CRICKET ANECDOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2113, 23 January 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

CRICKET ANECDOTES.

In a country cricket match a bowler was "sending down" wide after wide — unchallenged, however, by the rastio umpire. At last, however, he delivered a ball which pitched at least a yard outride the crease, find the batsman turned to the umpire and mn\ : "Study that is n wide?" The umpire, qinto unmoved, removed his pipo from his li 8, expectorated, and said : " I never teed a widerer. 1 ' A local umpire in Norfolk had a particular ppite against one of the men in the eleven, and up ni b-injr appealed to durinsr a match to decide whether the said man was out leir-before-wicket or not, promptly replied " Out !" whereupon the outgoing batsman shouted out: '•Jervi«, vi-r lies !"' Jervis calmly replied : " What if I dew ; yer out " When two neighbouring villages were about to commence play it was discovered that the visiting team had come without an umpire, so a native was requisitioned for the office, and when the man who wan going to tako fir^t ball said — "I want the middle," the loral celebrity promptly stepped eleven yard-* down the pitch and stopped, and said triumphantly — " There, I can't give it nearer than that." During the innings of a country eleven, their umpire was appealed to as to a catch at the wicket, but to tho astonishment of the playpr* lie deliberately walked up to tho batsman and said — " William, where did that ball hit you ?*' and William, to the further astonishment of the opposite *idn, said "On the hand." "Then," said the umpire, " William, you are out." At Gibralter, in a match between one of HM. ships and a regiment stationed there, the la. t wicket of the ship's eleven was a sailor whose ideas of cricket were limited. On nriivin#r at the wicket, having seen otheis taking guard, he placed his bit also ; but on the umpire ►ayinvr a " a little moie to the litrht," he looked at him with astoninhtnent, and said, "No you don't, not if I knows it. Yer wants mo to urtt hotit." The matter was explained to him, but he mad, shouldering his bat, " N<> blooming landlubbers to squue yards for me, more especially a lobitrr like ho." (The umpire was a soldier). '• 'Ang the guard, I .-ay; let's 'aye a cut at the balJ." An extraordinary sinule-wiekpt match for £1 a side was played in Yoikhhire somo thirty years 1140, between two brothers named " IJuz" aud " Buz." Huz went ia first, scored one from a wide, and \va« bow led next ball. Then Buz took up the wondrous tale, and after looking at five \vide«, tho next ball settled him, ajrain making room for Huz, who received five balU that neither touohed bat nor wicket, and thr-n he was bowled by the sixth, fo that Buz won (thnnks to the wides) by one innings and four runs (?), the ball during the whole match never one 3 having: touched the bat. In u match between Fair Oak aDd BUhopitoke, the last man, Stone, went in when six runs were still wanted to give Bishopstoke the game. Stone, a clumsy 6ort of fellow, wore large sidepockets. " Play," cries the umpire. Down comes the ball, runs up Stone's bat, aud falls off into his capacious pocket. "Run," calls his piriner, and the six runs were speedily obtained. The ball was then turned out of its friendly resting-place, to the amazement of the fielders. "How's that, umpire!" cried they. " Six runs, 1 said he. Chorus — " Why ?" Umpire—" Because the ball's lost— at least you couldn't find it, which I reckon about the same thing." A local match between two villages was being played 011 a field some distanco from a house or villuigi* The pitch was by no meaii3 a good one, but the chief objection was a number of trees at no great distance from it. Ihe great hitter of one sjde sent a ball into one of these, which, though perfectly visible, they were unable to get down. The fielding side were obliged to send their fleetest man to the nearest farm-house, and by tho time he reappcirod with a ladder the batsmen had run nearly 100 runs. On the ball being displaced, the hitter had to retire " caught."— Truth.