A Century of Philadelphia Cricket [Reprint 2016 ed.] 9781512803945

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A Century of PHILADELPHIA

CRICKET

J. B A R T O N KING

A Century of PHILADELPHIA

CRICKET

Edited by J O H N A. L E S T E R

Philadelphia UNIVERSITY

OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A

1951

PRESS

Copyright

1951

U N I V E R S I T Y OF PENNSYLVANIA Manufactured

in the United

States

of

PRESS

America

LONDON: GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Dedicated

to the memory of the NEVVHALLS

who established cricket in Philadelphia

Contents

Page

Illustrations Introduction Footnote on Philadelphia Cricket By Christopher Morley

ix xi xv

P A R T I . T H E O R I G I N AND D E V E L O P M E N T OF C R I C K E T IN P H I L A D E L P H I A Chapter

I. II. III.

IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI.

From the Beginning to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1861: T h e Wisters 1861-1872:The Newhalls and the International Matches of 1868 and 1872 Beginnings of Organization T h e Halifax Tournament, 1874; the American Cricketer, 1877 T h e Australians, 1878 T h e Constructive Decade, 1879-1889 Cricket in School and College T h e English T o u r of 1889 By Reynolds D. Brown Introductory Note by Percy H. Clark The Patterson Period, 1890-1897 T h e Clubs: Their Influence in the Formation of a Cricket Authority T h e T o u r of England in 1897 By Percy H. Clark T h e Angler By J. Barton King Introductory Note by John A. Lester vii

3 22 42

57 67 87 98 Ill 135 145 161

viii

Contents

Chapter

Page

XII. XIII. XIV. XV.

XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX.

Between the Tours, 1897-1903 169 T h e English T o u r of 1903 182 On the Plateau, 1903-1908 206 T h e T o u r of England in 1908 220 By C. C. Morris Introductory Note by John A. Lester Gradual Decline, 1909-1918 235 From 1919 to the Death of the American Cricketer, April, 1929 256 Keeping Up the Wickets During the Decline, 1930-1950 268 What of the Future? 282

P A R T I I . SIDELIGHTS AND R E M I N I S C E N C E S Chapter

Page

I. II. III. IV. V. VI.

VI I. VIII.

Cricket in Philadelphia, 1878-1884 By George Wharton Pepper Cricket Reminiscences of the Period 1885-1896 . . . . By Henry I. Brown T h e Manheim Grounds Fifty Years Ago By Percy H. Clark Some Reminiscences of Wicket-Keeping By J. Henry Scattergood English T o u r of the Germantown Cricket Club, 1911 . By W. P. O'Neill Germantown v. Belmont, 1900-1910-Fifteen Halifax Cup Duels By Percy H. Clark T h e T o u r of the Philadelphia Pilgrims in England, 1921 By W. P. O'Neill Curving with the Seam By Percy H. Clark

APPENDICES

A. B. C. D. E. F.

Halifax Cup, 1880-1926 Winners of the Childs Cups, 1880-1926 Canada v. United States, 1844-1912 Schools, Clubs, and Playing Grounds Philadelphia Professionals Intercollegiate Cricket Bibliography Index

295 307 312 319 325

333 342 360

PAGE

365 367 369 371 376 378 384 389

Illustrations

J. B A R T O N K I N G

Frontispiece

Page Map

FOUR C H I E F CLUBS

137

Graph

T A B L E OF FIXTURES

207

Plates (following page 398) 1

E A R L Y P H I L A D E L P H I A CRICKETER

2

A

3

VILLAGE CRICKET (By permission of

4

FIRST ENGLISH X I ΤΟ VISIT A M E R I C A , 1859

G A M E OF " W I C K E T , "

1821

5

M E R I O N C . C . A T ARDMORE

6

W I L L I A M R O T C H WISTER

7

FOUR N E W H A L L S

8

Y O U N G A M E R I C A , 1864

9

N I C E T O W N GROUNDS, 1865

Punch)

10

INTERNATIONAL M A T C H AT NICETOWN

11

P H I L A D E L P H I A X I , W I N N E R S OF THE INTERNATIONAL T O U R -

12

SCOTT BROTHERS

N A M E N T AT H A L I F A X ,

1874

13

H . MCGIVERIN

14

ESTATE OF THE H O N . O W E N JONES A T W Y N N E W O O D

15

P H I L A D E L P H I A C . C . A T ST. M A R T I N S

16

PHILADELPHIANS, ENGLISH T O U R , 1884

17

N I C E T O W N GROUNDS, 1875

18

PHILADELPHIANS, ENGLISH T O U R , 1889

19

INTERNATIONAL MATCH D A Y

20

R . D . BROWN ix

Illustrations

Χ Plates 21

W . G . G R A C E AND G . S. PATTERSON

22

P H I L A D E L P H I A S , ENGLISH T O U R ,

23

P H I L A D E L P H I A S V. L A N C A S H I R E A T O L D T R A F F O R D ,

24

M E R I O N C . C . A T HAVERFORD

25

G . S. P A T T E R S O N

26

P. H .

27

A N E L E V E N OF N E W H A L L S ,

28

C O P E FIELD, HAVERFORD COLLEGE

1897 1897

CLARK

29

T . C . JORDAN

30

J A . LESTER

31

A. M.

32

G . L . JESSOP

33

P. F. WARNER

1901

WOOD

34

P H I L A D E L P H I A S , ENGLISH T O U R ,

35

F. H .

BOHLEN

36

J· Η .

SCATTERGOOD

37

RANJITSINHJI'S X I ,

38

NORMAN

39

A . A . H I R S T , JR.

1903

1899

SEAGRAM

40

P H I L A D E L P H I A S V. P . F . W A R N E R ' S A T THE O V A L , 1903

41

W . P.

42

C . C . MORRIS

O'NEILL

43

U N I V E R S I T Y OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A ENGLISH T O U R , 1907

44

J. R .

CONYERS

45

Ε. M .

CREGAR

46

A T THE F A I R M O U N T C . C .

47

K . S. R A N J I T S I N H J I

48

PHILADELPHIA

PILGRIMS V. E T O N

RAMBLERS,

1921,

AI

OXFORD 49

P H I L A D E L P H I A S AND T H E R O Y A L ART ILLERY, A T W O O L WICH, 1908

Introduction

OR almost one hundred years the game of cricket was a distinctive element in the social life of Philadelphia. It is still played here and in many other places in the United States and Canada; and, if only for its unique emphasis on the ethics of sportsmanship, it is likely to continue. But with the coming of the automobile, and the increasing tempo of life, cricket declined in the first quarter of this century, and the place it held in the life of Philadelphians from 1880 to 1910 is likely to be forgotten. T o weigh that influence, the future historian of Philadelphia manners would have to work painfully through the files of the extinct American Cricketer if he were fortunate enough to find them intact. T h e opinion that a history of Philadelphia cricket was needed was first expressed in print in the summer of 1880. T w o years later a committee was appointed to undertake it. Subscriptions for the five-dollar volume were collected from 112 persons, but in 1888 the project was abandoned and the subscriptions returned. Again, in July 1927, a committee of thirteen prominent cricketers was entrusted with the same task, but this endeavor in turn failed even more promptly. In both instances the endeavor seems to have met the handicaps that clog any committee that undertakes to write a book. And yet the development of cricket in Philadelphia touched life

xii

Introduction

on so many sides, and contributed so m u c h to the early growth of outdoor sports for both m e n and women, that the construction of such a book as this seemed to b e a worthy task. At any rate, if worth doing at all, the task had to be u n d e r t a k e n now, while some of those still live who knew and helped to make the great era in Philadelphia cricket. T h e p r i m e movers in the making of A Century Cricket

oj

Philadelphia

were, fittingly enough, three players who were p r o m i n e n t

figures in the game when it reached its height in Philadelphia, and also the three men who, when the decline set in, strove hardest to arrest and reverse it. T h e y were Percy H . Clark, C. C. Morris, and VV. P. O ' N e i l l . T h e y and other cricketers have written those chapters whose authorship is specifically recorded. T h e rest of the book, including the seven appendices, is the work of the editor, and eiTors, which undoubtedly occur, should be scored against h i m . Some of the dangers we have been subject to are obvious. As our material began to a c c u m u l a t e it b e c a m e q u i t e clear that what the contributors, without exception, wished to do, was not so m u c h to record the history of the game as to recall the happiest m o m e n t s of their lives, when a match trembled in the balance and the gods helped them to tip the scales. Every cricketer respects such memories and lives in the light of them. S o m e reminiscences, like J o h n Nyren's of the H a m b l e d o n men, make priceless literature. A n d yet we were in jeopardy of making a book of nostalgia and persistent adolescence rooted in the far past, when Good Saint Patrick did the hat trick, And Nicodemus saved the follow-on. . . . and the editor's duty was to weave these recollections i n t o some sort of historical sequence, while preserving the values that exist uniquely in the personal stories of those who played a great part in the events they describe. B u t the story of Philadelphia cricket should record m o r e than this. D u r i n g the course of the century that closed in the thirties there have been at least fifty-five visits of foreign teams to o u r shores of sufficient importance to be recorded, and at least forty

Introduction

xiii

tours ol United States cricketers to "foreign" lands. In this count are neglected those casual pick-up elevens often assembled by some enthusiastic cricketer and taken across the border to play in various parts of Canada. There must have been, therefore, several thousand foreigners, most of them Englishmen or Australians, who visited the United States to play cricket during these hundred years, and some thousand Americans who journeyed to other lands for the same purpose. T h e inevitable by-product of cricket tours is the generation of friendships. Add to this body of fraternity among players the attitude of good will established in the hundreds of thousands of spectators at these international matches on both sides of the Atlantic who watched contests played out between the keenest of rivals with a constantly prevailing spirit of friendship and an instant acceptance of the umpire's decision, even when it was mistaken, and we have some conception of how cricket strengthened the ties of friendship between these two countries over the century since cricket began here. T h e picture of the United States that British travelers as a whole took home with them over this period has been drawn by Allan Nevins in his study of the writings of these observers, America Through British Eyes. T h e visitors, with notable exceptions like J o h n Bryce, breathe an atmosphere "prickly with resentment and suspicion." Now the visits of foreign cricket teams to Philadelphia began in 1859 with the coming of George Parr's eleven, and ended in 1924 with the visit of the Incogniti. T h o u g h we had a spat with the Australians in 1878, the record, speaking generally, is one of u n b r o k e n friendship and good will, and in this respect it is unique in the history of international athletic contests. "America through British eyes," when the eyes are those of cricketers, is a land of brotherhood, generosity, and friendship. T h a t tie has now been snapped, and with it a value has been lost. This book would like to be more than a record of the notable cricketing feats of the past; it would like to leave the reader with

xiv

Introduction

a sense of regret that we have allowed something so precious in life to decay, and with a desire to see that value restored. *

#

*

#

Every cricketer appealed to for help or information in the preparation of this volume has responded instantly and enthusiastically. Eight of them have contributed chapters; W. J . Hole, of the Fairmount Cricket Club, has supplied much information about cricket today in Philadelphia, and Horace M. Lippincott has made many helpful suggestions. T h e editor is especially conscious of a debt of gratitude to a large number of non-cricketers; among them Franklin Price, librarian of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and R . N. Williams 2nd, of the Philadelphia library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; to Frank S. Stone of Chestnut Hill; to Newton C. Brainard of Hartford, Connecticut, for information about the old Yankee game of wicket; and to E. A. Auty of Chicago, for many years author of the Cricket *

Annual. *

*

*

Christopher Morley is the one American writer who can handle cricket in the Nyren tradition. He was growing up in the Elizabethan Age of our cricket history, and later as a Rhodes scholar he was as truly an ambassador of friendship as any of our international elevens that played in England. At Oxford he must have felt what really binds the two nations together—those ties "light as air but strong as links of iron" which games like cricket can help to forge. T h e footnote that follows came to the editor like a little touch of Harry in the night.

Footnote on Philadelphia Cricket By

CHRISTOPHER

MORLEY

Roslyn Heights, Long Island, Ν. Y. March 15, 1951 Dear John: The best I can do—and a bit feverishly, I fear: your letter reached me in the final figuring of an income tax, and the prostration of a sweep of flu—is write you a footnote why I can't possibly do a preface for your Century of Philadelphia Cricket. It would sharply annoy the old experts and veterans on whose good will the book must count for support. They would inevitably think I had pushed myself in where I don't belong, and I wouldn't blame them. And Philadelphians can think of quite enough reasons for not buying a book without our putting fresh ones in their minds. I would be l.b.w. on the very first ball. For your sake, and for my own humble decency, I beg off. You see (since you force me to think back) cricket is to me a feeling, an idea, an emotion, a childhood memory; a noumenon if you wish; shadow-patterns on the wall of Plato's cave; and ideality never, for me, put to the touch of crude participation. I never played except in the childhood games after supper in front of Founders Hall. I know nothing about Philadelphia cricket; all I knew was what I saw as a child at Haverford, of which pars magna fuisti. It was an ideality which never came to the carborundum of the mill. Yes, I have watched cricket in later years; in village games in England and in Canada; I have known such screwball players as you mention—Sir James Barrie and Ε. V. Lucas—and have seen good old Sir Jack Squire, after too heavy a lunch of shepherd's pie and village Treble-X, fall on his face while making his absurdly long run to deliver his first ball. I think it was Jack Squire's country eleven that succeeded Barrie's in literary renown. I doubt if he ever bowled a maiden over! (I wish my income tax could say the same.) As I heard a Surrey spectator say, watching Sir Jack trudging over the shaggy meadow (fingers so hopefully curved and palpated on the red ball) "Oi blieve e'd do better if 'e wouldn't go so far down 'ill." I remember too the notice that used to flutter on the bulletin XV

xvi

Footnote

on Philadelphia

Cricket

board on Founders Porch: The following freshmen turn out tomorrow to Roll the Crease.— If I had the knowledge, or the impudence (dear John) I'd huirry to help roll your crease. But my cricket lore, however dear to mie, is entirely private. It includes the permanent vision of old Heinry Cope (class of '69, wasn't he?) for whom our immortal fieldl is named, and who used to stand endlessly under the great elm trrees watching every stroke. In those days there were still the old bencfhes discarded from the Meeting House, whitewashed for fifty years aind at last fell to pieces. When I was watching a cricket match at Haverford a year ago I suddenly realized that I, even I myself, (out of college forty years and whiskered, was of the same superannuation as the old Henry I remembered. There is certainly some psychic reason why cricket in Amerrica was born in Philadelphia, flourished, passed away, and now—in our instinctive hunger for some last remaining uncommercializzed sport—shows tender signs of revival. But I can't write about suuch things. Cricket to me is our adored old teacher Frank Gummeere, sitting on the front steps of 1 College Circle in those spring aftternoons of the first decade, and knowing—as he would know t the prosody of the Roman de la Rose—the snick, the click, the whaack, the crack, the slock, the knock, of every batsman's stroke, howv it sounded on the cunningly molded willow, and how much it vwas likely good for. And of all games ever invented, it is the game I for Philadelphians: if you don't think you can score, you don't haave to run. What a cricketer John Wanamaker might have been; bbut don't let me get frisky. Your distinguished memoirists know, better than I, the thirings that endear the game to me: the smell of grass, the creak of stra-aps on pads, the thud of running feet chasing a near-boundary. I haiave not forgotten that I was a mascot (in a very tiny scarlet-and-blalack blazer) in your own team of 1896 that played Cambridge U J n i versity; and I still remember the lissom and darkling Pirirince Ranjitsinhji, delicate and devilish at the bat as any of KipLinng's panthers. But, I repeat, I know cricket only as dream and pceetnry. For a hundred years cricket has been the only kind of poeietry Philadelphia has really approved. And all your p a r t i c i p a n t s —

Footnote

on Philadelphia

Cricket

xvii

Frankford, Germantown, Merion, and U. of P., and the o t h e r s were poets without knowing it. Isn't that the most delicious of all our dear old H o m e Town's achievements? Its greatest triumphs by accident. T h i n k of the different tunes and tones of the laminated willow (so severely wound with thread, so deeply and cunningly sprung with an autographed X X X X sheave, mostly from Birmingham?) and twirl the bat for chance; was it, they used to say, flat or round? I don't remember. But cricket was always to me just a notion, a love afloat. Those who actually played it, beautiful as they were (even bulging a bit in the midriff like some Scattergoods at the wicket, and how slick they were with their How's That's?) were the hardworking actors. I was, and I remain, and fade away into my pitiful silence, the unspoiled spectator. Speaking of Barrie, I always wondered how it was possible for him to handle a ball. I'm sure that cricket was just one of his island fancies. Did you ever see his hands? T i n y little dimpled clumps, like the puds of a little girl of ten. Whereas Ε. V. Lucas had great corned-beef lunch-hooks. But for both of them, as for Philadelphia in her reminiscence, cricket was a fairy tale. An excuse to get out into the afternoon air, the smell of maple-pollens, the gentle choreography of white pants in pattern on the turf, the batsman t h u m p i n g down some pimple of sod, the bowler waving his field into some fanciful expertise (like income tax inspectors), the umpires in their long white surplices—these are what spectators, like professors of literature, can relish and sizzle in their membranes. T h e s e are part of cricket, and part of Philadelphia. A n d so, to have been born, by chance, into cricket's Golden Age at Haverford, in the 90's, was like having been born among the dramatists of Elizabeth the Queen (in the 1590's) or among the Wordsworth-Coleridge-Yarnalls (of the 1790's). It was being born into something beautiful and unique. In my childhood (which seems to have lasted too long) a Lester, or a Scattergood, or a Hal Furness (to mention one of my own era whose mild and wary art was perfect) made drives, or cuts, or slices, or even unforgivable slogs, that were like Elizabethan sonneteers hoisting an Amoretto cleair across Maple Avenue.

xviii

Footnote

on Philadelphia

Cricket

I love to think of the story of H e n r y Pleasants, who, thrilled beyond belief to play against Sir A r t h u r C o n a n Doyle at Lord's (1904, was it?) had two chances for a catch—and d r o p p e d t h e m b o t h . H e n r y was too gentlemanly to a d m i t the t r u t h ; he allowed Sir A r t h u r to think that reverence for Sherlock and Watson had u n n e r v e d h i m . Actually, he had a p a i n f u l blood-poison in his h a n d . If it had b e e n basketball of 1951, what might we have thought? I have one tangible souvenir of what Quiller-Couch, or maybe A n d r e w Lang, called "sweet hours, and the fleetest of time." W h e n the old batting-shed was gently collapsing—it stood deserted for years, a b a f t the Library, in a sort of tropic j u n g l e of overgrown sumacs; like one of the Malayan bungalows where Mr. Somerset M a u g h a m p u t s his p o o r pukka-sahibs t h r o u g h such psychosomatic despairs, his District Officers with outwashed shorts and their m e m sahibs with such p r e s h r u n k e n tempers—I picked u p an ancient forgotten cricket-ball; a b i t sideswiped in shape, as though once smitten by a Baily or a Biddlebanks, or a G u m m e r e or a C o m f o r t , of ancient kindlier time. I k e e p it in a mug, an empty mug, on top of a bookcase. M o r e intellectual sensualists would have plastei busts of H o m e r or Halitosis, the classical warnings; b u t that head of an Amazon victim, almost indeed like the parched w a l n u t of p o o r glorious little Sir J a m e s Barrie's suffering skull, is what 1 sometimes look at. I keep it in the same m u g with an old dusty a n d equally defeated battle flag of the Confederacy. My only honesty is that I was always the first to a d m i t defeat. So h e r e is the ball that was never hit, in the game that was never played, in the story that will never be written. So you see now (dear J o h n ) because the collector is at the door, why I can't write. If you w a n t to use this as a footnote to your own personal chapter, pray d o so; b u t not as a Preface. I love Philadelphia, and cricket, m o r e t h a n they love themselves. But I love them, as (God h e l p h i m ) the artist only can, a p a t t e r n of incidental, and exquisite, a n d simply perfect beauty. Only Philadelphia, which has these r h y t h m s in its heart unawares, can guess what we are talking a b o u t . So N i g h t now. CHRISTOPHER

PART I

The Origin and Development of Cricket in Philadelphia

CHAPTER

I

From the Beginning to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1861: The Wisters

ART ι of this book proposes to trace the rise and decline of cricket in Philadelphia in a consecutive and uninterrupted narrative; to describe the wood rather than each tree. Many details have necessarily been omitted; but where that is obvious, reference is made to the chapters in Part II where they are supplied. Part II contains the invaluable reminiscences of various cricketers who helped to make Philadelphia the center of cricket on this continent, and the more detailed treatment of some of the influences involved, which could not be included in Part I without impeding or diverting the current of the story. By what criterion are we to judge rise and fall in cricket? One touchstone might be its popularity as shown by the number of spectators; another by the amount of cricket played; a third by the relative importance of cricket as compared with other sports fostered by the big clubs; a fourth by the number of active cricket clubs in the Philadelphia area at any given time. The criterion chosen is none of these. It is rather the quality of the cricket played. There would be little justification for telling this story at all if the game in Philadelphia had not approximated the standard of first-class cricket. In the period we are dealing with that standard existed only in England and Australia. T h e best way to appraise the quality of Philadelphia cricket at any time is,

P

3

4

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

therefore, to observe it in action against first-class English or Australian teams, at h o m e or a b r o a d . As to the a m o u n t of cricket played, that can best be seen f r o m the chart of "fixtures" on page 207, a n d some idea of the e x t e n t a n d d i s t r i b u t i o n of the cricket clubs in the P h i l a d e l p h i a district can be o b t a i n e d f r o m the m a p facing page 138. All evidence w o u l d seem to indicate that whatever criterion is chosen for the rise a n d fall of cricket in Philadelphia, its g r a p h would a p p r o x i m a t e the line d r a w n on the chart on page 207. B u t it is in the light of its quality that cricket is seen rising and falling in Part I; consequently, a good deal of p r o m i n e n c e is given to the international matches in which o u r representatives were engaged. It is recorded that a b o u t the year 1301, Edward II, t h e n Prince of Wales, played creaget at Westminster. W h a t the g a m e was is not k n o w n , n o r what was the n a t u r e of the cricket that the boys of the G u i l f o r d Free School were playing a b o u t 1550. Oliver C r o m w e l l is said to have been " f a m o u s for football, cricket, cudgelling a n d wrestling," b u t this may be just royalist propaganda, like calling h i m a C o m m u n i s t . But we do k n o w that the first c o u n t y match recorded is L o n d o n e r s v. T h e Kentish M e n in 1719, o n the f a m o u s g r o u n d s of the Royal Artillery, where several P h i l a d e l p h i a teams have played; and the first cricket game for which the full score is preserved is Kent v. All E n g l a n d in 1744. It was just a b o u t this time t h a t cricket began to a p p e a r in America. T h e first m e n t i o n of it seems to come f r o m Georgia in 1737, in a statement f r o m the p l a n t e r , W i l l i a m Stephens: Many of our T o w n s m e n , Freeholders, Inmates and Servants were assembled in the principal Square, at Cricket and divers other athletick Sports. 1

Stephens knew the game when he saw it, for he had been educated at W i n c h e s t e r a n d C a m b r i d g e . N e x t in time is the m e n t i o n in the Gazette and Weekly Post Boy of N e w York, r e p o r t i n g a m a t c h played there in 1751 between eleven L o n d o n e r s a n d eleven New Yorkers, a n d won by the natives, 80 a n d 86 against 43 a n d 47; a n d in t h e forties the g a m e seems to have been played n e a r w h e r e the ι A Journal

of the Proceedings

in Georgia, II, 217.

From Beginning to the Civil War

5

Fulton Market afterward stood. About the same time cricket was played in Maryland, for there is a notice in Bradford's Journal for August 1, 1754. YVe hear that there is to be a great cricket match for a good sum played on Saturday next, near Mr. Aaron Rawling's Spring, between eleven young men of this city Annapolis and the same number from Prince George's County.

This was eighty years before the first recorded match in Canada, the game between Guelph and Toronto in 1834, at Hamilton, Ontario. Benjamin Franklin was sufficiently interested in the game to bring back with him from England a copy of the laws of cricket, for it was this very copy which was presented to the Young America Club by Miss Mary D. Fox on June 4, 1867. In the archives of the Boston Cricket Club is a pamphlet bearing date May 1, 1809, containing the "Bye-Laws for the Government of the Boston Cricket Club," and the laws of the game adopted by the Marylebone Cricket Club in London. There is no provision for bats and balls, but strict injunctions to the governors to see to it that an ample supply of refreshments is provided. Cricket was certainly known in Boston as early as 1790, for John Adams, then Vice-President of the United States, speaking in the debate about the choice of an appropriate name for the chief officer of the United States, declared that "there were presidents of fire companies and of a cricket club." In the last half of the eighteenth century a number of new cricket clubs must have been formed in New York, for there is an advertisement of "bats and balls to sell" addressed " T o the Cricket Clubs," in the New York Independent Journal for April 19, 1786. And by 1794 the New York Cricket Club was meeting regularly, usually at 6 o'clock at Batten's Tavern. On June 16, 1820, eleven English cricketers played eleven New Yorkers at Brooklyn in a match lasting two days. In South Carolina, too, the game seems to have been well-known before the earliest authentic records of it in Philadelphia. The Southern Patriot of Charleston, under date of January 23, 1821, carries this notice:

6

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

T h e members of the old cricket club are requested to attend a meeting at the Carolina Coffee House tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock on business. T h e business appears to which began at the race O t h e r early references taken with reservations. A notice appeared in reading as follows:

have been the arrangement of a match, course on January 26. to cricket in the United States must be the Connecticut

Courant

in May, 1767,

Fifteen Young Men, on the South-Side of the Great Bridge hereby challenge an equal Number on the North-Side said Bridge, to play a game of cricket the Day after the Election, to meet about I X o'Clock, Forenoon, in Cooper Lane, and then and there to agree on Terms, & appoint proper Judges to see Fair-Play; and on May 30, 1767, another news item in the same paper reads: Whereas a Challenge was given by Fifteen Men South of the Great Bridge in Hartford, to an equal Number North of said Bridge, to play a game at Cricket the Day after the Election—the Public are hereby inform'd that the Challenged beat the Challengers by a great majority. And said North side hereby acquaint the South Side, that they are not afraid to meet them with any Number they shall chuse, and give them not only the Liberty of picking their men among themselves but also the best Players both in the West-Division and Weathersfield. Witness our Hands (in the name of the whole Company). William Pratt, Niell McLean, jun. T h e previous year, as the columns of the Connecticut Courant for May 5, 1766, show, a similar challenge had been issued: A Challenge is hereby given by the Subscribers, to Ashbel Steel, and John Barnard, with 18 young Gentlemen, South of the Great Bridge, in this town, to play a Game at B O W L for a Dinner and Trimmings, with an equal Number, North of said Bridge, on Friday next. William Pratt, Daniel Olcott. Ν. B. If they accept the Challenge, they are desired to meet us at the Court-House, by 9 o'Clock in the Morning. W h o picked up the challenge in this instance, and who won the " D i n n e r with T r i m m i n g s " does not appear. B u t we read on page

From Beginning

to the Civil War

7

113 of Edward Oliphant's History of America, published in Edinbcrough in 1800, the amazing statement— T h e a t h l e t i c a n d h e a l t h y diversions of cricket, football, etc. . . . are universally p r a c t i c e d in this c o u n t r y .

and in a poem of William Cromwell, referring to the years 1818-22, when he was a student at Yale, there occur the lines: And on the green and easy slope where those proud columns stand, In Dorian mood, with academe and temple on each hand, The football and the cricket match upon my vision rise, With all the clouds of classic dust kicked in each other's eyes. Oliphant's statement reads like something from Sir John Maundeville's Travels, and it is doubtful if the cricket challenges sprayed upon the pages of the Connecticut Courant before the United States was born, or what Cromwell was describing in 1818, really refer to the English game. We do know that cricket was played later at Yale, and that Harvard beat them in 1891. Then what game was meant when the challengers used the words "Game at Bowl" and "Game at Cricket?" It was almost certainly the ancient sport of wicket, long popular in Connecticut, played as late as 1903, and centered in Bristol. This opinion is fortified by Belden's statement in Sketches of Yale College, published in 1843: Were it spring or autumn you should see a brave set-to at football on the green, or a brisk game of wicket. This is not the place to examine the puzzling question of the origin of wicket, or its connection with cricket. In a study2 prepared for the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars, George D. Seymour declares that wicket was "essentially the noble old English game of cricket." If so it was cricket with a difference. Wicket was usually played with thirty to thirty-five on a side in an alley seventy-five feet long, with bats shaped like over-sized tennis rackets but made of solid basswood or white willow, a hard hand-made ball the size of a baseball soft-ball, and wickets six feet long and four inches 2 The Old-time

Game of Wicket and Some Old-time Wicket

Players.

8

A Century of Philadelphia

Cricket

high. The turf-bred cricketer must regard with dismay an alley where dust, however classic, may be kicked into the batsmen's eyes. What is important to notice here is that the game of wicket, whether it came into being as a mutation from stool-ball or was a clean-cut Yankee invention, existed in Connecticut before the earliest recorded evidence of cricket. Under date of March 15, 1725, Judge Samuel Sewall noted in his diary: Sam Hirst got up betimes in the morning, and took Ben Swett with him and went into the [Boston] Common to play at wicket. [Sam did it again on March 17]. . . . So I told him he could not lodge here practicing thus. So he lodged elsewhere. Sam Hirst graduated from Harvard in 1723, and Judge Sewall was his grandfather. This is one reason for devoting space to a game that was not cricket—that it seems to have been played in America earlier than cricket. T h e second is that it resembled the English game in a certain important particular. When Bristol played New Britain at wicket for the championship of the state before four thousand spectators in 1859, the Hartford Press reported that there prevailed "the most remarkable order throughout, and the contestants treated each other with faultless courtesy"; and when in 1880 Bristol was again playing an important match away from home, the newspaper reported next day that what was most striking in the contest "was the entire absence of the spirit of partisan malice, of continuous disputing and quarreling which is frequent at local contests on the ball field." Against whom was Bristol playing? Brooklyn. Where? At Brooklyn. The newspaper? The Brooklyn Eagle! A cricketer's heart warms at the action of Sam Hirst, who sacrificed a free ticket under his grandfather's roof and "lodged elsewhere" rather than give up the game he loved. It explains the devotion to the game of wicket-players still living in Bristol, whose team was never beaten so long as wicket was played. And that devotion seems to have sprung from something the two games had in common—the obligation imposed on all who play to observe the highest standard of sportsmanship. For the story of the earliest cricket in Philadelphia, this chapter

From Beginning

to the Civil War

9

leans heavily, and without f u r t h e r acknowledgment in detail, on a very rare little book published in 1904, entitled Some Reminiscences of Cricket in Philadelphia before 1861, by William Rotch Wister. Many years before the publication of these reminiscences the members of the Young America Club used to speak ol W. R. Wister as "the father of cricket," but that was before he let Iiis beard grow. As time wore on without any withering of Wister's enthusiasm, he was known as "the grandfather of cricket." We of the next generation can just remember William Rotch Wister, the genial, sparkling, lovable Philadelphia gentleman, who seemed to encase within his own personality all the virtues of the game. Let him introduce himself: The first cricket I ever saw was on a field near Logan Station on the Old York Road, about the year 1842. The hosiery weavers at Wakefield Mills near by had formed a club under the leadership of Lindley Fisher, a Haverford cricketer. This club was in the habit of playing a "full match" on Whitmonday and other holidays, and occasionally on Saturday afternoons. Here I played my first game, my brother John, afterwards prominent in cricket, also taking part. We had played Town Ball, the forerunner of the baseball of today, at Germantown Academy, and our handling of the ball was appreciated by the Englishmen, who were glad to have us play with them. There were some tolerable cricketers among those weavers, and their best bat, Joe Bickerstaff, once made 130 not out. Wister on the field is described by those who played with him as a "conversational cricketer." H e was a gusty, chirruping captain who urged on his men with cries of encouragement, side remarks, quips, and cracks. His friend and playmate, Dr. Charles E. Cadwalader, remembered late in life the peculiar piercing yell with which Rotch would announce his charge down the wicket for a short run. But before we proceed with Wister's reminiscences, it is necessary to note what progress the game had made in England between that first fully recorded match of 1744, Kent v. All England, and the year 1831, when the first evidences of our own cricket begin. For the stimulus felt in Philadelphia in the thirties and forties came directly f r o m the Hambledon Club, the cricket club of a little village in the Hampshire Downs, which, drawing in the talent

10

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

from the farms around, assembled and trained an eleven able for forty years to play All England on equal terms. In recent years Broad Halfpenny Down, where the Hambledon Club played, has become a national shrine for cricketers. It has been purchased and used as a cricket field by Winchester School, twenty-five miles away, and more recently there was a replica of the old Hambledon v. All England match there, in which Jessup, Jephson, the old Surrey captain, C. B. Fry, and other great players of the past took part. It is pleasant to note that Hambledon won by 5 wickets. T o illuminate this period we have the matchless classic of cricket literature, John Nyren's The Young Cricketer's Tutor . . . to which is added The Cricketers of My Time, now available in the edition of Ε. V. Lucas. John Nyren was the son of the famous Richard Nyren, the head and right hand of the club. J o h n was a local, self-educated Hambledonian, a player on the eleven; but he was also a musician, a natural philosopher, and a friend of very intelligent men, among them the musician Vincent Novello, in whose rooms he met such men as Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, and Cowden Clarke, who took down his immortal reminiscences. In them we scan the rapidly sketched portraits of those great early players who developed cricket from the rough game of the 1740's—fast underhand bowling, bats sweeping in the form of a volute at the front and end and useless for defense, bumping grounds, black and blue ribs, and bleeding knuckles—to the game that we know today. For William Beldham, "Silver Billy," the most venomous hitter in England and last surviving member of the Hambledon Club, lived until 1862, and that was five years after W. G. Grace, at the age of nine, had played in his first match, for West Gloucester v. Bedminster. And we who still survive remember the grand old bear, grizzled and stiff at the knees, but his claws still sharp in 1911. By the middle of the last century the game of cricket, indigenous to the short firm turf of the southern downs, had taken root in the great centers of industry to the north, and it is with them rather than with southern England that our first cricket connections were made. In the early forties, says Wister, "most of the players in Germantown were Nottingham men." T h e first foreign team

From Beginning

to the Civil War

11

to play in Philadelphia was led by a Notts player, the redoubtable George Parr, "the Lion of the North," and the St. George's C l u b of New York went to Sheffield in Yorkshire for its groundsman and professional—Sammy Wright, father of Harry and George, famous in baseball, and grandfather of Beals Wright, famous in tennis. Such had been the sequence of events here and abroad up to the beginnings of Wister's story. T h e first cricket club of entirely native-born American youth was founded at Haverford College. In a manuscript diary kept by an unknown student during the first two years of the existence of the college, under the date of 1834, occurs this entry: About this time a new game was introduced among the students, called Cricket. The school was shortly divided into several clubs or associations, each of which was provided with the necessary instruments for playing the game. These boys had not seen cricket before. It was to them "a new game." Whence came this sudden impulse to play it? Wister graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1846, and Dr. Henry Hartshorne, another cricketer, and one of the compilers of The History of Haverford College (1892), graduated from Haverford in 1839. They concur in attributing this stimulus to the enthusiast, William Carvill, the English gardener engaged at the time in landscaping the college grounds, even though the first mention of William Carvill as gardener in the minutes of the Board of Managers does not occur until the a u t u m n of 1842. T h a t was the year in which Wister saw his first cricket. T h o s e who played it were English workers in the Wakefield Mills who had been organized into a club by Lindley Fisher, a cricketer who had learned the game at Haverford College. So that the game had become well-established at Haverford College before Wister's reminiscences begin. T h e College was closed in 1845. W h e n it reopened in 1848, cricket sprang u p again under the leadership of an English tutor in Dr. Lyons' school nearby. T w o cricket clubs, the Delian and the Lycaean, were formed, and then a third, the Dorian. In 1882 the Dorian became the Haverford College Cricket Club, which

12

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

still plays a number of matches each spring, and is the only cricket club on this side of the Atlantic that has been in continuous active existence since 1834, except for the interruptions of war and the closing of the College. Among these first Philadelphia cricketers were Edward Bettle, Jr., Henry Bettle, Horace G. Lippincott, Dr. J . Dickinson Logan, Dr. Henry Hartshorne, Lindley Fisher, Charles William Fisher, Frederick Collins, and Charles L. Sharpless. T h e bats and balls were of home manufacture, wickets were pitched on "private" club creases staked out wherever the college lawns were smoothest, all bowling was underhand, and the cricket must have been poor enough. But it flourished; about 1838 no less than nine matches were played between picked teams of students. But what was "a new game" to these Haverford boys had been played in Philadelphia years before the college clubs were formed. A tradition persists that during the Revolutionary War games of cricket were played on the ground at the rear of the Germantown Academy, but diligent inquiry at the school fails to provide any evidence for it. But proof that cricket was played in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century, at least by the young, is provided by the figure of the little boy with the old-fashioned bat among the illustrations in this volume. T h i s is part of the engraving entitled "Back of the State House, Philadelphia," in the series of twentyeight plates of the City of Philadelphia drawn and engraved by W. Birch and Son, and published in 1800. T h e State House is now known as Independence Hall. We do know that in 1831 the Union Club, composed of Englishmen, was playing on the ground of George Tichnor on the west bank of the Schuylkill, below Fairmount Bridge. It was handy to Harding's Tavern at Callowhill Bridge—"Hold Ardin's Hinn," as it was called. George, John, Robert, and Prior T i c h n o r were of the party, as were also Thomas Facon, Joseph Nicholls, William Richardson, and Francis Blackburne. Later Wister played with these men on the Union Club ground in Camden. T h i s may fairly be called the pioneer club of Philadelphia, because it was the first to possess grounds leveled and turfed specifically for the playing of cricket. T h e moving spirit seems to have

From

Beginning

to the Civil

War

13

been Robert Waller, an English importing merchant and slow round-arm bowler, who later moved to New York and, with W. P. Pickering of Montreal, arranged for the visit of the first English cricket team to America, in 1859. T h e Union Club eleven played first and second team home-and-home matches with the St. George's Club of New York and the S u r Club of Brooklyn, founded in 1843. Cricket matches were beginning to attract special gatherings. T h e following, perhaps the oldest extant invitation to a cricket match in this country, recalls the era when imposing residences lined Front Street, and looked out over the Delaware at Camden— UNION CRICKET CLUB, PHILADELPHIA The honor of Mrs. E. S. Sayres and Party's company is requested to witness the return match with the New York Club, at the Cricket Ground in Camden, N. J., on Monday, October 9, 1843, from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Committee

Robert Waller Theo Η. Knight.

