CRICKET A HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS AGO.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1935, 29 November 1884, Page 4

CRICKET A HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS AGO.

Ah everyone Knows (writes Mr Andrew Laing m the current number of the English Illustrated Magazine) the third stump was added about 1775, because it was observed that the straightest balls went through the wickets without moving the bail. This, people may say, would at once have occurred to the feeblest capacity. But mark the conservatism of the human mind, and the march of evolution. There was originally no middle stninp, because the batter, when lcgaining his ground after a run, placed his bat in a hole between the stumps, itself a survival from cat and dog. The hole was filled up, and a crease (cut at fiist, not marked in whitewash, as at present) was substituted, to prevent th<* bat from coming down on the hands ot the wicket-keeper, as he put down the wicket by placing the ball in the hole. Yet though men had got rid of the hole, they did not at once add a third stick ; custom and use were too strong for them, and we see the old unfair two stumps in the de&igns published. Indeed they appear as late as 1793, in a match between Lord Winchilsea and Lord Darley for £1000 a- side. Mark also the height of the wickets. Their lowness, like the shape of the contemporary bit, testifies to the habit of bowling grubs. A modern ball would rise high over these wickets, which could only be knocked down by a shooter or a yorker, orpoiliaps a half \olley. Next observe the disposition of the field. There is a man out m the long field on, a mid on, and a square far out. There is a wicketkeeper, lone stop, point, third man, long hit off, mid" off, and cover point. AppaKMitly hard, straight driving on the off side was not expected. The bowler holds the ball to his eye, like the immortal Trnndler of Dmgley Bell. The game, in spite of odd w ickets, odd bats, and low nudeihaiid deliveries, required a disposition of the field not unlike that to which we are accustomed. The longstop, of course, would now be supeiiluous among good players. Nyren says vaguely that the use of the straight bat, with all that it involves, came in " borne years after 1746," when Lord John Sacks ille captained Kent in a match against England. The scores were veiy small in those days, when Piince ( harles was shaking the throne of the House of Hanover. Kent got 40 and 70, England 63 and SS. But we have seen even smaller scores made by good men on wet wickets, as when the Austtali.ms for the fiist time played M.U.C. Nyien well remembered the introduction of the third stump. A singlewicket match between the Hamblcdon Club and England was played on May •J2ii(l, 1775 and Small went in, the last wicket, to get 14 runs. These he knocked off, but Lumpy's balls seveial times past between his stumps, and the absurdity of this led to the change. Many feared it would shorten the game, but Nyren said it would make the batter redouble his cue, and would impiove the defence. Why Nyren was " consulted by the Hampshire gentlemen," when, on his own showing, he was but eleven years of age, it is difficult to guehs. Probably the veteran's memory was a little confused. In any case he was right about the third stump. The year after its introduction Avlward, going in last but one for Hcimbledon against England, made 166, then considered a prodigious score, against the bowling of the redoubtable Lumpy.

A statistician has been calculating anew the mortality of the globe. He has discoveied the number of deaths to be 67 every minute, 98,790 every day, or 33,039,835 every year. The births exceed the deaths by three per minute, running to 100,000 every day, and 36.722.000 every year. Wanted, a friend. One who will lecognise me when I am compelled to wear patched breeches ; who will take me by the hand when I am sliding down hill, instead of giving me a stick to hasten my descent ; who will lend me a shilling without requiring twenty shillings •worth of security ; who will come to sec me when I'm sick ; who "will pull off his coat and fight for me when the odds aie two to one ; who will talk of me behind my back as he talks to my face. Such a fiiend is wanted by ten thousand times ten thousand human beings throughout this broad earth.

Ths Bad and Worthless are never Unit"ted or counterfeited. This is especially true of a family medicine, and it is positive proot that the remedy imdn ted is of the highest value. As soon as it had been tested and proved by the whole world that Hop Bitters was the wa3 the purest, best and most valuable family medicine on earth, many imita-* tions sprung up and began to steal the notices in whicli the press and the people of the country had expressed the merits of H. 8., and in every way trying to induce suffering invalids to use their stuff instead, expecting to make money on thp credit and good name of H. B. Many others started nostrums put up in similar style to H. B , with variously de\ised names in which the woid " Hop ' or " Hops" were used in a way to induce people to believe they wcie the same as Hop Bitters. All such pretended remedies or cures, no matter what their style or name is, and especially those with the word " Hop" or Hops'' in their name or in any way connected with them or their name, are imitations of counterfeits. Beware of them. Touch none of them. Use nothing but genuine American Hop Bitters, with a bunch or cluster of green Hops on the white label, and Dr Soule's name blown in the glass. Trust nothing else. Druggists and Chemists are warned against dealing in imitations of counterfeits.