Talks with old English cricketers Read online

  A diary of the tour has been preserved by Mr Anderson. Its contents show him to have been a bad sailor. "October 16th, Very sick and all day in bed ;" "17^/1, Could not leave my berth;" "i&th, Left berth, but could not get farther than the lounge—very sick and weak." Such are the entries which testify to the early miseries of mal-de-mer. The experience appears to have been kept up practically throughout the voyage. The diary, in detailing the passengers' amusements, makes a reference to a concert, at which a Mr Beind sang an original song containing a reference to the cricketers. One may be pardoned for quoting the verses:—

  "There's the cricketers bold, the Eleven of All-England,

  A fine set of fellows as e'er crossed the sea;

  I hope soon to see them with bat and ball in hand,

  Astonishing the natives of proud Australee.

  C

  May success attend them in all their endeavours,

  And a very good harvest I hope they may reap:

  One little suggestion may I to them whisper,

  Not to hold the offspring of England too cheap."

  That the advice was acted upon the unbeaten record of the team is a proof. The team had a big public reception on reaching Melbourne, and "several Yorkshire people" called upon them. They opened their match campaign on New Year's Day, 1864, before 14,000 persons, of whom Mr Anderson says fully 4000 were ladies. Into the details of the tour it is unnecessary to enter; they are chronicled in the usual cricket records. Sufficient to say that sixteen games were played, all against Twenty-twos: ten being won, none lost, and six drawn. The diary shows that in one match at Dunedin "three of the Maces from Bedale played—viz., John, Christopher, and Henry."

  The tour in Australia was not without its excitement. There is an incident recorded in the diary relating to the voyage from Sydney to Melbourne:—

  April 7, 1864.—Went on board the Wonga Wonga for Melbourne about six. Great crowd on the wharf to see us off. Steamed quietly down the bay. When about six miles outside the "Heads" came in collision with a small sailing-vessel called the Viceroy, and sank her immediately. Saved her crew. A great deal of alarm on board our vessel, which was a good deal injured for'ard, and put back to Sydney, where our arrival caused much consternation.

  Mr Anderson added that the collision cost the team about .£300. They had signed an agreement to piay a match in a certain place in Australia, but they could not get there in time, and had to pay forfeit.

  On another occasion they had been playing at a place called Ararat. They were shown a black snake, 7 or 8 feet long, which had been killed the day before by a boy of fifteen years. The following night they went out 'possum-shooting, and Mr Anderson trod on a black-looking thing, 4 feet long, which shot up at the impact of the foot and struck him on the leg. He hurried to his host's house in mortal terror, fully believing that he had been bitten by a snake, but found there was no mark of a serpent's attentions. Subsequent search showed that he had trodden on an unoffending, black stick, "at which I was greatly relieved!"

  Asked as to the financial results of the Australian trip, Mr Anderson says: "We were guaranteed a certain amount. Whatever we could make beyond that was divided between ourselves and George Marshall, who was the agent over there. I think we each made about ^230 clear, after paying all expenses. I might just mention that they did not expect us to abandon cricket-matches to go to race-meetings." (An incident in the tour of a recent English team in Australia is evidently here referred to.)

  Turning to his own personal characteristics as a cricketer, Anderson remarks: "W. G. Grace has spoken of me as a punishing hitter, and I think that description is correct. The best thing I ever did in that way was at the Oval, though I don't think it has ever been specially referred to. In one innings of between 50 and 60 I made one 8, one 6, one 5, and four 4's. The hits were all run out; there were no overthrows. This innings was in the match North of England v. Surrey on August 4, 5, 1862. Mr Alcock has referred to my hit for 8 as the only one made in that number of runs. Doubts have been expressed as to the genuineness of this hit—that is to say, that the ball struck something as it was being thrown in. I do not remember that, but I do know that Carpenter and I were not so active as we were ten years before, otherwise more than 8 would have been run. I was in my thirty-seventh year at the time.

  "I may as well mention that the highest score I ever made was 165 against Dalton (Huddersfield) at Bedale. I was a hitter in front of point rather than behind. George Ulyett's style later and mine were very much the same. We were not in the habit of letting balls go by on the off-side, I can tell you. We used to like them, in fact. If we had stood at the wickets and allowed balls to go by as some modern batsmen do, we should have been hooted—and properly so.