O. P. Blackburne J. M. Sanderson

Dr. J o h n K. Mitchell, Robert Waller, and others soon became convinced that if cricket was going to thrive, it would have to cast its roots among the younger generation. Wister, then a student at the University of Pennsylvania, was naturally their man. T h e J u n i o r Cricket Club was formed at the University in 1842, and to them the Union C l u b rented their house and grounds on one afternoon a week for the sum of fifty dollars a year. T h e juniors went right to work; they engaged William M. Bradshaw as coach, and practiced d u r i n g the winter months at Barrett's Gymnasium, then in the Arcade on Chestnut Street above Sixth. Meanwhile, Wister's brother, John, probably the first of the Wister boys to drive a stump into his father's pasture at "Belfield," had formed the "Germantown Cricket Club, not the great club organized later," b u t a playing fellowship of Germantown schoolboys, strong enough to win their share of matches played with the J u n i o r Club in the years 1843-45. Wister writes: T h e first of these matches was played at Mr. Coleman Fisher's place on Manheim Street, the umpires being Bradshaw in a duster under an

14

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

umbrella, and Thomas Brooks. A number of ladies and gentlemen had come to see; and my father remarked that the only sensible person on the grounds was Bradshaw under his umbrella. T h e j i b e was typical of father Wister. B u t the point is that he was there watching. T h o u g h he called cricket, played by all six of his sons, "that most monstrous of games," he came to see them play, and danced with joy when they won. Nonetheless, these growls from the great-grandfather of American cricket voiced the feelings of most Philadelphia parents. T o the adult generation cricket was one of the brightest of the primrose paths to the everlasting bonfire; and it may well be that the zest of these youngsters in forming and running their own playing clubs was spiced with the consciousness that they felt themselves to be the bold young bootleggers of sport. W e find Wister, under date of 1845, sighing rather wistfully: At that time in Philadelphia all field sports were looked down upon by our elders, and they neither aided nor abetted us in our cricketing, nor did the ladies smile upon our endeavors. T h e smiles seem to have been reserved for Bradshaw under his umbrella. In the sixties and seventies prominent Friends urged Haverford College to forbid cricket matches with other colleges; and Congdon, the best college bowler, was forbidden by the faculty to represent the Philadelphians against Willsher's team in 1868. Whence came this suspicion of cricket as a tainted sport? Well, the spot in England that up to 1780 bred the greatest ol cricketers, also grew the finest of hops. J o h n Nyren commends Hambledon ale almost as highly as he praises the Hambledon eleven, and J o h n ought to know, because his father kept the " B a t and Ball," where the team dined after practice. Cricket matches and malt liquors have always gone together, and the first laws of the game were codified at the "Star and Garter." Nyren, writing of 1833 as compared with the great days of the youth of the club, notes that the quality of ale and cricket had been declining hand in hand. It was natural that T o m Senior, the best bowler of the Wister period, should also have been host of the "Cricketer's Arms" on Bank Street. T h i s tavern and the old Star Hotel, which

From Beginning

to the Civil War

15

stood on Germantown Avenue opposite Wister Street, appear to have been the social centers of the English cricketers in the neighborhood. William Jarvis was host at the Star, and captain of the Star Cricket Club, which he organized at his hotel in 1854. Philadelphia parents had got to the leeward of the lunchroom and sniffed danger. It was a real one. But the cricket traditions that came from the Hambledon era were clouded with a taint far more serious. Cricket grew to maturity in the fifty years preceding the first Reform Bill, when the standard of morals in parliament, on the bench, and in sport, was at its lowest. Big matches were played for stakes. Amateur players and patrons were out for the money, and Lord Frederick Beauclerk thought it a poor season when he did not clear £600 in bets. One can hardly imagine bookmakers shouting the odds in front of the pavilion at Lord's, as they did when the Marylebone Cricket Club was opened in 1787. T h e scandals that clouded the game at this time, when matches were bought and sold, were darker than any that the history of baseball can show. In the match of 1817 between the Marylebone Cricket Club and Nottingham, both sides had been bribed to throw the game; and William Beldham, whose life overlapped Grace's cricket career, declared in his old age that he would prevent any son of his from taking up the game because of its villainy. That was twenty years after Wister organized his juniors. There is a record that on July 26, 1796, "the Westminster Scholars beat the Eton Scholars on Hounslow Heath for 100 guineas a side." Though the game as it came to us in the forties smelled of the pub and the betting ring, there is no record of a representative Philadelphia cricket team ever playing for a money stake. Indeed Henry Chadwick states in his American Cricket Manual for 1873 that the only match for money ever played in this country was the game between New York and Long Island on October 22 and 23, 1838, for $400. But the Philadelphia Public Ledger for November 1, 1841, carried an advertisement from the Wakefield Mills Cricket Club challenging "the best eleven in the city to play two home-and-home games for from $50 to $100." And again, in 1844, the Toronto Cricket Club, on behalf of Canada, threw down a challenge to any team in the United

16

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

States to play for $1,000. T h e gage was picked up by the St. George's Club of New York, and Philadelphia was represented on the side that lost the two-day match by 23 runs. T o m Senior, landlord of the Cricketer s Arms, and at the time the best bowler in Philadelphia and coach of the eldest Newhall, challenged any two cricketers in America to meet him and Crossley at single wicket for $100 a side. William Wilby of New York and Hallis of Newark, both of whom bowled against Parr in 1859, accepted the challenge. T h e match was played and T o m carried the swag back with him to the "Cricketer's Arms.'' T h e game was in bad odor in the forties. All honor, then, to men like Dr. J . K. Mitchell, who put up a bat for the highest scorer in a match between two junior elevens. And let us acknowledge the good sense of the "fathers of American cricket" when, as George Newhall tells us, in order " t o keep the doings of these aspiring young players in the dubious English sport in plain view," they opened up their spacious lawns and orchards to the youngsters who later became the Young America Club. It is pleasant to remember that in the very years when under the blossoming plum trees of Gloucester, the Graces were practicing their strokes with the keen eye of that exacting coach, their mother, upon them, the young Wisters were playing under the apple trees at "Belfteld," and the Newhalls on the wide sweep of lawn at Walnut Cottage. T h e founding of the Philadelphia Cricket Club at a meeting in Mr. Wister s office in Philadelphia on February 10, 1854, and the Germantown Cricket Club on August 1, 1854, were notable events in American cricket, and gave an immediate stimulus to these younger players. It was at William Wister's house that the Young America Club was founded in 1855, and according to the author of the Reminiscences, from then on, up to the time when it merged with the Germantown Cricket Club in 1890, it was a powerful organization, able to put a strong first eleven into the field, with an excellent second, and a very respectable third. When the older players left for the front during the War between the States, it was the younger players in Young America who kept the game alive in Philadelphia. They were popular with

From Beginning

to the Civil War

17

young and old, a n d their matches well attended. T h e i r strongest players were Charles, H a r r y , Daniel and George Newhall; E. VV. a n d Joseph Clark; and they could turn out an eleven able to cope with any a m a t e u r team in the U n i t e d States.

Though interclub cricket in Philadelphia was not regularly organized until twenty years later, Wister prints the scores of a number of games played shortly before the Civil War between the Philadelphia clubs then in existence, between the United States and Canada, Philadelphia and New York, and between American and English residents. One of the games he records is the match of August 25, 1859, between " T h e Families" and the Germantown Club. The Families eleven, consisting of six Wisters and five Newhalls, won by 4 wickets, mainly because of a resolute innings of 45 not out, by Walter Newhall. It is recorded that the entire "Families" eleven were in the Army of the Republic at the same time. And Walter never came back alive. Wister observes that most of the matches of 1859 were regarded as practice for the coming game against the Englishmen in September. For W. C. Pickering of Montreal and Robert Waller of St. George's Club of New York had arranged with Messrs. Parr and Wisden for the visit of an All England eleven of professional players to Canada and the United States in that month. There were twelve Englishmen in the party that embarked for Montreal at Liverpool on September 6, 1859, in the little Nova Scotian, powered by wind and steam. T h e twelfth was Fred Lillywhite, scorer and statistician, who wrote and published the quaint little book about the tour. Fred tells us that the passage was a rough one. Before they lost sight of Ireland John Lillywhite and Jackson were busy casting up their accounts, Caffyn was sighing for Reigate, and Stephenson longing for a burial at sea. T h e woodcuts of the cricketers in the smoking room awash in salt water, or in the dining room mingled with crockery, are a comment on ocean traveling a hundred years ago. Indeed there was a pioneer element in this, the first cricket invasion of America. Captain Borland missed the Straits of Belle Isle by one hundred miles, and made up to the end of White Bay in Newfoundland thinking he was sailing the St. Lawrence. He

18

A Century of Philadelphia

Cricket

fetched up only when dry land blocked his further progress westward. But at least the sea was calm, and the cricketers thought it "a delightful excursion," even though it lost one hundred forty miles and fourteen hours. And they had their hardships on land. There is a picture of the cricketers trying to keep warm while their train is stalled in a snowstorm. At Rochester they fielded in "muffs and greatcoats." With a strange lack of forethought an extra match there had been arranged for late October. Since this was the first cricket eleven to leave England for a tour abroad, and Richard Daft in 1893 considered it as strong as any that had ever left England, we ought to note the characteristics of its chief players. The captain, George Parr, "the Lion of the North," was generally accepted as the best batsman in England—a terrific hitter. In each of the seasons of 1850, 1851, 1852, and 1855, Parr had scored over one thousand runs in first-class cricket. But he batted only twice in America. In an exhibition game between mixed sides in New York, Jackson, the English fast bowler, hit him on the elbow and disabled him for the rest of the tour. Cafiyn and Julius Caesar (that was his name), were two of the best all-round men in England; John Wisden, the "pendulum player" (from the way he swung his bat) one of the best living all-round players; Tom Lockyer was, in Daft's words, "the finest wicket-keeper the world ever knew"; Jackson was one of the best fast bowlers; Grundy, medium-paced, could drop them on a cheese plate; and Η. H. Stephenson was a grand bowler and equally fine batsman. It may be added he was also a sterling character, long cricket coach at Uppingham School, where the present writer had a long talk with him in 1896, the year of his death. Hayward and Carpenter were the mainstays of Cambridge when that county was one of the strongest, and often opened for All England. They, with Richard Daft, had the three best averages in England in 1861. T h e team was most formidable on attack; it included no less than seven first-rate bowlers. George Parr's eleven played four regular scheduled matches in America and won them all, even though in every match they were playing against twenty-two men. They won the first match in

From Beginning

to the Civil War

19

Montreal against Lower Canada by eight wickets; the second, played in the "Elysian Fields in Hoboken" against 22 o£ the United States, by an innings and 64 runs; the third, against 22 of the United States in Philadelphia, by seven wickets; the fourth, against Canada at Hamilton, by ten wickets; and the extra match at Rochester, interrupted by a snow storm, by an innings and 70 runs. Among the eight Philadelphians who had gone to Hoboken to represent the United States were Walter Newhall and his cricket tutor, T o m Senior, the best bowler of his time in Philadelphia. It was fitting that T o m should have tasted the most rapturous moments of his life on the Elysian Fields, for it was there that he dismissed Grundy, Stephenson, and Lillywhite with successive balls. Against the Englishmen Wister, the "conversational captain," led the team of twenty-two of the United States, nine of whom were New Yorkers and thirteen Philadelphians, in the first international match played in this city against a team from overseas. T h e full score is printed below from a collation of the slightly variant early records: ALL ENGLAND v. 22 of the UNITED STATES Played at the Caraac Estate Cricket Ground, October 10-13, 1859 Result: All England won by 7 wickets. UNITED STATES 22 First Innings Second Innings J. Land, b. Parr 2 c. Lockyer, b. Grundy C. B. Sharratt, b. Jackson 0 b. Grundy W. R. Wister, b. Wisden 9 b. Grundy F. Barclay, b. Jackson 0 b. Wisden Wailter S. Newhall, b. Parr 3 c. and b. Wisden W. Hammond, c. Grundy, b. Parr .. 0 b. Wisden A. H. Gibbs, b. Caffyn 20 b. Grundy H. Wright, b. Parr 1 c. Stephenson, b. Jackson Τ. M. Hall, ht. wkt., b. Caffyn 3 run out W. Wilby, b. Caffyn 0 b. Jackson C. Η . T. Collis, b. Jackson 0 st. Lockyer, b. Wisden T. Senior, b. Jackson 3 b. Wisden C. R . Vernou, C. Caesar, b. Jackson . 5 run out Kephart, b. Jackson 0 run out S. Wright, st. Lockyer, b. Carpenter . 3 c. and b. Wisden W. Morgan, c. Lockyer, b. Carpenter 9 b. Jackson E. C. Hunt, c. Caffyn, b. Jackson . . . 1 lbw. b. Jackson C. W . M. Bayard, c. Caffyn, b>. Carpenter 1 c. Carpenter, b. Jackson J. Wister, run out 19 b. Jackson

8 1 3 3 0 0 6 7 0 0 0 6 2 10 2 3 0 0 5

A Century

20

of Philadelphia

First Innings H. Fisher, b. Jackson H. Hallis, not out A. Waterman, c. Carpenter, b. Caffyn Byes Total

4 7 0 4

Total

Innings Μ Ο (4 balls)

23 ... 36 41 . . 59 8 6 20.2 11 11 6

Parr Jackson Wisden Caffyn Carpenter

34 22 2 4 31 5 1 0 3 6 0 18

Second Innings c. Lang, b. Kephardt c. Hammond, b. Senior not out st. Barclay, b. Lang not out

No ball 1, wides 4 Total

. . .

Ο Μ 26.1 12 14 7 25 1 0

R 20 14 32

R

w

18 37

4 8 1 4 3

2 9

29

ANALYSIS

A l l England

24

60

Total

126

First

2 0 0 2

ENGLAND

BOWLING

Senior H. Wright Gibbs Hallis Waterman

Second Innings b. Jackson c. Jackson, b. Wisden not out Leg Byes

94

ALL First Innings Hayward, c. Wilby, b. H. Wright . . . Carpenter, c. Gibbs, b. Senior Diver, b. H. Wright Caffyn, b. Senior Lockyer, not out Grundy, c. Newhall, b. Senior Stephenson, b. Senior Lillywhite, b. Senior Wisden, b. Gibbs Jackson, c. W. Wister, b. Senior l'arr, disabled Byes 4, leg byes 3, wides 11

Cricket

Second

Innings Ο Μ (4 balls) 23 16 16 10 39.1 20

Grundy Jackson Wisden

United Statks 22 W Wides 6 Senior 5 1 Kephari 2 1 Lang . 2 0 Wilby 3

...

Ο 5.3 4 3 6

Μ 2 1 1 1

R 7 5 5 7

R

W

12 7 39

4 6 8

W Wides 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 3

30 16 25 0 . . . 1 7 10 17 0 It would appear from a study of the score that the twenty-two would have fared better, and might even have won this, our first international match, if Captain Wister had known his bowlers more thoroughly and managed them more skillfully. Senior, who took five wickets and did the hat trick, was used only half as much as he might have been, while Hallis, Waterman, and Gibbs, who sent down 64 per cent of the overs bowled in the first innings, gave the Englishmen 60 per cent of the runs they scored, and took but a single wicket by their united efforts. T h e complete scores of the matches played during Parr's tour show that American batsmen collapsed before the attack of Jackson, Wisden, and Parr. T h e 208 American batsmen who faced the

From Beginning

to the Civil War

21

English bowling scored on the average less than three runs apiece; Jackson took ten wickets for 10 runs in one match, Wisden took sixteen wickets for 17 in another. Even on bad pitches wickets don't come as cheaply as that; and it is not reasonable to think of two hundred batsmen with any trained skill in defense being put out for 600 runs. But the highest score for the Englishmen was Tom Hayward's 50 against twenty-two of the United States and Canada at Rochester, and we shall come nearer to appreciating the difference between American and English cricket in the sixties when we look at the bowling. Fred Lillywhite, who came along as scorer, and published The English Cricketers' Trip to Canada and the United States, in 1860, described American bowling as "reckless," and says of our men, "their chief endeavor seems to be to bowl as fast as they can." Reckless it was; American bowlers in the five international matches bowled 73 wides to the Englishmen's 3. T h e English bowlers' control is confirmed by the statement made in 1893 by an "Old Germantowner," apparently C. M. Bayard, that in this match he was caught out by point, standing within a yard of the bat. Our men possessed spirit, enthusiasm, and sufficient selfconfidence. T h e betting in New York was two to one on the twenty-two. Parr's eleven began our education in cricket; it showed us that beside enthusiasm, skill and control were needed, and these could come only from long practice. The promise of the future lay in the love and devotion of the young men for the game, and it was this that made it possible to start again when the war was over. T h e Philadelphia cricketers, led by the Wisters and the Newhalls, dropped their bats and flocked to the colors when Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers on April 15, 1861. Walter S. Newhall, whom his brothers counted the best cricketer in the family, fell at the Rappahannock, and it is fitting to close this chapter on the Wister period of our cricket with an extract from his letter home from the battlefield of Antietam, As; our cavalry passed across the stone bridge a body of infantry stood by, and an officer waved his hat and shouted, "Pitch in Germantown," and there stood Frank Wister ready for the charge.

CHAPTER

1861-1872:

II

The Newhalls and the

International Matches of 1868 and 1872

HE purpose of this chapter is to give some account of the Philadelphia cricketers of the period between 1859 and 1872—their style, their methods, and their achievements. In doing this we shall be describing the men who bore the b r u n t of our international cricket almost u p to the visit of Shaw's professionals in 1881. T h r e e international games were played between 1861 and 1873, all at the Germantown grounds at Nicetown. Willsher's eleven of English professionals played a 22 composed of amateurs and professionals representing the United States, and a second game against 22 Philadelphia amateurs in 1868; the Fitzgerald's twelve English amateurs played 22 Philadelphians in 1872. W e shall, for the sake of comparison refer here and there to the games played against George Parr's eleven in 1859, though these games were dealt with in the first chapter. T h e careers in international cricket of the men to be described can be seen at a glance from the list beginning on page 114. T h e influence of these men on our cricket was felt distinctly for seven years beyond the limits of the period we are describing. Half the side that played Daft's professionals in 1879 had played against Fitzgerald and Grace in 1872, and the impact of the Newhalls was felt far later than Daft's invasion. Between the first match with 22

The

Newhalls

23

Willsher in 1868 and the second tour of the P h i l a d e l p h i a s in Eng land in 1889, nineteen international matches were played by our men, if we include the two games played in the Halifax Tournament of 1874. T h e Newhall family was represented in every one of them. And it was Dan Newhall who captained the team in England in 1889. T h e profound influence of the cricket clubs on Philadelphia cricket is traced in detail in Chapter ix. But they were now in their infancy, and it is sufficient to remember that in the period we are dealing with the chief of them were Philadelphia, founded in 1854; Germantown, founded in 1855 and rejuvenated after the war in 1866; Young America, organized in 1855; and Merion, organized in 1865. What is particularly important to notice here is the origin and character of Young America. T h i s club was composed of boys too young in 1855 to be eligible to join the colors in 1861. It was they who carried on the game while their elders were at the front, and the spirit of independence that inspired their origin as a club marks its history throughout the twenty-four years between the "organization" in 1855 and the amalgamation with the Germantown club in 1889. Young America was organized after a riot—the "apple barrage" of 1855. T h e cause of the riot was that the older boys in Germantown had laid down an age limit, and allowed no one below it to play with them. W e who remember the game only after it had grown up, can hardly imagine the intense rivalry that inspired its youth. T h e grandfathers of the boys who began it fought in the wars of the Revolution, and the grandsons played out the drama again on the green lawns and pastures of Germantown. They too were rebels, and for a like reason. They broke away violently from the authority of their seniors because they were denied representation in their elevens. O n e longs to recover the records that perished in 1870, when the Young America clubhouse was burned; for this was a republic

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of young boys all under sixteen, brought together by a sense of injustice done to each personally. They were banned from the Germantown club just because they were young. T h e first records are lost, but there is ample evidence to make it clear that they were a cocky, irreverent, contentious lot, quick to turn on anyone who seemed to invade their rights. They loved to win, and to mount the victim and crow. Years later a remonstrant in the columns of the American Cricketer picked the word for them. T h e conduct of Young America in refusing the use of its grounds for a proposed match at Stenton, says the writer, was "normal and porcupinish." We can trace the prickles all the way down to 1895. Porcupinish? So were the men of the Revolution. One of their rights had been suppressed; they united to regain it. T h e young sters felt the pulse of liberty beating in a different birthright of the free man—the right to play cricket. Here was the infant republic being reborn! After eighty years the Spirit of '76 stirred again in the hearts of the lads of Germantown. W e see it in the rules and regulations they adopted—their Constitution. No one but native-born Americans may belong with us; no member of our club may ever play against it. We see it in their policies and slogans; the English may beat us; they may set us examples to copy; but they shall not play for us; we will win by virtue of our own strength alone. This young republic was born in the apple barrage. W e must remember that Germantown in the fifties abounded in younger brothers, and the envy of Esau had crept into this happy village. T h e plot was hatched one afternoon in the autumn of 1855 after the younger fry of the cricketing families of Germantown had been enviously watching the Wister crowd playing on the pasture at Belfield. Possibly it was the recorded match with the Delphian Club played on J u n e 21, 1855; the green apples in the orchard would be just about ready. T o the older boys this younger set must have seemed a gang of pestiferous upstarts, nothing but revolutionists and lawbreakers. As fate would have it, the wicket in the pasture was within easy range of Wister's orchard at Belfield, and it provided admirable cover for the operations of these young commandos. In the early

The

Newhalls

25

summer ammunition was handy; and who are we, who know that our cricket had to begin when we were young—who are we to blame these youthful internationals if they used it? Stand at the corner of Olney Avenue and 20th Street and reconstruct the scene, for it is symbolic of the f u t u r e of Philadelphia cricket. T h e run-getters from the eastern side of the village flicker to and fro on the green, playing their game in dignity and peace. Mellor and Vernou, the Newhall gang, and their supporting bombardiers are there, but invisible. They are hidden behind the trees of the orchard, their hearts swollen with sullen rage, their pockets bulging with green apples . . . "You won't let us into your game? Well, take that!" And, brother batsman, you who have known the joy of playing yourself in for a long score, imagine yourself at the receiving end! Here at last comes that sweet half volley you have been praying for; your shoulders are open, you are ready for the j u m p and the full hit that will send the ball out of the field. And just then a spent volley of Albemarle pippins spatters across the popping crease just at your line of vision. Instead of the ball over the elms, there's the wicket flat on the turf. How would you feel? What would you say? Shades of Frank Bohlen! T h a t was the declaration of war! If we are puzzled by George Newhall's words in his memorable address before the Germantown Historical Society on March 11, 1910, "these two sporting rivals waged bitter warfare u p to 1889," let us remember the apple barrage. Dan Newhall was the ringleader, and it was the Young America spirit in him, mellowed by time and sweetened by a love of the finest in sportsmanship, that influenced his playmates and vitalized Philadelphia cricket up to and after his retirement in 1889. Since very few men are now living who remember these players in their prime, the clearest light to see them in is that shed by contemporaries who were themselves cricketers, and, as a check, by commentators in English periodicals and in Lillywhite's Scores and Biographies. T h e following descriptions come from these sources, fortified whenever possible from the memories of players now living. T h e sketches will be confined to those cricketers who

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Cricket

were of importance in the subsequent development of our cricket, with the exception of Jones Wister, who had the credit of making the second highest score against Parr's men, going in late, and hitting savagely at everything offered up to him. It is quite evident that Jones could shift leather, because thirty years later we find him knocking up 116 not out for C. S. Patterson's Patriarchs; eleven veterans rounded up by Charles Cadwalader. Jones was completely possessed by cricket. When in 1858 he lay sick unto death with typhoid fever, he kept raving about a game at the Germantown Club. But in the main the early Wisters were greater in organizing cricket than in playing it. T h e backbone of our cricket in this period was the Newhall family. There were ten members of it, of whom seven—Fred, Walter, Harrison, George, Charlie, Dan, and Bob—played for Young America, and all of these represented Philadelphia in international matches. Walter S. Newhall, born in 1841, was considered the best American-born batsman of his time. His 105 at the age of fifteen is probably the first century put together by a native-born American. He was a consistent run-getter, an excellent fielder, and a strong thrower, and described in the club pamphlet of 1879 as a fast underhand bowler. At the age of eighteen he played twice against Parr's team of English professionals, first at Hoboken for St. George's 22 and then for the Philadelphia 22 at Camac's Woods. Cadwalader states that Walter was the strongest of the Newhall family, and could throw a cricket ball 108 yards. He was the first American who learned to play T o m Senior successfully. A contemporary records Tom's delight when he found Walter at last playing his fast round-arms with confidence. "Aye, sir," he would shout, throwing up his arms, "if you can play me so, there's nothing more I can teach you." George M. Newhall, born in 1845, was a level-headed all-round player who captained the Philadelphia international teams from 1868 to the Australians of 1881. At the age of twelve he was a very effective slow bowler and later developed into a steady, reliable batsman and a good wicket-keeper. He did not stand up to fast bowling, and was not in the same class with our fine wicket-keepers

The

Newhalls

27

of later years. H e retired from active cricket in 1881 at the age of thirty-six, but always kept his interest in promising young players. He was constantly to be seen at Manheim after the consolidation of Germantown and Young America, and was responsible for the silhouettes of club members which still adorn the ballroom at Manheim, all of them taken and mounted by him personally. A charming glimpse of George occurs in Cadwalader's reminiscences, where he gives an account of the match on the grounds of the Philadelphia Club at Camden in 1858, between eighteen Americans and an eleven picked from the best of the English residents, professional and amateur. T h e crowd of six thousand spectators cheered loudly when they saw among the Americans taking the field the slight figure of a boy of twelve. As the game went on their amazement grew, when they saw George bowling round-arm, over after over of good-length balls, taking T o m Senior's wicket, and ending the Englishmen's innings with five wickets for 19, the best bowling done for his side. And then, at the close of the match, when George held u p his end against Tom's bowling to the finish, the crowd surged onto the field, and carried the lad off in their arms. Charles A. Newhall, born in 1847, played his first international match in 1868, and retired from active cricket at the end of the 1887 season. H e was the fastest American bowler of his time. Charles was six feet tall, well set up, right-handed, with a five-yard r u n and an easy, graceful action. Although he began as a roundarm bowler, in the later years of his career he delivered the ball from a point well above his shoulder. Charles did not appear in international cricket until four years after the limitation on the height of delivery had been removed, and at that time he was only seventeen years old. H e had good control of pace and length, although he seldom resorted to the slower ball. Charlie got many of his wickets with a very fast yorker—what his brother Dan called "Charlie's white alley." He also came back from the off and had considerable wrist action. When things were not going to his liking, he would occasionally lengthen his run and increase his speed. H e was the most successful American bowler against Willsher's team of English professionals in 1868, Fitzgerald's team

28

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

of amateurs in 1872, and the Australians in 1878. In 1872 he captured W. G.'s wicket in both innings, clean bowling him in the first for 14, and getting him caught out in the second for 7. H e again captured W. G.'s wicket in 1884 in England, when the great English batsman was playing for the Gentlemen of Gloucestershire. N o other American bowler has captured W. G.'s wicket so often. He was a great performer from his first international match in 1868 until his trip to England with the Philadelphia team in 1884, when he strained his back in practice and had to stand out of the first seven games. He did well in the later games of the tour but after his injury never seemed to reach his former peak. T h e comments of the English critics who had seen or played against Charles Newhall tend to emphasize his ability to make the ball rise. Fitzgerald comments on Newhall's "rib-roasters'' in Wickets in the West, his entertaining account of the 1872 tour; and notes that the first ball Hadow got from him in Philadelphia was one in the pit of the stomach. One of the Australian team of 1882 wrote that "Newhall bowls fast, and keeps them short." But the record of wickets clean bowled by Charlie during his career, which was a long one for a fast bowler, shows that he did not, like Cregar later, rely on bumpers. T h e fact is that for almost twenty years Charlie Newhall dominated American bowling. He played against all ten of the visiting teams from overseas from Willsher's XI of 1868, to Roller's of 1886. During this period our bowlers took 159 wickets, and Charles Newhall took 80 of them. Daniel S. Newhall, born in 1849, played his first international match in 1868, and retired after his trip to England with the Philadelphia team, in 1889. H e was not only a most excellent captain b u t a very consistent scorer, particularly when runs were needed, and a good fielder in the slips. In 1874 he led the batting averages of the Halifax T o u r n a m e n t , described in the next chapter, and d u r i n g the 1889 trip to England made 328 runs with an average of over 27. H e was a free scorer all round the wicket, placing his shots accurately and hitting hard, but not so hard as his brother Bob. H e usually put himself in to bat well down in the batting order and played many useful not-out innings when runs were needed. H e was also a very useful slow right-hand bowler,

The

Newhalls

29

particularly during his earlier years, when he took many wickets in club cricket. T h e Philadelphia Inquirer of the time stated that against Daft's team in 1879 Dan went on to bowl underhand lobs. Robert S. Newhall, born in 1852, played his first game for Young America in 1867, and for the Gentlemen of Philadelphia in 1868, and made his last appearance in international cricket against the Irishmen of 1888. T h e American Cricketer commenting on the Philadelphia team about to leave for England in 1884, described Bob Newhall as "the premier batsman of America and a brilliant hitter all round, his driving being extremely hard and well timed. In defense he depends almost entirely on back play, which his keen eye enables him to use to advantage. He scored a rapid and hard hit 84 against the Australians in 1878." Mr. A. J . D. Dixon, who knew Bob as well as anyone, stated in 1949, toward the close of his life, that Bob was very quick on his feet and sometimes took his block about three or four inches in front of the popping crease, a habit which annoyed the English wicket-keepers greatly. At the moment of the delivery of the ball he must have made a quick decision either to cut his bridges and go for the pitch, or to step back behind the popping crease. T h e records of the English tour in 1884 show that he was stumped only once. George Patterson once stated that in his opinion Bob's 84 against the strong Australian team of 1878, described in a later chapter, was the greatest innings ever played by an American batsman, for it took courage and ability to go after Spofforth on that occasion. Bob was second in the batting averages of the 1884 team in England, with a total of 836 runs, and an average of 29.86. It was unfortunate that owing to business responsibilities and a steadily growing family he was not able to devote much time to cricket after 1884. T o the time of his death he was always deeply interested in the younger players, and captained the first team of Colts in 1897. Spencer Meade, son of General Meade, had a career of only ten years in international cricket, playing last against Gregory's Australians in 1878. Meade is described by his contemporaries as a fast left-hand bowler with a peculiar spin, occasionally off the wicket but difficult to score from, the very irregularity of his

30

A Century of Philadelphia

Cricket

style proving effective. Cadwalader, who had played with him, says that he bowled with a well-disguised and odd delivery, and gave the ball a very sharp and dangerous rise. Others report that Meade sometimes came in with his arm. The English had a very high opinion of Meade. Fitzgerald wrote in his Wickets in the West; "We read that the best bowling was done by Charles A. Newhall, but we must differ with this opinion. Meade was by far the best bowler, and on a good wicket we do not think that Newhall can hold a rush light to him"; and Grace in his Cricketing Reminiscences, writing of the match in Philadelphia, commented, "Meade as usual kept a splendid length." In spite of the number of wides he bowled, Spencer Meade, when he was playing regularly, was certainly a harder man to score off than Charlie Newhall. Both men bowled in every innings played in Philadelphia by the Englishmen under Willsher in 1868 and Fitzgerald in 1872—six innings in all. T h e English batsmen scored a run for every 3.4 balls sent down by Newhall, and a run for every 5.4 balls sent down by Meade. T o the modern cricketer Meade appears to have been a sort of Tom Emmett. Both were fast, left-handed, "erratic," with low delivery. T h e slogan of T o m Emmett, who bowled 58 wides during the season of 1885, was "a wide and a wicket," and Meade bowled 17 wides in the two games against Willsher. One has two regrets in thinking of this early cricketer: one, that he never showed what he could do on English wickets, and the other, that we shall never know whether he bowled those wides with a purpose. There must have been some quality about Frank E. ("Baron") Brewster too delicate to weather these intervening years. It is only in a Pickwickian sense of the word that he can be classed among our representative cricketers, for, though very long, his international career was singularly barren. For twenty years he seems to have been associated with the Gentlemen of Philadelphia as a sort of honorary hatchment. He played against Fitzgerald in 1872, and represented us against every team from overseas for the next ten years. During this period our men averaged nearly 8 runs apiece at the bat. T h e Baron averaged 3.1 and took no wickets.

The

Newhalls

31

In spite of this record he was chosen to represent Philadelphia on each of the first two tours abroad, and against every international invader from 1883 to the Irish Gentlemen of 1892. He ended his twenty-year career in home matches with a batting average of 8 runs, and a bowling record of two wickets for 45 runs. T h e Baron reached his zenith on tour in 1889, when he was fifth in batting and seventh in bowling. Charles E. Cadwalader was chairman of the Committee on Arrangements for the international matches of 1868 and 1872. He was a good fielder; and, except for Dan Newhall's 20, his 15 was the highest score against Willsher in either game. He is said to have had "a style of his own at the bat," and we get a glimpse of it in Cadwalader's own reminiscences. Of the 5 he scored against the Englishmen in the second game he writes, " I was at the bat one hour and three quarters for this trifling score," and his 15 for All Philadelphia took an hour and a half. He gives us also a valuable glimpse of Freeman, then the best bowler in the world, who was bowling at Cadwalader from one end all that time. " H e had a peculiar snap of the arm which gave a great spin to the ball, causing it to rise from the pitch with great speed and to break back more than the breadth of the wicket." T o stay in at all for an hour and three quarters with that man at one end and Willsher at the other was not a trifling feat. Willsher must have recognized its worth, because he himself had taken four hours to put together 20 runs for Kent and Surrey v. All England in 1855. Joseph Hargrave (variously spelled in the records Hargreave and Hargreaves) kept wicket against Fitzgerald, and in both games with Willsher's professionals. He is described as one "who has played many long innings remarkable for heavy hitting." T h e Hargrave boys were born in England, but came at a very early age to the United States. There were a number of them; six playing in Philadelphia for a team called T h e Foresters, in 1884. Joe, John, T o m , and Bob were the best of them; indeed they were the backbone of the Germantown X I in 1877, and all played at one time or another on a representative Philadelphia side in international cricket.

