THE CANTERBURY WEEK.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 99, 27 November 1878, Page 2

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 he 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 run, and Heaine and Mr Penn enjoyed the pleasure of bowling him clean. The time was when a bowler thus favored would have piously treasured one of the balls in a glass case, and bequeathed 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 Mred to death, when he would have liked to sit and give judgment in a chair (after the manner of the Fine Old English Cricketer of the 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 whirster (not that Mr A. Penn and Hearne are " whipsters,") gets his wicket 1 Only a few times this year, and chiefly when he was playing Shaw and Morley, 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 Ridley, Mr Webhe, and the rest, has made cricket a much more even game. The Canterbury week proved that cricket for the time has no "champion," either man or county. England is lo longer absolutely certain to win because Mr Grace is playing; M.C.C. has ceased to anti ipate undoubted victory ; and it would not lie impossible for tue Players to recover their laurels, if tue Gentlemen had not in the Lytteltons and Mr Steel more than an equivalent for Mr Grace. Cricket has this ye.-'-r been unusually uncertain. The great counties have now and then emulated the feat of Oxford m the University match, and have made pitiable scores. The Australians lalely got out for 50 (dispi sing of their 18 opponents for 33). Sussex, a i ou/ity in the very deeps of failure, dismissed a s'rong Yorkshire team for 94, but put on a wretched 33 and a more wretched 24. Surrey has once or twice been S"areely 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, M'lntyrc, Mr Appleby, and Mr Steel. If county matches were played regularly, on the system of ties, it is not impossible that the bowling of Derbyshire might win the cup. There are some successful young bowlers among the Players, as Hearne and Bates, as w r ell as among the amateurs. The example of the Australians has called attention to this department of the game. It is not necessary 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. We 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 wicketkeeper, 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 impro' ement 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 whose position and skill put him outside the ordinary run of players. Clubs oould not dispense with his aid ; which again, could only be procured on certain inevitable conditions. The popu'arity of cricket (and reoeipts 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 groat 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 lisle defeat tjian to secure, victory by encouraging thjs system, & county club " might perhaps pay the travelling expenses of all its players, so that there should be no invidious distinction. Men whn did not need the money, could, if they pleas?d, double their subscriptions. Even if the existence of a class of paid amateurs wer*; 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 ? li is perfectly easy to dispense with them ;. this t xpenence of the year shows it, and the discovery is the best thing, "that could befall gentlemen-players, "'x. •• •- ___