  "The best bowlers of my day 1 When I began cricket they were—Hillyer, Mynn, Clark, Martingell, and Caffyn, and T. Box as wicket-keeper. George Parr was our 'A 1' bat. The bowling, of course, was all round-hand, except Clarke, who was slow under-hand. H. H. Stephenson was one of the most difficult bowlers for two or three seasons. He was very fast, but did not last. He used to take the wicket for us when Box left off. Poor old Box! he died quite suddenly on duty at the telegraph board at Prince's Ground, London.

  "Who was the best bowler I remember 1 That is very difficult to say. George Atkinson was the best fast medium bowler of his day. In my opinion George Freeman was the best fast bowler.

  "I played against W. G. Grace when he was sixteen years of age at Sheffield. I played with his father, and with E. M. Grace, also the eldest brother Harry, but I never played against G. F. I think the mother was a better player than the father. She was the only lady I ever saw who could throw a ball. She could throw one 6o or 70 yards, and do it well, too. I have seen her field the ball splendidly when we have been at practice.

  "What strange luck a cricketer may have! Why, old Fuller Pilch, the best bat of his day, once got five successive 'ducks.' I remember seeing him lying down quite out of heart, and saying in his despair, 'I feel I shall never get another run as long as I live.' It is not a nice thing to be out to the first ball in both innings, but I had that experience once. I believe it was at Stoke. Sometimes you think the ball is as big as a hay-stack, and that they cannot get you out, but you are dismissed without scoring; then you think you haven't a run in you, and you make 50. Ah, it's a queer game!

  "Now it is the practice to close the innings when thought fit. We did not do that. An old colleague of mine, Tom Adams, used to say that there was nothing like stopping in all day, and then wishing them good-bye. He died six years ago, over eighty years of age."

  Anderson received a "benefit" a few years ago. It was an unofficial match, but it had the support of Lord Hawke and all the Yorkshire team, and was a fair success. Asked how it was he did not get a benefit when playing with the county, Anderson explained: "It was on account of my declining to play against Surrey owing to the dispute about Willsher being no-balled. Several declined besides. I believe Roger Iddison did for one, and E. Stephenson, but they went back to the county, and each got a benefit. We had a suspicion that Jack Lillywhite had been prompted to no-ball Willsher beforehand, and we resented it strongly, and would not play against Surrey in consequence. I may say I had no illfeeling against the Yorkshire Committee, and whenever I saw a player worthy of notice I used generally to tell the authorities about him.

  "Bedale used to be a famous cricketing district. At one time we had four Bedale men playing for All England— Iddison, George Morton (a very good wicket-keeper), John Morton (who played once), and myself. Iddison went to Australia with the first team, taken by H. H. Stephenson; I went with the second. Bedale challenged all Yorkshire at one time, and Dalton took the challenge up."

  Mr Anderson has just mentioned George Morton, concerning whom an interesting fact may be added by the writer. The last ball that old William Clarke bowled obtained a wicket, with Morton's assistance. This was in the match All England v. Twenty-two of Whitehaven, with A. Crossland, Berry, and Hinkly, played at
Whitehaven on June 16, 17, 18, 1856. The batsman was J. Towerson, and his record in the first innings was "st Morton, b W. Clarke, o." Clarke was fifty-seven years of age at the time, and had played for 41 seasons.

  The Rev. R. E. Walker of Ledsham, South Milford, in a letter to the 'Yorkshire Post' on October 17 last, recounted the following incident, which shows the respect in which George Anderson is held by practical cricketers:—

  Three or four years ago I was playing in a match at Richmond, and George Anderson was umpiring. I was bowling at the time, and appealed for a catch at the wicket. George Anderson gave the batsman out. He retired, but with a very bad grace, being dissatisfied with the decision, and using somewhat strong language.

  At the end of the innings I went up to the discomfited batsman and said, "Do you know who the umpire is?" "No," he replied, "and I don't care, but he is a jolly bad one." "It's George Anderson," 1 replied. "What! George Anderson, who played for Yorkshire and All England?" "The very man," I said. "Then I was out," and he promptly went up to Anderson and apologised for what he had said in the field.