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W. C. Morgan was the only cricketer on the twenty-two against Fitzgerald who had played against both Parr and Willsher, and, though he was a steady reliable bat and good fielder, he did not appear again in international cricket. John Large, a member of Young America, made 13 against Fitzgerald's amateurs, the top score except for Dan Newhall's 15, and in club cricket made some long scores. He played later without distinguished success in the Halifax tournament and against the Irishmen and Daft in 1879. Willsher's team won all of its games in America, mainly because of the tremendous power in attack. Their closest match was their first in Philadelphia against twenty-two amateurs, all of them native-born but Joe Hargrave, and the Englishmen squeezed out a victory only after Charley Newhall and Spencer Meade had eight wickets down for 36. Comparing Parr's team of 1859 with Willsher's of 1868, it would be fair to say that Willsher's side was stronger in bowling, weaker in batting, and by no means so well balanced. The strength of the side lay in the four bowlers—Willsher, Freeman, Tarrant, and Shaw. In reserve were Griffith and Lillywhite, both good left-handers. George Freeman, fast right-hand, was regarded as the best bowler in England; Tarrant from Cambridgeshire was the fastest; Alfred Shaw the most accurate; and Edgar Willsher, " T h e Lion of Kent," a tall, lank, cadaverous-looking man, was, according to Daft, the greatest left-hand bowler he ever met. He came up to the wicket with a quick-step march, his hand high above his head, but at the moment of delivery snapped it down, and with a quick jerky movement made the ball rise like lightning from the pitch. Since Willsher was the man who, more by accident than intent, liberated bowlers from all restrictions as to the height of delivery, this is the place to say a word about the development of bowling style from the beginning. Before 1806 all bowling was underhand. In 1806 Mr. John Willes, of Kent, revived earlier attempts to introduce round-arm bowling, after finding that his daughter, who bowled to him in

The

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33

practice, used it with effect when she found that the ample skirts of the time muffled her underhands. At least so the story goes. But Willes was no-balled on his first appearance at Lord's in 1825, and gave up the game in disgust. Then William Lillywhite became its champion; and at length, in 1835, the M.C.C. officially allowed bowling "as high as the shoulder." Through the textile workers from Nottingham in the Germantown mills, round-arm bowling came promptly into American cricket. Its first exponent seems to have been Rouse, an old-countryman still in the exalted tradition. He used to appear in tight trousers and tall, glossy hat, and bowled brisk round-arms in the early forties. But when a student tried to introduce it at Haverford College in 1860, he was hooted off the field, and as late as 1880 an Under arm X I defeated a Round-arm X I at Merion 121 to 94. That was nearly one hundred years after round-arm bowling had been invented in England. But then it takes time for Philadelphia to accept innovations. T h e n in 1862, when Edgar Willsher was bowling for England against Surrey at the Oval, John Lillywhite no-balled him six times for bowling above the shoulder. Willsher threw down the ball and stalked from the field. T h e other eight professionals followed, leaving the situation in the hands of the two amateurs still remaining on the field. Another umpire was substituted and Willsher continued to bowl. Naturally bowler after bowler began to raise his delivery, and all height restrictions were removed by the rule adopted by the M.C.C. on June 10, 1864. It is to be remembered, therefore, that before 1864 all our bowling was at or below the shoulder. T o m Senior, the early model, was fast round-arm; George Newhall was bowling round-arm in 1858. Now no bowler trained in this tradition can quickly change his habits; and all our early bowlers, at least toward the beginning of their careers, appear to have held to a low delivery. And none of Willsher's bowlers, not even Alfred Shaw, ever delivered the ball from its highest possible position, like Richardson or King. As to the batting on Willsher's eleven, Harry Jupp, not much taller than Bobby Abel, was the most famous of Surrey batsmen, and John Lillywhite represented the Players regularly from 1851

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to 1860. T h e r e was no wicket-keeper on the team like Lockyer in 1859, but Edward Pooley of Surrey was beginning to establish himself as a worthy successor. Pooley was destined for a long career, and before it was ended, says C. W . Alcock, every finger on both hands, and both thumbs had been broken. T h e score of the first match in Philadelphia follows: FIRST MATCH AT PHILADELPHIA Eleven of All England vs. Twenty-two American Amateurs of Philadelphia at the Germantown Cricket Grounds, Nicetown, Oct. 3-6, 1868 Result: All England won by 2 wickets AMERICAN T W E N T Y - T W O First Innings Second innings ( , . Newhall, b. Freeman 0 b. Freeman Cadwalader, c. Charlwood, b. T a r r a n t 15 run out b. Freeman Hargraves, b. Freeman 7 b. Griffith Bussier, b. Freeman 0 c. T a r r a n t , b. Freeman Markoe, b. Shaw 1 c. Willsher, b. Griffith H. Gräften, b. Freeman 5 Meade, c. and b. Freeman 6 b. Freeman c. Rowbotham, b. Griffith D. Newhall, b. Freeman 0 1 b w, b. Freeman Johns, b. Freeman 0 c. Willsher, b. Freeman Morgan, b. Freeman 9 c. Willsher, b. Griffith L. Baird, 1 b w, b. Freeman 0 1 b w, b. Freeman Outerbridge, b. Freeman 0 b. Freeman C. Newhall, b. T a r r a n t 2 b. Willsher Radcliff, b. T a r r a n t 6 1 b w. b. Freeman Barclay, c. T a r r a n t , b. Freeman . . . . 1 b. Willsher Magee, c. Willsher, b. Tarrant 1 b. Freeman White, b. Lilly white 13 b. Freeman Clay, b. Freeman 10 c. J u p p , b. Griffith R . Newhall not out 3 c. Willsher, b. Freeman Waterman, c. Griffith, b. Lillywhite . 0 not out C. Baird, c. Charlwood, b. Freeman . 1 b. Freeman Hopkinson, b. Freeman 0 Byes 1, leg byes 2, wides 1 Byes 2, leg byes 5, wides 1 8 Total First Innings Smith, c. and b. C. Newhall Jupp, b. C. Newhall Griffith, c. Outerbridge, b. C. Newhall Shaw, b. C. Newhall Pooley, b. Meade Charlwood, c. L. Baird, b. C. Newhall Lillywhite, c. Hargraves, b. C. Newhall Rowbotham, c. Geo. Newhall, b. D. Newhall Tarrant, b. Waterman Freeman, b. Waterman Willsher not out Byes 1, leg byes 2, wides 2 Total

Total

88 ENGLISH 3 0 4 10 0 45 0 0 12 0 13 5 92

0 0 13 2 0 1 1

ELEVEN Second Innings c. Clay, b. C. Newhall . c. Magee, b. Meade runout c. G. Newhall, b. C. Newhall not out c. Hargraves, b. C. Newhall c. Roberts, b. C. Newhall c. Radcliff, b. Meade not out b . C . Newhall

9 3 12 4 η ι

Wides Total

36

The

35

Newhalls

BOWLING

AINALYSIS

ENGLAND

Freeman Shaw Tarrant Lillywhite

First Innings Ο Μ R 42 32 15 13 4 20 22 10 39 ... 6 2 6

W Wides 14 1 1 0 4 0 2 0

Freeman Griffith Willsher

Second Ο . . . . 25 16 .... 9

Innings Μ R 20 9 5 22 9 0

W Wides 13 1 5 0 2 0

Second Ο . . 18 18

Innings Μ R 8 21 12 9

W Wides 5 1 2 1

UNITED STATES

First Innings Ο Μ R C. N e w h a l l . . 29 11 48 Meade 15 10 19 D. N e w h a l l . . 5 1 14 Waterman . . . 8 5 6

W Wides 6 0 1 1 1 0 2 1

C. N e w h a l l Meade

The team that opposed Willsher in the second match was intended to represent the full strength of the United States, amateur and professional. Twelve of the amateurs who had played in the first game were chosen, and seven professionals added. T o the Englishmen's scores of 117 and 64, the United States twenty-two could reply with only 47 and 62, so that this defeat was considerably more decisive. None of the twenty-two reached double figures in either innings except Dan Newhall, who going in last but one, hit up 20 out of the second-innings total of 62. A glance at the scores shows how completely, from the first ball bowled on October 3 to the last on October 10, the ball was beating the bat. T h e highest score for the two matches was Charlwood's 45; the Englishmen averaged 8 runs apiece, the Philadelphians slightly more than 2. This lack of defense is shown by the fact that Freeman, bowling 148 overs, took 46 wickets for 55 runs in Philadelphia. T o be sure Freeman was the greatest living bowler; he bowled George Newhall three times for a blob; but even so, Philadelphia batting was still in its infancy when, in the two games, twenty-two of our batsmen were dismissed by him without scoring a run. T h e scores show clearly, as they did in 1859, that our batsmen had yet to acquire the foundations of a sound and automatic defense. Indeed, a control of the instrument of play, whether bat or ball, had not yet been sufficiently learned. Willsher's side in the two matches bowled 2 wides, the Americans 24. But the matches gave ground for hope for the future of our

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of Philadelphia

Cricket

cricket. T h e Philadelphia amateurs made a closer match of it with the Englishmen than a team, a third of it professional, representing the entire United States. T h e bright side of the medal was our bowling. In the first match the first four wickets of the English Eleven fell in the first innings for 11, and in the second innings for 17; in the second match eight wickets were disposed of for 32 runs —a performance which, against such batsmen, would be considered a great feat in England. Of the 38 wickets that fell to American bowlers in the two games, Newhall and Meade took 34, and the great effort these two men made in the second innings of the first match was an immense encouragement to Philadelphia cricket. T h e first team of English amateurs to visit America was Fitzgerald's Twelve, in 1872. They played five games in Canada and three in the United States, winning all of them b u t the last, which was played on a swamp against twenty-two of Boston, and drawn. T h e y consistently played twelve against twenty-two. When the strength of Fitzgerald's side is compared with that of Parr and Willsher, this record is rather surprising. For, as the captain himself said, the twelve, with the exception of Appleby, had not a single first-class bowler among them. Grace took a lot of wickets, as he always did against batsmen facing him for the first time, but he had few terrors for the patient player who resolutely refused to hit his leg ball against the break into the hands waiting to receive it. Fitzgerald was right; the only first-class bowler was Appleby. A r t h u r Appleby, the great fast left-handed bowler of Lancashire, attributed his success to constant practice. He followed Old Clarke's advice, the best and briefest ever given to bowlers: "Bowling consists of two parts, the mechanical and the intellectual. First you need the hand to pitch where you please, and then the head, to know where to pitch." All observers agreed that Appleby came off the ground on our American wickets with a terrific spin; and that was strange, because he was one, with "Razor" Smith and Alfred Shaw, in acknowledging that he never consciously tried to turn the ball. Appleby and the Razor were born with a spin, and practice simply taught them to p u t the ball where they wanted it. T h e rest of the wickets on the American tour were taken by Grace and by W. M. Rose, with his u n d e r h a n d lobs.

The

Newhalls

37

And, except for the incomparable W. G., the team was not strong in batting. T h o u g h Hadow, Hornby, and the Lubbocks had all represented the Gentlemen against the Players, Fitzgerald's team did not present the potential scoring power, all the way down to the last batsman, that both of the earlier visiting teams had shown. R. A. Fitzgerald, at that time Secretary of the M.C.C., though not a first-class cricketer, was a born captain. Hornby and Ottoway were used behind the wicket, the latter always to Rose's lobs, off which he stumped nine men at Montreal. W. G. Grace had just ended an English season with an aggregate of 2,739 runs and a batting average of almost 79. W e must imagine him in 1872 as a man of twenty-four, of a loose, yet powerful physique that gave hardly a hint of his lightning reflexes and muscular coordination; he was at this time an excellent footballer, runner, and hurdler. Six years before, when he was eighteen, after scoring 224 for England against Surrey at the Oval, he got time enough off on the second day to skip over to the Crystal Palace, where he won the National Olympian Association 440 yards hurdles in seventy seconds. Clean-shaven in 1870, he already wore the "National Landmark," his celebrated black beard, known to all the Philadelphia teams which played in England from 1884 to 1911. Fitzgerald tells how Grace's genius very early in the tour broke out into an entirely new field, when he hit upon his celebrated labor-saving framework for a speech at a cricket dinner. H e flashed forth the magic formula first at Montreal, and it was recognized at once as one of the more brilliant expressions of W. G.'s fertile invention: Gentlemen (or Ladies and Gentlemen, or My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen) 1 thank you for your kind words, and all I have to say is that I have never seen better batting than I have seen in Montreal, and I hope to see as good wherever I go. W. G., the innovator, who invented batting, together with Dr. Grace, the physician, trained to relieve human suffering, thus between them devised a prescription for the mental anguish of captains as they sit squirming and worrying about their speeches at

38

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

cricket dinners. So long as the orator continued to hold firmly in mind the name of the city in which he was speaking, all that the new speech demanded was a trifle of thought about the key word. With that in it, every repetition of the formula, hummed out from behind the black beard, was hung upon with tingling suspense. What was the word going to be this time? Once it had been given breath the rest of the utterance was lost in one roar of applause. If "batting" was simply too thick to fit the case, something else would have to do. "Bowling" and "fielding" or something vaguer, like "smartness in the field," took Grace as far as Toronto, although, alas, it was often true that the words had not the slightest correspondence with the score book. When the stock ran low, Grace fell back on his reserve and substituted, "such beautiful grounds," "such splendid companions," "such good judges of the game," or even "such pretty ladies." By the time the Twelve reached New York and Philadelphia W . G. was down to "such good oysters" and "such good scrapple," and was getting a bit anxious. But the formula had removed a heavy intellectual burden from his mind, and left him free to score generously in America, and to enjoy his dinner in peace. When the festivities were over he was ready for more exercise, and at the conclusion of the Philadelphia match, late at night after the dinner given by Joshua F. Fisher at his country seat, W. G. sought in vain for a companion for a walk back to town, a distance of ten miles. Cricket was not quite so serious a thing to these amateurs as to the teams that had preceded them. T h e y were here to win if they could, but to play for the fun of it; they were a light-hearted company, and sprightly is Fitzgerald's account of the expedition in Wickets of the West. Indeed it is so intimate as to be a bit puzzling until you know that Hadow is the Saint, Hornby the Monkey, W. G. the Leviathan, Ottaway the Ojibway, and Appleby the Unassuming. Fitzgerald's Twelve played against twenty-two Philadelphia amateurs at Nicetown in September, 1872. T h e score reproduced below is taken from the "Official Handbook of the International Cricket Fete," and differs slightly from the score recorded in Fitzgerald's Wickets of the West.

The New halls

39

P H I L A D E L P H I A 22 v. F I T Z G E R A L D ' S 12 Played on the grounds of the Germantown Cricket Club at Nicetown, September 21, 23 and 24, 1872 Result: Fitzgerald's 12 won by 3 wickets. P H I L A D E L P H I A 22 First Innings Second Innings F. Brewster, b. Appleby 4 c. Rose, b. Grace H. L. Newhall, b. Appleby 0 c. Fitzgerald, b. Grace YV. Welsh, b. Appleby 0 b. Appleby c. Hornby, b. Appleby R . S. Newhall, b. Appleby 4 c. Appleby, b. Grace John Large, hit wicket, b. Grace . . . . 13 b. Grace Cadwalader, hit wicket, b. Rose . . . . 2 1. b. w., b. Appleby L. Baird, c. Harris, b. Rose 0 b. Appleby Geo. N. Newhall, b. Appleby 0 b. Grace J o e Hargraves, b. Appleby 2 c. Hadow, b. Grace VV. Morgan, c. Ottaway, b. Grace . . . 7 st. Ottaway, b. Grace Dan. S. Newhall, b. Grace 0 not out S. Law, c. Rose, b. Grace 2 l.b.w., b. Appleby Chas. A. Newhall, b. Appleby 3 b. Appleby S. Meade, c. E. Lubbock, b. Grace . . 0 hit wicket, b. Appleby R . Pease, hit wicket, b. Grace 0 b. Grace C. Baird, run out 3 st. Ottaway, b. Grace T . Hargrave, c. Ottaway, b. Grace . . 0 c. Hadow, b. Grace R . W. Clay, b. Grace 4 c. and b. Grace John Hargreaves, run out 11 b. Grace G. Sanderson, b. Appleby 0 b. Appleby H. Magee, c. Ottaway, b. Grace 3 run out S. Welsh, not out 3 Byes 4 Byes 1, leg byes 1 2 Total

0 0 1 0 7 0 6 9 4 1 15 2 0 2 0 1 3 11 7 0 1 0 4

Total

63

74

F I T Z G E R A L D ' S 12 First Innings Second Innings Grace, b. C. Newhall 14 c . J . Hargrave, b. C. Newhall Ottaway, run out 10 b . C . Newhall Hornby, b. Meade 9 c. R . Newhall, b. Meade A. Lubbock, run out 9 c. and b. C. Newhall Hadow, c. J . Hargrave, b. C. Newhall 29 b. Meade Harris, c. D. Newhall, b. C. Newhall 3 c. J . Hargrave, b. Meade Francis, b. Meade 5 b . C . Newhall Appleby, c. Magee, b. Meade 2 not out E. Lubbock, c. J . Hargrave, not out b. C. Newhall 0 Rose, c. J . Hargrave, b. C. Newhall . 0 Pickering, b. C. Newhall 7 Fitzgerald not out 1 Byes 1, leg byes 1 Byes 4, leg byes 7, wides 5 16 Total

105

7 0 4 3 6 8 0 4 0

2

Total

34

B O W L I N G ANALYSIS PHILADELPHIA 2 2

First Innings Μ Ο R C. A. Newhall 53 26 45 Meade 51 28 44

W Wides 6 3 5

Second C. A. Newhall Meade

. .. .

Innings Ο Μ 18.1 8 18 13

R 24 8

W 4 3

A Century

40

of Philadelphia

Cricket

FITZGERALD'S 12

First Appleby Grace Rose . .

Innings

Ο

36.1 21

16

Μ

25 11

6

Second R

23 22 16

W

8 9 2

Appleby Grace .

Innings

Ο 35.2 35

Μ 27 13

R 25 45

\V 7 13

T h i s , in the o p i n i o n of Fitzgerald, was the best match of the tour. T h e game had three m a i n features: the b a t t i n g was feeble t h r o u g h o u t , the highest score on e i t h e r side being 29; A p p l e b y and G r a c e for E n g l a n d and Newhall and M e a d e for P h i l a d e l p h i a took practically all the wickets that fell to bowlers; the finish was close and exciting, almost a replica of the first W i l l s h e r m a t c h , with M e a d e and Newhall on their mettle, and 7 wickets down before the 34 needed to win had been scored. T h e available contemporary accounts of the game—Fitzgerald devoted no less than forty-three pages to it—agree that the uncertain wicket had m u c h to do with the low scores. F r e q u e n t m e n t i o n is m a d e of the fast bowlers, who were b u m p i n g dangerously. T h e wicket wore so badly toward the close of England's second innings, that for nearly half an h o u r not a single run was scored, and Grace was nearly an h o u r in scoring his 7. Several of the local critics t h o u g h t we m i g h t have won if the captain, George M . Newhall, had used m o r e of his men to cut off the boundaries. G r a c e generously wrote later, " T h e Philadelphians, by their plucky

fight,

deserved the victory q u i t e as m u c h as we d i d . " B o w l i n g won the match. W h i l e Newhall took ten wickets for 69, and Meade five for 52, Appleby took sixteen for 47 and G r a c e twenty for 68, and that with half as many fielders to h e l p them. B u t bowling was still the Philadelphia right bower, and was to r e m a i n so for the n e x t fifteen years. It c a n n o t be said that Philadelphia b a t t i n g had improved m u c h since 1868, for our batsmen averaged but 3 apiece against A p p l e b y and Grace; 38 of them averaged 2 apiece. T h i s j u d g m e n t is corroborated by Fitzgerald's c o m m e n t in Wickets

in the West—"Many

wickets fell to long hops

that should never bowl a schoolboy." T h e s e records of the pioneer work of Philadelphia international cricketers would lead one to c o n c l u d e either that the wickets of the t i m e were unplayable, or else that our forerunners had not yet learned to play with a straight bat. Heavy rollers had n o t yet

The

Newhalls

41

come into general use, and bad wickets were in truth the rule both here and in England, but not bad enough to account for the scores. On wickets like those Cregar was bearing down on even in the nineties you were caught out, but these early batsmen were bowled out. T h e relative ability of Philadelphia batsmen and their opponents to keep their stumps intact in the international matches played up to this point can best be seen in the following table. "BOWLED O U T " Percentage of Philadelphia batsmen who were bowled out in the international matches of the years indicated, compared with similar percentages for opponents. Year Philadelphia Opponents 1859 63 40 1868 76 32 1872 64 44

T h e conclusion is obvious: these early visitations from England did us good service in showing that our batsmen needed more thorough grounding in the elements of sound batsmanship. T h e lesson was taken to heart; for if we glance ahead twelve years, it is quite evident that something important must have happened in between. For in 1884, Al Scott, Bob Newhall, Stoever, Brockie, and J. B. Thayer, Jr. are knocking up big scores against good amateur bowling in England with Bill Noble scoring heavily at home. During the intervening years the organization of Philadelphia cricket, which finally resulted in the formation of the Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia, had begun; it will be the purpose of the next chapter to trace the first steps in that organization.

CHAPTER

III

Beginnings of Organization The Halifax Tournament, 1874; the American Cricketer, 1877

HE six years which follow the visit of Fitzgerald's Twelve have a peculiar interest for us, because we see now for the first time the existing clubs beginning to draw together in a cooperative effort to create a central authority for cricket. After the Halifax tournament of 1874 it became quite clear that if such international test matches were to continue, we ought to have in Philadelphia some central body with authority to make decisions and to take responsible action. T h e clubs had begun to expand and to multiply. We have noticed the organization of the Merion Club in 1865. T h e following May they challenged the Dorian eleven of Haverford College, brewed a stout claret punch for the young men, and then beat them handily. By 1873 they had leased five acres at Ardmore as a playing ground, and built a clubhouse on it a few years later. By the time the Halifax T o u r n a m e n t was finished—the story is told later in this chapter—and our men had brought the cup back to Philadelphia, the fifth of the big clubs had been founded. In September, 1874, the Belmont Cricket Club, destined to produce many famous players, opened at Fortieth and Aspen Streets in West Philadelphia. Indeed a central authority was becoming necessary even for the 42

Beginnings

of Organization

43

smooth r u n n i n g of the summer schedule of our own games. In Philadelphia there has never been any serious disposition to question the authority of the Marylebone Cricket Club in London, yet there were a multitude of minor matters which needed a court of jurisdiction. Among these was the question whether a cricketer had the right to play for more than one club, and this caused spirited debates; then the age limits for juniors had to be fixed, and uniform practice established in the n u m b e r of balls in an over. T h e first step toward this desired cooperation came with the appearance of the American Cricketer on J u n e 28, 1877. T h i s magazine appeared weekly from May to November, and monthly from November to May. It was ably edited by a committee headed by Dan Newhall, and provided the center for information and exchange of opinion that had long been needed. Here you could read the fixtures for the month, what new clubs were forming, the latest gossip about coming visits from foreign teams, and such snacks of news as that Martin Mclntyre, recently fired for inebriety by Germantown, was now bowling for the Players at the Oval. T h e aim of the American Cricketer was originally to serve as the public organ of all cricketers in America. T h e first n u m b e r states that there are "some three hundred cricket clubs" in the country, seven of them in Philadelphia, and the secretaries of eighty-one of them, with their addresses, are listed. And it was on a continental scale that the first effort was made to form a central organization for cricket, for we read in the issue of April 25, 1878, The most important event in the American cricket world which has transpired for some years was the assembling on April 17, 1878, at the rooms of the Penn Club in Philadelphia, of the first national convention of cricketers in the United States. At this meeting the draft of a constitution was proposed for consideration, Outerbridge named President, and Lindley Haines, of Merion, Secretary. By the end of May the proposed constitution had apparently been ratified, and " T h e Cricketers' Association of the United States" was beginning to legislate about the age of juniors, the n u m b e r of balls in an over, and, through its Executive Committee, to select a team to represent the United States in the

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forthcoming match with Canada.* By July this infant association was reaching its hand out over the northern border and begging the clubs there to get together as ours had done, to select a place for the coming international match and a team to represent them. Unfortunately, this effort failed, the Canadians could not agree, and the match had to be abandoned. By September 12, 1878 the authority of this central body had become accepted, and it had chosen our team to meet the Australians in October. But we ought to go back to pick up the thread of the story of cricket from the point where Grace was denting the turf at Nicetown. In September of 1873 an eleven representing the united clubs of St. Louis appeared in Philadelphia and was beaten by Young America by an innings and 25 runs. In J u n e of the next year a team of New Yorkers representing St. George's played the Germantown Club at Nicetown and were beaten by ten wickets. With these victories under their belts, our players had already begun to cast about for other fields to conquer, and then in the spring of 1874 came that letter from Captain N. W. Wallace which originated the annual competition among the leading Philadelphia clubs formally launched six years later. Wallace was a gallant captain in the 60th Royal Rifles quartered in the Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His letter proposed a grand cricket tournament to be held in Halifax in August. T h e matches proposed were four: America v. Canada America v. England

England v. Canada Halifax v. All Comers

Imagine the excitement when this letter was read to representatives of the clubs; an excitement that extended up to the moment when on August 22, at the dinner given to our team by the Mayor of Halifax at his private residence, the silver cup was presented to Captain Dan Newhall—and filled. Fortunately, we have for this important event in Philadelphia cricket the enthusiastic account written by A. A. Outerbridge, who accompanied the team as manager. Not only so, but we have a * T h e first recorded match between the United States and Canada was played in 1844 and the last in 1912. For a summary of this series, see Appendix C.

Beginnings

of Organization

45

copy of Outerbridge's pamphlet presented by him to Dan Newhall, containing many characteristic comments written into the margins in ink, in a fine clear hand by Dan himself, and these are valuable correctives to a story that is prone to run to superlatives; they are the comments of a great and modest cricketer. It is this narrative of Outerbridge that is the basis of the account which follows. The invitation to United States cricketers was widely circulated by means of notices in Forest and Stream and other publications, and correspondence ensued between Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and St. Louis, with a view of organizing a representative United States team. This endeavor failed; no clubs outside of Philadelphia submitted a quota of players. The Philadelphians entered into the project with spirit, and at a general meeting of cricketers held at the Germantown club on the 27th of June, the names of no less than twenty-two well-known cricketers were handed in as desirous of going. A modified invitation from Captain Wallace to a "Philadelphia Twelve" was received and accepted, and it was decided, first that the twelve to represent America in the tournament should consist wholly of American-born players, and second, that a committee consisting of one member from each of the four leading clubs—Philadelphia, Germantown, Young America, and Merion—should select a Philadelphia team to take part in the tournament at Halifax. Albert A. Outerbridge, who had already been chosen as manager, was added as a fifth member of the committee. The team finally selected consisted of Daniel S. Newhall, Captain, Charles A. Newhall, Robert S. Newhall, R. Loper Baird, and John B. Large, of the Young America Club; Spencer Meade, Horace Magee, and Edward Hopkinson of the Philadelphia Club; Francis E. Brewster and R. Nelson Caldwell of the Germantown Club; George Ashbridge and Richard Ashbridge of the Merion Club. Two substitutes, William Welsh, Jr., and William Hopkinson of the Philadelphia Club, with A. J. D. Dixon as scorer, and Thomas Rhoads, the capable professional of the Germantown ground, as umpire, completed the party; but a number of other gentlemen decided to accompany the cricketers for the pleasure of the trip.

46

A Century

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Cricket

T h e "Halifax T w e l v e " as they were now called, utilized the interval before leaving for individual practice, and by playing three one-innings matches against strong picked teams of the stay-at homes. Of these they lost one and won two. En route a game was played against Boston, the Philadelphians scoring 185 in their first and only innings, against 64 and 43 for Boston. T h e team traveled from Boston to St. J o h n by steamer. Arrived at St. John with a day to spare, a partially arranged cricket match having fallen through, the members of the St. John and Shamrock baseball clubs (who were to play a match the next afternoon for the championship of New Brunswick) invited a nine of our party to play a friendly game in the morning with a picked nine of the two clubs. In vain did Captain Dan protest that we didn't profess to play baseball, cricket was our game . . . Our St. John friends insisted and we consented. T h e rather surprising score of the game was Philadelphia 52, St. J o h n 7. Philadelphia made 17 runs in the second inning. In Halifax Outerbridge was immediately impressed with the unbounded hospitality and kindness of everyone he met. Referring to Sunday, the 16th, before the tournament, he writes: A few stragglers who ventured within the Citadel proper, and unwittingly invaded the quarters of the 87th Irish Fusiliers, were captured by Captain Taylor of the glorious "Faugh-a-Ballaughs," who impounded them for the rest of the afternoon, and, if report be true, they were nearly killed—with kindness. Monday, the 17th, was another free day, and one expects to find the American cricketers busy at the nets preparing for the game of tomorrow. Outerbridge, indeed, does mention incidentally, that "several of the Philadelphia twelve, mindful of the week's work before them, spent their afternoon on the cricket ground, practicing against the catapult." But to one who compares the rigorous preparation made by the next generation of Philadelphia cricketers for approaching international matches whether at home or in England, the insouciance of our forerunners on the eve of the first international tournament in the history of Philadelphia cricket is enviable indeed. For Outerbridge's story continues:

Beginnings

of

Organization

47

A hasty lunch at the Halifax Club, and then we were off to a grand regatta of the Royal Halifax Yacht Club in honor of the cricketers, to be followed by a dinner at the Yacht Club in the evening. The day was a perfect one, bright and cool, with just breeze enough, and as we sailed in column down the magnificent harbor, its beauties appeared to great advantage. The scenery of the bight called the Nor'west Arm, which stretches inland at right angles to the bay about three miles below Halifax is unique. Several miles long but only half a mile wide, like a river of clearest water, with wild hills on one side and handsome villas with lawns and flower gardens on the other, no wonder that the Arm is a fashionable resort for country seats. The owner of one of the handsomest of these, Mr. M. Almon, was on board our boat, and having asked the Commodore to signal the fleet to stop on the way back at "Maplewood," he quietly handed his watch to his next neighbor, and without more ado plunged overboard and swam ashore to prepare for our reception, which proved to be of the heartiest. . . . After dinner, "The Queen" and "The President of the United States" were loyally toasted, and then the Commodore of the yacht club in an appropriate address welcomed the visitors to the hospitalities of Halifax, and then gave the order, "Charge, gentlemen, chargel A bumper to the health of our friends, the visiting cricketers of Canada and the United States." This toast was responded to by Mr. Outerbridge for the Americans and by the Rev. T . D. Phillips for the Canadians. This day and evening was but an earnest of what was to follow. T o one who knows the summer temperature of the Atlantic on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Almon's swim to Maplewood is heroic. W e detour f r o m the Outerbridge line for a glimpse of Nor'west A r m aquatics at a later date. Let Percy Clark, the great Philadelphia fast bowler of the next generation tell the story, because he was present. In the summer of 1902, Sidney Young and I arranged for a visit of the Philadelphia cricket team to Halifax. The team accepted an invitation to attend an evening regatta on the Nor'west Arm. Syd and I were a little late in arriving at the boat house; the launches had all left; night was descending and we had to hire a row boat to take us to our yacht. But our boatman did not know where the yacht was anchored, and we rowed around in the gathering darkness searching for it. We were almost ready to abandon our hunt, when we heard George Patterson's laconic drawl, "Well, Bart, you have said you were going overboard for a swim, why don't you go?"

48

A Century

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Cricket

Then came Baron Brewster's dry voice, "Yes, Bart; we all knew that was just talk." We rowed nearer; the voices were coming from an anchored yacht, and now there was a third voice, which we recognized at once as Bart King's— "Mrs will you be so gracious as to hold my watch?" T h e Baron: "Don't bother lady; Bart don't fancy cold water." Bart: "Mrs , have I your permission to remove my shoes?" Pat: "Quite a bluff, Bart." Bart: "Well, what's in it for me?" Pat: "A dinner." Bart: "For the crowd?" Pat: "Yes, a dinner for the whole crowd when we get back to Philadelphia." Bart: "A wine dinner?" Pat: "Yes, a wine dinner." Suddenly a splash, as Bart dove in with his clothes on and swam around the sloop. They threw a rope and pulled him up. There were no dry clothes aboard, but we searched the lockers, and found an old sweater and a pair of short duck pants. In these, with a drop of Scotch, Bart was quickly himself again. But I'll never forget his teeth chattering as we hauled him up, insisting that the water was nice and warm. T h e great bowler was a sorry sight when he walked into the hotel in his own straw hat, Pat's raincoat, some unknown's duck shorts, bare ankles, and his own black shoes. Some reporter got wind of Bart's swim, and there was a story in next morning's Halifax Chronicle about a dinner to the team on a warship, and how a Yankee dove overboard and swam three times around the cruiser. Pat was as good as his word, and gave us a bang-up dinner at Manheim. T h e first of the matches, all of them twelve a side, was played on the 18th and 19th between " A m e r i c a " and Canada. T h e Rev. T . D. Phillips, captain of the Canadian team, having won the toss, chose to bat and went in first with A. W . Powell to face the bowling of Meade and C. Newhall. Powell was run out and Kearney took his place. After a short stand by these two, the wickets fell rapidly and the side was dismissed for 94 runs. Phillips carried his bat through the innings for 52 not out. In the afternoon Large and Brewster led off for Philadelphia against the bowling of Brodie and Kearney. Brewster was soon out

Beginnings

of

Organization

49

and his place was taken by B o b Newhall. Large was out for 9 and C. Newhall for 3, but Caldwell and Bob Newhall made a good stand carrying the score to 91, when Caldwell was retired for 18. Hopkinson failed to score and Captain Dan took his place. W h e n time was called for the day the score stood at 133 for five wickets, Bob not out 72 and Dan not out 8. In the morning B o b was bowled by Kearney after he had increased his score to 79. None of the other batsmen except Dan made many runs, and the innings concluded for 191 runs with Dan not out 35. Extras accounted for 34 runs. Of the 157 runs made from the bat B o b and Dan accounted for 114. Canada was dismissed in the second innings for 6 6 runs, Phillips, with 14, being the only one to score double figures. Meade and C. Newhall took five wickets apiece. T h e Philadelphia T w e l v e thus won the first game of the tournament by an innings and 31 runs. T h e score follows: P H I L A D E L P H I A 12 v. CANADA 12 At Halifax, Nova Scotia Played August 18 and 19, 1872 Result: Philadelphia won by an innings and )1 runs. CANADA 12 First Innings Second Innings Rev. T . D. Phillips, not out 52 c. Magee, b. C. Newhall A. W. Powell, run out 0 b. C. Newhall E. Kearney, c. and b. D. S. Newhall . 9 b. Meade J . Brunei, b. D. S. Newhall 1 c. and b. Meade J. Gorham, c. Meade, b. C. A. Newhall 2 b. Meade J . H. Park, c. Large, b. D. S. Newhall 0 not out C. B. Brodie, c. C. Newhall, b. D. Newhall 2 run out G. Brunei, l.b.w., b. C. Newhall 5 c. Hopkinson, b. C. Newhall M. C. Hebert, c. and b. C. Newhall . . 0 b. Meade Μ. B. Daly, b. C. Newhall 1 b. C. Newhall W. Snider, b. Meade 7 b. C. Newhall W. Street, c. G. Ashbridge, b. C. Newhall 0 b. Meade Byes 10, leg byes 1, wides 4 15 Byes 11, leg byes 3, wides 3 Total

94

"AMERICA" John Large, c. Brodie, b. J . Brunei F. E. Brewster, l.b.w., b. Kearney R . S. Newhall, b. Kearney C. A. Newhall, c. Hebert, b. Brodie R . N. Caldwell, c. Street, b. Kearney E. Hopkinson, c. J . Brunei, b. Kearney D. S. Newhall, not out

Total

14 9 8 0 2 0 0 0 5 0 11 0 17 66

9 2 79 3 18 0 35

50

A Century

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Cricket

R. L. Baird, l.b.w., b. Brodie R. Ashbridge, b. Kearney H. Magee, c. Phillips, b. Brodie S. Meade, c. G. Brunei, b. Kearney G. Ashbridge, run out Byes 12, leg byes 4, wides 18

6 0 0 0 5 34

Total

191 BOWLING ANALYSIS PHILADELPHIA

First Innings Ο Μ C. A. Newhall 41.3 27 Meade 29 22 D. S. Newhall 15 3 Magee 5 1 Brewster . . . . 3 0

R 19 14 32 6 8

W Wides 5 2 1 2 4 0 0

Second Ο C. A. Newhall 30 Meade 30

Innings Μ R 18 24 20 24

W Wides 5 5 3

CANADA

Kearney Brodie J. Brunei G. Brunei Hebert

Ο 51.1 48 5 2 5

Μ 21 20 1 0 0

R 75 56 10 6 10

W 6 3 1 0 0

Wides 8 2 4 3 1

T h e second match of the tournament, "America" vs. "England," was played on August 20th and 21st, but was delayed by rain. When play was possible Brewster and Charles Newhall started well and were still together with 50 on the scoreboard at the luncheon interval. Brewster was the first out for 29, with the score at 53. Bob Newhall joined Charlie and they carried the score to 97, when Charlie was retired for 29 and his place taken by George Ashbridge. Bob then skied one, and the "redoubtable bat" left with 29 to his credit. This innings, says Outerbridge, included the finest drive of the tournament, the ball going from the south wicket clear over ropes and tents into the open ground beyond. Three wickets were down for 106, and when play ended for the day 181 was up for 8 wickets. In the morning the innings soon ended with the total at 205. We need not repeat Outerbridge's lengthy and detailed account of the English officers' first innings. He anticipates the modern broadcaster as he describes the close of it: T e n for 1041 T h e last man to go in was Farmer; 20 runs required to save England from a follow on, and two good men in. Can they do it was the question all round the field! T o gain the point they hit hard

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51

Organization

and fast; the excitement, particularly among the soldiers who were out in force to see their officers play, was intense as run after (un was made. But it is not to be! At half-past four Singleton is clean bowled by a beauty from Meade, and it is all over. T h e main features of this innings were three: Meade's bowling for the Americans, T u m o u r ' s 46 for the Englishmen, and the slow rate of scoring on a wicket described as excellent. Meade took six wickets for 29; he bowled throughout, except when Dan Newhall, apparently to give him a rest, took his place to bowl lobs. T h e Englishmen batted with extreme caution; their first innings total of 117 was made at the rate of slightly more than 25 runs an hour. "England," requiring 88 runs to avoid defeat by an innings, and obliged to follow on, made only 83 in their second try. T h i s time Meade took four wickets for 22 and Charlie Newhall six for 36. T h e modern cricketer ends the reading of Outerbridge's story with a great respect for the bowling of Spencer Meade. PHILADELPHIA 12 v. ENGLISH OFFICERS - 12 Second Match—at Halifax, Nova Scotia Played August 20, 21, and 22 Result: Philadelphia won by an innings and 5 runs. PHILADELPHIA 12 F. E. Brewster, c. Gardiner, b. Taylor . . . C. A. Newhall, b. Reid R. S. Newhall, c. Mitchell, b. Singleton . . G. Ashbridge, b. Reid J . Large, c. Davies, b. Singleton E. Hopkinson, run out D. S. Newhall, c. Stubbing, b. Reid R. N. Caldwell, c. Stubbing, b. Carpenter R . L. Baird, run out H. Magee, c. Stubbing, b. Singleton R . Ashbridge, l.b.w., b. Reid S. Meade, not out Byes 6, leg byes 6, wides 9

29 29 29 18 7 4 39 8 3 13 0 5 21 205

ENGLISH OFFICERS' 12 First Innings Second Innings Hon. Keith Tumour, c. Magee, b. Meade 46 c. sub., b. Magee Lieut. Mitchell, b. Meade 3 c. Baird, b. Meade Lieut. Davies, c. and b. Meade 5 b. Meade Lieut. Barker, b. D. S. Newhall 7 c. Magee, b. C. Newhall Lieut. Reid, b. C. Newhall . . 2 c. E. Hopkinson, b. C. Newhall Capt. Wallace, c. D. Newhall, b. Meade 3 c. E. Hopkinson, b. C. Newhall Lieut. Gardiner, c. sub., b. Brewster . 16 c. sub., b. C. Newhall

12 21

14 6 9

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First Innings Mr. Stubbing, run out 2 C a p ! . T a y l o r , c. E. Hopkinson, b. Meade 5 L i e u t . Carpenter, run out 1 L i e u t . Singleton, b. Meade 3 L i e u t . Farmer, not out 8 Bves 8, leg byes 2, wides 5, no ball 1 16

Cricket Second

Innings

b. Meade

I

b. Meade not out b. C. Newhall c. Brewster, b. C. Newhall Byes 6, leg byes 3

1 2 2 1 9 83

117

BOWLING

ANALYSIS

PHILADELPHIA

First Innings Ο Μ R C. A. Newhall 43 20 48 Meade 39.1 22 29 O. S. Newhall 8 3 16 Brewster . . . 5 1 8

12

Second W Wides 1 2 6 3 1 1

C. A. Newhall Meade Magee

ENGLISH OFFICERS'

Reid Tumour

ο 34.1 28 16 13 5

Μ 15 5 5 6 1

Innings Ο Μ . . . 34.3 16 16 5 18 8

R 36 22 17

W 6 4 1

12

R 44 68 34 28 1U

W 3 4 1 1 0

Wides 3 6

Dan Newhall's marginal notes on this game include a comment on that hit of Bob's that Outerbridge calls "the finest drive of the tournament." It was actually made off Kearney in the Canadian match, and was, he says, considering height and distance the "biggest in my memory." Dan remarks several times that the English had the best batting team in the tournament; they lost because of their deplorably weak bowling. He thought T u m o u r ' s 46, considering the bowling it was made against, the best innings of the tournament, and notes that Lieutenant Mitchell was a beautiful bat, free, straight, and hard hitting on both sides. T h e Americans' defeat of the English team by an innings and 5 runs of course determined the outcome of the tournament. "England" went on to defeat Canada, and Halifax won the match against All Comers. In the last match appeared for the first time in the tournament a bowler named Bullock, who proved to be the deadliest bowler of the game, taking ten wickets for Halifax. Outerbridge, in a passage marked in Dan's gloss "an intentional exaggeration," tells us how he got them.

