Cricket match

“ We were discussing our favourite dreams and prepared to listen.
"It is always," he went on, "the same—a cricket match: and the older I get and less able to play cricket, the oftener I have it. It is a real match, you must understand—first-class cricket, with thousands of spectators and excitement ”

“ Will the umpire be as truthful when it's "petticoat before"?
So lay down "the willow," batsmen, and, oh, bowler, leave the wicket,
Ye must yield once more to Woman, for the Ladies now play Cricket!
At the 'Varsity Cricket Match. Newcomer (to Gent in front) . If you would kindly move your head an eighth of an inch, I think that by standing on tip-toe I might be able, between the box-seat and body of that carriage, to ascertain the colour of long leg's cap.
Pudding it Plainly. Why is a promising cricketer like flour and eggs? ”

“ The cricket match was going to be a huge success. Didn't Rosemary think it was a grand idea? Talk about the League of Nations, or whatever the thing was called! In Peter's opinion, there was nothing like a jolly good cricket or football match to bring people together. ”

“ The ideal match is a match that does not last more than two days, where the wicket has got a bit of devil in it, where no individual innings realises more than 80 runs, no one complete innings exceeds 200 runs, where the side that have to go in for the fourth innings must get about 180 runs to win, and win the match by two or three wickets or lose it by 15 or 20 runs. This is genuine cricket, and far better worth seeing than the type of matches so often played in 1887. ”

“ Football is, in my opinion, by far and away the finest game ever known, with the one exception of cricket.
Cricket has also this great advantage over many games—by having eleven men on each side. This must always make a game more interesting than where there are only one or two on a side. When we have eleven-a-side contests we know that a match is never lost till it is won, and a seeming defeat is often turned into a victory by the tail-end at the eleventh hour Cricket is the king of games for players, as it is for spectators who understand the game. ”

“ A match is never lost ’till it is won, and the unexpected may at any time happen, which is a great charm in the game. The disappointment which follows the fall of wicket after wicket, simply because the reliable bat has had the misfortune to be bowled, is not easily described, but we have experienced the keenest anguish when the catastrophy has happened to our side; while excessive buoyancy seems to have taken posession of and intoxicated our opponents. The American audience is so completely bent upon victory that good cricket is momentarily lost sight of. ”

“ Then the bowlers and fielders are nerved to their utmost endeavour to keep the runs down, every fielder runs after the ball at the very top of his speed, half-a-dozen men are backing up to prevent an overthrow, and the bowler not only does all he knows to secure a wicket, but strives hard to avoid the delivery of a punishable ball. Whenever a side goes in for the last innings of the match against a big score and wins, one may feel sure the match has been won by sound and sterling cricket. ”

“ It must not be supposed, however, that there is no excitement in cricket; there may be, and frequently ought to be a long drawn out and painfully exciting phase of the match that may last for some hours. A fourth innings of a match, when the quantity of runs necessary to win is the right number, the number that seems likely to ensure the inside winning by one wicket, or the outside by twelve runs, unless there is a collapse or pounding of the bowling by the earlier batsmen—such an innings is according to the best judgment the finest spectacle to watch that any game can afford. ”

“ At the same time the spectators may reasonably be excused if they find looking on at cricket a little dull. When the bowling is fast the general result is wickets or runs, and that was the case twenty years ago. We hear that the Australian spectators in their own country loudly expressed their disapproval when, in a great match, two batsmen were batting two hours, during which time they produced the magnificent result of forty-five runs and wore out the patience of bowlers, field, and gallery. ”

“ To run a man out, it is necessary that the bowler run to the wicket and put it down, unless of course it is thrown down. The fieldsman must return the ball so that it shall cross the ground between the wicket and the bowling stump, or between the bowling stump and the bounds; and three are scored for a lost ball.
In very ancient times five players a side used often to contend at single wicket, and in this sort of match there are no bounds, though the batsman must have his right or left foot on the ground behind the popping crease when the ball is hit. ”

“ There is no finer sight in cricket than that of a really good fielding side trying its level best to win or save a match. It is marvellous what can be done, and is done, in such circumstances. Even the uninitiated can appreciate a magnificent catch or a hairbreadth save just on the boundary. ”

“ One of the greatest treats that any cricket-lover can have is to take part in a match between two really primitive village clubs. The old fast under-arm bowling, now sixty years at least out of date in first-class cricket, still preserves its pristine efficacy on the rough uneven turf, and against the untutored batsmen. The running and the shouting and the general excitement when the parson misses a catch, or the butcher is bowled, is very pleasing to one accustomed to the stateliness and publicity of a match at Lord’s or the Oval. ”

“ In former years, though grand cricket was shown, up to 1865 the Players were too strong; between 1865 and 1877 the boot was on the other leg; and in batting, bowling, and wicket-keeping, the two sides are now more even than they have ever been before, though, of course, in bowling the amateurs are weaker. But it is a match too good to have more than once a year, and it seems to be the only game where amateurs and professionals can meet on even terms with no social vexations and troubles. ”

“ The United Eleven, and the North v. South, at Lord's, especially the former. When the two famous elevens met reputation was at stake, and both strove to put their best teams in the field. There was no half-hearted play then. Thought was put into every ball bowled, and neither batsman nor fieldsman spared himself. It was the match of the year from a player's point of view, and crowds testified to it by turning out in thousands. It was not always so in the North v. South matches. More than once an eminent player cried off at the last moment, and occasionally the sides were poorly represented. ”