  In concluding this Talk with George Anderson, the writer must bear testimony to the marked esteem in which the veteran cricketer is held by his friends and neighbours in Bedale. In private and social intercourse the evidences of respect and affection for the famous Yorkshireman impressed the writer very much.

  IT is laid down in 'Badminton' that Mr David Buchanan has taken more wickets than anyliving man. It may be difficult to substantiate this claim, yet it is probably true. Mr Buchanan has seen forty years' service with the ball, he has taken nearly 300 wickets in one season, and, having regard to his length of service and constant success, the contention of 'Badminton' may be accepted without cavil. This, at anyrate, must be conceded—among amateur bowlers Mr Buchanan stands alone. No one can point to an equal period of uninterrupted success in first-class and other than mere local cricket. The present generation of cricketers know him by repute, if not all by experience, as the great teacher of the language of the ball. Many of them will admit that he was the first of their experience to make the ball talk.

  Mr Buchanan's career is unique in another sense. His great reputation was made as a slow left-arm bowler. But for eighteen years before adopting "slows" he was a fast bowler, and in the very match that he began the change which was to have such remarkable results he made a bail Hy 29 yards! It was a match between Rugby and ManChester on the Old Trafford Ground, on July n and 12, 1864. The Rugby bowling was collared in the second innings, and "by way of a change" Mr Buchanan altered his style to slow round-arm with so much success that he continued, perfected, and expounded it for twenty-two years afterwards!

  Not very long ago the columns of the English press revived the sad memories of an Alpine tragedy. The occasion was the recovery, in a wonderful state of preservation, of the body of Mr Arkwright, twenty-eight years after life had been crushed out of it in the unrelenting Alps. The victim of the tragedy—there were other victims, but no good purpose can be served by referring to them here—was indirectly the cause of Mr Buchanan's successful conversion from a fast to a slow bowler. Mr Buchanan shall tell why :—

  "In an England match at Manchester, with Carpenter and Hayward batting, I never bowled better, as a fast bowler, in my life. But I found that the better I bowled the easier they played me; and in a three-days' match that sort of thing takes it out of you. Then I remembered that Mr Arkwright used to get wickets with a great deal less exertion than I did, and that he got a lot of spin on the ball. I thought I had a pretty good command of the ball, and that if I only could get the confidence to bowl slow I felt certain I could do it. I did so, with results that are known. Of course I had to learn how to place my field. It is a long time to bowl eighteen years as a fast bowler alone, especially for an amateur, and in good matches; but I afterwards bowled for twenty-two years as a slow bowler—not unsuccessfully either, I think I may fairly say."

  There is a legend extant concerning Mr Buchanan's change of style that is too good to pass unrecorded. The story goes that when a "fast right-hand" bowler he had the misfortune to kill a batsman. He was so overwhelmed with remorse that he determined never to bowl fast again, and immediately changed his style to that of a "slow left-hand" bowler! As an effort of imagination this cricket legend is unsurpassed.

  Mr David Buchanan was born in Scotland on January 16, 1830. Lightly and sprightly does he carry his years. He resides, and has resided these thirty odd years past, at Northfield House, Rugby, under the shadow, as it were, of the school in which the foundation of his scholastic attainments was laid.

  "I was keen about cricket as a boy, and I recollect that in Scotland we had a club the entrance to which was 6d., and our practices took place at seven o'clock in the morning before we went to school. Cricket at that time had not taken hold in Scotland, the only club of importance being Perth, who had as their professional C. Lawrence. He was a Kent man, and a member of the first team of English cricketers that went to Australia in 1862. In 1847 I was at Rugby School, and played in the House matches. I was looked upon as a good bowler then, but was not appreciated at the school as I meant to be. Subsequently I went up to Clare College, Cambridge, and played in the 'Varsity match of 1850, taking 7 wickets. The match was not played at Lord's, but on Cowley Marsh. Unfortunately it was wet, and I having rheumatism in my shoulder did not bowl so well as I usually did. Cricket was not thought quite so much of in those days at the Universities as it is now. The match was not played until a fortnight after term. It was the same in 1851, and rather than kick my heels about waiting a fortnight for the match, I went home to Scotland and missed the encounter."