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His style is a very swift, very straight underhand grounder, the ball usually taking the ground about three to six feet from his hand, and hopping an indefinite number of times before it arrives at the popping crease, although an occasional full one for the batsman's person or over his head may be looked for.

Bullock bowled out Bob Newhall for 3 in the first innings and for 11 in the second. Dan Newhall led the tournament batting averages with a total of 149 for three times out, averaging 49.66. R. S. Newhall was fourth, with 122 runs for four times out, averaging 30.50. Charlie Newhall led the t o u r n a m e n t bowling averages, taking seventeen wickets for 127 runs, averaging 6.88. Meade was third with sixteen wickets for 127 runs, averaging 7.93. T h e t o u r n a m e n t formally closed on August 28, with the distribution of the many prizes that had been put u p for this competition. O n e addition was made to the official list, and it is noted in Dan's concluding marginal comment, "A leather medal was sent to Dick Ashbridge for his batting average of 0.00." *

*

·

·

T w e n t y years later the term "Halifax C u p " had come in our cricket parlance to mean top quality. Every cricketer in Philadelphia knew that there was somewhere a piece of silver called the Halifax Cup, b u t not one in a h u n d r e d had ever seen it or wanted to. It was a symbol, like the Sheffield Shield in Australia, and the P l u n k e t Shield in New Zealand. T h e y aimed to win it, not to see it. It had become, like the crown jewels, a symbol; and we were quite content to have it locked u p in a treasure chest. Like the Childs C u p s for the best batting and bowling it became, a hope, a love, Still longed for, never seen. Indeed it was such a bashful piece of bullion, that soon after its t r i u m p h a l entry into Philadelphia, it appears to have retired permanently from public view. N o wonder. It had n o home, n o parents; there was n o one it belonged to, except the twelve who won it, and the matter of deciding proprietary rights among them presented difficulties. In the event of the dissolution of partnership

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ought Dick Ashbridge, who got no runs and no wickets, be apportioned an equal share with Dan Newhall, who scored 149 and took thirteen? T h e very first number of the American Cricketer put out a search warrant for the Halifax Cup. " W h e r e is the prize cup our men won at Halifax, and what good does it do us?" One smiles to think of editor Dan Newhall issuing a hue and cry for his own silverware—for the jorum that the mayor had thrust into his own bosom at Halifax, and from which he had drunk deep with all his men. Dan, search thy own attic! By the spring of 1880 the treasure had been unearthed and polished, and the owners had "kindly placed it at the disposal of the Committee for competition by the Philadelphia clubs." From this date on up to the time when organized cricket ceased in Philadelphia, it was competed for annually between clubs chosen, and by rules laid down in the spring of each year by the Publication Committee of the American Cricketer, or by the authority that inherited that committee's power.* T h e story of our cricket between 1874, when the Halifax Cup was won, and 1877, when the American Cricketer was founded, is soon told. In September of 1875 a return International Tournament took place, the three competing teams being Canada, the British Officers of Halifax, again led by Captain Wallace, and Philadelphia. T h e Canadians were beaten rather decisively by both Philadelphia and the British Officers, and then Captain Wallace's eleven was beaten by the Philadelphians by 230 to 98 on the first innings. Meanwhile, the Belmont Cricket Club, destined to play so large a part in our cricket, had been founded on September 10, 1874, with a playing ground at Fortieth and Aspen Streets. Five years later it occupied more ample ground at Forty-eighth Street and Baltimore Avenue; in 1884 still larger at Fifty-ninth and Woodland Avenue, and when, next year the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad proposed to run its new line across the property, the club acquired spacious new fields at Forty-ninth and Chester Avenue. T h e President of the club from its organization in 1874 • For the record of the Halifax Cup competition, 1880-1926, see Appendix A; for the winners of the Childs Cups, 1880-1926, see Appendix B.

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55

to 1876 was George Wharton, followed by V. Nelson West in 1877 and by John P. Green from 1878 to 1892. It was during Mr. Green's term of office that a fine clubhouse was built with dining room, ballroom and separate accommodations for ladies, and with a grandstand for spectators at the international matches. T h e strength of this new club was manifest when it won the Halifax Cup twice in the first five years of the competition. Notable in 1876 was the defeat of Merion, at Ardmore, by a capable team from Canada, and the visit of twelve "Gentlemen from Virginia," who proved no match for the Philadelphia Club or for a picked Eleven. T h e season of 1877 was marked by the first match between the University of Pennsylvania and the Dorian Club of Haverford College, won by the latter; and in September, by the visit of the St. George's Club of New York for three matches in Philadelphia. They were beaten by Young America and by Merion, and were in for a fine drubbing from Germantown when rain stopped play. One of the best innings of the year was John Hargrave's 104 out of Germantown's total of 227. A full page of the American Cricketer is devoted to the annual match between Twelve Americans and Twelve English Residents. We have observed elsewhere that some game of this kind had usually been played every year from 1856, and occasionally produced the best cricket of the summer. T h e match provoked a very keen local interest, and sometimes a good sum was raised from admission fees. T h e players were almost exclusively from New York or Philadelphia and the game was therefore played in those two towns alternately. This year it was played at Hoboken for the benefit of Giles, the veteran St. George's professional. On the American side were seven cricketers from Philadelphia; Dan and Bob Newhall each scored more than fifty, and the game if played out, would almost certainly have resulted in a single innings victory for the Americans. T h e attention of Philadelphia cricketers in 1878, from August onward, was centered on the coming match with the Australians. U p to that time the season was marked by the added strength that the four Hargrave brothers were bringing to Germantown, and the emergence of the best left-hand slow bowler that America ever

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p r o d u c e d , Bill Lowry. H e a p p e a r e d for the second eleven of the D o r i a n C l u b in May, and took eight G e r m a n t o w n wickets for 12 runs. A n o t h e r a n n u a l match for which long p r e p a r a t i o n was made, a n d which was an i m p o r t a n t agency in the d e v e l o p m e n t of cricket at the University of Pennsylvania and H a v e r f o r d , was the game b e t w e e n t h e Pennsylvania A l u m n i a n d O l d Haverfordians. D u r i n g these years this g a m e attracted m o r e spectators t h a n any others except i n t e r n a t i o n a l matches, a n d the gate receipts provided several h u n d r e d dollars for the s u p p o r t of cricket at the two institutions. T h i s m a t c h was won by an innings and 118 r u n s by the Old H a v e r f o r d i a n s , largely because of the batting and b o w l i n g of Ε. T . C o m f o r t , w h o had just been selected to play against the Australians. T h e historic m a t c h of the P h i l a d e l p h i a n s against this, the first of seven A u s t r a l i a n elevens to visit o u r shores, will be the subject of the n e x t c h a p t e r .

CHAPTER

IV

The Australians,

i8j8

HE match played at Nicetown on October 3, 4, and 5, 1878, between Philadelphia and Australia, marked the beginning of a new era in our cricket. This was the first time we had met a visiting team from overseas on even terms, with an eleven-man side; it was the only evenhanded match played by the Australians in America, the other five being usually against teams of twenty-two; this was the only match the Australians failed to win in America, except the game they left unfinished, but with 228 runs to the good, at Quebec; and finally, our first innings with a total of 196, and with six men in double figures, was the first respectable batting performance against foreign bowlers of top rank since cricket began in Philadelphia. According to the American Cricketer, fifteen thousand spectators were at Nicetown on the third day, and the match was firstpage news for the Philadelphia papers. But better than any of the printed reports is the lively narrative of an eyewitness, which will constitute the body of what follows. It recreates for us that surge of enthusiasm that swept through Germantown as soon as it was evident that the original ambition of those cocky Young Americas to beat the foreigner at his own game was close to realization. T h e account is essentially as it was dictated by William B. Morgan, cousin of William C. Morgan, Jr., who played against Willsher in 1868 and Grace in 1872.

T

57

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But before Morgan begins, we ought to give some kind of picture of this, the first Australian team to tour England. T h e English critics thought, and politely wrote, that the men from Down Under were taking on something they couldn't carry through, and this prophecy seemed to be justified when they were badly beaten by Nottingham in their first match. But a week later they astounded England by ending a three-day match with the M. C. C. on the first day; rattling down the wickets of a side that included Grace, Hornby, Webbe, and Hearne, for 33, and in the second innings actually for 19 runs. T h e Australian record in England is best shown in a table: Eleven-a-side matches Matches against odds of 18 . . . .

Won 9 8

Lost 4

Drawn 4

17

6

14

2

J0_

T u r n i n g to the individual players, we notice in batting the absence of any exceptional brilliance, and at the same time the uniformity of scoring power all the way down. T h e eleventh man in the order of batting averages was only eleven points below the first. There were three professionals on the team, Boyle and the two Bannermans. Alec, the younger brother, was the stonewaller, and Charles, the best bat in Australia. Murdoch was just beginning his great career; he was to captain the Australian teams which toured England in 1880, 1882, and 1884, and was used behind the wicket to relieve Blackham, already counted the best wicketkeeper in the world on any rough or bumpy wicket. No exhibitionist like Tom Lockyer of Parr's team in 1859, Blackham was soon known as "the prince of wicket-keepers." He visited England with the teams of 1880, 1882, 1884, and 1886. Three months before this match at Nicetown he had himself got rid of the eighteen of Stockport, stumping six and catching four. T h e great strength of the Australians lay in their attack. Allan, the best bowler in Victoria, was a left-hander of varied pace, breaking both ways; Boyle, medium pace right-hand, was extremely difficult on any wicket which gave him a grip; Garrett was righthand fast; and then there was Spofforth, quickly winning recognition as the greatest of living bowlers. He stood six feet two inches,

The Australians,

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59

bowled very high, with a constantly varied pace but the same delivery. His yorker was fast, unexpected, and deadly, and he had an occasional flighty slow ball that English batsmen called his "dodgy" ball. Spofforth broke both ways. In the second innings against M.C.C. he completely beat W. G. with his first ball, and bowled him with the second, a leg-break. He planned a batsman's downfall methodically, with a malignant cunning; he clean bowled Grace seven times; "I used to put my fingers round the ball in odd ways," he said, "when bowling to W. G. just because I knew he watched my hand so closely." T h e eleven of the Marylebone Cricket Club found these bowlers unplayable. In the first innings Spofforth did the hat trick, and took six wickets for 3 runs. In the second innings, the first four English wickets were all down, clean bowled, for 1 run, and Boyle went on in his turn to take six wickets for 3 runs. Against this formidable eleven our team, as originally selected, consisted of the Newhall brothers—George, the captain of the team; Charlie the great fast bowler; Dan, and Bob—all from the Young America Club; Brewster, Caldwell, John and T o m Hargrave of the Germantown Club; Edward Hopkinson of the Philadelphia Club; Sutherland Law and Edward Comfort, the fast right-hand bowler, both of the Merion Club. This team played two practice games, drawing one against a picked eleven, and losing one against a picked thirteen. A n d then the Australians, having just beaten a New York Eighteen at Hoboken by five wickets, took the field against us at Nicetown. O u r eleven was identical with the one selected, except that Sutherland Law had voluntarily withdrawn in favor of Spencer Meade of the Philadelphia Club in order to strengthen the bowling, though Meade had not played in either of the two practice games. Here, let Morgan take u p the story— I think I saw practically every ball bowled in this famous match, altogether the most exciting ever played in Philadelphia. October 1st, 1878 was a beautiful clear day, warm with very little wind, an ideal day for cricket. The old Germantown Cricket Grounds at Nicetown was a wide area, well fenced in, with ropes marking the boundaries on three sides, the two club houses and the large grand-

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stand toward Germantown forming the boundary on the upper side. It was an enclosure of at least twelve acres, with a wide cricket platform, on this day lively and favorable to the batsmen. I think in this match that a mistake was made in limiting the boundary hit to three runs instead of four. T h i s ruling proved, in fact, to be a disadvantage to the home side, as most of the hard hitting was done, to the surprise of many, by the Philadelphians, and all over-the-boundary hits were made by them. T o be sure the big hit of the match made by Dan Newhall, over the Germantown Club House and into the meadow back of it was counted six. T h a t was only justice. B u t a still bigger drive made by R o b e r t Newhall, over the boundary fence in front of the Young America Club House, across a deep porch and into the open door of the Club House without touching the ground, counted only four. And, if boundaries had been counted not three but four, B o b Newhall's score of 84 would actually have been 106. I was standing next to Captain George Newhall, after he had won the toss and had decided to send his own team in to bat first. I heard him say that he was going to start with Brewster and J o h n Hargrave because he thought them his steadiest bats. Brewster had not yet arrived, but at that moment he was seen entering the ground from the Nicetown end; he had time only to change into his cricket shoes and white flannel trousers, retaining the low white bowler hat with the red and blue Pennsylvania ribbon on it, and the white percale shirt with blue dots. I can still see him as he walked with J o h n Hargrave to take his place at the wicket. And now the great game began. Spofforth, the demon bowler opened, bowling to Hargrave from the upper Club House end; Blackman at the wicket and Charles Bannerman at point. T h e fielders were playing close in, and I thought this a mistake. Hargrave scored two runs to leg in the first over. Allan, a slow-to-medium left-hand bowler opened to Brewster, who sent the first ball under the ropes at the lower end of the grounds for three. T h e score slowly mounted until 28 was reached, when Brewster, attempting a cut, got under the ball and sent it into Bannerman's waiting hands at point. It was traveling, and Bannerman did well to hold it. Charles Newhall took Brewster's place, and Hargrave having made a run, now faced Spofforth. Meeting his first ball at the pitch he drove it between mid-off and cover to the end of the grandstand, and now facing Allan's leg-breaks, drove again in the same direction. Partially stopped by cover, the ball rolled twelve feet beyond him, and now Hargrave called Charley for the run, but Charley refused to start, and Hargrave scrambled back, lucky to be safe. T h e very next ball from Allan pitched off the wicket and breaking back glanced off Newhall's left leg-guard and rolled back to dislodge the bails.

The Australians,

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Robert Newhall now took Charley's place, and the fun of the game began. Facing Spofforth, Bob took, his stance well in front of the batting crease, and jumping at the pitch drove his first ball hard to the off boundary. Hargrave having retired after a patient and useful innings, Captain George now came in, and in turn began by driving his first ball to the ropes. T h e score mounted steadily until George was caught out after having made 13, and Nelson Caldwell took his place. I may say here that both Caldwell and Brewster were fortunate in having been taught cricket by Martin Mclntyre, the young Scotch professional, secured for the Germantown Club by Mr. McKean in 1869. He remained with the Germantown Club for only a couple of years, but in that time taught many of the youngsters effective wrist play and late cutting. Nelson Caldwell, though of rather slight physique, had at that time the most beautiful style of any of our cricketers, placing his hits with great skill and getting good distance with apparently little effort. If he had been able to continue in first-class cricket he would have probably made a great name for himself. His score in this match was 22, made very quickly and quietly. During his stay Bob continued his hard hitting until the century was passed, and, I think 110 was on the score board at the luncheon interval. I noticed that, during the hour, Bob Newhall did not join his comrades at the table, but contented himself with munching a sandwich, his opinion being that a heavy meal during the course of an innings harmed his eyesight. It was certain that he had not lost his eye when Dan joined his brother at the wicket when play was resumed. Before lunch the Australians had made a number of changes in their bowling, but now all the other members of the team, even Blackham the wicket-keeper, took their turn with the ball, 1 but nothing seemed to affect the batting of the Newhall brothers. Bob seemed to be hitting practically every ball, keeping his drives on the ground, an unusual thing for him, for Bob's great joy was a long drive in the air. T h e only two possible chances in his long innings of 84 proved too difficult for the Australians to handle. O n e was a terrific return to the bowler's head. All Boyle could do was to shield his face with his hands; and the ball, passing through them glanced off his head and flew past him. T h e bowler, staggering and partly stunned, could not see the ball as it fell. T h e other chance was at short leg, where the fielder had been gradually creeping in. Bob turned suddenly to drive a ball just outside the leg wicket right at the fielder, who was indeed fortunate in escaping injury. These two Newhalls were very fast on their feet. Once Dan played a ball slowly back toward the bowler, and called Bob for the run, ι A n obvious overstatement. T h e bowling analysis shows only seven Australian bowlers, and Blackham was not one of them.

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which was made while the bowler and Blackham were meeting head-on in mid-wicket. T h e score board now showed 180 runs. After Bob had made his spectacular drive into the open door of the club house he began to show signs of tiring, and in attempting to drive a shooter he was clean bowled. Now Dan was joined successively by T o m Hargrave and Edward Hopkinson, who were soon out. Comfort and Spencer Meade in turn joined Dan at the wicket, but no further stand was made; the innings closed at 196, with Dan carrying his bat for 31, an innings which included one magnificent drive over the club house for 6. Saturday, October 2nd, was another beautiful day. All of the newspapers had long and detailed accounts of Friday's play and of the creditable batting of the Philadelphians. They were high in their praise of Robert Newhall's innings, the Evening Bulletin stating that the average American boy "would rather be Bob than President". So I knew that there would be a very great crowd to watch the match; stopped to get a few sandwiches, and reached the grounds as the Australians were starting to bat in their first innings. I saw Meade bowling from the club house end, and cheered as Captain George at the wicket caught Charles Bannerman out before he had scored a run. George kept all through the match standing much further back for the fast bowling of his brother Charles than Blackham had stood for Spofforth. Meade, our great left-hand fast bowler, had been entirely out of cricket for three years. He proved to have lost much of his speed and that curve from the off which had formerly made his bowling so deadly. Runs began to come too freely from his offerings now, and Captain George put on Caldwell for Meade, and Comfort for his brother Charles who had opened. But the change was not effective and Charley was put on again from the lower end. . . . When it was clear that another bowler should be put on in Caldwell's place at the upper end, the great crowd of members which filled the club house and its porches to overflowing all with one voice began to call to George Newhall, "Put on Dan—Dan—Dan!" T h e i r fear was that George might hesitate to put on another brother to bowl, but Dan was put on, and the judgment of the spectators proved sound. Dan continued to bowl with great success during the rest of the Australian's innings, as well as in the second innings, paired with his brother Charles. He bowled faster than usual in this match, with a good length and a good change of pace. He clean bowled Murdoch, the best bat on the side with a beautiful ball which just removed the bails. Murdoch had made 35, the top score for the Australians, and had showed better form than any of his comrades. T h e side had been dismissed for 150 runs, leaving us with a lead of 46 on the first innings. A catastrophe was barely averted toward the end of the day's play.

The Australians,

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T h e upper second-storey porch of the Germantown Club House, owing to the large number of members gathered there, of whom I was one, suddenly began to sag. Fortunately this was quickly noticed from below, and some heavy two-by-fours of yellow pine standing back of the club house were immediately placed as supports under the porch. We were all of us, except the official scorers, asked to vacate and to come downstairs as quickly and quietly as possible. Monday, October 4th, the last day of the match, proved to be a very exciting day in the annals of international cricket. It was another beautifully clear day, with practically no wind. An enormous crowd arrived early at the grounds. I heard it said that many of the mills employing English operatives—and at that time there were a great many of them— had been forced to declare a half holiday because the employees were going to take one anyway to see the end of the great match. It was decided on that account to begin play at eleven o'clock instead of at noon, and when I arrived a little after eleven, I f o u n d the Philadelphians already at bat. T h e Australians had adopted a very different system of arranging their field, many of the fielders being placed far out, at or near the boundaries, and the bowlers were instructed to bowl for catches. As I entered the grandstand, I noticed that Boyle, one of their best fielders, was standing with his back to the grandstand, a very deep mid-off. He was facing Bob Newhall, who had just taken his stand at the lower wicket, two wickets having already fallen. T o m Hargrave had just been put out for 9 runs, which proved to be the top score of our second innings. Spofforth was bowling for catches, and Bob started on his first ball intent on driving him over the club house. H e hit a long high ball, which seemed destined to drop several feet over the railing; but Boyle reaching far over with one hand, succeeded in making a beautiful catch. So Bob was out on his first ball; and now a rot set in, and in the course of it, an unfortunate incident in international cricket. Dan Newhall, who was now at bat, jumped into one of Allan's tempting slows, intending to drive to the boundary. He missed the ball, but appeared to get back before Blackham put the wicket down. Blackham appealed to the umpire, the late Mr. Henry W. Brown, who called it not out. Blackham then handed the ball to his captain at slip, and Gregory threw the ball on the ground and called his men off the field. T h i s unfortunate action made a conclusion of the match almost impossible. Meanwhile the space behind the ropes had become densely crowded with the spectators, who became more and more indignant as the interruption was prolonged. They had paid their good 25 cents for admission, and now could be heard loudly criticizing the Australians in the dialects of Nottingham and Yorkshire. It looked at one time that if the

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Cricket

game were not quickly resumed the visitors from the Antipodes might be in danger of being mauled by the crowd on their way out. W h e n I returned to the club house I saw the two captains talking on the porch. It seemed that the committee in charge had that very morning given the Australians a cheque for $2,500, their share of the gate receipts u p to Saturday. Captain Gregory was informed that the payment of that cheque had been stopped, and if he did not take his team back on the field, they would not receive any portion of the gate receipts for the day. An o m n i b u s had been stationed on a private estate back of the grounds; and to escape injury f r o m the spectators, they had better board it and slip away quietly. After the situation was thus made clear to him, Captain Gregory decided to take his team back on the field. But it was now too late to h o p e for the conclusion of the match. Resuming play the Philadelphians rapidly lost their wickets. Dan Newhall made a big drive to the on, which an Australian outfielder cleverly caught by leaning far back over the ropes. T h e Philadelphians were all out in their second innings for 53 runs, a sorry falling off from the 196 in their first. T h i s left the Australians with 100 to win, and with less than an h o u r to make them. Both captains had agreed to stop play each day at five o'clock as the light began to fail after that hour. Now the most exciting part of the day's play began. Alec B a n n e r m a n took his guard at the lower wicket, facing Charley Newhall, bowling this time from the club house end. Charley, always immaculate in dress, never looked hurried on the cricket field, and even when bowling at his fastest pace never rolled u p his sleeves or appeared flurried. At this m o m e n t I noticed that, after h a n d i n g his cap to the umpire, he paced off several additional yards before marking the spot from which he p l a n n e d to start his run. B a n n e r m a n , standing well out before his wicket, evidently proposed to force the game. But he f o u n d the bowling dangerous to trifle with, and was soon hit on the left elbow by a fast rising ball a n d called the umpire to massage it. A n d then, before he was completely recovered, Alec was hit again on the other elbow, and although we had the unusual spectacle of two umpires busily engaged in massaging one disabled batsman, he was unable to continue and had to retire. T h e n Charley Newhall bowled Charles B a n n e r m a n with a fast yorker, which, though partially smothered by the batsman, wormed its way to the wicket and removed the bails. Spofforth came out and took his guard, but the next m o m e n t his right s t u m p was turning somersaults toward the steel works; a n d Murdoch, taking his place, was soon bowled by another yorker. T h e next Australian batsman was also clean bowled by Charley, who had now f o u r Australian wickets to his credit. W i t h Alec B a n n e r m a n hors de combat the mainstay of our opponents

The

Australians,

1878

65

were o u t of t h e g a m e w i t h o n l y 5 0 r u n s u p o n t h e s c o r e b o a r d . D a n m e a n w h i l e h a d b e e n b o w l i n g w e l l a t t h e o t h e r e n d . W i t h t h e f a l l of Bailey time was up; the g a m e was drawn; the Australians were left w i t h 51 r u n s to g e t t o w i n , a n d t h e i r last five b a t s m e n t o g e t t h e m . W h e n t i m e was called the Australians rushed i n t o the club house a n d i n t o their clothes, a n d w e r e q u i c k l y d r i v e n i n t o t h e city. T h e i m m e n s e c r o w d b e h i n d the ropes swarmed o v e r t h e field. B e f o r e Charley N e w h a l l could escape they had him. T h e y carried h i m well o v e r t h e i r h e a d s b o d i l y i n t o t h e c l u b h o u s e a m i d a r o a r o f c h e e r s for h i m a n d for his gallant eleven. T h e f u l l score of this g a m e follows. P H I L A D E L P H I A v. AUSTRALIANS (D. W. Gregory) Played at Nicetown, October 3, 4 and 5, 1878 Result: Drawn. PHILADELPHIA First Innings Second Innings John Hargrave, c. and b. Spofforth . 10 st. Blackham, b. Spofforth c. and b. Allan F. E. Brewster, c. Murdoch, b. Allan 15 l.b.w., b. Spofforth C. A. Newhall, b. Allan 3 R. S. Newhall, b. Allan 84 c. Bailey, b. Spofforth c. Gregory, b. Allan G. M. Newhall, c. Spofforth, b. Horan 13 R. N. Caldwell st. Blackham, b. Boyle 22 b. Allan E. Hopkinson, c. Gregory, b. Bailey . 0 c. Bailey, b. Spofforth c. Boyle, b. Spofforth D. S. Newhall, not out 31 T . Hargrave, b. Allan 1 st. Blackham, b. Allan Ε. T . Comfort, b. Allan 3 b. Allan S. Meade, b. Allan 0 not out Byes 8, leg byes 6 14 Byes 6 Total

196

Total

AUSTRALIANS First Innings Second Innings C. Bannerman, c. G. Newhall, b. Meade 0 b. C. Newhall A. Bannerman, c. G. Newhall, b. C. Newhall 46 retired h u r t T . Horan run out 5 F. R. Spofforth, c. R. Newhall, c. R. Newhall, b. Meade b. C. Newhall 4 D. W. Gregory, b. C. Newhall 0 b. C. Newhall W. L. Murdoch, b. D. Newhall 37 G. H. Bailey, c. Meade, b. C. Newhall 0 not b. C.out Newhall J. McC. Blackham, b. D. Newhall . . . 20 not out T . W. Garrett, b. C. Newhall 1 H. F. Boyle, c. T . Hargrave, b. D. Newhall 30 F. E. Allan, not out 4 Byes 0, wides 3 3 Bye 1 Total

150

Total (4 wkts.)

7 0 5 0 2 8 5 7 9 4 0 6 53

27 0 0 4 240 0

56

A Century

66

of Philadelphia

BOWLING

Cricket

ANALYSIS

AUSTRALIANS

First Spofforth Allan Boyle Garrett Horan Murdoch Bailey . .

Innings Ο Μ 24 8 20 4 19 6 13 5 10 2 10 2 4 1

Second R 51 27 39 26 24 10 5

W 1 6 1 0 1 0 1

Spofforth Allan . .

Innings Ο Μ 18.3 7 18 6

R 24 23

W 5 5

Innings Ο Μ 18 9 7 4 10 5

R 29 16 10

W 3 1 0

PHILADELPHIA

First Innings Ο Μ R C. A. Newhall 52 28 67 S. Meade . . . . 26 12 36 D. S. Newhall 26.1 14 34 Ε. T. Comfort 3 0 7 R.N.Caldwell 2 0 3

Second W Wides 5 1 2 3 0 0 1

C. A. Newhall S. Meade Meade D. S. Newhall

...

Incidents of this game soon became part of our cricket heritage. I recall that when, as a student at Haverford College, I first stepped on the beautiful grounds at Manheim in 1893, an old m e m b e r of the Germantown Club pointed out to me where the two big hits recorded by Morgan would have landed if they had been made there instead of at Nicetown. But Morgan gives me the impression that Bob Newhall was on a hitting spree. T h i s is not borne out by the facts. O u r team scored its 196 at slightly less than a r u n a minute; but according to the M.C.C. Scores and Biographies (Vol. 14), "Robert Newhall was in for 2\/2 hours," and thus was scoring at the rate of 36 runs an hour. It was an innings not for the gallery, b u t for his side. George Patterson, as good a judge of the game as we ever had, called this innings the greatest ever played by an American batsman. Pat would never have said this if Bob's innings had not been a calculated, intelligent effort, not for himself, but for Philadelphia cricket.

CHAPTER

The Constructive

V

Decade,

i8jg-i88g

HERE was a tendency in Philadelphia to look upon our cricket as now full grown. Against an Australian eleven that had bowled out a strong M.C.C. eleven for 19, we had held our own, and even scored a "moral victory," whatever that may mean. T h e Philadelphia press on October 4 announced it as an actual victory! It was extremely fortunate for our cricket that this decade began with a series of deflating defeats. Without this purgative the ten years could never have produced the healthy growth they did. T h e season of 1879 was unique in our cricket history, because in this year we matched ourselves at home against three different teams from overseas; in May against Lord Harris' XI on its way home from the tour in Australia; in September against the Irish Gentlemen; and in October against Daft's English professionals. Americans played seven international matches, not counting the annual game with Canada, in 1879. They won one, and lost all the others, though rain stopped one before its technical conclusion. Let us first have the facts before us. Lord Harris' eleven had played thirteen games in Australia, eight of them against odds. They had won five, lost three and drawn five. T h e batting strength of the side lay in Hornby, Ulyett, Lucas, and Harris. For a touring side the attack was weak, Emmett and Ulyett needing two more first-class bowlers to support them. Though weakened by the absence of Harris and two others, whose 67

68

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

places were filled by three local professionals, Braithwaite, Brewster, and Lane, the English eleven beat a combined eleven from New York and Philadelphia at Hoboken by an innings and 114 runs. T h e American batting failed badly, even though H o r n b y opened against them in the second innings with his fast lefthanded underhands. T h e Gentlemen of Ireland were distinctly the weakest eleven from overseas that had toured in America, yet they won nine of the twelve games played, eight of them against odds. A strong Philadelphia eleven beat them at Nicetown by an innings and 9 runs, the chief feature of the game being that in the Irishmen's two innings Charlie and Dan Newhall took all the wickets except two r u n out. Dan took nine for 44. But in a r e t u r n match on the following day, the Irishmen beat us by 14 runs; and then, using twelve men against fifteen, went on to beat Merion by 97 runs. Richard Daft himself had chosen his professionals for the American tour. H e picked seven from his own county, Notts, a n d five from Yorkshire. A r t h u r Shrewsbury, though he had represented the Players three years before, had not yet attained the rare judgment and skill which fifteen years later made him recognized as the best bat in the world on sticky wickets. George Ulyett, the big Yorkshireman, with Oscroft, Daft, and Selby, were the core of the batting strength; but the eleven was most formidable in the attack, for it included the two great left-hand fast bowlers, Fred Morley and T o m Emmett, with Bates and Barnes in reserve, and Alfred Shaw, a bowler of extraordinary accuracy, as the analysis of the match will show. In his entertaining book, A Cricketer's Yarns, Daft states that Morley was the most accurate of the great left-handers, but so indifferent a batsman that when he was seen coming padded from the pavilion at T r e n t Bridge, the horse would at once take his place between the shafts of the roller. T h e game proved that Philadelphia bowlers were still able to get good sides out for reasonable scores. T h e best bowling for us was done by E. W. Clark with six for 29 in the second innings, and Charlie Newhall got ten wickets for a trifle more than 14 runs apiece. T h e full score follows:

The DAFTS

Constructive

Decade,

69

1879-1889

P R O F E S S I O N A L v. 15 P H I L A D E L P H I A

AMATEURS

Played at Nicetown, October 10, 11, 13, 1879

Result:

Daft's XI won by 155 runs. DAFT S ELEVEN

First

Innings

Ul\ett, c. Van Rensselaer, b. C. N e w h a l l 8 Oscroft, c. Van Rensselaer, b. Clark . 62 Shrewsbury, r u n o u t 1 Selby, b. C. Newhall 8 Daft, b. C. N e w h a l l 5 Barnes, b. C . Newhall 3 Bates, r u n o u t 41 Eimnett, c. Van Rensselaer, b. D. N e w h a l l 14 Shaw, b. C. N e w h a l l 1 Morley, c. Van Rensselaer, b. C. N e w h a l l 3 Pinder, not o u t 0 Byes 2, leg byes 1 3 Total

Second

Van Rensselaer, b. G. Newhall b. Clark b. Clark c. Van Rensselaer, b. Clark b. Clark b . C . Newhall b . C . Newhall c. Brewster, b. C . N e w h a l l b. Clark

PHILADELPHIA

FIFTEEN

Innings

b. Shaw c. Shaw, b. Morley b. Morley b. Shaw b. Morley c. Oscroft, b. Morley c. Shrewsbury, b. S h a w c. a n d b. Morley b. Shaw b. Shaw c. Oscroft, b. Shaw c. Shrewsbury, b. Morley c. E m m e t t , b. Morley not o u t b. Shaw Byes 15, leg byes 1

70 BOWLING

1 6 6 133

Second

Total

30 0 0 8 14 12 35 5

Total

Innings

C. A. N e w h a l l , c. Shrewsbury, b. Shaw 0 E . W . C l a r k , J r . , b. Morley 0 J . B. L a r g e , c. Shrewsbury, b. Shaw . . 17 R . S. N e w h a l l , b. Shaw 13 R . N. Caldwell, b. Morley 3 G. M. N e w h a l l , c. U l y e t t , b. Morley . 0 F . E . B r e w s t e r , c. Shrewsbury, b. Shaw 0 J . B. T h a y e r , b. Shaw 3 J. Hargrave, run out 0 R . H a r g r a v e , c. Daft, b. Morley 8 S. L a w , b. Shaw 2 D. S. N e w h a l l , not o u t 8 H . W . B r o w n , b. S h a w 0 A. Van Rensselaer, b. Shaw 8 H . C. B u t c h e r , l.b.w., b. Shaw 0 Byes 7, leg byes 1 8

16

c. Brewster, b. C l a r k not o u t Byes 5, leg byes 1

149

First

Intiings

2 3 0 8 8 4 2 1 1 3 9 9 0 0 1 16

Total

67

ANALYSIS

DAFT'S X I

First Shaw Morley

Innings

Ο . . . . 33.3 . 33

Μ 23 10

R 18 44

W 9 4

Shaw Morley

Ο . 32 . 31

Μ 21 12

R 19 32

W 7 7

R 63 35 29

W 4 0 6

PHILADELPHIA X V

First C. D. E. S.

