now, as the English Cricket Club at' St. : Petersburg is under the especial patronage of the Grand Duke, and very popular with the Russian aristocracy. As reg«>*ds the origin of the game, there appeals to be as many opinions as $ lere are antiquarians ; but the most generally received idea is, that the game of " tip-cat," which children play in the streets :of our towns, was the origin of cricket. Mr Bolland, in his "Cricket Notes," urges this theory with great zeal. Ho traces the game of "*' tip-cat to a double game of " cat " played by eleven o? a side and a notcher; and he argues that in the same way as the old puritanical sign of " God encom,passeth us" has grown into the " Goat and compasses," the "I"' Bacchanals" into ■■■•. the " J3ag o' nails," and the like, so the .game of cross- wicket Jbas grown into -. -cricket. *-JSd little was the gane understood ,-^in the year 1743, thaft we find an 1 article in the "Gentleman's Magazine .'. ?(quoted by Mr Lillywhue) abusing the ;ga;me, as then played, on .<the ground' of its taking Mien of low degree out of theii* regular falling to mix with people of auality, ; -and making a business of the sport ; -drawing crowds together of people who could -not afford the time; and tie<nouneing the game as a notoricvs of the laws, as it openly encouraged ganring.. i The first recorded score is of a match ' (played on. the Artillery Ground, Bunhill Fields, in the year 1746, between Kent and All England, Lord John Sackville being the challenger on the part of Kent.; the result of which was .that England -lost by one wicket on that •occasion ; and, strange to say, they icon •by one wicket exactly a .century later, in 1846, at Lord's. A gooi oil paim-ing of this match is to be seen at the Pavilion at Lord's, in which three players are represented in pig-tails and knee breeches. The club shaped bats which were used in that snatch are also preserved by the MaryJleboneClub. From the date of this match there is •a hiatus valde defiendus till the year 1771, though before this date the celebrated Hambledon Club bad sprung «p. The little village of Hambledon, between Fareham and Southampton; was the nursery of cricket. The great supporters of cricket were Lord Tankerville, the Duke of Dorset, and Sir ' Horace Mann, and under their patronage the game made rapid strides in Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, and Hampshire. Matches were played for LSOO ! a side in those -days, aod from old bal- ! lads of the period we glean the fact ' that a good deal of betting used to take place as well. John Nyren, the sen of the cele- / brated Richard Nyren, who kept th< , Jiouse where the old Hambledon playei B first met, thus speaks of the old c)t fo {of which in his day he was a membe ,^\ in his well known little work . o f ■" Cricketers of My Time :" — "There was" great feasting heir 1 t on Droadhalfpenny during the solemn fay o f ' one of our grand matches. . . vu a ]f the county would be present, a- & $ a ]j • their hearts with us. Little H eTO ble•don pitted against AH England t wag a . ( proud thought for the Hampsb : ffe men , i Defeat was glory in such a ctruffgle. 5 Victory, indeed, made us oi , t \y a iittle \ lower than the angels." \ Nyren speaks, too,of tbf . brinks j n which the spectators indul , » c d. : " "What stutf they hod 1 / 0 drink, too ! — Punch — not. your Poi jU c a la R o '- Tnaine, or Ponche ala Grc ' tseille, or your modern catlap milk ? iunch — Punch bedevilled, but good unsophisticated John. Bull stuff— stai i — that would stand on end — Punch t A a t would make a cat speak — sixpence f a bottle. . . The ale, too— not th I beastliness of theae days, which wi) j make a fellow's inside like a shaking -bog, and as rotten ; but barleycorn, L nc \ l a 8 wou ld put the souls of throe outchers into one weaver. Ale tbatwo- ild flare like turpen-tine—-genuine Boni /ace. This immortal : viand— for it was more than liquor — was vended at twoj /ence per pint * * How strongly ar j> all these/scenes of fifty years ago pa' /nted in nly; memory !