  Since 1854 Mr Buchanan has been connected with the Rugby Club. For over thirty years he was secretary, treasurer, and captain, and to-day he still discharges the duties of treasurer to the club. Of the famous touring organisation, the Free Foresters, he was for many years an active member. When he first played for the Gentlemen of England he was thirty-eight years of age. His initial match was played at the Oval on July 2, 3, 1868, and remains memorable to this day for a great innings of 165 played by the late Mr I. D. Walker. Mr Buchanan's debut was a success, for he took 9 wickets for 78 runs in the second innings. His record in Gentlemen v.Players at Lord's and the Oval from 1868 to 1874 inclusive is as follows:—

  From the year 1864 to 1881 he played in thirty-five matches for Gentlemen of England and Free Foresters v. the Universities at Oxford and Cambridge, his record being—

  It will be known to most cricket readers that Ephraim Lockwood was the first man on a Players' side to bat through an innings in the Gentlemen v. Players' matches. This he did in the match at the Oval in July 1874, scoring 67 not out of a total of only 115. Mr Buchanan played in that match, and he has the following interesting reminiscence of Lock, wood's performance:—

  "I have always quoted Lockwood's first innings in 1874, at both the Oval and Lord's (in the latter of which he made 70), as two of the greatest pieces of good fortune that ever befell a batsman in those, the two best matches of the year. In the first innings at the Oval, when only 23 runs had been scored, Lockwood hit one of the very easiest possible chances to Mr F. Townsend—the father of the present clever Gloucestershire cricketer—standing for me at cover-point. The catch was unfortunately treated with too much nonchalance, and fell to the ground, the result being that Lockwood carried his bat out for 67 runs, obtained afterwards in the best manner.

  "At Lord's, for the first and only time, Mr J. A. Bush kept wicket for me, and the second ball of the match, touched by Lockwood and passing a few inches from the top of the offstump, was not held. On that occasion Lockwood made 70 runs. So you see in those two innings he made 137 runs when, with ordinary luck, his wicket would have fallen to me for some 8 or 10 runs in one innings and a round o in the other!"

  The death, in September 1898, of the late Mr Walter Hadow, who a quarter of a century ago was one of the foremost batsmen" in England, recalled to Mr Buchanan's mind the fo
llowing remarkable circumstances:—

  "In 1S70, in the match Gentlemen of England v. Oxford University—Oxford winning the toss—the first 4 wickets fell to exactly similar balls, played at in exactly the same way. The batsmen ran out apparently with the intention of sending the ball into the next county, failed to reach it, and were easily stumped by 'Monty ' Turner, the ball on each occasion passing some four or five inches outside the top of the offstump. The score reads thus :—

  A. T. Fortescue, st Turner, b Buchanan . . 1

  W. H. Hadow, st Turner, b Buchanan ... 6

  C. J. Ottoway, not out ...... 24

  B. Pauncefote, st Turner, b Buchanan ... 0

  E. F. S. Tylecote, st Turner, b Buchanan . . 0

  Curiously enough, the first ball of the innings was a wide, one of three bowled by me in thirty-four of these matches v. Oxford and Cambridge, played for seventeen years in succession under the captaincy of the late Mr I. D. Walker. The batsmen, too, were all first-class cricketers, and in full practice."

  An experience which must be as unique in the history of cricket as Mr Buchanan's bowling services occurred to him in the Gentlemen v. Players' matches in 1872. He could not run a yard, and did not get a run in either match, yet he obtained a fair share of wickets, and not one of the thousands of onlookers knew that there was anything amiss with him. The experience will be best given in his own words:—

  "I had badly strained the tendon Achilles in a match v. I Zingari in 1867, in being suddenly called for a short run, and making a great effort. Had I then worn boots instead of shoes the accident would not have happened. A man over thirty should always wear boots. This mishap was a great trouble to me through the rest of my cricketing career. It prevented me from taking any part in the Gentlemen and Players' matches of 1870; and in 1872, after having accepted the invitations to play, I completely broke down a fortnight before the first match at Lord's. However, I determined to face it out, though I could not have run across the wicket for my life.