A. N e w h a l l . . S. N e w h a l l . . . W . Clark . . . . Law ...

Innings Ο 53.1 45 11 3

Μ 22 28 5 0

R 80 38 20 8

W 6 1 1 0

Second Ο C. A. Newhall . . 4 2 D. S. Newhall . . . 16 E. W . Clark . 26

Innings Μ 15 4 12

70

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

Daft's eleven played twelve games in America, all but one against odds. They won all but three, and these would clearly have been wins if played out. Young America insisted on standing up to them man to man, eleven a side; but, as Lillywhite's Annual for 1880 comments, "they had attempted a task for which they were utterly unequal." T h e Englishmen won by an innings and 60 runs. T h e home players fell an easy prey to Shaw and Morley in the first innings, and fared even worse in the second against Bates, who sent back eight of the invincibles for 20 runs. It is not clear why in both this game and the preceding one, Dan Newhall, the captain, having won the toss, sent the Englishmen in to bat in fair weather and on a good wicket. At Ardmore, in the chilly weather of late October, against twenty-two of Merion, it was the same story. Thirty-four of the home batsmen were skittled out for 3 runs apiece on the average, and the Englishmen were 122 runs ahead with twelve Merion wickets down in the second innings when rain stopped play. Though the period of deflation had just begun, voices already were heard asking why our cricket failed in these international tests. One clear answer came almost at once; "Philadelphia has never had a wicket-keeper." Boston had one a few years earlier in Haigh; but the men who had kept for our teams, men like Van Rensselaer, George Newhall, and J . Hargrave, were what Fitzgerald called "wicket-keepers once removed," and stood well back of the stumps, in the belief that they would make more catches and save more byes. George Newhall had allowed the Australians only 1 bye in their two innings. But Lockyer, Blackham, Pooley, and to a lesser degree, Pinder in Daft's eleven, had all in turn demonstrated the additional sting that a wicket-keeper brought to the attack when he stood close under the stumps. T h i s was felt so keenly by a contributor to the American Cricketer that he went back to Pliny's axiom to support his opinion—"Legere et scribere est paedagogi, sed optime collineare est Dei; reading and writing are inflicted by schoolmasters, but a wicket-keeper under the stumps is a work of God." This shoe pinched the more because the critics of 1879 had just seen the work of the Irish amateur, Brougham, and thought it better than Pinder's.

The Constructive

Decade,

1879-1889

71

The noticeable events on the local scene, before Shaw arrived with his professionals in the autumn of 1881, are the continued preeminence of Young America, who had opened their new grounds at Stenton, and at their annual meeting had adopted a resolution favoring a tour of Philadelphia cricketers in England; the weakening of the Germantown Club by the withdrawal of the Hargrave brothers; and the renewal of the annual match with Canada, a Philadelphia team going to Ottawa and winning by five wickets. Albert Shaw's XI played two games at Nicetown in October of 1881. Shaw was bound for Australia on one of the four tours he took there in conjunction with his business partner, Shrewsbury. This was long before the authority to send or take a team representative of English cricket had been vested in the Marylebone Cricket Club. Shaw had with him five of the men who had played against us for Daft two years before, Ulyett, Selby, Bates, Emmett, and Shaw himself. Shrewsbury had been left behind in England with bronchitis. T h e newcomers were Barlow, Midwinter, the powerful batsman from Gloucester, Scotton, James Lillywhite, and Peate, the left-hand bowler and youngest man on the team, who was the only man to take 100 wickets in county cricket in 1880 and again in 1881. Daft's team was the stronger side, at least in bowling, because it included Morley, a better fast bowler than any with Shaw; but the eleven of 1881 perhaps had the sounder nucleus of batsmen. It possessed a stolid sticker in Scotton, and Barlow in the following year played that historic innings for Notts against Lancashire, when going in first he batted for two hours, and carried out his bat for 5 runs. T h e scores of the two matches played in Philadelphia are not appended because they repeat even more emphatically the story of the game against Daft's XI. The Englishmen beat a Philadelphia amateur XII by an innings and 104 runs, and a few days later beat a United States XVIII which included seven professionals—four from Philadelphia, two from Brooklyn and one from Boston—and ten Philadelphia amateurs, by 132 runs. In the first game Bob Newhall and the young John B. Thayer made much more than half the total of 126 between them, but the side was

72

A Century

of Philadelphia

Cricket

all o u t for 47 in the second innings b e f o r e the deadly bowling of Peate, w h o took seven for 21. For E n g l a n d , U l y e t t and M i d w i n t e r , w i t h half of the total of 277 b e t w e e n t h e m , gave P h i l a d e l p h i a cricketers a new revelation of p o w e r f u l a n d fearless batting. C h a r l i e Newhall a n d T h a y e r took all ten wickets between t h e m at a cost of 12 r u n s apiece. I n the second match the eighteen were helpless against Peate, w h o took twenty wickets for 59 runs. T h e E n g l i s h m e n were dismissed twice f o r a total of 280 r u n s , b u t against this the eighteen could compile only 71 and 77. P h i l a d e l p h i a winced at the b a r b shot f r o m the New York press a f t e r these defeats—"Those P h i l a d e l p h i a n s have been t a u g h t to k n o w that they are not t h e great cricketers they t h o u g h t they w e r e . " A n d it was shoved in d e e p e r in early September, w h e n a W e s t e r n Eleven came to P h i l a d e l p h i a a n d m a d e a clean sweep of the clubs they played; b e a t i n g in succession Y o u n g America, G i r a r d , M e r i o n , and G e r m a n t o w n . T h i s eleven was gathered f r o m Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, a n d W i l m i n g t o n , Illinois, a n d it con t a i n e d a very good all-round cricketer i n t h e left-hander, E. R. O g d e n . It dispelled, temporarily at least, t h e delusion that there were n o good cricketers outside of P h i l a d e l p h i a . T h e cry for a good wicket-keeper n o w w e n t u p louder than ever. T h e critics had observed t h a t Pilling, in the course of the m a t c h in N e w York and the two games in P h i l a d e l p h i a , had s t u m p e d one o u t of every ten b a t s m e n w h o c a m e to the wicket, usually off Peate. T h e press posed t h e q u e s t i o n — " W h y d o n ' t we get a wicket-keeper like Pilling, a n d why isn't Lowry, the nearest to P e a t e that we have, used m o r e in i n t e r n a t i o n a l cricket?" T h e most h o p e f u l features of o u r c l u b cricket in the s u m m e r of 1882 were the evidence of m a t u r i n g p o w e r in t h e b a t t i n g of N o b l e a n d T h a y e r , and of the g a t h e r i n g interest in the youngsters shown by o u r cricket authorities, w h e n they sent o u t a team of Philad e l p h i a Colts to play several games in western Pennsylvania. Of the m e n w h o had played against us in t h e first Australia v. P h i l a d e l p h i a m a t c h in 1878 described in C h a p t e r IV, all b u t f o u r took the field again at Nicetown u n d e r W . L. M u r d o c h in 1882. T h e missing faces were those of Bailey, Allan, Charles B a n n e r m a n ,

The Coristructive

Decade,

1879-1889

73

and the captain, D. W. Gregory, and the newcomers were George Griffin, S. P. Jones, and the two big hitters, Massie and Bonnor. In 1878 we had opposed them with eleven men; in 1882 we played eighteen, and included two of our professionals, Bromhead and Tyers. Philadelphia awaited the outcome of this engagement with the greatest interest, because it seemed to present the best means of measuring the progress of our cricket d u r i n g the four years that had elapsed since 1878. T h e memory of that game was fresh in the minds of all the Philadelphians who took the field against the invaders, even though only the three Newhalls and T o m Hargrave had previously played against them. We reproduce the full score of this match, which, it should be remembered, was played in dismally cold and dreary weather, in order that the reader may make for himself the comparison between the achievement of our cricketers in these two comparable matches. T h e comparison is necessary if we are to understand the tide of criticism of cricket that began to r u n in 1879 but reached high water only in the winter of 1882-83. AUSTRALIANS ( M U R D O C H ) v. 18 OF PHILADELPHIA Played at Nicetown, October 11, 12, IB, 1882 Result: Australia won by 9 wickets. P H I L A D E L P H I A XVIII First Innings Second Innings Bromhead, b. Spofforth 6 st. Blackham, b. Boyle Tyers, b. Boyle 5 c. Murdoch, b. Boyle A. M. Wood, c. Blackham, b. Boyle . 0 b. Garrett R. S. Newhall, c. Bannerman, b. Spofforth 0 c. and b. Boyle S. Law, c. Jones, b. Boyle 2 b. Garrett J. B. Thayer, Jr., b. Spofforth 4 b. Garrett C. A. Newhall, c. Horan, b. Garrett . 14 b. Garrett E. W. Clark, Jr., r u n out 15 c. Murdoch, b. Boyle W. C. Morgan, b. Garrett 7 c. Jones, b. Spofforth W. Brockie, Jr., c. Murdoch, b. Boyle 7 c. Murdoch, b. Garrett Τ . H. Dixon, b. Garrett 0 c. Bannerman, b. Boyle J. I. Scott, c. Murdoch, b. Boyle . . . . 8 c. Murdoch, b. Boyle Γ. Hargrave, b. Garrett 1 c. Bonnor, b. Garrett H. Hargrave, b. Garrett 2 c. Massie, b. Boyle H. MacNutt, b. Garrett 0 not out D. S. Newhall, b. Garrett 0 c. Garrett, b. Boyle C. E. Haines, not out 0 b. Garrett W. C. Lowry, absent 0 b. Boyle Byes 10, leg byes 1 11 Byes Total

82

Total

4 3 ι 4 0 0 18 9 5 0 7 2 0 4 6 7 3 0 3 76

A Century

74

of Philadelphia

Cricket

B O W L I N G ANALYSIS First Spofforth Boyle Garrett

Innings Ο Μ 15 6 15 6 30.4 13

Second R 22 18 31

W 3 7 5

Garrett

AUSTRALIAN XI First Innings Second A. C. Bannerman, b. Tyers 3 W. L. Murdoch, b. C. A. Newhall . . 4 T . H o r a n , c. Bromhead, b. C. A. Newhall 7 G. Giffen, c. Lowry, b. Clark 23 G. J. Bonner, c. R. S. Newhall, b. Lowry 17 b. C. A. Newhall J. McC. Blackham, c. Haines, b. C. A. Newhall 31 S. P. Jones, b. Law 4 T . W . Garrett, b. Law 12 not out Η. H. Massie, not out 1 not out F. R. Spofforth, c. Bromhead, b. Law 0 H. F. Boyle, c. Haines, b. C. A. Newhall 1 Leg byes Leg byes 2, wide 1 3 Total

106

Total

Innings ο Μ 7 2 42.2 23 38 20

R 10 28 35

W 1 9 7

Innings

26

7 18

2 53

.

B O W L I N G ANALYSIS Second C. A. Newhall Law Tyers Lowry Bromhead

Ο 39.3 12 15 7 19 7

Μ 26 5 10 2 12 4

R 30 15 7 19 12 15

W 4 3 1 1 1 0

C. A. Newhall . . Law . Tyers . Lowry . MacNutt

Innings Ο Μ 0 4.3 7 2 0 2 1 0 4 2

R 17 15 7 9 3

W 1 0 0 0 0

T h e salient facts that emerge from a comparison between the matches with the Australians in 1878 and in 1882 are as follows: Except for Allan, the clever left-hander, the bowling our men met in 1882 was the same as we had met four years before. Spofforth was less effective; b u t Boyle and Garrett, who between them had taken one wicket for 55 in 1878, took twenty-eight for 112 in 1882. O u r batsmen in 1878 averaged 11.4 runs a man, in 1882 only 4.2 runs a man. In 1878 our bowlers, with eleven men in the field, got the Australians out for 15.5 runs a man; in 1882, with eighteen men in the field, for 14 runs a man. In 1878 eleven Philadelphians set the Australians 100 runs to get in their second innings and took four wickets for 56; in 1882 eighteen Philadelphians lost to the Australians by nine wickets.

The Constructive

Decade, 1879-1889

75

In general the picture drawn so far in this chapter is unchanged; thirty-four individual innings produce 136 runs, an average of 4. On the other hand we still had an attack that could get out this powerful side for 14 runs a man. A period of intense self-searching followed. "It needed a lot of enthusiasm to survive these defeats," writes George Wharton Pepper as he recalls these years. T h e criticism broke out with peculiar violence after Murdoch's XI had gone, and some of it was far from intelligent. There were those who protested against admitting inferiority by taking odds from foreigners, as if, where eighteen failed, eleven could succeed. On the other hand were the larger n u m b e r of critics who wanted to know why the promise of 1878 produced almost nothing but defeat; who proposed to find out, to identify the causes, and then remove them. These writers pull no punches; they want action, but first they want the facts. T h e y record the continued impotence of Philadelphia batting from 1859 on, whenever it faced first-class professional bowling. T h e record, indeed, was impressive. In tabular form it read as follows: Run-getting

Year 1859 1868 1872 1878 1879 1881 1882

Power of Philadelphia Batsmen Against First-class of Visiting Teams, 1859-82

Opponents Parr's XI Willsher's XI Fitzgerald's XII Australians (Gregory) Daft's XI Alfred Shaw's XI Australians (Murdoch)

Bowling

Average No. of runs scored Bowlers per batsman Parr, Jackson, Wisden, Caffyn 3.5 Freeman, Shaw, Willsher, T a r r a n t 2.6 Appleby, Grace, Rose 3.1 Spofforth, Allan 11.4 Shaw, Morley 4.1 Peate, Bates, Barlow, Shaw, Emmett 7.4 Spofforth, Boyle, Garrett 4.2

T h e critics, and Dan Newhall was one of the chief, agreed that our prime need was for solid, responsible batsmen. After that we needed a good wicket-keeper, who, like Pilling and Blackham, would stand over the wicket and make the batsman watch his step. And then we needed some good slow bowlers who could use a worn or sticky wicket after the style of Peate. How to get them? Of course the answer was clear; we must begin with the young. T h e lesson of W. G.'s career was not lost on the directors of our clubs. It is interesting to note that the period of years covered in

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the T a b l e above is precisely the period in which Grace gives the answer to the very problem raised by the table. Grace was demonstrating defense as the basis for all run-getting. It is constantly said that W . G. was a born batsman. T h e plain fact is that he wasn't. H e was a born athlete, and in his late teens was rarely beaten on the track at any distance from 150 to 440 yards, on the flat or over the hurdles. B u t he was a made batsman just as surely as Abel or Shrewsbury. Here is a table showing W . G.'s batting averages for his first six seasonsSeason No. of i n n i n g s played B a t t i n g average ....

1

4 1.0

2

6

3 .7

9 1.3

4

4 20

5

10 4.6

6

5 10.6

B a t t i n g average for t h e six seasons, 5.3!

Grace took six seasons of practice with Uncle Pocock and his own three brothers to learn how to keep his wicket up. Great physical endowment had to be deliberately harnessed. T h e ordinary boy would have chucked the game after that fifth season, when the promise of the previous year must have looked like a flash in the pan. Here he was down again with only 46 runs for 10 shots! B u t he kept on working to perfect that solid defense that was as habitual as breathing, when we bowled at him in the nineties. Upon the power to stay in all Grace's long scores depended. T h e old cricketers like the Newhalls had learned this lesson, and we notice that the wise gentlemen who directed the clubs, like J . P. Green, J . B. Colahan, T h o m a s McKean, Alexander J . Cassatt, Dr. J . K. Mitchell at the University of Pennsylvania, and Henry Cope at Haverford College, became alert as they never had been before to interest youngsters in the game and to provide them sound instruction. T h e y saw that the game must sink its roots into schools and colleges and win the interest of the juniors in the clubs. In England a boy grounds himself in cricket in school, and from there he carries his game to college or to the local club. W i t h us it was the other way round. It was the organizations set up by the big clubs for their juniors not yet sixteen and their sub-juniors not yet fourteen that were most effective in the shaping of our best players, and it was, in the main, their influence that prompted the

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schools to provide opportunities for their pupils. Cricket in school was always too much of a hothouse plant. And yet the extent to which cricket was played in our colleges fifty years ago is not usually appreciated, and that story will be the subject of the next chapter. T h e junior organizations carried on the interest of the youngsters through the summer. We note that F. Altemus and J. H. Mason played with the Belmont Juniors of 1883, and in the same year the Philadelphia Colts, including two Scotts, Stoever, Ralston, Noble, and Patterson, played the Pittsburgh XI at Nicetown, Stoever getting eight wickets for 46. In 1885 H. C. Thayer's name appears with the Merion second XI and P. H. Clark with the Young America Juniors, though the record indicates that he had not yet begun to bowl; and in the same year a team called "Young Philadelphia," that included J. A. Scott, Ralston, Bohlen, and Coates, played four matches in Chicago and won them all. T h e record clearly shows that the campaign to interest the youngsters, launched by Dan Newhall when he took charge of the American Cricketer, was the first great influence for good in this decade. T h e demonstration that Philadelphia cricketers could hold their own against good amateur teams in England was the second influence in making this our constructive decade. T h e impetus of the tour of 1884 on our cricket was direct and powerful. On this, the first tour of England ever undertaken by an American team, the Philadelphians won eight of the games played, lost five and drew five. For ten years the opinion had been crystallizing in Philadelphia that our cricket would benefit from a tour of England. But it was not until the end of 1883 that a self-appointed committee, consisting of one representative from each of the five chief clubs, started a guarantee f u n d that eventually amounted to $8,200, began correspondence with the M.C.C., and drew u p a list of twenty-three likely candidates for places on the team. Belmont was represented on the committee by John P. Green. He accompanied the team when it sailed, and in 1897 published the little book that traces so graciously the progress of the tour. Philadelphia was fortunate

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Cricket

to have as one of its first ambassadors so fine an example of what was good in our cricket. T h e team as finally selected was the following: from Young America, R. S. Newhall (later chosen captain by the team), C. A. Newhall, F. E. Brewster, E. W. Clark, Jr., H . MacNutt, and Hazen Brown (wicket-keeper); from Germantown, W. Brockie, Jr., and W. C. Morgan, Jr.; from Merion, J. M. Fox, S. Law, W . C. Lowry, and John B. Thayer, Jr.; from Belmont, D. P. Stoever, and J. A. Scott, the youngest member of the team being only seventeen at the time. When the tour was over the English critics fixed on our bowling as the chief weakness in Philadelphia cricket. Sporting Life reported, " T h e y are woefully weak in bowling"; Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion for 1885 commented, " T h e i r principal weaknesses were in bowling and wicket-keeping." And this was surprising, because it was our bowling in international matches that had kept us in the running; and it was precisely our batting, which had so frequently failed at home, that the Englishmen praised. T h e respectable performance of our batsmen in England appears to have been due to the diligence and foresight of Bob Newhall, the captain. He had his men out at Stenton on every fair day in the spring of 1884, practicing to the bowling of H a n d f o r d and George Lane. They were the best men he could have chosen. H a n d f o r d was accurate, medium right, and Lane the best professional bowler in America, as our men found out to their cost at Hoboken in the spring of '79, when, filling in for Lord Harris, he got seven of our wickets for 35. " T h e C r a b " was in the best English left-hand tradition, medium-paced, very accurate, with lots of spin, the fast one coming with the arm. George was at that time like a crab in every detail of structure even down to the nails, which were as hard as claws; b u t he was the best possible practice bowler for a team going to England. H e kept his right thumbnail trimmed to lift the seam for his incurve, a fairly fast yorker—a deadly ball if you weren't looking for it. But you could see him, as he went back to begin his run, with the ball in his left hand, t u r n i n g it on its axis against that right thumbnail held stiff as a trench digger. H e

The Constructive

Decade,

1879-1889

79

got a little fin or jib to eat his ball into the wind and swing it down into your block hole. If the Crab had had the cunning of Spofforth, once in a while he would have pretended to do the manicuring, and then that good length ball on the middle stump breaking fast away would have needed playing by anyone looking for a yorker. Peace to his soul; I can see him yet, when at the turn of the century he had returned to nature, and was on all fours again, making those perfect wickets at Merion. How quick he would come at a call to the nets, throwing down his weeding knife beside the little pile of crabgrass, and crawling in to give you overs you could get from no other bowler on the continent. Beside the Crab, most of those gentlemen from home, who first made the Philadelphians welcome opponents on every cricket field in England, had in their bones the wise and patient instruction of George Bromhead, the clear soul whose inner nobility made him fit guide and companion of the young. T h e elevens played against in England were all amateur, and varied widely in strength. Probably the strongest was the M.C.C. XI, which included Webbe, Walker, C. T . Studd, G. F. Vernon, and Η. M. Rotherham, then one of the best amateur fast bowlers in England; and among the weakest opponents were the amateurs of Cheshire and Northumberland. T h e team of 1884 met in England eleven of the twelve cricket clubs played five years later by the touring team of 1889. T h e other seven of their matches were against what appear to have been weaker sides. T h e Americans won decisively from the amateurs representing Cheshire, Leicester, and Northumberland, played favorable draws with Scarborough and Derbyshire, and an even draw with Ε. M. Grace's Lansdowne Club at Bath. T h e four centuries scored by Philadelphians were all made in two games: Brockie's 113 not out and Stoever's 106 against Scarborough, and Bob Newhall's 126 and Stoever's 106 against the Gentlemen of Cheshire. W e trace in greater detail the matches that Bob Newhall's m e n played in 1884 with the same clubs met by his brother Dan's eleven in 1889. T h e tour opened in Ireland with a drawn game with Dublin University, and a win by six wickets over the Gentlemen of Ire-

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land, mainly through Lowry's bowling. In the Irish eleven were five of the team that played in Philadelphia in 1879. At Edinburgh the Gentlemen of Scotland beat the Philadelphians by five wickets, and again at Lord's the strong M.C.C. side was too much for them, though Scott's form, in his first innings of 44, \vas highly praised by the old heads under the new hats on the benches of the pavilion. Playing for the Hampshire amateurs, who beat us by five wickets, was F. E. Lacey, remembered as Secretary of the M.C.C. with affection by all cricketers at the turn of the century, and also Major Wallace, whose warm friendship was first known during the Halifax T o u r n a m e n t , when he was captain of the 60th Royal Rifles. In this match Charlie Newhall, who had strained his back in practice before the first game of the tour, was able to bowl again, and took seven wickets. One of the best wins of this tour was the victory over a Gloucester eleven that included W . G. and Ε. M. Grace, Gilbert, Cranston, and Francis. A fine bowling performance by Clark gave the visitors a 70 r u n lead in the first innings, and Charlie Newhall was very effective in the second, so that the Philadelphians won the match by 168 runs. T h i s match was marked by the best catch of the tour, when W. G., who made 41 out of 89 from the bat in the first innings, was caught by T h a y e r from a tremendously hard drive. Grace was so impressed by the catch that he presented Thayer with the bat, and it was treasured at the Merion Club until 1896, when club and bat went u p in smoke. T h e Old Man was out to enjoy this day. H e kept himself on unchanged practically throughout our two innings of 162 and 207, and took in all fourteen wickets for 151. After an even draw with Somerset, an exciting game was played with Liverpool on the beautiful Aigburth grounds, and won by 4 runs. It was marked by a fine innings of 93 by Scott, and by Lowry's six for 16 at the close of Liverpool's second innings, when it appeared that the Philadelphians were in for a trouncing. Liverpool with 119 to win had two wickets down for 57. With an hour to play, Lowry was taken off after bowling a maiden. He was put on again when the scoreboard showed 111 for six wickets with twelve minutes to play. T h e little left-hander finished the game,

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1879-1889

and should have done the hat trick if Ε. E. Steel had been held at short leg. As this was the best contest on the tour, the full score is given below: G E N T L E M E N OF PHILADELPHIA v. GENTLEMEN OF LIVERPOOL Played on the Aigburth Grounds, July 7, 8, 1884 Result: The Gentlemen of Philadelphia won by 4 runs. G E N T L E M E N OF PHILADELPHIA First Innings Second Innings c. G. F. Hornby, b. Wood J. A. Scott, b. Wood 93 c. Potter, b. Wood C. A. Newhall, b. G. F. Hornby 3 b. Wood J. B. Thayer, Jr., run out 15 R. S. Newhall, c. G. F. Hornby, c. E. C. Hornby, b. Manson b. Manson 26 c. G. F. H o m b y , b. Wood W. C. Morgan, c. Parr, b. Ε. E. Steel . 6 b. G. F. Hornby E. W. Clark, Jr., b. Wood 15 b. Ε. E. Steel D. P. Stoever, st. Potter, b. Ε. E. Steel 9 F. E. Brewster, c. G. F. Hornby, b. Wood 3 b . E . E . Steel W. Brockie, c. Wood, b. Ε. E. Steel . . 0 not out S. Law, st. Potter, b. Ε. E. Steel 2 c. E. C. Hornby, b. G. F. Hornby . . . . W. C. Lowry, not out 1 c. and b. Manson Byes, etc 12 Byes, etc Total

185

Total

52 0 13 0 11 6 0 1 8 102

GENTLEMEN O F L I V E R P O O L First Innings Second Innings R. G. Dunlop, c. C. A. Newhall, c. Morgan, b. Lowry b. Lowry 3 c. Scott, b. C. A. Newhall E. Roper, c. and b. Lowry 6 c. Thayer, b. Lowry R. Wood, c. Scott, b. Lowry 11 not out Ε. E. Steel, b. C. A. Newhall 7 c. Stoever, b. Law Η. B. Steel, b. C. A. Newhall 77 c. R. S. Newhall, b. Lowry G. Bird, c. and b. C. A. Newhall . . . . 27 c. Thayer, b. Lowry E. C. Hornby, c. and b. Law 0 c. Thayer, b. Lowry Η. B. Parr, run out 5 G. F. Hornby, c. Morgan, b. Clark b. C. A. Newhall 0 st. Morgan, b. Lowry W. H. Potter, not out 9 E. Manson, b. C. A. Newhall 19 b. Clark Byes, etc 5 Byes, etc

3 7 13 0 1 0 7 46 0 32 0 5

169 BOWLING

1 0 10

114 ANALYSIS

GENTLEMEN OF LIVERPOOL

First Innings Ο Μ R. Wood 28 8 4 G. F. H o r n b y .. . 13 E. Manson 14 . 24 E. C. Hornby .. . 12 5 Ε. E. Steel 37.1 16 8 Η. B. Steel 3

Second

R 49 15 29 16 50 14

W 3 1 1 0 4 0

Innings Ο Μ R. Wood 16 5 G. F. Hornby . . . 8 3 E. Manson . 4.2 1 E. C. Hornby . . . 3 0 E. E. Steel 18 4

R 35 19 6 10 24

W 4 2 2 0 2

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G E N T L E M E N O F PHILADELPHIA

First Innings Ο Μ W. C. Lowry 30 6 C. A. Newhall . . 23 7 12 E. W. Clark, J r . . 16 S. Law 13 3 J. B. Thayer, J r . . 2 0

R 64 55 10 25 10

W 3 5 0 1 0

Second

Ο W. C. Lowry 12 C. A. Newhall . . 14 E. W. Clark, J r . . 7 8 S. Law

Innings Μ 5 2 2 3

R 16 55 12 26

W 6 1 2 1

The Gentlemen of Surrey were not at full strength because of a county match played at the same time, and they were beaten by three wickets. This was Howard MacNutt's game. Of course, no cricket match was ever won solely through the efforts of a single man, but in many a game the balance has been tipped decisively by a performance that can be identified. Such feats don't get into the averages at their full value. Lowry tipped the scales at Liverpool, and MacNutt at the Oval. T h e Philadelphians had been left with 228 to get, and the game seemed gone until MacNutt, batting in tenth place, joined Brockie, and with a 75 not out saved the match by 3 wickets. When one weighs the circumstances, this was the best innings of the tour. Sussex had a batting side too strong for the visitors, and won by ten wickets, and Kent, with Lord Harris, two Thorntons, and Marchant beat them by six wickets at Maidstone. T h e last game was a heavy scoring match at Portsmouth against the United Services, twelve a side. In the Philadelphians' second innings Scott and Thayer took the score to 160 for one wicket before the match was drawn. Every one of the English twelve went on to bowl in the effort to part them. This engagement concluded with a cricket dinner on board Nelson's Victory. The enthusiasm at home kept rising during the summer as the news of these achievements overseas was received. Some of it was based on misunderstanding. Henry Chadwick, author of the American Cricket Annual, and one of the oldest supporters of the game in Philadelphia, wrote that he had never dreamed that "an eleven of American players, from one city only, would be able to beat an English county eleven on its own ground." This did honor to Henry's heart, but he knew better. He knew that the Philadelphians neither in 1884 nor in 1889 faced the full strength of an English county, nor played against a single professional bowler. For the purposes of this chapter we must make as just and ob-

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jective an appraisal as possible of the quality of the cricket played on the 1884 tour. T h e relative merits of the cricketers who bore the main burden of the play are frankly stated by a correspondent in London, who evidently made it his business to watch all the games, and who sent on his conclusions to the American Cricketer. T h e following is a summary of the judgments of this observer, with comments by the way from the present writer. Lowry was the most valuable man on the side. He did vastly more bowling than anyone else, and took one hundred and ten wickets for an average of 12.72, and that during a summer of ideal cricket weather and batsmen's wickets. T h e other eight bowlers on the eleven took 176 wickets jointly. T h e only other Philadelphians who ever took more than 100 wickets in England on tour were King with 120 in 1908, and Hordern with 115 for the University of Pennsylvania against the public schools in 1907. Thayer was the best all-round cricketer on the eleven. He was third in batting, sixth in bowling, and the best outfielder on a team where good outfielders were essential. Besides the brilliant catch which disposed of Grace at Cheltenham, he made three fine running catches off Lowry in the outfield when the match at Liverpool was in the balance. In terms of value to the side the third place belongs to Clark, because of his thoroughness in all departments of the game, and the fourth to MacNutt, because his bowling was effective throughout, and his innings at the Oval the finest of the 317 innings played by the team. If we speak of the art of cricket, Scott's batting, within its limits, was the most perfect thing the Philadelphians had to show. His cutting was not matched by anyone he played with or against. His one defect as a batsman was his lack of driving power. R . S. Newhall was the best man in a tight place on the team. Though Stoever came out ahead of Brockie in the batting averages, Brockie was the better man, and ranked next to Scott in form. T h e best way to appraise the relative team strength of the 1884 and 1889 touring elevens is to compare their performance against the same English clubs. T h e relative records for total games played is as follows—

84

A Century Philadelphians 1884 1889

of Philadelphia

Cricket

of 1884 and 1889, Total Games Played Played Won Lost Drawn 18 8 5 5 12 4 3 5

and it would appear that the earlier record was the better. But when we compare the records of games played in 1884 and in 1889 against the same English clubs, the picture is different— Philadelphians

1884 1889

of 1884 and 1889, Against English Clubs Played Won Lost 11 4 5 11 3 3

the

Same Drawn 2 5

Further, the comparison of the batting strength of the two sides against similar English amateur bowling in these eleven games is as follows— Philadelphians

of 1884 and 1889. Average Runs per Wicket Against the Same English Clubs Philadelphians Opponents 1884 17.8 19.3 1889 25.2 24.3

T h i s evidence makes it quite clear that the Philadelphians of 1889 were a better side than their predecessors, and more nearly a match for English amateur cricketers. O u r cricket had gone forward between 1884 and 1889, and the impetus had come directly from the tour of Bob Newhall's men. At the Union League C l u b dinner in their honor, brother Dan proposed a series of meetings for the coming winter to plan the continuous improvement of Philadelphia cricket. T h e third of these influences that made 1879 to 1889 the constructive decade, and perhaps the most important of them, was the appearance in 1886 of a model for our young cricketers, the likes of whom Philadelphia had never before seen. George Patterson's early history as a run-getter reminds us of W. G.'s. We noted above the first records of Patterson as a young ster. After the first recorded scores of 27 and 4 for Chestnut Hill Juniors in 1881, we see him playing for Germantown Academy, and then in '85 and '86 for Haverford College. Those early batting performances were not impressive. Indeed for six years both Pat and W. G. were incubating; in both cases the shell suddenly

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85

exploded, and there were the long-legged cockerels with wings full grown. In May of 1886 Patterson scored an invaluable 66 for Haverford, and then the scores run— J u n e 26 v. Young America July 5 v. Merion Sept. 4 v. West Indians . Sept. 11 v. Belmont Sept. 18 v. Players

107 118

65

100* 50

Signifies not out.

If we inquire of these two batsmen what enabled them to become consistent run-getters all of a sudden, we get the same answer. A period of training in defense had been completed. It is easy to gape at centuries, and to forget the labor that went to the making of them. Many of Grace's centuries took more than three hours; his 7 against the twenty-two of Philadelphia in 1872 took almost an hour; his 49 for the Gentlemen against the Players in 1880 took two hours and forty minutes. Patterson s 100 not out against Belmont took four hours; and of his 107 against Young America, the Cricketer reports, "after being more than four hours at the wicket he showed the same care in his defence as at the beginning." In an article on "Cricket in the United States" in Lippincott's Magazine in 1892 Patterson attributes the improvement in the Germantown players in 1886 to the wise provision the club was beginning to make for coaching the youngsters at Manheim. And Grace attributes all his subsequent success to his persistent training in defense. Those of us who bowled against Patterson in the nineties were quickly aware that when Pat shuffled to the wicket a keen intelligence came with him. Here was a batsman who wasn't going to get himself out; who could accommodate his defense to the state of the wicket; who already knew what was in your quiver, and how to shield himself against it. H e presented you with a physical and intellectual problem as no other Philadelphia batsman did. T h i s was what made him a model for Philadelphia cricketers for the next fifteen years—the best model they could have had. For he was a good counterpoise for that tendency in Philadelphia cricket that is noticeable from the beginning, both for good and for bad, the desire to reach the goal quickly, whether in scoring runs or

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getting wickets. I cannot now imagine Pat ever in a hurry, except once or twice when Arthur Wood would make him scramble for a short run. He was a thorough workman, whether scoring runs or getting wickets—deliberate, persistent, seldom brilliant but always with a keen sense of the fine traditions of the game. It was mainly the presence of Patterson that made the team that sailed for England in 1889 a stronger side than its predecessor. T h e story of that tour is told by Reynolds D. Brown, one of the eleven, in Chapter VII. T h e next chapter will both interrupt and anticipate our story. But it is necessary at this point, because without it we shall be neglecting one element which influenced Philadelphia cricket from the beginning, and continues to vitalize what is left of it today.