“ They come into contact on the cricket-field, and on the committee of our reading-room. For our vicar, in spite of a tendency to myopia, conceives it his duty to encourage cricket by his participation. Duty—to encourage cricket! So figure the scene to yourself. The sunlit green, and a match in progress,—the ball has just snipped a stump askew,—my ancient, leaning on a stout cabbage stick, and with the light overcoat that is sacred to umpires upon his arm. ”

“ So completely has the modern method of bowling on the off side for catches established itself, that cautious players like Hall, Shrewsbury, and Scotton have got into the habit of leaving off balls altogether alone. Granted that the bowling is accurate and the fields well placed, county clubs will very soon find out that, if this course is pursued much further, cricket will become a very dull game to watch, and a match will probably seldom lead to a decisive result. ”

“ But what is cricket? Descriptions of lively things are apt to be dull, and it is indeed no easy task to render a detailed description of cricket intelligible, much less entertaining, to the uninitiated. The veriest enthusiast never thought the forty-seven "laws of cricket" light reading, and, resembling as they do certain other statutes whose only apparent design is to perplex the inquiring layman, they would, if cited here, be "caviare to the general."
But come with us, in imagination, on a bright May-day to a great match—say on the Germantown cricket-ground. ”

“ That it is advantageous is regarded as an axiom of cricket. No one thinks of disputing it. A few considerations are sufficient to establish the point. The two chief are, that the side which goes in first is almost sure to get the best of the wicket, and that it is much easier to prevent runs than to make them. With regard to the first consideration, it is quite obvious that unless the weather plays tricks a wicket cannot but be truer and better in the first than in the second, and in the third than in the fourth, innings of a match. ”

“ Fourthly, there is the insidious beguiling of golf, which attracts many a man from Saturday cricket. All these changes are marked on the sheet which records the difficulties of country-house cricket.
Going one step further, look at the Herculean task of collecting a team. You must offer good enough matches to get the aid of really good cricketers; and even then the bulk are off on tours. A mere village match, be it ever so cheery and enjoyable, will not induce a man to travel a long [346] distance, to come to a strange place, where he knows no one but his skipper. ”

“ The unhappy batsman makes one bad stroke and his wicket is lost, and he has possibly no further chance in the match. But though the bowler may bowl a wide one ball he may take a wicket the next, and we believe that these all-round players find more enjoyment in cricket than the man who only bats. To their credit be it said that at no previous period have the professionals combined the two so much as they do at the time of writing, and we congratulate Ulyett, Bates, Peel, Barnes, Flowers, Barlow, Briggs, Lohmann, George Hearne, Jesse Hide, and Abel accordingly. ”

“ There is, depend upon it, a humanizing, a civilizing influence in the game. How different is the conduct of those who assemble to witness a Cricket match, and any other popular pastime? I have been identified a great portion of my life with horses and horse-racing. If I have had one passion greater than another, it is my fondness for the sports of the turf. ”

“ It is necessary in any work which professes to treat of cricket generally, that the laws and regulations of single wicket should be discussed, though the subject is not of much importance in these days; for, as far as first-class cricket is concerned, the game played with only one wicket has vanished altogether. Some few years ago, if an ordinary three-day match were over early, a scratch single-wicket match was sometimes improvised ”

“ The Gentlemen and Players match practically has been played ever since cricket began, the first match having been played in 1806. There have been variations in odds, owing to the greater strength of the Players, but this will never occur again, and the struggle has for years been worthy of the name. In old times, and, indeed, till recently, a certain style was characteristic of each team: the amateurs batted in more attractive if less safe style than the professionals. ”

“ It would be far better to tell people how to field, or even how to watch with a view to interest and improvement. Reforms must aim at giving amusement, interest, attractiveness to the play of the average cricketer.
Let us consider a common experience in a one-day College match at Cambridge, putting aside the wet or rather the difficult wicket on which every player gets a knock; we want to think of Cricket at its best—on a{237} fine day and a good wicket. The side that wins the toss sends in its first two or three bats; they pile up some hundreds of runs ”

“ Each house has also its own nets, and there is one professional for promising colts. Cricket-fagging is a regular institution, and also house-fielding. On half-holidays, when there is no foreign match, either a scratch game is arranged in which professionals and masters take part, or else there is a sort of match-practice, in which the professionals bowl at either end, and successive pairs of batsmen have a fixed time each. ”

“ Such a catch hasn't been made in the close for years, and the cheering is maddening. "Pretty cricket," says the captain, throwing himself on the ground by the deserted wicket, with a long breath; he feels that a crisis has past.
I wish I had space to describe the match; how the captain stumped the next man off a leg-shooter, [21] and bowled small cobs [22] to old Mr. Aislabie, who came in for the last wicket. How the Lord's men were out by half-past twelve o'clock for ninety-eight runs. ”

“ He hailed us, and we asked him if his people would accept our terms.
“Yes, massa, we all put fings on, but we much sooner play cricket widdout.”
“Nonsense,” shouted back the Model Man. “Cricket is a civilised game, and must be followed in a civilised way, or not at all. We will be on the ground at ten o’clock.”
The messenger rowed off, and a great discussion began as to the constitution of our team. Everybody wanted to go to the match, and sit in the shade and look on and criticise, but no one much cared about playing. The Captain of the “Rhine” absolutely refused, to begin with. ”

“ You feel almost as if you must jump aside out of the way of the fellow stepping forward to drive the leg volley, or of the fearful man drawn back to cut, so forcefully is the force expressed [xiv] with which the batsman is inevitably going to hit the ball (vide p. 67) . One of the most charming pictures of those who have taken cricket for their theme is that which is lent by His Majesty the King to the M.C.C., and is styled “A Village Match.” ”