and the' smell of that ale comes upon me as freshly as'Jhe new,. May flowers ! The Hambledon Club by no means confined themselves to Hampshire men ; several of them came 1 ' from Surrey, -and - a,~,few fio.n . Sussex; and it appears to have been the custom for the noble patrons of cricket to transplant good players -from" one part of England to another, and to make them dependents or (retainers on their estates^ \nd the players seem to have had t the " same position amongst the noblemen whose estates they lived, as jockeys and trainers have amongst the leaders of the racing worldin these ' daj s. ! In 1774, cricket, made a great start. Sir Horace Mann, who had promoted' | cricket in Kent, and the Duke of Dor- i | set" and Lord Tankerville, who seem to ; have been the leaders of the Surrey and Hants Eleven, conjointly witlv other noblenaen and gentlemen, formed a committee under the presidency of Sir William Draper. They met -at the Star and Garter, in Pall-mall, and laid down the first rules of cricket, which very rules form the basis of the laws of cricket of this day. The old skeleton hurdle was abolished, and wickets (two in number) 22 inches high <\nd 6 inches wide, were substituted ; the weight of the ball was determined io be (as now) five ozs. and a-half to five ozs. and three-qusrisrg. T-n tke following year 1775, a middle stump was added, and although the height and width of the wickets were twice increased subsequently, until they attained their present size, still, in all essential points — even allowing for the difference of cricket grounds, the comparatively rough materials far (lie game, and the changes in style-^a cricket match in 1775 must have much resembled a cricket match in 1863. The next great sti p iv cricket was the establishment o! the White Conduit Club, in the year ] 799 ; and amongst its members, in addition to the before-named patrons of the game, we find the names of Lord Winchelsea, Lord Strathnavon, and Sir P. Burrell. Their place of meeting was still the Star and Garter, and their ground was iv White Conduit-fields. One of the attendants on this club, by the name of Lord, was persuaded to take a ground, which he did ; and under the patronage of the old White Conduit Club, anew club, called the Marylebone Club, was formed at Lord's ground, which was then situate on the site of the present Dorset-square. It would be superfluous to say anything about the Marylebone Club, as the fact is notorious that the rules of the Marylebone Club are the only rules recognised as authentic throughout the world, wherever cricked is played, and tlratthe very mention of the name of the club in connection with anything said or done in the Cricketing world, is sufficient to stamp it as the right thing to say or do. As to all the sayings and doings of cricketers, the songs they san^, and the '■ tales they told, from the year 17-36 til'/ 1848 (to which date Mv Li Uywhite' fi record at present extends), tl le read er i must go to the text. Thcn.-e he v /ill find the scores in full, aifid at the I (.v d of each match a faithful biography of the principal /perfornvers ; and if in these days any o/id gentleman who playecl in a county /match half a cenAury ago, has I >e en dr awing the long bozo about his f ,corC, be is safe to be caught out now, f;fc r them is the accurate ; record of his do^/rigs in black and white. \ Mr Lillywhite t/tells us that he was fortunate enough/ to see in the flesh one of the crack ) payers of the old Hambledon Club, William Beldham, whose first recorde h match was a match played between A fl[ England and the White Conduit Ci ; Ü b, in the year 1787. When Mr. Lilly ,vhite paid Beldham a visit in April, 18 58, he found the old man, then iv his n : nety-second year, at work in his gan / en before eight o'clock in the mornin g. Beldham died at the beginning o /the year 1862, in his ninety--seven' yh year, having laid aside his bat for fo /ty-oue }'ears, at the termination °f a /bareer of thirty-five years as a public F /3ayer, his last recorded match being in 7 /821. In 1852, Beldham, then in h^ , eighty-seventh year, walked seven m /!es to Godalming to see the All Eng'r fnd Eleven play, and the old man's iuf ,ellectand memory were so unimpaired, that he could accurately remember any incident connected with cricket from , the time when he was ten years old ; and this power of memory continued up to the time of his death. From the rise oC the Marylebone Club to the present date, Cricket has no particular history of its own which would interest the general reader who is not a cricketer. If he is a cricketer, Mr Lillywhite has supplied him with a cricketing banquet, to which he can help himself at his leisure, and of which he will never tireBefore leaving the subject of cricket for the present, we must not omit a few words about the *' Cricketo-machia' 1 (to coin a word) which will make the year 1863 celebrated in the annals of the game. For rnauy years past, cricketers — although not exactly irou-plated — have been padded and guarded by numerous ingenious devices, iv a manner whicn provided forsafety of knuckles and shins, but of late years the bowling became dangerous to nose and eyes, owing to the windmill style of overhead bowling, which appeared much naore , like reckless throwing than fair bowling. All this wild artillery was in direct con- ' : travention of Law X of the Marylebone i Club, and a decision has been come to by the Marylebone Club that the unfair , system of bowling shall be put down with a strong hand. This was not done . without much opposition, as young England fa vary intrepid, but the fiat is against them, and the rising generation must be content to do as their former • generation did, and bowl fair or not at all,

But the Marylebone Club, in t -a hurry to do too much, for once have overstepped their jurisdiction, and repealed a*law of thY game (Law XXIV.) in defiance of one of their standing orders. Bell's Life was 'filled wih correspondence .'on tile ad visibility of making the law of "leg before wicket" more stringent^ -and more in favor of the- bowler^ arid the Marylebone Club caught up the cry and amended the law as- it formerly existed, without notice- to the members, and enacted that if any portion of the batsman's person was in a straight line between the wickets, and the ball struck him, he should be given out. The opposition party, however, demanded a re-bearing of the case on a technical ground, and carried the day, and the law was declared to remain as it was.