CHAPTER

VI

Cricket in School and College

HE decisive defeats inflicted on the Philadelphians successively by Daft, Shaw, and the Australians are reflected in the American Cricketer by intermittent but persistent letters and editorials urging the encouragement of cricket with the young. T h e result most immediately discernible was the beginning of the organization of the game in schools and colleges. This occurred in the period we have called the Constructive Decade. But to describe the full crop produced by the seeds scattered by the cricket fathers in the early eighties will take us far beyond the limits of that decade. Nonetheless, this appears to be the proper place to study the contribution made by the schools and colleges to the main stream of Philadelphia cricket, even though it will lead us well beyond the point now reached in our story—indeed all the way up to what may fairly be called the last intercollegiate match in 1924. T h e list of representative Philadelphia cricketers who played the game in school would be an imposing one. It would include the Pattersons, the Biddies, the Browns, the Morrises and the Thayers, Archie Thomson, Brockie, Noble, and Bart King. While the schools were certainly not the main training-grounds for these players, it should nevertheless be remembered that the game was 87

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played in schools and colleges before it was established in any of our big clubs.* In Chapter ι it is noted that the first cricket club of nativeborn Americans was founded at Haverford College in 1834. T h e Harvard Class of 1841 is said to have had a team of its own in every sport, including a cricket eleven; but even so, Harvard cricket apparently wasn't anything like what it had been, for we read in Haruardiana, under the date of 1835, that "foot-ball and cricket have degenerated into dull and trivial games." T h e earliest reference to cricket in schools in the Philadelphia area is apparently in the year 1840, when an Englishman, John R. Smith, introduced it to the teachers at Westtown School. Edward M. Wistar of Germantown, who entered the school in 1863, writes to a friend, We, the Excelsior Boys, have had three pretty good games of ball, and we Cricketers average about three games a day, so thee sees some of us still have an interest in cricket. Between Philadelphia and St. Paul's School at Concord, New Hampshire, which played its first cricket match on July 4, 1857, there used to exist strong bonds of association. T h e St. Paul's eleven thrice played a week's cricket in Philadelphia between 1884 and 1891, and Haverford College traveled up to Concord to play them in 1893. Though the influence of St. Paul's on our cricket was indirect, it was nonetheless felt to be real; for Murray Rush sent his check for fifty dollars to support it, and Thomas McKean, president of the Germantown Club, arranged for the team's visits to Philadelphia. Except for the boys from St. Paul's the interest in the game at Harvard and Cornell would not have been as strong as it was. Malcolm Gordon, now head of the school of that name at Garrison-on-Hudson, was for many years the cricket leader at St. Paul's. Gordon was a batsman—his 125 stands as the school record —and a wicket-keeper. When Ralston's hands gave signs of breaking up on the English trip of 1897, it was Gordon, then perdu on a bicycle trip, whom Frank Bohlen telegraphed all over Eng• For a list of schools in the Philadelphia area where cricket was played see Appendix D.

Cricket in School and College

89

land to find in order to fill the gap until Scattergood arrived. Cricket at St. Paul's was more completely the school game than it has ever been in any other American school. In 1889 there were three hundred boys playing, divided into three clubs. T h e end came in 1902, and the white-bearded old Professional Morley, venerable when he came to St. Paul's in 1888, was retired on a pension. Sam Morley had been coach at the Oxford club and groundsman at Merion when the club played at Ardmore, and the contract made with him in 1886 still exists among the Philler papers at Merion, with Sam's roughly pencilled note at the end of it, "shall i Rekwire a Capp?" The most important city school in the history of Philadelphia cricket is Germantown Academy, where this game was by far the oldest branch of sport. At least a score of international players got some experience of the game while they were students there, and forty-six Germantown Academy boys have represented their colleges in intercollegiate matches. W. C. Morgan, Jr., was a scholar at the Academy in 1881. So great was the excitement there on the first day of October, when it became known that "Irish" Morgan had been chosen to keep wicket for the Philadelphians against Shaw's professionals, that the school had to close for the day. T h e boy allowed only one bye in the Englishmen's innings of 277. T h e first school score recorded in the American Cricketer is for St. Paul's v. Chestnut Hill in 1879, and the second is for Germantown Academy, playing a second eleven of Oxford in the same year. The third school to appear in the record is Episcopal Academy, and when the Interacademic Athletic Association was founded in 1887, the Haverford Grammar School, Penn Charter, Rugby Academy, and other schools in and around Philadelphia came to play a regular schedule, and the inevitable cup was forthcoming. Many of these school and college cricketers had opportunities to practice indoors during the winter and early spring. Hill's Barn was used all winter at St. Paul's; Friend's Select School in Philadelphia and the Haverford School had practice sheds on their own grounds. Harvard played in the old Hemingway Gymnasium;

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Cornell on the third floor of the Armory, and later in the baseball cage where Jack Pacey coached them in 1905; and the University of Pennsylvania in the very early days at Barrett's Gymnasium on Chestnut Street above Sixth, and later at one or other of the school or college cricket sheds which were vacant on Saturdays. In 1905 the Haverford School made its large shed available to all Philadelphia cricketers on Saturday afternoons, with Braithwaite and Bishop ready to bowl. But the place where winter facilities were most effective in producing cricketers was Haverford College. T h e first cricket shed, a narrow one-crease wooden building, rather dangerous for spectators, was put up in 1889. Though it was almost immediately found to be inadequate for the number of men who wanted to use it, this shed had an immediate effect on Philadelphia cricket in the production of more finished batsmen than Haverford had seen hitherto. T h e first of these was John W. Muir, captain in 1892, his senior year. I recall the lasting esteem of Woodcock for Jack Muir, and the pride with which he spoke of his performance in June, when Muir, "slightly assisted by the rest of the Haverford team," beat the Philadelphia club single-handed, scoring 97 not out from a total of 179, and then taking six wickets for 14. Muir was later identified with the Belmont club, played five international matches as an All Philadelphian, and was scoring runs as late as 1917. A fine, double-crease, well-netted shed was opened in 1893, one hundred feet long, and each crease fifteen feet wide. It was constant practice under fairly competent coaching in this shed that made it possible for Haverford to mold youngsters who came to college with little or no knowledge of cricket, into elevens which for twenty years were able to play the English Public Schools on fairly equal terms. School cricket in Philadelphia reached its peak in 1904. In that year there were ten schools and forty-five matches in the interacademic league. In the same year seven public high schools organized to form the Interscholastic Cricket Association, and played thirty-five games in competition for the Merion Club, which had been presented by A. J . Cassatt.

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T h e worthy fathers seem to have had a deep faith in the ability of cups to produce cricketers, and the Philadelphia silversmiths of the eighties must have been put to it, at times, to create original designs. This trust, indeed, had its roots in our cricket history. No one could forget the widespread interest in the game aroused by Dan Newhall when he brought back the Halifax Cup in 1874. But the multiplicity of cups and prizes set up for competition tended, particularly with young players, to confuse the motives for playing cricket, and to nullify its chief claim on our affection— the game and its traditions, not the prize. T o play cricket to win silverware for my school is but once removed from playing football for a gate for my college; to bat for the average that wins the prize cup for my shelf is no better than to bat for the money to support a family, as the father of H. G. Wells did. If I could only be young and play again I would rather be "some poor player on scant hire," writes Andrew Lang, than "king among the old who play no more." It is the love of the game that is the only genuine motive for playing it. Cricket was not seen at its best in either of these school competitions. T h e desire to win was so keen that the standards of sportsmanship suffered. T h e gentlemen who presided over the clubs, where the ethics of the game were always esteemed first among its values, were much more successful in keeping alive its high traditions in junior cricket than were the schoolmasters in the school elevens. Whatever the cause, the first decline of interest in cricket among the young is noticeable in the schools. By 1911 only four schools remained in the interscholastic league, and the coming of the war practically ended what was left, though Penn Charter was still playing in 1923. Cricket shot its roots earlier and ran them deeper in our colleges than in our schools. We have seen that a cricket club was formed at Haverford College in 1834, and that W. R. Wister organized the Junior Club, composed entirely of players from the University of Pennsylvania, in 1842. With various intermissions the University of Pennsylvania continued to put a team into the field up to 1924, and Haverford College has done so up to the

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present time. T h e two institutions, in spite of the disparity in size, continued to be spirited rivals so long as cricket was played in both of them. Haverford had the great advantage of having their own cricket shed and their own grounds. Pennsylvania never had a field of its own, and yet every All Philadelphia team chosen to play against an eleven from overseas, from Parr's professionals in 1859 to the Incogniti in 1924, contained one or more representatives of that university. In the long series of U. of P. v. Haverford games there were naturally some memorable performances. Among them were Harry Baily's fifteen wickets for 29 runs in the Haverford victory of 1890; G. S. Patterson's 92 not out in partnership with Reynolds Brown's 112 not out, in Pennsylvania's overwhelming victory of 1891; J . A. Lester's 73 out of 89 from the bat in the first innings, and 78 not out, out of 113, in the second innings in the exciting tie game of 1894 the score of which appears below; the remarkable bowling of Sharpless and DeMotte in 1898, when they put out a Pennsylvania side which included six future internationals for 10 runs from the bat; F. S. White's 106 out of 180 from the bat for the University against Harvard in 1904; and Chris Morris's 104 out of 179 from the bat for Haverford against the University in the same year. U N I V E R S I T Y OF PENNSYLVANIA v. H A V E R F O R D C O L L E G E Played on Cope Field, Haverford College, May, 1894 Result: a Tie. HAVERFORD COLLEGE First Innings Second Innings D. H. Adams, b. Perot 1 b. Perot F. J . Stokes, c. and b. Perot 7 b. Winsor J . A. Lester, c. Martin, b. Perot 73 not out G. Lippincott, b. Guest 1 l.b.w., b. Hinchman S. W . Morris, c. Henry, b. Perot . . . . 2 c. Henry, b. Perot A. P. Morris, c. Henry, b. Guest . . . . 0 c. Henry, b. Perot F. P. Ristine, l.b.w., b. Perot 0 run out C. H. Howson, c. Henry, b. Guest . . . 0 W. W . Comfort, c. Henry, b. Perot . . 2 K. S. Green, b. Perot 2 W. C. Webster, not out 1 b. Guest Bye 1, leg bye 1, wide I 3 Byes 3, leg bye 1 Total

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Total

0 Π 78 8 4 5 3

6 4 117

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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA A. H. Brockie, b. A. P. Morris J. N. Henry, c. Stokes, b. A. P. Morris G. C. Guest, c. and b. A. P. Morris W. Thayer, c. Howson, b. A. P. Morris J. D. Winsor, b. Lippincott R. L. Perot, b. A. P. Morris W. S. Young, c. Howson, b. Lippincott C. R. Hinchman, b. A. P. Morris E. L. Martin, c. and b. A. P. Morris W. N. L. West, c. A. P. Morris, b. Lester W. Aitkin, not out Byes 6, wides 2

17 5 17 1 13 0 9 14 0 8 0 8 92

B O W L I N G ANALYSIS UNIVERSITY O F PENNSYLVANIA

Guest Perot Hinchman

First Innings O M R W 13 4 48 16 7 23 3 0 18

Second 3 7 0

Guest Perot Hinchman Winsor Henry Martin

Innings O M 5.4 1 12 2 5 0 5 1 7 2 3 0

R 11 31 21 28 17 5

W 1 2 1 1 1 0

HAVERFORD COLLEGE

A. P. Morris J . A. Lester G. Lippincott

O 16 9 6

M

R 3 4 0

W 39 14 31

7 1 2

In the spring of 1880 John B. Thayer proposed a cricket tournament in New York between the University of Pennsylvania, Haverford, and Columbia. He found this to be impossible because the Board of Managers of Haverford forbade any college team to play away from home during the term, and that did not end until June 26. It is curious to observe how anxious the Board of Managers was to restrain cricket in the eighties, and to retain it forty years later. In the interim some cricketers had been elected to the Board. John Thayer went ahead with his plans, and on June 11, 1880, the first college match was played in New York, when the University of Pennsylvania beat Columbia by an innings and 57 runs. In April of the next year the Intercollegiate Cricket Association was founded by representatives of Columbia, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Trinity College of Hartford, Connecticut. Haverford was not allowed to join until 1883.

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Cricket matches for the "college championship of the United States" continued to be played until the last match between the U. of P. and Haverford in 1924. T h e competing colleges varied from year to year, but the nucleus of the competition was centered in Haverford, the U. of P. and Harvard, until the last named dropped out in 1905. Trinity, Columbia, and Princeton occasionally fielded an eleven, and Cornell, where cricket had begun in 1903, entered the league as a member in 1905. Jack Pacey went up to coach them on the third floor of the old armory during the winter, and later in the baseball cage. They were strong enough in 1906, when their eleven was drawn from seven different nationalities, to beat the U. of P. at Ithaca.* There is a curious appeal from the captain of the eleven at Racine College, Wisconsin, in the American Cricketer for June 7, 1880, complaining that by now Racine had been undefeated for twenty-five years, and there was no one within reach worthy of their steel. They wanted some eastern college to come out and be victimized. Ohio State University was playing cricket in 1882, and in 1886 it was proposed to organize a "United States Intercollegiate Cricket Association" to embrace all colleges in regional competition. This was soon found to be impossible, and the vitality of the Philadelphia nucleus carried on what competition there was. Harvard cricket flourished so long as there were Philadelphia or St. Paul's cricketers in residence. Harvard won the championship three times in five years, and in every instance through the efforts of Philadelphians; in 1894 through the allround ability of the captain, P. H. Clark; in 1897 because of Scattergood and Adams; and again in the following year with the help of Lester. But this intercollegiate competition was of less influence on Philadelphia cricket as a whole than what came from the growth and toughening of our young players during their tours of England and Canada. In any match at home the canny player can forecast with a good deal of accuracy the strength of the batting and bowling he will be opposed to; he knows the pet shots of the • For an account of Intercollegiate Cricket in greater detail, together with a record of winners and of memorable individual performances, see Appendix F.

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opposing batsmen, and the peculiar skills and tricks of the opposing bowlers. What makes the charm of cricket on tour is that all this is new from day to day, although of course there is common knowledge about the qualities of the best players, and more can be picked up by diligent inquiry. It would be a bad day for the Philadelphia batsman who faced Albert Trott without advance knowledge of that very fast and well-concealed yorker. T h e tours did something to these young players that simply could not be done at home. T h e judgment of the batsman was inevitably sharpened when day after day he had first to discover what the bowler facing him had that was fearsome and what gratifying, and then to adjust his own skills to the situation. T h e resourcefulness of the bowler was likewise tested daily by the job of getting out a succession of batsmen, about whose strong and weak sides he knew nothing. T h e maturing influence of these English tours is quite evident from the record. At least seventeen college players received their first invitation to represent All Philadelphia as a direct result of their performances abroad. By this channel our cricket received constant increments of strength throughout the two decades of its highest quality. Both the University of Pennsylvania and Haverford College made occasional cricket tours into Canada, but these had not such educational value as the tours in England. In all of the latter the Americans played the English Public Schools, whose elevens were uniformly well coached, and contained very often young cricketers who appeared in a year or two on the elevens of Oxford and Cambridge, or on the various county teams. Haverford College sent a team abroad fairly regularly every four years from 1896 to 1914; in fact the 1914 eleven just finished its schedule when the First World War began, and they had a rough time getting home. T h e guiding genius of the early tours was the beloved Henry Cope. Of the six touring sides the best was the eleven of 1904, captained by Chris Morris, which won 5, lost 2, and drew 8. This team contained eight men who played later either for All Philadelphia or the Colts; it had an outstanding batsman in Morris, and, after him, very even run-getting power down to the tenth

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man. T h e Haverford teams were uniformly weak where they had most need to be strong—in bowling; and Priestman, on Morris's team, was probably the best man who bowled for Haverford on any of these tours. Next to Morris's team was Lester's, the first college team to tour England from the United States; they won 4, lost 4, and drew 7. They were weaker both in batting and in bowling than the 1904 team, and too much weight in both departments had to be carried by Adams and Lester. T h e latter got a lot of runs, and ended with an average of 79. Next in order would come the team headed by Walter S. Hinchman in 1900. The eleven included Sharpless, Patton, DeMotte, and Mifflin, all later internationals, and it was very even in batting strength. They won 3, lost 4, and drew 7. T h e team of 1914, captained by John Garrigues and strengthened by the presence of Chris Morris, won 4, lost 10, and drew 2; and the team of 1910, captained by Harold Furness, won 3, lost 11, and drew 1. This was a badly unbalanced side, but in its captain it possessed one of the finest all-round cricketers ever produced in Philadelphia. Furness himself scored one third of the runs made on tour, got the most wickets and at the lowest cost. T h e last Haverford team to play in England was T o m Garrett's eleven of 1925, when cricket had been gravely weakened; they were successful in only one of the fourteen games played. T h e most successful tour of England ever made by any team of Philadelphia cricketers was that of the University of Pennsylvania in 1907. They won 8, lost 2, and drew 6 of the sixteen games played in England and Ireland. T h e success of the tour came from the bowling of Η. V. Hordern, an Australian student in the dental school, who brought an Antipodean googly with him, and from the wicket-keeping of C. H. Winter. Charlie had studied Hordern, and could tell which way he was going to turn when the batsman couldn't. Hordern took one hundred and fifteen wickets for an average of 9.45, and Winter helped him with twenty-seven of these, catching nine and stumping eighteen. T h e Pennsylvania side was very even in batting ability. Lothrop Lee, the captain, probably the best bat on the team, split a finger in an early match, and was never at top form thereafter. T h e two centuries scored on the tour came in the same match—against Tonbridge—when F. W.

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Baker scored 104 and W. S. Evans 143 not out. Hordern and Winter were promptly chosen as internationals, and W. S. Evans appeared for All Philadelphia later. We turn now to take u p the story of Philadelphia cricket at the point reached in Chapter V, the last year of the constructive decade, 1889. T h a t was the year marked by the second tour of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia to England, described in detail by Reynolds D. Brown, one of the eleven, in the chapter that follows. It is significant that of the fourteen men who made u p the team of 1889, ten had played on their college elevens.

CHAPTER

VII

The English Tour of i88g By

REYNOLDS D . BROWN

Introductory

Note by Percy H.

Clark

N 1880 George Bromhead was brought out from Nottingham as coach and groundsman for the Germantown Cricket Club, and a little later Saunders Handford, imported by the Young America Club, took charge at Stenton. T h e boys of the Germantown Academy and other schools soon took advantage of the opportunities offered by the cricket clubs and regularly each afternoon found their way to Nicetown or Stenton. Competition between the junior teams became intense.

I

T h e Young America First X I was the leader of the local teams pretty consistently from the Civil War until 1885. However, in 1886 Germantown with a team of young men coached by George Bromhead, under the leadership of Henry W. Brown, the father of Reynolds and Henry Brown, won all of its cup matches, as well as the Halifax Cup. G. S. Patterson won the batting cup with an average of 62.83, and W. J . Duhring, the bowling cup, with an average of 5.74. Young America never regained its ascendency. At about this time both the Belmont and Merion Clubs were turning out improved teams. Belmont won the Halifax Cup in 1882, 1884, and 1887 and Merion in 1888. Belmont had produced such players as the Scott brothers, A. M. Wood, D. P. Stoever; and Merion, the Thayer brothers, Lowry, Etting, Law, Thomson, and Sharp. This was the situation when the committee chose the '89 team to visit England. Dan Newhall, the true and tried captain of the 98

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team, and Brewster were the only members that played against the Australians in '78. Brewster was also a member of the '84 team, as were E. W. Clark, Morgan, and Stoever. Such mainstays as J. A. Scott, J. B. Thayer, Lowry, Brockie, C. A. Newhall, and McNutt were not available. The '89 team had no such outstanding bowlers as C. A. Newhall and Lowry; but Clark, Patterson, and Walter Scott bore the brunt of the bowling and Baily pulled off the most spectacular single bowling performance in the last match of the tour and led the bowling averages. Patterson, Scott, and Clark, in the order named, also led the batting averages, while Reynolds Brown, fourth in the batting average, made the greatest number of runs. Reynolds D. Brown was one of the group of young players developed by the coaching of George Bromhead. He led the Halifax Cup batting averages in 1888, but the Childs Batting Cup was not awarded to him because, owing to his absence at Harvard, he played only six innings out of a possible ten. However, he was one of the greatest run-getters and century-makers developed in Philadelphia, and won the Childs Batting Cup in 1898. In Dublin against Trinity College Long Vacation Club, in 1889, he made a record for Philadelphia cricket by scoring a century (111) in his first international match. A member of the Germantown first XI after his team had won a Halifax Cup Match, when asked who made the runs, replied, "Ren Brown made IBS but he was muffed five times. He's the luckiest man I ever saw"; but then he added, "Ren hits like a kicking mule." This, of course, explained at least some of the muffs. He was a pugnacious batsman, had good sound scoring strokes all around the wicket and a sound defense which he used with judgment. In a Halifax Cup Match at Manheim against the Philadelphia Cricket Club on a fast wicket, Ren tried to hook a short kicker from Tingley and missed it. T h e ball hit him right between the eyes, spreading his glasses and breaking his nose, but strangely enough neither glass was broken. He retired to the clubhouse with the understanding that he could resume his innings later. A couple of wickets fell and Ren appeared again, looking like a walking patient from the casualty ward, to resume his place against Tingley, and bat out a victory for Germantown.

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For many years he made a great many runs in all classes of cricket, and it was a disappointment and surprise to his friends and admirers that he was not successful when he visited England as a member of the Philadelphia team in 1903. It is hard to succeed in first-class cricket in England when one tries it for the first time when well up in the thirties. H. P. Baily—"Parson" Baily—who won the bowling cup in 1903, was a very useful medium-paced change bowler and a contrast to the other bowlers on the Philadelphia team. He curved from leg, broke back from the off, and continually varied his pace and length, being particularly difficult on a sticky wicket. Henry I. Brown, who won the bowling cup in 1888, was chosen for the 1889 team primarily for his bowling. He bowled lefthanded, medium to slow, curving from the off and breaking back from leg, and had good control of length and pace, but was not particularly successful in 1889. He batted right-handed and later developed into a first-rate all-rounder with a well-established place on the Philadelphia team. He was a splendid fielder, particularly in the slips. Walter Scott was an all-rounder who won the bowling cup in 1887, and the batting cup in 1888. He was a steady right-hand batsman, who scored slowly but seldom let off a loose ball. He used the forward stroke defensively, stepping far forward with a straight bat. THE

ENGLISH By

TOUR

OF

1889

REYNOLDS D . BROWN

We sailed J u n e 19th, 1889 on the City of Chicago; reached Queenstown after an uneventful voyage of nine days; visited Cork and the Blarney Stone and the Lakes of Killarney, where we saw Irish beauty in nature and in the flesh. T h e n by train to Dublin, encountering an Irish mob on a rescue hunt for the patriot leader William O'Brien, who had been spirited away by the English. I remember the scorn on the face of a violent Irishman who had burst open the car door and demanded, "Is William O'Brien here?"

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and then slammed the door shut when Bill Morgan, from the bottom of the heap of Americans on the floor, managed to pipe up in reply, "No, Willie is not present." T h e first match of the tour was against T r i n i t y College, Dublin, July 2-3. Captain Newhall was unlucky in losing the toss, as he did eight times during the trip, and our opponents had the advantage of batting first on a good wicket, making 289 runs in their first innings. T h e i r highest score was 85 by T r o t t e r , who had visited Philadelphia with an Irish team in 1879, and had also played against our 1884 team in Dublin. Clark, with four wickets, was our most successful bowler. We went in late in the afternoon and made a poor start and when time was called had lost five wickets for 39, all but one falling to Johnson. Next morning, owing to a steady 40 not out by Patterson and a surprising 55 by Charlie Palmer, we reached 177, but had to follow on. In the second innings the tide turned. Patterson batted well for 46, T h o m s o n put together an excellent 59, and with the bowlers demoralized, R. D. Brown and Stoever rapidly compiled 111 and 115 not out, respectively, so that when stumps were drawn and the match ended, Philadelphia, which had been 112 behind on the first innings, was 267 ahead with four wickets to fall—an even draw, or very possible win. T h e second match opened next day, July 4, at Phoenix Park on a grand wicket. T h e first four batsmen for the Gentlemen of Ireland, all of whom had played against us in the previous game, proved to be effective scorers. Ireland made 200, with six double figures, Patterson getting six wickets. We replied with 213, with eight double figures. T h e Irishmen did much better in their second try, scoring 300 for seven wickets, of which Patterson captured four. T h e innings was then declared closed, on the sensible supposition that we could hardly make the 294 required in the few hours remaining. But largely owing to 63 by Clark and 81 by R. D. Brown, at one stage there seemed to be a chance. However, time was called with the scoreboard showing 196 for six—a creditable draw. In the third game against the Gentlemen of Scotland, at Edin-

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burgh, the home team, batting first on an excellent wicket, should have made a handsome score. But the smart Philadelphia fielding, and the effective attack of Clark and Patterson, who bowled unchanged throughout the innings, were too much for the Scotchmen, who were all out for 66. Clark took five wickets for 32 runs, and Patterson four for 27. T h e wicket proved to our liking, for we ended the first day with 216 for six wickets, and carried the total to 308 next morning. Patterson, with 62, led the side, followed by Clark, 47, and R. D. Brown, 40, nine men getting double figures. But in spite of our lead of 242 runs, the Scotchmen settled down to their task, quite mastered the bowling, and ran up 340 runs. This left us with 99 to win, and a very short time to get them. Stoever and R. D. Brown were told to go in and hit. Just thirtynine minutes later, 100 runs were up on the scoreboard, and the match was won. Both men were still at the wicket; neither had been given the semblance of a chance; D. P. Stoever was not out 65, and R. D. Brown not out 32. For rapid scoring this must be a record for Philadelphians in international cricket. In the fourth match, against the Gentlemen of Liverpool, captain Dan surprised all by winning the toss and taking the first knock on a lovely wicket. T h e enemy's bowling was not too good; we made the large total of 445 runs, including nine double figures. Scott, with 125 and R. D. Brown with 102, led the scoring. T e n bowlers were tried, but the only successful one was E. Howley, with five for 86 runs. Our innings lasted until late in the afternoon; when the O'Dwyer brothers went in and scored 14 without loss before stumps were drawn. On the morrow Liverpool was dismissed for 123, Patterson getting eight wickets, and, following on, 170 in their second innings, with Scott getting five wickets. Our record of completed games to date—won 2, lost 0. This was too good to last and Gloucester, captained by the famous W. G. Grace, with two minor Graces in his train, were too strong for us. Winning the toss, W.G. went in first with his brother E.M. T h e latter left at 29, but 98 was up when Η. I. Brown dismissed W.G. for 46. Pullen proceeded to bat out 59 by

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steady play, but it was the partnership of Croome and Francis which proved our undoing. When Francis carried out his bat for 94 the total had reached 311. T h e wickets were taken by Η. I. Brown, three, Patterson and Clark, two each, and Scott one. We began our innings badly, for Stoever, R. D. Brown, Clark, and Etting were all out for a paltry 3 runs. Scott and Patterson stopped the rot, and later Brewster with 50 not out, and Captain Dan with 39, helped to bring our total to 173—not enough to save the follow on. There were eight double figures in our second innings of 249, led by Morgan 47, and Brewster 45. Throughout the match we were puzzled by the low-flung leg-breaks of W.G., always at his best against batsmen who were facing him for the first time. He took five for 57 in our first innings, and six for 73 in our second. With 112 runs to win, W.G. with 39 not out, and Radcliffe with 58 not out, had a relatively easy time, and Gloucester won by eight wickets. Clark took the only wickets that fell. T h e Gentlemen of Surrey, led by the famous W. W. Read, K. J. Key, and the Shuters, were a formidable side. T h e wicket was in good condition, Surrey batted first and had 131 on the scoreboard for the second wicket. Read gave one chance in his fine innings of 105, and the last wicket fell at 294. Scott was our best bowler, getting seven wickets. We made a rather indifferent start, and lost three good wickets, Patterson, R. D. Brown, and Stoever, for 63 runs before play ended for the day. Next morning Clark and Scott carried the total to 161 when Clark was caught. Bill Morgan took his place, and actually made runs faster than Scott, who stayed until the board showed 330, of which he made 142 without a chance. Bill Morgan was retired shortly thereafter for an invaluable 98, and the remaining batsmen added another 100 runs, so that we compiled 458 in the first innings and led at the halfway mark by 164. A very good batting performance after a bad start. Next day the Philadelphia fielding was lax; Read made 130, and Shuter 71, but both were missed at least three times, and Surrey reached the total of 355, leaving us in the impossible position of needing 192 runs to win with only forty-five minutes to go. We

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lost three wickets before the game e n d e d in a draw. In this match m o r e than 1,100 runs were scored, an average of over 33 for each of the 33 wickets taken. In Surrey Cricket (1904), by Al verstone and Alcock, it is stated that Read "is the only b a t s m a n w h o has attained two separate h u n d r e d s in a m a t c h played in the c o u n t y . " T h e seventh match against the M a r y l e b o n e C l u b was a slaughter. T h e M.C.C. paid us the c o m p l i m e n t of o p p o s i n g us with a team which m i g h t almost have r e p r e s e n t e d the G e n t l e m e n of England. F u r t h e r , W . G. Grace, its c a p t a i n , w o n the toss and p u t his side in on a batter's wicket. W e started fairly well, E. W . Clark getting W . G . for 26 and Stoddard f o r 0, so that the score for the second wicket was only 70. But T h o r n t o n with 73 and N e p e a n with 42, m a d e a good stand, a n d then C. C. Clark helped to raise the total score to 383. T h e wickets in this i n n i n g s were taken by Clark four, Scott and Patterson, with t h r e e each. An h o u r r e m a i n e d , a n d we lost f o u r good wickets for 76. During the n i g h t came the deluge, with its disastrous consequences to us. In the m o r n i n g o u r fifth wicket fell at 99, t h e n rain stopped play. O n the t h i r d m o r n i n g the r e m a i n i n g b a t s m e n p u l l e d u p the score to 235, a respectable total u n d e r the conditions, b u t n o t enough to save the follow on. T h e r u n s w e r e m a d e by R. D. Brown, 45, Patterson 52, Stoever 32, a n d N e w h a l l 39 n o t out. W.G. and N e p e a n bowled the whole of the P h i l a d e l p h i a second innings, which p r o d u c e d only 64 r u n s , with t h r e e small d o u b l e figures. O u r record of finished games n o w stood W o n 2, Lost 2. W e were again unsuccessful in o u r eighth game, against Kent. T h e h o m e team, which lacked five or six of its leading amateurs, won the toss, and p u t us in on a wicket which was not too easy. In spite of a useful 30 by Patterson a n d an excellent 51 not o u t by captain D a n , we were all o u t for 177. K e n t started poorly, losing five for 68 before stumps were d r a w n . N e x t m o r n i n g , however, H a w k i n s c o n t r i b u t e d a valuable 67, a n d t h e i r first innings closed for 209. O u r second innings was a great d i s a p p o i n t m e n t , totaling only 101, in spite of a 29 n o t o u t f o r c a p t a i n Dan. Kent was thus left with 69 r u n s to get, a n d these they hit off with the loss of f o u r wickets. In this m a t c h D a n N e w h a l l had scored 90 of o u r c o m b i n e d total of 278 r u n s w i t h o u t losing his wicket. O u r

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record was now Won 2, Lost 3; undoubtedly we had been contending against stronger teams since winning at Liverpool. It may be interesting at this point to refer to three communications from the well-known writer on cricket who always signed himself " T h e Old Buffer," summarizing the English view of our last three matches. T h e Ο. B. pointed out that Surrey had five very prominent players who were bound to get runs; that we did very well to top Surrey's 294 with 458. He commented on our good fielding, especially that of Η. I. Brown at long leg and deep cover. As to the M.C.C. match, he pointed out that the latter part of the game was played in the mud, and that it was a credit to the Americans that they were able to follow M.C.C.'s 383 with a score of 235, because Lord's is the most difficult ground for strangers in England. T h e Old Buffer rated the bowling of the Philadelphians about on a level of amateur bowling in England. Amateur matches such as we were playing were not treated in England as first class. Almost the only first-class cricket was the county cricket. In this the teams contain a considerable number of professionals who do most of the bowling and a large share of the batting. T h e Philadelphia team which visited England in 1897 was the first which played against the full strength of the English countries, and its record of two games won, nine lost, and four drawn really represents a great advance over the apparently better record of the 1889 team, whose opponents were not nearly so strong. And the record of the 1903 team—won six, lost six, drawn three—again far exceeded the record of the 1897 team, although it is only fair to add that all of the 1903 opponents were not strictly first class. T h e Hampshire match which followed was the closest of the entire tour. We batted first on a difficult wicket and were all out for 91. Patterson's innings was the only creditable one; he batted patiently throughout the innings for 35 not out. Hampshire did not do much better, scoring 108. Clark, with six wickets for 30 runs, was our most successful bowler; he delivered 30 overs for 30 runs. T h e n the epidemic which waits for the dews of the evening set in; we lost four good wickets, Morgan, Scott, R. D. Brown,

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and Clark, for 30 runs before time was called. However, Patterson was still holding the fort; the next morning, aided by Captain Dan with 22, Brewster with 35, and Η. I. Brown, who made 6 while Patterson was putting on 35, he carried his bat for 106, and our innings closed for 229 runs. This left Hampshire with 212 to win—anybody's game. Hampshire started well, having 40 posted before the first wicket fell; at the fifth wicket they had 109. Richards batted well for 53, but eight wickets were down for 143, and our prospects looked rosy, but Bethune and Vandergyle held fast up to 197, when Bethune was bowled by Baily. Nicholson took his place and the score crept up to 210, within 3 of victory, when Nicholson cut under a bumper from Clark, and Morgan had him behind the wicket. The score of this exciting game is given in full. G E N T L E M E N OF PHILADELPHIA v. G E N T L E M E N OF H A M P S H I R E Played at Southampton, July 29, 30, 31, 1889 Result: The Gentlemen of Philadelphia won by 2 runs. G E N T L E M E N OF P H I L A D E L P H I A First Innings Second Innings G. S. Patterson, not out 35 not out 106 W. C. Morgan, Jr., b. Forster 0 l.b.w., b. B e t h u n e 4 b. Lacey 24 D. P. Stoever, c. Lacey, b. Forster . . . 4 b. Lacey ο W. Scott, l.b.w., b. Forster 4 c. and b. Forster 5 R. D. Brown, c. sub., b. Förster 0 c. and b. B e t h u n e 0 Ε. W. Clark, Jr., l.b.w., b. Russell .. 15 c. Richards, b. B e t h u n e 35 F. E. Brewster, c. Forster, b. Lacey . . 0 D. S. Newhall, c. Robson, b. Forster . 1 c. Richards, b. Forster 22 c. and b. Lacey 0 Ν. Etting, c. Richards, b. Lacey . . . . 21 H. P. Baily. run out 2 b. Forster 8 Η. I. Brown, b. Lacey 0 c. and b. B e t h u n e 6 Byes, etc 9 Byes, etc 19 Total

91

Total

G E N T L E M E N OF H A M P S H I R E First Innings Second Innings P. A. Robson. c. Η. I. Brown, b. Scott 13 c. Baily, b. Scott H. W. Forster, b. Clark 7 b. Clark F. E. Lacey, b. Patterson 25 b. Scott C. J. R. Richards, b. Clark 17 b. Baily J. Duncan, b. Clark 8 c. Morgan, b. Clark N. W. Wallace, b. Clark 4 b. Baily H. G. Westmoreland, c. Brewster, b. Clark 4 b. Clark J. S. Russell, b. Scott 16 c. Η. I. Brown, b. Clark G. M. Bethune, c. Clark, b. Patterson 0 b. Baily A. Vanderbyle, c. Η. I. Brown, b. Clark 7 not out W. Nicholson, not out 0 c. Morgan, b. Clark Byes, etc 7 Byes, etc Total

.108

Total

229

30 20 15 53 2 13 6 0 35 18 10 210

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The English Tour of 1889 BOWLING

ANALYSIS

G E N T L E M E N OF H A M P S H I R E

First

Second

Innings

Ο

Η. W. Forster . . 24 A. V a n d e r b y l e . . 16 F. Ε. Lacy 15.1 J. S. Russell 9 C. J. R. R i c h a r d s 1

Μ 9 8 7 4 1

R 35 15 18 14 0

W 5 0 3 1 0

Ο H . W . Forster . . 52 Α. V a n d e r b y l e . . 1 3 F. Ε. Lacy 23 J.S.Russell . . . . 9 C. J . R . R i c h a r d s 5 G. M. B e t h u n e . 2 3

Innings Μ 22 6 6 4 2 11

R 87 26 48 11 13 25

W 3 0 3 0 0 4

Innings Μ • • * • •

R 91 59 26 19 15

W 5 2 0 0 3

G E N T L E M E N OF PHILADELPHIA

Innings Μ Ο 18 E. W . Clark, J r . . 30 1 W . Scott 9 7 G. S. Patterson . .. 20

Second

First

R 30 22 31

W 6 2 2

E. W . Clark, J r . VV. Scott G. S. P a t t e r s o n H . 1. B r o w n . . H . P. Baily . . .

Ο 52 31 4 3 13

* Record i n c o m p l e t e .

T h e tenth match against the United Services at Portsmouth ended in a draw. T h e Services batted almost all day on a good hard wicket; Hamilton scoring 203, the highest score ever made against Philadelphia. Jeffkins with 96 not out helped to bring the total to 428. At one stage the bowling became pretty well exhausted; Bill Morgan took off his pads—Etting taking his place—and trundled a few unsuccessful overs. In the few remaining minutes left for play we lost one wicket for 13 runs; and the next day proving impossible for cricket, the match ended in a draw. T h e Sussex match would probably have been interesting if it had been possible to play it to a finish. T h e Philadelphians started with a passable 157. Scott batted three hours for 66, Patterson helped with 32, and the fifth wicket fell at 144. T h e n a rot set in; Patterson, Brewster, and Etting were bowled by Bürge with three successive balls—the hat trick. T h e disease spread to the Sussex side at the beginning of their innings, for they lost four wickets for 24 runs. H e r e a personal reminiscence of the kind that all cricketers treasure. I shall never forget the fall of Cotterill, a hard hitter. Charley Palmer was bowling. "Palm" had hitherto been quite unsuccessful, but redeemed himself on this occasion with four wickets for 56 runs. A silly point had been placed close in on the off. For some reason I was placed close in on the on side. And then Palm pitched a ball well up a little outside the leg wicket. Cotterill, a big fellow, opened his shoulders and hit the ball

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squarely for the leg boundary. But I stuck out my right hand, and to the intense surprise of Palm, of Cotterill, of the entire Philadelphia team, b u t chiefly of myself, there was the ball firmly lodged in the palm of my hand. Such moments are rare in this life. T h e Cricketer referred to this miraculous event in my life as "a brilliant r u n n i n g catch." I had not time to run. W h e n Cotterill opened his shoulders I should have liked to, b u t time did not permit. For Sussex Andrews made a lucky 42, and their first innings closed for 109 against our 157. Patterson took five wickets and Palmer four—these two bowled unchanged through the innings. T h e second innings proved much more fruitful for both sides. Clark and Thomson started for us and 63 was u p before T h o m son was out for 43. Stoever and Scott stayed with Clark while the score mounted to 156 for three wickets. Palmer helped Clark carry the score to 241 for six, when Captain Dan declared with Clark not out 82. W i t h Sussex at the bat, L. M. Lucas with 77 and G. Brann with 69, saved the game, and when stumps were drawn their total was 235 for six wickets, a fairly even draw. T h e last match against Cambridge Long Vacation Club was very one-sided because most of the best Cambridge cricketers were away. We made 307 on the first day, Clark leading with a fine 88; other useful scores were Brewster 44, Patterson, 38, and R. D. Brown 31. On the second day Cambridge was retired for 151, T r o u n c e r carrying his bat throughout the entire innings for 83. Baily bowled finely, taking eight wickets for 33 runs. W h e n Cambridge, following on, went in for their second innings, the pattern continued. T r o u n c e r was again their mainstay, scoring 53 out of the second innings total of 144. Baily again led the attack, taking six wickets for 54, or a total for the match of fourteen wickets for 87 runs, and ending with the hat trick. So that the record for the 1889 English T o u r was Won 4, Lost 3, Drawn 5. Of the many non-cricket incidents two may be mentioned. On our return to London after our southern trip, a stranger got into the railway carriage at a station not far from Southampton and began casually to shuffle a pack of cards. As a sporting offer he said he was willing to bet a small sum that one of our n u m b e r could not guess the card. After small sums had been won, several of our

The English

Tour

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109

group became interested; the stakes went up; more money was wagered. At a small junction outside of London our friend said good night, and took with him a good deal of our loose cash. It was Bill Morgan who saw the light, exclaiming, "Boys, we have been robbed!" Scotland Yard failed to give us a great deal of sympathy—in fact, they intimated that we had got just what we deserved. At Southampton we were joined by Mr. John Quincy Carpenter, an old cricket enthusiast then living in Paris, who had come to join his friends and cheer for Philadelphia. W h e n the tour was over a few of us went over to Paris and visited Mr. Carpenter in his apartments. It was there that his charming daughter, Sophie, aged perhaps seventeen, made us welcome and showed us all her treasures. T h e chief of these was a photograph of a young German Officer. " T h i s , " she said, "is the idol of every American girl abroad." It was the photograph of the man who later became Emperor Wilhelm II. T h e r e was excitement on our return trip to the City of Paris, for she broke the existing transatlantic record, crossing in five days, nineteen hours, and sixteen minutes. T h e averages for the 1889 tour in England follow: RECORD

AND

AVERAGES

Played 12; won 4, lost 3, drawn 5. SUMMARY

Philadelphia Opponents

Wickets lost 173 190

Runs 4,360 4,614

Highest score 106· 142 88 111 50· 50· 115· 98 55 59 22* 26 14 14

Runs 529 486 512 558 304 328 432 317 101 157 136 175 19 42

Av. runs per uikt. 25.20 24.28

BATTING AVERAGES

1. G.S.Patterson 2. W.Scott 3. E. W.Clark, J r 4. R. D. Brown 5. F. E. Brewster 6. D. S. Newhall 7. D. P. Stoever 8. W. C. Morgan, J r 9. C. R . Palmer 10. A.G.Thomson 11. H. P. Baily 12. N.Etting 13. J . W.Sharp, J r 14. Η. I. Brown • Signifies not out.

Inns. 18 14 17 20 13 18 19 18 6 11 13 17 3 12

N. O. 5 0 1 1 2 6 2 3 1 0 3 1 1 0

Aver. 40.69 34.71 32.00 29.36 27.63 27.33 25.41 21.13 20.20 14.27 13.60 10.93 9.50 3.50

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B O W L I N G AVERAGES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

H. P. Baily E. W.Clark, Jr R.D.Brown G. S. Patterson W.Scott Η. I. Brown F. E. Brewster C. R. Palmer A. G. Thomson J. W. Sharp, Jr D.S. Newhall W.C. Morgan, Jr D. P. Stoever

Inns. 10 20 8 20 15 13 8 5 7 6 2 1 1

Overs 133 443 62 450 265 146 61 78 49 44 5 5 3

Runs 371 909 179 992 840 373 180 242 148 144 35 17 18

Wckls. 26 43 8 42 34 12 5 6 2 1 0 0 0

Aver. 14.26 21.13 22.37 23.61 24.70 31.08 36.00 40.33 74.00 144.00

With the retirement from international cricket of Dan Newhall and Baron Brewster after the 1889 trip, the leadership of the Newhall group was definitely ended. T h e only member of the younger generation of Newhalls who became at all prominent in Philadelphia cricket was the third son of "Bob," William P. Newhall, of whom more hereafter. William Brockie became captain of the Germantown first XI, and also captained the Philadelphia team on most occasions down to 1897, but George Patterson ("Pat") became the real leader of the younger group both on and off the field. T h e doings of this younger group will be the subject of the following chapters.

CHAPTER

VIII

The Patterson Period,

i8go-i8gy

called the period from the beginning of organized cricket in Philadelphia up to the outbreak of the Civil War the Wister Period, and the decade after it the Newhall Period. We shall call the span of years reviewed in this chapter the Patterson Period. In 1885 Young America won the Halifax Cup, and Bob Newhall, the Childs Batting Cup for the last time. It is true that Dan Newhall was the captain of the successful 1889 team in England, and that the Newhall influence continued long after 1896. It is true also that George Patterson became the central figure in our cricket landscape before 1890, and did not retire from international cricket until after his return from the 1897 tour in England. But the terms are useful for reference, and in the main they fit the facts. It should be noted, however, that the early Wisters were not great players; they were matchless organizers. With the Newhalls the organization and execution of cricket were combined; they were heart and mind and hand. T h e influence of the Pattersons, father and son, in the promotion of cricket in Philadelphia can hardly be exaggerated; and yet George's influence came primarily from his ability as a player. Endowed with few of the natural gifts of the athlete, he made himself nonetheless into our first example of the finished all-round cricketer—the player who combines great skill with a rare intelligence. He set the pattern for us; he was the form-master for younger players; and we saw him

W

E HAVE

in

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personified later in the batting style of such men as John Evans and Frank White. At the very time when the Philadelphias were practicing on the Trinity grounds at Dublin in 1889, a minor game was being played at Westmoreland between the juniors of Tioga and the juniors of Young America—a game unnoticed by our cricketers, but prophetic for our cricket. Two striplings, destined in many a great contest to open the Philadelphia attack, here for the first time felt that tingle of joy that comes to a bowler when he keeps the bails in the air. John B. King and Percy H. Clark were testing their wings. The scores on both sides were piddling; but Clark for the old club took seven wickets for 20, five of them clean bowled; King turned back nine men for 6 runs, scuttling the stumps of eight of them. The little skirmish at Westmoreland was typical of the period surveyed in this chapter. As the mills of junior, second-eleven, and first-eleven cricket ground on, and the youngsters came through the hoppers, new figures began to appear in the All-Philadelphia teams chosen to meet elevens from abroad—and in every year from 1891 to 1897 a strong team either from England or Australia played in Philadelphia. These young players were of critical importance because they had the luck to strike into the game just when Philadelphia cricket was getting strong enough to match itself with the first-class counties in England; or, to put it the other way, Philadelphia cricket felt its muscles swelling just because players like King, the younger Clark, Bohlen, Baily, Harry Thayer, and Lester were breaking loose in the early nineties. In this chapter, therefore, before the course of cricket events is reviewed, we proposed to look at the new faces, to note the cricket personalities behind them, and to arrange them in our gallery of cricket worthies. But to make this method valid, evidence should be adduced to show that we are now actually approaching the high point of Philadelphia cricket. From 1859 to 1920 our cricketers played forty-six matches against first-class teams from abroad. This count excludes the Irish Gentlemen and the Incogniti, which cannot be regarded as

The Patterson

Period,

113

1890-1897

first-class elevens. In seven of these matches Philadelphia was playing from fifteen to twenty-two men against eleven. The results of these forty-six matches were as follows: Played 46

At Home, 1859-1920

Won 10

Lost 31

Drawn 5

The only first-class cricket matches played abroad by All Philadelphia elevens during this period were the forty engagements played against the English counties during the tours of 1897, 1903, and 1908. T h e results of these forty matches, all of them between teams of eleven men each, were as follows: Abroad, 1897, 1903, 1908

Played, 40

Won 12

Lost 21

Drawn 6

Abandoned 1

A comparison of the win-loss ratios shows that our cricket was more nearly on a level with English first-class cricket in the twenty years between 1890 and 1910 than at any other period in its history. T h e same conclusion results from a comparison of win-loss ratios in the first-class international matches played at home between 1859 and 1920, when these matches are distributed in sequences of ten games: Years 1859-1881 1882-1894 1894-1898 1898-1907 1907-1913

Played 10 10 10 10 _6 46

Won 0 3 4 2 J. 10

Lost 8 7 6 7 3

IT

Drawn 2 0 0 1 2 "5

Let us look at the men who entered the arena at this critical period. But it will be well in this place to put down first a list of Philadelphia international cricketers, with the relative burden that rested on the shoulders of each. In the list below the first column gives in the order in which they appeared as our representatives, the names of all Philadelphia cricketers who have played at least five games at home or abroad for All Philadelphia teams against English, Irish, or Australian elevens, whether such matches were recognized as first class or not. T h e list numbers fifty-five such players. T h e second column gives the total number of such games the cricketer played; the

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third gives the number of these that were played at home; and the fourth, the number abroad. T h e remaining columns have to do with first-class cricket only, and show in the case of each cricketer the total number of first-class games he played in, the number of these that were played at home and the number abroad. This list does not take into account the Colts' matches nor matches with teams from Canada or from the West Indies. But the Halifax Tournament was of such great importance to our cricket, and the men who represented Philadelphia were selected with such deliberate care, that the two matches played in Halifax in 1874 are included in the count. T h e teams from overseas that are not counted as first class are the Cambridge Vandals, the Free Foresters, the three elevens of the Incogniti, and the four elevens of the Irish Gentlemen. It should be noted that this is not a qualitative rating. It shows the extent, not the quality of the particular cricketer's contribution of our international cricket. ALL-PHILADELPHIA CRICKETERS: E X T E N T OF P A R T I C I P A T I O N ALL GAMES PLAYED

Name of Player W. Morgan G. M. Newhall . . . C. A. Newhall D. S. Newhall R. S. Newhall S. Meade F. E. Brewster John B. Large John Hargrave . . . S. Law R. N. Caldwell . . . J. B. Thayer, Jr. . . E. W. Clark, Jr. . . W. C. Morgan, Jr. . W. C. Lowry A. M. Wood W. Brockie, Jr. H. MacNutt J. A. Scott Hazen J. Brown D. P. Stoever J. M. Fox G. S. Patterson . . . W. W. Noble F. W. Ralston Η. I. Brown W. Scott

Total 4 7 26 28 35 6 42 6 5 21 5 25 48 35 23 65 22 16 20 9 26 8 41 15 22 22 18

At Home 4 7 16 15 18 4 17 4 5 5 3 8 23 9 7 25 10 3 4 0 2 0 18 15 12 14 8

Abroad 0 0 10 13 17 2 25 2 0 16 2 17 25 26 16 40 12 13 16 9 24 8 23 0 10 8 10

FIRST-CLASS G A M E S O N L Y

Total 0 5 12 13 13 4 10 2 3 3 1 6 17 7 7 57 6 3 2 0 0 0 26 12 22 10 4

At Home 0 5 12 13 13 4 10 2 3 3 1 6 17 7 7 21 6 3 2 0 0 0 15 12 12 10 4

Abroad 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 10 0 0

The Patterson

Period,

A L L GAMES PLAYED

Name of Player N. Etting R. D. Brown H. P. Baily A. G. Thomson H. C. Thayer C. Coates F. H. Bohlen J· Β. King J. W. Muir Ε. M. Cregar J. A. Lester P. H. Clark L. Biddle J . H. Scattergood F. H. Bates Ν. Z. Graves D. H. Adams W. P. O'Neill C. C. Morris T . C. Jordan P. N. LeRoy W. Graham F. C. Sharpless F. S. White H. A. Haines C. M. Graham Η. V. Hordern W. P. Newhall C. H. Winter F. A. Greene W. H. Sayen J . L. Evans H. A. Furness S. W. Mifflin R . P. Anderson R . Waad H. S. Harned Τ. M. Crosman

.... ... ... ... .... ... ... .. . . .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .. .. .... .... .... .... .. .. .... .... .... .... .... ....

Total 12 30 36 8 19 21 57 73 5 40 53 51 9 15 16 39 6 15 50 26 12 9 16 21 12 5 18 11 14 14 9 12 5 6 6 6 7 5

At Home 2 10 14 2 8 10 18 30 5 9 9 22 1 7 4 9 1 15 22 9 5 9 4 7 2 5 4 6 6 3 0 12 5 6 6 6 7 5

115

1890-1897

FIRST-CLASS G A M E S O N L Y

Abroad 10 20 22 6 11 11 39 43 0 31 44 29 8 8 12 30 5 0 28 17 7 0 12 14 10 0 14 5 8 11 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total 0 18 25 1 16 19 49 62 4 37 47 47 9 15 16 35 4 8 35 22 11 5 13 15 10 2 12 4 9 10 8 2 5 2 4 3 0 0

At Home 0 10 12 1 5 8 15 25 4 9 9 20 1 7 4 9 1 8 12 8 5 5 3 5 0 2 2 2 3 1 0 2 5 2 4 3 0 0

Abroad 0 8 13 0 11 11 34 37 0 28 38 27 8 8 12 26 3 0 23 14 6 0 10 10 10 0 10 2 6 9 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

A study of the complete record shows that seven Philadelphia cricketers have had careers of twenty years or more in international cricket. In alphabetical order they are the following: F. E. Brewster J . B. King D. S. Newhall R. S. Newhall W. P. O'Neill C. C. Morris A. M. Wood

1872-1892, 1892-1912, 1868-1889, 1868-1888, 1899-1924, 1901-1933, 1882-1909,

20 20 21 20 25 32 27

years years years years years years years

An analysis of the preceding lists shows that six Philadelphia cricketers have played in fifty or more international matches. In alphabetical order they are as follows:

116

A Century Name F. H. Bohlen P. H. Clark J. B. King J . A. Lester C. C. Morris A. M. Wood

of Philadelphia All Matches 57 51 73 53 50 65

Cricket First-class Matches 49 47 62 47 35 57

T h e names of the marked men emerging into prominence in the early nineties, all of them destined to shine with varied brilliance on cricket fields at home and abroad were F. H. Bohlen, J . B. King, P. H. Clark, A. M. Wood, Ε. M. Cregar, C. Coates, F. W. Ralston, J . A. Lester, and H. P. Baily. T h e last mentioned at the time when this chapter begins was playing in England. At Cambridge against the Long Vacation Club, the chubby Parson was frisking through the happiest day of a buoyant life, taking fourteen Cambridge wickets for 87, and ending the tour of the Philadelphians by doing the hat trick. There is evidence in the pages of the American Cricketer that the development of these nine players was on the whole, gradual and normal; that is, the increasing power to get runs and wickets came from experience in the field, the give and take, the success and failure, the win and lose of everyday cricket. But it was not so with Frank Bohlen. He exploded into our cricket with a brilliance without parallel. Herman was an explosive person, and his cricket was always in character; when he and the wicket were right runs exploded from his bat. Bohlen never had the patience or adaptability of Patterson; he was not a thumper like Cregar, nor the rattlesnake striker like Coates; nor was he an iconoclast like Wood, content to sit on his wicket if he could only hook a good length ball off his nose. Yet between late May and late July of 1890, without forewarning or prelude, came those four centuries, ending with the 162 against the English Residents, hit from the best of our professional bowling, an innings that the American Cricketer called "the best yet played on this side of the Atlantic." This was the beginning of an international career that extended with intervals up to the tour of 1908. When Bohlen had, to use his own phrase, "got going right," his batsmanship was more fluent, rhythmic and graceful than that

The Patterson Period,

1890-1897

117

of any other American. At such times Bohlen's batting, to use C. B. Fry's words, was a form of eurythmics with the bat thrown in. But he had to have things "right"; a true, hard, predictable wicket, and a predictable fast bowler without much guile. His best strokes were to the off, and when he could count on the ball coming true he would send a good length fast ball past the left hand of cover with a shot of his own. T h o u g h not identical it was like the shot taught at Harrow, just as Herman's forcing stroke off his legs reminded one of the Uppingham shot taught so thoroughly by Η. H. Stephenson. But with Bohlen it was half drive, half push, with a flick of the wrist applied at the exact moment of contact, and it sent the ball to the boundary like a stone over ice. It was this that enabled him to score runs at about twice the rate of Patterson. In 1902 against Belmont he made 208 at the rate of about a run a minute, and with his partner knocked u p 133 notches from 162 balls from King. Never very foot-shifty, Frank did not like a soft wicket, and the English slow left-handers often bothered him after a rain. With the others the steps of the climb u p are more easily traced. T h e earliest indication in the Cricketer that a J o h n Barton King existed is under date of J u n e 1889, when he was playing for the Tioga juniors. H e muddled along in junior and sometimes in second-eleven club games, and gave occasional flashes of power with ball and bat, which in a lad of Bart's physique ought to have caught the eyes of the Tioga moguls. T h e y seem to have been asleep; or perchance Bart's natural modesty was already asserting itself. At any rate, in spite of that achievement in which he sent home nine of Bromhead's Frankfurter boys for six runs, John Barton was not announced as a regular member of the Tioga first eleven until the spring of 1892. T h e selection committee, however, had their eyes open, and two months later King was on the All Philadelphia eleven, bowling out the Irishmen at Manheim. From that time on except when incapacitated for three games in 1903, he represented Philadelphia in every international match at home or abroad u p to the last game with the Australians in 1912. In the Badmington Cricket, E. R. Wilson in his chapter

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on bowling makes the statement that hardly any fast bowler has been able able to keep up his pace for more than five or six years. King kept his pace for twenty. As to the quality of the bowling, let Wilson himself attest. "Mr. King was a magnificent bowler, very fast, very accurate, and we remember at Philadelphia in 1901 being bowled by an unexpected inswinger which we left alone." T h e incident occurred in the first innings of a match with Bosanquet's team, in October of 1901. T h e score shows, "E. R. Wilson, b. King . . . 2"; and one who reported the game writes, "Wilson was out on a ball which he tried to play with his leg, but the ball came too fast for his judgment." It is rather sad to reflect that England remembers so well one whose fame, except with us who cherish it, has faded in his native town. He was better known by sight in England fifty years ago than any other American. There he is still remembered. In a recent article on the deterioration of fast bowling, the famous English athlete, C. B. Fry, writes, " T h e best swerver I ever saw in my life was J . Barton King of Philadelphia." With us he epitomizes the game and its associations when Philadelphia was the cricket center of North America. He corresponded with the life span of first-class Philadelphia cricket from blossom to husk, and he symbolizes to us a value that has perished. King's achievements in the game will be noticed as they occur. In general it may be said that he made the most of rare physical endowments—height, body power, and coordination—by constant study of how to use them best to get runs and to get wickets. Once a good baseball player, he was one of the first bowlers to demonstrate that the curve given to a baseball could be used successfully with the red horsehide cricket ball half an ounce heavier. When King had learned to mix up with his fast goodlength breakbacks a faster inswinging yorker, he had a weapon that, when the wind came over his left shoulder, made him tremendously effective against any batsman who had not met him before. Bart's increasing effectiveness as a batsman was based on a keen and accurate eye, long reach, powerful shoulders, the left leading the whole body into the pitch for those sweeping low straight drives. He was not a wristy bat like Bohlen and Morris. T o a

The Patterson Period, 1890-1897

119

short one on the off he would get his left foot over, and slap it hard past the right of point. The finest batting ever done by an American in England was King's 98 and 113 not out against the best Surrey bowlers at the Oval in 1903; and the finest bowling ever done by an American in England was King's nine wickets for 62, eight of them clean bowled, against Lancashire at Old Trafford in the same year. Percy H. Clark is first noticed in the American Cricketer as playing for Young America juniors in the summer of 1886, and began to get runs regularly in the following year. In 1889 he was playing on the Young America second eleven. By 1894 he was captain of the Harvard eleven, and won the intercollegiate championship for them almost singlehanded. In October 1896 he was chosen to play against the Australians at Haverford, and the important part he played in winning that great victory for the Philadelphians is noticed later in this chapter. From then on, Clark was a regular member of All Philadelphia elevens up to the end of our first-class international cricket. By 1896 he had gained good control of a sharp outcurve, especially pronounced and deadly with a wind from long leg, and he could combine it with a sharp breakback. In the Badminton Cricket E. R. Wilson writes, "King and Clark of the Philadelphia eleven were as awkward a pair of bowlers as any batsman could wish to meet . . . Clark made the the ball go away at the last moment." Ε. M. Cregar, originally of Tioga and then of Belmont, was known in his early days interchangeably as "King of Bumpers," or the "Α-One Bumper" of Philadelphia. Over six feet, and scaling 220 pounds, he bowled from right over his head, and could bring down the ball on the uncertain wickets of the early nineties so that it would sometimes clear batsman and wicket-keeper on one hop. When groundsmen improved their wickets, he had to improve his bowling, and he developed a flighty ball that came much slower. Eddie got wickets with it for the same reason that W. G. got wickets with what he used to call his "high, wide and handsome." In each case the batsman became bewildered on seeing so niggardly an offering emerge from so generous a body. Cregar was a fast-footed hitter, and occasionally compiled a good

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score when it was sorely needed. He first appeared for All Philadelphia against Frank Mitchell's Oxford and Cambridge side in 1895, and from then on with fair regularity up to the close of firstclass cricket. Crawford Coates first played on a representative team when he appeared for the United States against Canada at Wissahickon, in July of 1890. T h e following year he hit out 142 for Belmont v. Merion, and played his first international match against Lord Hawke's X I in 1891. Later he was on the All Philadelphia elevens against six more invading sides. Coates was a strangely innocent looking batsman. T h e English critics in 1897 noted that he slouched to the wicket with that deceptively dejected air of Iredale, which cloaked a natural ferocity toward loose bowlers. T h e stance he assumed at the wicket confirmed this impression of pained indifference. But there was no one on our side who could so quickly disconcert a bowler by a sudden and often unorthodox assault. Though not a great defensive player, Crawford's powerful wrists and quick timing made him always dangerous, and about midway through the batting side he would hit up a score with startling rapidity. A. M. Wood, "the evergreen A.M.," was a Nottingham man who in 1881 made his debut in Philadelphia as a professional. In 1886 he was admitted for amateur competition. He had to wait a long time for his first century, made against Detroit for Belmont on tour in 1891. Several long scores followed, some of them against weak competition; but against the Players in 1892 Woody made a fine 182, and, a few weeks later, 129 against Canada. In this year he represented All Philadelphia against the Irish Gentlemen, as he did from that time on almost without interruption until 1908. Wood was an effective, but not a graceful, batsman. He was quick on his feet and made good use of the ground between the popping crease and the stumps. He rather aspired to be unorthodox, and to swipe anything short of a good length round to leg. Not a classicist himself, he would have approved that motto so abhorrent to the revered Η. H. Stephenson at Uppingham—

The Patterson

Period,

1890-1897

121

Rem capias, recte si possis, Si non quocunque modo Rem.

He could reverse the leg swipe when occasion demanded. I recall that in England, batting against a bowler with all his fielders on the on, and pitching everything on the legs or just outside, Woody suddenly pivoted around, and, presenting himself to the astonished bowler as a left-handed batsman, swept the ball to the off boundary. T h e great day of his life was in his birthplace, Nottingham, in 1897, where, in partnership with Patterson, he scored a fine century. H. P. Baily learned his cricket at Haverford College, where he inherited Lowry's mantle. We see him playing on the second eleven in 1885, and three years later, taking eight Belmont wickets for 29, the last four with five balls. While still a student at college, he went abroad with the 1889 team, and took twenty-six wickets at the cost of about 14 runs apiece. H e was so much less costly than any other bowler on the side, that it seems a pity he was not used more. In 1890 he did some remarkable bowling for his college against the University of Pennsylvania in a low scoring match, taking eight for 8 in the first innings, and seven for 21 in the second. Baily appeared against Lord Hawke in 1891 and regularly for All Philadelphia for seven years thereafter. T h e Parson bowled medium-paced right hand, and used both breaks with good effect. His greatest cricketing virtue was confidence. He was a light-hearted cricketer, with you or against; he and William Rotch Wister were the Cheeryble Brothers of our cricket. H e would beam through his spectacles with the same cheerful smile at the man who put him out of the ground as at the batsman whose leg bail he had just removed with an offbreak. At Fenner's in 1897, when Jessop hit him onto the road outside the entrance gate, the Parson inveigled Patterson to let him have a go at the other end, under pretext that there he would have a more spacious outfield. T h e n when Jessop hit him completely out of the grounds and into the middle of a girl's school at play, the Parson flashed on him a cherubic smile as if Jessop were his own baby. In 1897 there were times when our bowling was completely shackled, but not one when Baily wavered in

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the conviction that he could get his man out if only the authorities would let him bowl long enough. Probably he was right, but Pat couldn't wait to see. Though he took more wickets in 1897 than anyone but King, he needed some bite in the wicket, and when he had it sometimes bowled with deadly effect and with a good deal of craft. Frank Ralston developed first as a batsman. In 1886 he was playing on the eleven of the University of Pennsylvania, but apparently did not begin to keep wicket regularly until after he left college. He played a fine innings of 92 for Germantown against Toronto in 1891, and scored well in the 1893 match with the Australians, when he established his claim to be the best wicketkeeper in Philadelphia. He was more than that; the only first-class wicket-keeper that our cricket had so far produced. And that is strange because, in the play of the foreign elevens from 1859 to 1878, nothing impressed our cricketers more than the wicket-keeping of Lockyer, Pilling, and Blackham. They stood up to fast bowling and always kept our batsmen aware of an enemy in the rear. But in Philadelphia it was taken for granted that the defensive role of the wicket-keeper was primary; that byes could be saved, and indeed more catches made, if he stood back. T h e foreigners eventually taught us the offensive power of a keen stumper, intent, first and foremost, in getting his man out. Before Frank Ralston's time the All Philadelphia wicketkeepers—Joe Hargrave, C. E. Haines, A. Van Rensselaer, George Newhall, and W. C. Morgan, 3rd—had all stood back. T o be sure the wickets were more predictable by 1893; but it was of the greatest significance for our cricket that then, throughout every innings of the Australians, we had a wicket-keeper standing up to our fastest bowling and taking King with assurance. This fact was more significant than the big score made against men who came direct from an ocean liner to Elmwood. Patterson was not deceived by the popular acclaim. He recognized that what stood out from the match with the Australians as of prime importance for Philadelphia cricket was one fact—"for the first time in our history, we have a first-class wicket-keeper." Ralston was the

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123

pioneer. After him, with Scattergood, Jordan, and Winter, we never lacked a top-notcher behind the stumps. J. A. Lester had different beginnings from others in our gallery of worthies. He was born in Cumberland and, when Bob Newhall was leading the Philadelphia '84 team through England, he was scratching about in knickers with no idea that he would later lead Philadelphia teams at home and abroad, He came to join his family in the United States in 1892, and entered Haverford College, where he developed into an all-round athlete—and under the coaching of Woodcock—a great cricketer. "Woody" was the best coach Haverford ever had. He had the knack of making capable cricketers out of mediocre material. An honest and laconic man, he was quick to discern bad practice, and to describe it in appropriate language. He was even readier to praise any acquisition of power or skill. Apart from his fast bowling—he took 102 first-class wickets in England in 1895—he was a man of parts, with a trained tenor voice of great purity. Woody was a splendid figure when he stepped out on Sunday mornings in silk hat, spats, cane, and gray gloves to walk over to the service in the Church of the Redeemer at Bryn Mawr. He devoted much attention to Lester, and fashioned one who had never made a good score in his life into a batsman who ended his first season for the college, with an average of 100.5 In the spring of '94 it was rumored among the intercollegiate cricketers that Haverford had developed a good batsman. In the intercollegiate games that year Johnnie made 38 against Harvard out of a total of 60, and later going in first wicket down for Haverford against Pennsylvania, was the last man out for 73 out of a total of 89 made from the bat. In the second innings he was not out with 78 out of 112 from the bat, and in another match against Harvard he scored 61 out of 84. Lester regarded these early scores as of much greater value than larger ones made later against better bowling. T h e experience of batting with the heat full on, all the chips on the table, and the fate of the match squarely on one's own shoulders is of priceless value to the young batsman. T h e American Cricketer commenting on these scores remarked, "It is hoped, as reported,

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that Mr. Lester intends making his debut in first-class cricket this season, for he is by all odds the most promising colt in Philadelphia today." A little later he made 51, the top score for Merion against Belmont, but this was his only Halifax Cup game before he appeared in international cricket. In 1896, as captain of the Haverford College team that toured in England playing the public schools, he led the batting averages, scoring 1,185 runs with an average of 79 runs per innings, and was second to Adams in the bowling averages, with forty wickets for an average of 23.20. On his return he played for Philadelphia in both games against Harry Trott s Australian team, and in '97 went to England with the '97 team and led the batting averages from the beginning to the end, which he continued to do in all the international matches in which he played down to 1908. In 1905 he won the Child's Batting Cup with an average of 72.30, and although he was not a regular competitor in Halifax Cup matches, he won the bowling cup in 1906. He led the 1903 and 1908 teams to England and captained in all the home international games in wiiich he took part after George Patterson retired from international cricket in '97. His success as a batsman was based on a sound defense, but runs were always being marked up while he was in. His hitting was hard and clean all around the wicket and he was a good judge of a short run, particularly when he first went in and had a keen desire to break his duck; never until this was accomplished did he seem quite at home. Of course the basic motive that kept driving these younger players to make themselves good cricketers was the public interest in the game. When the Australians first came to Philadelphia in 1878, that interest was greatest among the English operatives in the textile mills. T h e critical state of the match on the third day forced the mills to close; and, according to the American Cricketer, brought a crowd of fifteen thousand to the Nicetown grounds on October 4, even though that day was a Monday. But twelve years later an international cricket match had become an event of interest to the whole of Philadelphia society, and this interest appears to have reached its peak in the early nineties. At any rate, when the Philadelphians were playing against Lord

The Patterson

Period,

1890-1897

Hawke's eleven in October of 1891, the American served

125 Cricketer

ob-

The high water mark has been reached in the annals of cricket in America. Never before has such a distinguished gathering been present at a cricket match in this country. Twenty-two thousand persons, by actual count, visited the beautiful grounds during the three days, and on the second day more than ten thousand spectators were present. It is said that the proceeds of the first match enabled the Germantown C l u b to build the fine grandstand at Manheim. T h e brilliance of these gatherings, the cheering crowds, and the excitement, sometimes increasing to a climax on the third day, were the real incentives which fired the youngsters to make themselves fit to play their part in the arena. These were far more powerful than the cups and prizes, the exhortations of the elders, or even than the precepts of the coaches. We can best measure the strength of our domestic cricket d u r i n g this period by noticing the clubs that won the Halifax Cup, and the men who won the two Childs Cups awarded annually by a committee for the best performance in batting and bowling in the games of the Halifax C u p Competition. Winners 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 Winners 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897

of the Halifax Cup, 1890-1897 Belmont Germantown Germantown Germantown Belmont Germantown Belmont and Germantown tied Germantown and Merion tied

of the Childs Cups for Batting and Bowling Batting Bowling F. H. Bohlen George S. Patterson George S. Patterson S. Law C. R. Palmer George S. Patterson E. W. Clark, Jr. George S. Patterson F. L. Altemus C. Coates Ε. M. Cregar George S. Patterson J. B. King W.W.Noble W. W. Noble W. N. Morice

T h r o u g h o u t these years, one club, Germantown, was the pacemaker of Philadelphia cricket. T h e y won or tied for the cup six years out of eight; a Germantown player led the pack in six of these

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years in batting, and in four of these years in bowling. Though he does not appear as a cup-winner, Bill Brockie, who had captained the "Daisy X I " of Germantown before the consolidation with Young America, continued as captain of the consolidated club, and also captained the Gentlemen of Philadelphia in several international matches down to 1897. A glance at the tables above will show that J . B. King was beginning to hit his targets, and that W. W. Noble, who had begun to play at Germantown Academy in 1880, was now taking his place as one of our great batsmen. There was no one in Philadelphia more richly endowed with the physical equipment—height, reach, and power—for getting runs quickly. Bill Noble proved his ability to make runs against first-class English bowling by his successes against Frank Mitchell's team of Oxford and Cambridge players in 1895, and against the Australians in 1896. He was our most consistent scorer in the Haverford match against Warner in the autumn of 1897, and it was one of the greatest of disappointments in Philadelphia cricket that he was unable to accompany the team that played against the English counties during the summer. This review of the leading cricketers of the Patterson period will conclude with a notice of our fortunes in the international games played at home from 1890 to 1897. Within those dates we entertained two teams of the Australians, two teams captained by Lord Hawke, an eleven of the Irish Gentlemen, and Frank Mitchell's X I of Oxford and Cambridge blues. In addition, in September of 1891 a team from Chicago came to Philadelphia to play for the mythical "championship" of the United States. They could do little with the bowling of Patterson and Baily, and were beaten by an innings and 359 runs. The comment in Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual would warrant the following classification of the six teams just mentioned in order of their strength: Australians of 1896 Australians of 1893 Lord Hawke's X I of 1894 Lord Hawke's X I of 1891 Mitchell's X I of Oxford and Cambridge 1895 Irish Gentlemen of 1892

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We shall comment on these invasions in the order of their occurrence. The chief strength of Lord Hawke's team, which played two games at Manheim in 1891, was in the run-getting ability of three men—Η. T . Hewitt, captain of Somerset, K. J. Key, the great Surrey batsman, and Lord Hawke, the Yorkshire captain—and in the attack of Sammy Woods, the best amateur bowler in England since Appleby. The great victory won by the Philadelphians by eight wickets in the first game was due almost entirely to the batting of Patterson, R. D. Brown, and Crawford Coates, and to the bowling of Η. I. Brown. But the second match at Manheim resulted in a victory for the Englishmen by five wickets, and produced the best performance in either game in the bowling of Sammy Woods. Though the wicket is described as hard and true, there was no score on either side above 31, and Woods, whose four wickets in the first match had cost more than 30 runs each, now got fifteen of the nineteen Philadelphia wickets that fell to bowlers for less than 6 runs apiece, and at that had several catches missed off his bowling. The reporter for the American Cricketer noted that the home side had been weakened by the absence, for business reasons, of Coates and R. D. Brown, and that Lord Hawke's attack was strengthened when his wicket-keeper C. W. Wright, decided to stand up to Woods and take him close to the stumps. He had dismissed but one man in the first match, but caught four in the second. The best performance for the Philadelphians in this second engagement was Patterson's seven wickets for 46 runs. Our excuse for reproducing the full score of the first match only is that the victory of the home side over a good English eleven by eight wickets aroused tremendous enthusiasm, and gave a strong impetus to our cricket when it was needed. While the game was in progress large crowds gathered about the offices of the city newspapers, where bulletins were issued at the fall of each wicket. The American Cricketer announced, "Never before has so much interest been displayed in a visiting team. . . . The highwater mark has been reached in the annals of American cricket." Patterson with 111 for once out, and H . I . Brown with ten wickets for 99 runs, were responsible for this important victory.

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P H I L A D E L P H I A S v. L O R D HAWKE'S X I Played at Manheim, September 25, 26, 28, 1891 Result:

The

Philadelphians

won by 8

wickets.

L O R D H A W K E ' S ELEVEN First Innings C. W. Wright, c. Brewster, b. Patterson 23 Η. T . Hewitt, b. Η. I. Brown SO Lord Hawke, c. Patterson, b. Scott . . 74 Lord Throwley, c. Ralston, b. Patterson 23 S. M. J . Woods, c. Law, b. Scott 8 C. Wreford-Brown, c. Coates, b. Scott 51 K. J . Key, c. Coates. b. Η. I. Brown . 18 J. H. Hornsby, c. Ralston, b. Η. I. Brown 0 G. W. Ricketts, l.b.w., b. Η. I. Brown 5 Hon. H. Milles, st. Ralston, b. Scott . 9 G. W. Hillyard, not out 0 Byes 12, leg byes 4, no balls 2 . 1 8 Total

Second

Innings

C. W. Wright, c. Baily, b. Η. I. Brown Η. T . Hewett, l.b.w., b. Baily Lord Hawke, c. sub., b. Baily Lord Trowley, c. Law, b. Baily

15 49 28 13

S. M. J . Woods, c. Scott, b. Baily 10 C. Wreford-Brown, l.b.w., b. Η. I. Brown 2 K. J . Key, b. Η. I. Brown 7 J . H. Hornsby, c. Baily, b. Η. I. Brown 22 C. W. Wicketts, c. Baily, b. Η. I. Brown 5 Hon. H. Milles, run out 4 G. W. Hillyard, not out 1 Byes 10, leg bye 1, no balls 4 . . . 15

259

Total

171

PHILADELPHIAS First Innings W. Scott, run out C. Coates, Jr., c. Hewett, b. Brown . . G. S. Patterson, b. Woods F. H. Bohlen, c. Wright, b. Milles . . F. W. Ralston, b. Brown R . D. Brown, c. Ricketts, b. Woods . S. Law, c. Hornsby, b. Brown W. Brockie, run out F. E. Brewster, run out Η. I. Brown, not out H. P. Baily, b. Woods Byes 21, leg byes 4, no balls 2 . . . Total

11 38 68 29 19 15 7 0 17 11 6 27

Second b. Woods l.b.w., b. Milles not out

Innings

not out

62

Byes 6, leg byes 6, no ball 1

248

Total

19 46 43

(2 wkts.)

13 183

B O W L I N G ANALYSIS PHILADELPHIA^

First (5 Patterson Η. I. Brown . . . . Baily Scott R. D. Brown . . . . Coates Baily bowled 2

Innings Ο Μ balls) 32 7 6 23 3 21 11.3 1 1 0 1 5 no-balls.

R

W

69 44 62 52 5 9

2 4 0 4 0 0

Second

Innings Ο Μ R W (5 balls) Patterson 7 24 0 3 Η. I. Brown . . . . 27 7 55 6 Baily 16.4 3 36 3 Scott 1 41 0 9 Baily bowled 2 no-balls, Patterson 2 no-balls.

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129

L o r d Hawke's XI First

Innings Ο Μ Woods 34 10 W r e f o r d - B r o w n . 35 7 1 Mi lies 10 Hillyard 8 3 Homsby 8 2 W o o d s bowled 2 no-balls.

Second

R 62 90 35 11 22

W 3 3 I 0 0

Innin Μ Ο 8 Woods 25 W r e f o r d - B r o w n . 15 5 0 Miltes 11.1 Hillyard 14 5 Hornsby 7 3 W o o d s bowled 1 no-ball.

R 59 41 39 26 5

W 1 0 1 0 0

T h e Irishmen, who played two completed games at Manheim in 1892, were not a strong side on paper, and rather shocked Philadelphia by winning the first match by 127 runs. T h e i r two slow bowlers, Hamilton, left-hand of the Lowry type, and Penny, slow right-hand with a big off-break, were on top of our batsmen throughout. Coates made 23 and 56; beyond that there was not much to be said. This was J. B. King's first international match, and he took five wickets for 45 and three for 58. We felt the need of a good wicket-keeper, the Irish captain, Meldon, being missed four times at the wicket, and the critics called our fielding "wretchedly poor." T h e second game was an excellent contest, with interest keen up to the finish. T h e Philadelphians won by 23 runs, mainly through the obstinate batting of W. Scott in the second innings, when he compiled 53 in about four hours. King was in control of the Irishmen in both innings, taking in all ten wickets at the cost of about 11 runs each. T h e selection committee came in for some very sharp criticism from Whitney in Harper's Weekly at the conclusion of these games. T h e Australians of 1893 included two players, Bannerman and Blackham, the captain, who had been on the first Australian eleven to visit us in 1878. T h e i r bowling strength lay in George Giffin, T r u m b l e , and Trott, with his teasing leg-breaks; and the batting power in Bannerman, Trott, S. E. Gregory, whose uncle had captained the 1878 team, and J. J. Lyons, who had recently astonished the English by scoring 149 in ninety minutes against a strong eleven of the M.C.C. T h e first match at Belmont was notable in our cricket annals for two features. First, our batsmen in their one and only innings, compiled 525 runs, the biggest score ever made against a side from overseas. In the second place, this score was made possible by

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looser fielding than had ever been seen in a first-class match in Philadelphia. By the time three of our wickets were down, eight catches had been dropped. Any cricketer who can imagine himself picked up from the deck of an ocean liner after a long voyage, slipped into place on Captain Green's private railroad car in New York, rushed into his cricket flannels at Belmont, and then, within an hour, stepping out to play a test match on turf lurching and heaving beneath him, will completely exonerate the Australians for these mistakes. T h e more readily because they never made the obvious excuse for themselves, nor was it supplied by the fifteen thousand people who cheered our innings. But the fact was clear to any player. Indeed Henry C. Brown, one time vice-president of Belmont, was compelled to burst into song about it, in what appears to be the one effort of his lifetime in this mode of expression: Who was it that whipped the Australians? Others' glory we don't want to marBut the victory was won and won nobly By John Green with his fast private car. Private car number 30 was a potent weapon in the Philadelphians' armory, and right skillfully did Colonel Green maneuver it. He preserved in his "Cricket Scrapbook" the following telegram from the Pennsylvania Railroad to himself, dated September 28, 1893: I have your message and will arrange to have message from maritime department advising when "Germanic" passes Fire Island delivered promptly to your car 30 at Jersey City Station. In a great effort to save his side from a single innings defeat, Bannerman carried his bat through the Australians' second venture for 79, made in three hours. Bohlen's 118 for us took four hours, and, as Patterson remarked, it was not one of his best performances, being marred by three chances. T h e great effort he made to save his side from defeat in the second game with a not-out innings of 54 was, on all counts, more praiseworthy. King took five wickets for 78, and the match was won by the home side by an innings and 68 runs. Hugh Trumble was the main instrument in the Australians' six-

The Patterson Period, 1890-1897

131

wicket victory in the second match. Except for Bohlen, our batting failed. Hughie took six for 48 in the first innings and seven for 48 in the second. T h r e e good features of this game from the American point of view were Baily's seven for 78, Böhlens batting, and the demonstration that we had at last a reliable wicket-keeper, F. W. Ralston. Lord Hawke was back again in 1894 with a stronger team than formerly. T h e r e were, besides himself, three other county captains, all of them fine batsmen; C. W. Wright of Nottingham, C. E. DeTrafford of Leicester, A. J. L. Hill of Hampshire, and in addition, Oxford's best bat, G. L. Mordaunt. Though he had no bowler like Sam Woods, there were two Oxford bowlers mainly responsible for the recent defeat of Cambridge, L. C. V. Bathurst, and G. R. Bardswell, slow left and medium right, respectively, and to back them up the Yorkshire fast bowler, W. F. Whitwell. This side won both their games in Philadelphia with great ease, the first by 131 runs, and the second by an innings and 41 runs. T h e features of the first game, played at Haverford, were Bohlen's 79, a patient innings for Frank, taking two and one-half hours, and Baily's seven wickets for 65. For the Englishmen, Lord Hawke made 78 and 39, and in our second innings Bathurst, bowling with a great deal of spin, took eight wickets for 44 runs. In the second match, at Manheim, Lord Hawke was lucky to win the toss. T h e Englishmen made 211; on our side the batting collapsed; rain fell overnight, and next day in their second effort, the Philadelphians were all out for 64. E. W. Clark's 24 and 18 represented the high point of our batting. Our wicket-keeping in both games was unexpectedly lax, our opponents being given 48 runs in three innings. Frank Mitchell's eleven, picked from the Oxford and Cambridge blues of the year, won only two of the five games played in America, the worst record made by any English eleven that ever visited these shores. It contained N. F. Druce, one of the finest of the younger amateur English batsmen, as we found out to our cost next year when he made that faultless 109 against us for Cambridge, and it possessed good run-getters in F. A. Phillips, V. T . Hill, and Frank Mitchell, though the latter failed in America.

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Norman Druce, after making a fine century against New York, was largely incapacitated by illness. T h e i r first match was played at Wissahickon against an eleven led by W. Brockie, representing the Past and Present of the University of Pennsylvania. Except for two men, one of whom, Sam Goodman, played later for All Philadelphia against Kent, the eleven was quite representative of the full strength of Philadelphia, and the Englishmen were beaten by 100 runs. T h e feature of the match was the fine uphill fight made by Brockie and his men in their second innings, when, behind some 150 runs, they ran up a score of 307, which included three innings of over sixty from Patterson, Coates, and Noble. T h e n they bowled out the Englishmen for 61, Patterson taking five for 22, and E. \V. Clark, who also bowled throughout the innings, four for 37. In the second game, at Manheim, Mitchell's side squeezed out a victory by two wickets in a very well contested match. King's bowling (seven for 55) and Patterson's batting (109 not out, and 67—innings that together took six hours of effort to save his side) were the best performances. On the other hand it is curious to note that Wood, Coates, and Bohlen, three batsmen who could usually be depended on for a third of the runs of a side, made only nineteen jointly in the two innings. In the third game, played at Haverford and won by Philadelphia by an innings and 39 runs, Bohlen regained his form. Of the single innings total of 404, Frank made 115 in two hours and a half, Patterson 74, and Bill Noble 57. Though the Englishmen scored well on to two hundred runs in each innings, they never mastered Bart King, who took eleven wickets at a cost of less than 10 runs each. Five members of Blackham's Australians of 1893 were back again with Trott's eleven of 1896. They were George Giifin, Graham, S. E. Gregory, Trumble, and T r o t t himself, now captain. Trott's side was as strong as Blackham's in batting, for it included Iredale, Darling, and Clem Hill, one of the greatest of Australian left-handers; and it was stronger in bowling. Of the old bowlers there were Giffin, Trumble, and Trott, and now Ernest Jones and McKibbin to boot. Trumble was better than in 1893. Now his

The Patterson Period,

1890-1897

133

medium-pace off-breaks, bowled round the wicket, were the more effective because at the other end was Jones, at the time the fastest bowler ever to come out of Australia. In England T r u m b l e had taken 148 wickets, and Giffin, Jones, and McKibbin all over 100. In place of Blackham they had his very capable successor, J. JKelly. T h e Australians won the first match, played at Manheim, by 123 runs. It was a battle of bowlers all the way through, the highest score of the game being Giffin's 69, and the only batting on our side worth mentioning, E. W. Clark's 38 and 35 both not out. T r u m b l e , Giffin, and T r o t t caused our defeat. For the Philadelphians Baily with five for 61, Harry Brown with five for 45, and E. W. Clark with four for 40 were the men who did most to make a contest of it. At Elmwood it was the same kind of story, but sadder. Except for Wood, with 28 and 58, and Coates, with a characteristic 49, our batting failed, this time before Jones, McKibbin, and Trott, who took our wickets at the rate of about 11 runs each. T h e Australians had set us 422, made all the way down the line, with Giffin just missing a century. O u t of this total King's five wickets for 90 was a grand performance. But there was a remarkable recovery in the third match, played at Haverford, and this was largely due to a young cricketer, P. H. Clark, who was playing his first match as an All Philadelphian. Patterson unfortunately split his hand in stopping a hard drive from Darling at mid-off, and had to leave the field, Clark taking his place as bowler. T h e youngster promptly disposed of Darling, Giffin, and Hill, three of the best Australian batsmen, and with King, bowled the side out for 121. And then, by fairly consistent batting all the way down,—Clark in tenth place scoring 32—Philadelphia made the respectable total of 282. In the Australian second innings E. W. Clark took six wickets for 24, and the Philadelphians had won by an innings and 99 runs. T h e victory was the more unexpected because Frank Ralston's hands had given out, and Η. H. Brown had to take his place behind the wickets. T h e performance of our players in these three matches provides a basis for estimating the prospects of Philadelphia cricket in

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1896, and the progress since the time fifteen years before, when our men were playing Shaw's professionals. In 1896 Philadelphia was at least as well supplied with fast bowlers but it had no slow bowler to compare with Lowry. In 1881 the American Cricketer moaned "Philadelphia does not boast one wicket-keeper." Now it had one, and two more top-notchers were in sight. T h e batsmanship of Philadelphians in international matches up to 1882 is analyzed statistically on page 75. T h e average score per man against first-class English bowling for that period was slightly more than 5 runs. In 1896 against four of the best living bowlers, our batsmen averaged 18 runs per man. From the prospects of 1896 it might be concluded that if in the next few years we could bring forth one good left-hand slow bowler, and one good medium right-hand bowler, both relying on length, spin, and brain rather than on curve, and if Philadelphia could put her full strength into an eleven for overseas, we should then be able to hold our own with the English counties. But such an entry of a Philadelphia team into the official cricket of England could hardly occur until we had developed a central cricket authority at home. This was not easily or quickly done. Before Percy Clark tells the story of our debut in first-class cricket abroad, we must devote a chapter to the cricket clubs at home: to their influence on Philadelphia life, and to the gradual growth on the part of groups of cricketers intensely loyal to their own clubs, of a willingness to cooperate in the establishment of a central cricket authority with influence and power at home similar to that of the Marylebone Cricket Club in England.

CHAPTER

IX

The Clubs: Their Influence in the Formation of a Cricket

Authority

traced in Chapter ι the story of the formation of our early cricket clubs, and in Chapter HI the beginnings of an organized central authority for our cricket through the foundation of the American Cricketer and the tournament at Halifax in 1874. By 1886 all four of the Philadelphia clubs from which our main strength was directly or indirectly derived were firmly established. Belmont, Germantown, Merion, and Philadelphia were the backbone of the keen competition for the Halifax Cup for the next twenty-six years. These well-established cricket centers bred a numerous offspring. It is impossible, and would be beyond the purpose of this book to trace genealogies. There must have existed at one time or another more than two hundred cricket clubs in the Philadelphia area, and the names of more than one hundred and seventy-five, of sufficient importance to be recorded in the American Cricketer or in the daily press, are arranged in alphabetical order in Appendix D. T h e relative locations of a good many clubs, and some of the centers where cricket has been played since 1831, the date when the first club is mentioned, may be seen on the map facing page 137But some of these playing centers were used by a number of different clubs. In the seventies as many as eight matches might

W

E HAVE

135

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be seen going on simultaneously on the large playing area of the Fair Grounds at Powelton, and five or six different junior clubs used the fields on North Broad Street near to Camac's Woods at one and the same time.* T h e important part these cricket clubs played in all areas of the social life of Philadelphia cannot be ignored in a history of cricket. T h e purpose of this chapter is to trace briefly the influence of the cricket clubs on the social life of P h i l a d e l p h i a s , and also to show how these separate groups of players gradually merged themselves into a united body of control and authority over the game itself. In Chapter πι it was noted that cricket was in bad odor when Philadelphia boys began to play it; the lads had either to escape the notice, or brave the displeasure, of their elders. Philadelphia parents of 1850 sought to shield their offspring from the contamination of outdoor sports, whose focus was usually the local tavern. In Germantown the patrons and players were craftsmen from the textile centers of the north of England, for whom sport was habitually associated with drinking and gambling. Cricket in particular, at the time of its introduction into this country, was bound u p with stakes and ale. It was the clubs that made cricket decent and at last won parents to support it enthusiastically. W h e n the Young America Club was incorporated in 1879, regulations were adopted against profanity during any meeting or game, and against betting and the sale of malt or spirituous liquors on the grounds at Stenton. While the clubs were thus making cricket "respectable"—giving it, as it were, a new suit of clean white flannels—they emphasized from the beginning the old traditions of courtesy and respect for the decisions of the umpire, and they highly prized this ethical content in a game for the young. Let us admit that this influence extended only to a small proportion of the boys of the neighborhood; yet it was something new, a leaven which in time leavened the whole lump. It was the cricket clubs that created wholesome channels of activity for the physical needs of youth; they were the forerunners in providing the m u l t i t u d e of opportunities that the • For an alphabetical list of clubs and playing grounds in t h e Philadelphia area 1831-1950 see Appendix D.

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"boys' clubs," and after 1890, the public high schools, increasingly supplied. The lads who infested Wister's orchard would today have been gathered into the Boy Scouts. Wister was the pioneer cubmaster, and he gathered them into a cricket club. It was the cricket clubs that gave Philadelphia women their first interest in outdoor sports. T h e young ladies of Germantown first invaded the masculine field of sports as spectators at the matches between Young America and Germantown played in 1859 at Duy's Lane Field, at the southwest corner of what is now Wister and Baynton Streets. Here was the first properly leveled and sodded wicket, a bright green expanse in a rural setting, enclosed by an old-fashioned four-rail fence. When players were moving on the turf the scene combined the charms of an old Anglo-Saxon common with the privacy of the cricket ground of an English country house. Young men sparkled in the new club uniforms as they placed a hand on the top rail and vaulted the fence where ladies under parasols mincing through the turnstiles could see them. In mid-afternoon white tables would sprout under the shade of the elms, and there would be a claret cup and sun-lit china. The girls quickly became critical spectators of the game, and in October they flocked in droves to the Camac Estate to see George Parr's professionals play twenty-two amateurs from home, half of them young heroes from Germantown. Fred Lillywhite, the Englishman who scored the game, wrote, "We never saw such a magnificent sight; about a thousand ladies, all seated by themselves." By 1879 they had graduated from critics to actual performers in the less active sports such as croquet and pat-ball tennis; and Young America had set apart every Monday as Ladies' Day, when all males who came to practice would have to appear in full club uniform. As the clubs succeeded in enlisting the interest of parents and daughters as patrons and spectators of cricket matches, they became, in a fashion, the community centers of their respective neighborhoods. About the turning of the century there were at least fifty cricket clubs within fifteen miles of what is now City Hall, and this count does not include the Junior clubs, some of

The Clubs: Their

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them with beautiful houses and strong organizations of their own. The larger and better equipped the club, the more fully it accepted its role as the center for the secular social interests of its neighborhood. Indeed it was because they performed this function so satisfactorily that the clubs, originally founded to play cricket, found at last that there was no cricket to play. T h e causes of the decline are treated in a later chapter. What should be noted here is that, as games requiring less time to play gained interest with the American people, the clubs were the first to provide space and equipment for playing them. Tennis, golf, association football, squash, rugby football, and field hockey, as they successively won public favor, gained more and more space in the American Cricketer, and international matches in all of these sports were played on the grounds of one or other of the chief cricket clubs. And to some degree the clubs have preserved this characteristic of extending the services of the private club into a more general service to the community u p to the present day. Cricketers from abroad u p to 1895 were amazed to find four large well-appointed cricket clubs in a city the size of Philadelphia, while there were but two comparable clubs in a metropolis the size of London. They were puzzled at the absence of any recognized central authority as arbiter of our cricket. When the writer began to play in international matches a central authority for the conduct of the game in Philadelphia had been established, and the questions below would have been idle. But u p to August 1895 there was nobody empowered to give an authoritative answer to any one of them: Who is eligible to represent Philadelphia in international cricket? Who has authority to bring over a team from overseas? Who has authority to decide where international matches shall be played? It is a high tribute to the character of the gentlemen who presided over our clubs that the course of our local and international cricket from 1859 to 1894 had been so smooth. They were generous and magnanimous men; else the problems they had to meet, often involving personal as well as club prestige, would never

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have been solved. T h e current of the game had run on without any recognized and publicly constituted board of control, except the natural authority of men keenly interested in guiding it. T h e match with Fitzgerald in 1872 was planned by a "Committee on Arrangements," and the twenty-two players were chosen by its sub-committee. Both arrangements and selections met with universal approval. Similarly, in the winter of 1883, when plans were laid for the first tour of Philadelphians in England, it was men keen on having the thing done well who were the prime movers. As the American Cricketer noted, " A Committee was organized, or to put it more correctly, organized itself." No one challenged the authority of this committee, or wanted to. Its authority sprang from the characters of the men who composed it: they were Dan Newhall of Young America; J . P. Green of Belmont; John C. Sims, Jr., of Philadelphia; W. W. Montgomery of Merion, and F. M. Bissell of Germantown. T o them Philadelphia cricketers were willing to leave all decisions: all correspondence with English authorities, all matches to be scheduled, and the critical matter of the selection of players. What then explains the outbreak of interclub dissension that appeared ten years later? T h e great advantages which accrued to the club that could stage an important international match became obvious when Lord Hawke played two games against All Philadelphia at Manheim in 1891. More than mere social prestige was at stake. There were very substantial financial returns. T h e first match drew 22,000 spectators, and it was said that the fine grandstand at Manheim was built out of the proceeds. There naturally arose in the early nineties a general desire that an equitable authority should be set up by mutual consent, with the function of deciding what teams from abroad should be invited, and where they should play. What authority there was in the years before 1895 originated in the editorial and executive offices of the American Cricketer. Mainly through the influence of its first editor, Dan Newhall, " T h e Cricketers' Association of the United States" was founded in 1878. It was noted in Chapter m that this organization was intended to serve the interests of all cricketers in the country. Its

The

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first club directory contains the names of eighty-one cricket clubs, only seven of which are in Philadelphia. Through its "Publication Committee" the magazine exerted a leadership in promoting the game; but in a very short time it was clear that it had a full-time job if it attended to cricket in the East, and particularly in Philadelphia. In 1891 some of the smaller clubs bound themselves together in T h e Quaker City Cricket Association, but the more important associations like the Cricket Club League, the Inter-state League, the Intercollegiate Cricket Association, and the Interscholastic League were all, in part at least, the result of the formation of a united board of control for the promotion and guidance of our cricket—namely the Associated Cricket Clubs, founded in August, 1895. Just as the birth of the Young America club recalls the origin of the American Republic, so the birthpangs of this organization reminds us of the efforts of the thirteen sovereign states to form a union. T o sympathize with their struggles we must remember the spirit of independence that inspired the founders of Young America, and the apple barrage of 1855. T h a t spirit of intense rivalry—George Newhall called it "bitter warfare"—extended almost up to the nineties. T h e r e was strong rivalry at the end of the century, but nothing like this. In the eighties, when W. G. Grace was playing away from Bristol, he used to telegraph his score in runs or wickets to the most exacting of his critics, his mother, at the close of each day's play. But twenty years earlier, the progress of a match by Young America, at which the members of the firm could not be present, was duly reported at intervals to the town offices of Messrs. McKean, Newhall, and Borie by carrier pigeon. We were content to wait for next morning's Public Ledger. And after 1889, when Young America had merged with Germantown, and one club represented so much of the achievements and traditions of our past, the single club might well regard itself as the spokesman and trustee of Philadelphia cricket. And with some reason. Of the eleven that represented Philadelphia in England in 1889, eight were from Young America or from Germantown. Proposals for a central interclub control were frequently made in the nineties; and if the record reveals, as it does, a degree

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of Germantown intransigence to relinquish what it considered its prerogative, the reader should remember the pippins and pigeons. But some sort of body that could speak for Philadelphia cricket as a whole became increasingly necessary as visits from overseas became more frequent. In the twenty years 1859 to 1878 there were four of these, all privately arranged for. In the seventeen years 1879 to 1895 there were fifteen, and in addition two tours of All Philadelphia elevens in England. It is a tribute to the wisdom and magnanimity of the governors of the different clubs that the job of arrangement and selection was in the main done so well, and that ultimately a representative group was entrusted with the task of selecting players. In the five years following the 1889 tour of England, three different teams from overseas had played seven international matches against All Philadelphia. Every one of these matches had been played at Manheim. If this apportionment seemed to be unfair, it might be argued that the Germantown ground was the most accessible to the large population of lovers of cricket in the mill districts; that if any club in Philadelphia had a right to a sort of M.C.C. predominance it was Germantown, which won or tied for the Halifax Cup in nine of the ten years from 1891 to 1900; and that anyhow, Germantown had taken the risks and would have to pay the piper in the event of any financial deficit. But fair or unfair, it was becoming quite clear that the arrangement was not good for the development of cricket as a whole in Philadelphia, and was irritating to other clubs which also had inherited that spirit of independence. T h e question would wait no longer for an answer, and the course of events was certain to bring on a crisis. It came in April of 1894. Under that date the Cricketer printed the following editorial comments:

American

The expected has happened. At least two, and probably three international teams will visit this country in the fall, and each under the auspices of a Philadelphia club. Belmont will bring a team of Irish amateurs under the lead of Captain J. M. Meldon; Merion has arranged for the visit of an aggregation comprising eight English amateurs and four professionals; Germantown has for several months been

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143

in negotiation for the visit of an eleven made up wholly of professionals, and there is no reason to doubt that they will be secured. All these teams will reach here about the same time. Each will play two games in P h i l a d e l p h i a . . . . What will be the outcome of this exhibition of folly? T h e project to establish a central committee, representative of the several clubs, to supersede the three committees now in control of Philadelphia cricket, has been temporarily abandoned.

Fortunately the wisdom of the Boards of Managers of the clubs prevailed, and the summer saw only Lord Hawke's team in Philadelphia. But the issue was not yet resolved. That it raged with acrimony during February and March of 1895 is quite clear from the long sequence of official letters which passed between the clubs then in the Halifax Cup competition. The point of difference was between Germantown, which demanded an annual match with an overseas team every year at Manheim, and the other four clubs in the Halifax Cup. In matters which affected the welfare of international cricket the four clubs were resolved to substitute for the independent action of the several clubs, one central authority which could establish a policy over a sequence of years. How the whirligig of time brings about its own revenges! Here was Bob Newhall, one of the apple-barrage boys of forty years ago, denying the very rights of representation he fought for in William Wister's orchard. As chairman of the privately appointed International Match Committee of the Germantown Club he announces in the very tones of Lord North, "We demand an annual international match at Manheim. Let the other four clubs scramble for the second match." When the impasse continued, Philadelphia, Belmont, Merion, and Tioga bound themselves together to work for their common end, and, forming an organization to be known as the Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia, invited Germantown to join them. Again, in the spring of 1895, it was reported that two foreign teams were coming to play in Philadelphia in the autumn. Meanwhile, "the silly fight in the Quaker City" had begun to draw acid comments from Town Topics, and a caustic criticism from Casper

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YV. Whitney in Harper's Weekly. Even four years earlier this magazine had perceived that "the future of American cricket depended on the establishment of a governing body qualified to provide for the growing needs of the American cricketer."* T h e issue was settled in the spirit of conciliation, and by midsummer it was possible to announce that Germantown had entered the new organization. T h e agent of reconciliation was that memorable gentleman, J o h n P. Green, a man who lived the spirit of cricket. Captain Green broke the log jam by resigning the right of Belmont to an international match in favor of another club. "Some of us at least," he said, "are trying worthily to uphold the spirit and traditions of the game." So that instead of two foreign teams, we had only Mitchell's X I of Oxford and Cambridge men, who played three games—one at Wissahickon, one at Manheim, and one at Haverford. And before the end of the year the Halifax Cup Committee and the Club Record Cup Committee had merged themselves with the Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia, and our central authority was on its feet. T h e American Cricketer was right in regarding the organization of the Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia as by far the most important achievement of 1895. For the first time in our history we had a controlling board of unquestioned authority, able to speak officially for Philadelphia cricket, and to negotiate with the M.C.C. for the experiment about to be made, when our eleven was to match itself against the full strength of the English counties. • Chailes Blancke, "Cricket in America," Harper's

Weekly, Sept. 26, 1891.

CHAPTER

Χ

The Tour of England in i8gy By

P E R C Y H . CLARK.

Ν THE first page of the American Cricketer for September, 1897, is the following summary f r o m the English Cricketer: On the whole the Philadelphias have no reason to be dissatisfied with the results of their tour. They never expected to beat the strongest counties, but they have made one or two of them "sit up," and they have beaten Sussex and Warwickshire, while they made very satisfactory drawn games with Yorkshire, Somersetshire, and Notts. This is a far better record than many of the counties can show. They have made friends everywhere, and not a single word has been said in their disfavor. T h i s is perhaps as fair a summary of the '97 tour as could have been written at the time, b u t when we look back after the lapse of fifty years it seems quite clear the '97 trip was a definite success. It is true we won only two games out of fifteen played, losing n i n e a n d drawing four, and there were 9 centuries m a d e against us while we m a d e only 2. T h e corresponding statistics of the 1884 a n d 1889 teams showed m u c h better results, b u t this comparison is misleading. T h e '84 and '89 teams played no games in what is k n o w n in England as first-class cricket, while the '97 team took on the first-class county teams and O x f o r d and Cambridge. T h e games against these universities are considered first-class matches, although, of course, the university teams are strictly amateur. T h i s 145

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schedule constituted a more ambitious program than any previous Philadelphia team had undertaken. T h e averages of the members of our team were published regularly in the English papers with the first-class English averages. After the visit of the '97 team and down to the First World War, matches between English teams and the Gentlemen of Philadelphia were considered first-class cricket. For the benefit of those who have not played in this class of cricket it may be worth-while to explain that English first-class county cricket is a higher class of cricket than any played in Philadelphia, with the possible exception of the international matches against English and Australian visiting teams. T h e r e are reasons for this: the county teams all include professionals, and most county teams have more professionals than amateurs. It is only the best of the professionals who can make these teams; admissions are charged to the games; they are played in strict accordance with the rules and the matches are taken more seriously than any other matches, except the test matches themselves. Most of the bowling in the county matches is done by professionals, and n o one in England is considered a first-class batsman until he has proved his ability to make runs against good professional bowling. These professional bowlers very seldom bowl a loose ball, and consequently a batsman has to make his scoring strokes correctly or he gets out. On the other hand, the good English batsmen who are seasoned in this class of cricket seldom fail to p u t away a loose ball, and a leg ball means four runs nearly every time. O u r '97 team included two members of the '89 team—Patterson, who led the batting averages, and Baily, who led the bowling averages of that team. It also included Wood, Bohlen, King, Coates, Cregar, and Ralston, all well seasoned by play in international matches in Philadelphia. Lester, H . C. Thayer, Biddle, and P. H. Clark had each played one or more of such matches, b u t Bates, H. L. Clark, and Scattergood had never played against a visiting English, Irish, or Australian team. Lester had toured England in 1896 with the Haverford College team, scoring 1,185 runs, with a batting average of 79, b u t he had played little Halifax C u p cricket. Lester took the lead in the batting f r o m the start, averaging

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37.12 per innings, with a total of 891 runs. His performances with the bat were consistently first-class throughout the trip, and his bowling was very helpful. Patterson, who had been the mainstay of Philadelphia batting almost from the time he first played Halifax Cup cricket, was second in the batting averages with 540 runs, or 33.75 runs per innings. He had great difficulty in getting started in the early games, and had to stand out of the games against Middlesex and Oxford Past and Present owing to an injury to his hand. He showed his true worth, however, against Hampshire by scoring 88 in the first innings, and later scored heavily against Nottingham, Gloucestershire, Somerset, and M.C.C., when he again hurt his hand and was unable to take part in the remaining games of the schedule. Wood, who was third in the averages with a total of 702 runs, or 28.08 runs per innings, scored consistently throughout the trip and with Lester constituted the main strength of the batting until Patterson returned to form. Bohlen was fourth in the averages with a total of 408 runs, or 21.47 per innings. He, like Patterson and Wood, had been one of Philadephia's mainstays as a run-getter ever since he started in Halifax Cup cricket. Unfortunately he had been ill before the team left Philadelphia and had not fully recovered his strength when the games started, and had to stand out of three of the first five games. It was not until the eighth game against Hampshire that he came into form with 50 in the second innings, followed by 56 and 31 both not out against Warwickshire and 61 against Notts. H e later made other useful scores, but had not recovered strength enough to stand regular three-day matches. King made 440 runs with an average of 20.04, playing a number of very useful innings which, together with his bowling and topnotch fielding, established him as a first-class all-rounder. Some of the other members made useful scores, particularly Thayer, Coates, and Cregar, but the team had a bad tail-end and, on too many occasions, a good start was not followed up and possible victories were not attained. King led the bowlers and carried the burden of one end throughout the trip, taking seventy-two wickets with an average of 24.02

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per wicket. None of the other bowlers proved able to carry an end consistently, but were in the nature of useful change bowlers. Cregar took twenty-three wickets, Lester fifteen, Baily thirty-five, and P. H. Clark thirty-three, and ranked in that order in the averages. Baily and Clark together bowled more overs than King, but took only sixty-eight wickets, four less than he did, and did not average as well. King attracted much favorable comment and would undoubtedly have averaged better had he received stronger support from the other end. T h e bowling was one of the weak spots of the team. While fielding was not up to what it should have been, there were bright spots in that department too, as will appear from the following comment of the London Sporting Chronicle on the Lancashire match: The fielding of the side was, save for one slight slip, absolutely beyond reproach. Indeed, in fielding they may teach many English teams, for their catching and picking up are splendid. Their smartness in the field is in marked contrast to their apparent languidness when they come out from the pavilion to bat. Indeed, Crawford Coates, who is a South African by birth, walks to the wickets in that leisurely style that was so deceptive in Frank Iredale. Everybody at Old Trafford had a good word for the Philadelphians, and specially for F. W. Ralston, the six feet of a wicket-keeper, who stands up well to the fast bowling of the tearaway King (whom they have nicknamed Kortright), and usually takes him very near to the stumps. Of course, Lancashire defeated them easily yesterday, but the Palatine players constitute a strong side, and I don't think we saw the best of our visitors at Old Trafford. T h e team got off to a bad start in their first game against Oxford University. Oxford won the toss and batted nearly all day on a good wicket. F. Η. B. Champain, one of the best college bats of the year, played a fine innings of 63, but seven wickets were down for 200 runs. At this point E. C. Wright and J . C. Hartley got together and made a long stand, punishing the bowlers severely, Wright making 83 and Hartley 49. T h e innings closed for 363, and Ralston and Baily opened the batting for Philadelphia and played out time without the loss of a wicket. It rained during the night and the morning of the second day, but play was resumed in the afternoon on a wet wicket and, thanks to fine batting by Lester,

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play was concluded with seven wickets down for 163, with Lester 72 and King 6, both not out. Rain prevented play on the third day and the game was drawn. Oxford wickets were distributed among King, Baily, Clark, Patterson, and Cregar. The second match was against Lancashire captained by Mr. A. H. Hornby, who had visited Philadelphia with Fitzgerald's team in 1872. Patterson won the toss and chose to bat on a wet wicket, and he and Wood faced the bowling of Briggs, one of England's best left-handed bowlers, and Hallam, who gave way to Cuttell. Briggs and Cuttell each took five wickets and our team was retired for 123 runs. T h e only double figure scores were Patterson 18, Wood 34, Lester 24, and Baily 17. Owing to the wet wicket, Baily and Patterson opened the bowling for Philadelphia. Baily, who resembled Briggs in general appearance, took six wickets for 51 runs and the crowd around the ropes applauded him and dubbed him the "Philadelphia Briggs." Patterson took one wicket, King two, and one man was run out. Lancashire was all out for 149. Philadelphia was not able to do much in its second innings against Hallam and Cuttell, and was all out for 86. T h e double figure scores were Wood 12, Lester 24, Coates 15, and Bohlen 12. Lancashire lost three wickets in making the 64 runs needed to win. Baily took two wickets and Patterson one. T h e third match was against Cambridge University. Patterson won the toss and elected to bat on a good wicket. Wood went in first and carried his bat through the innings and was not out 73, the only other double figure scores being Lester 20 and P. H. Clark 23. T h e total was only 149. Cambridge then took over and ran up the large total of 412, owing chiefly to a faultless innings of 109 by Norman Druce, and terrific hitting by Gilbert Jessop, for 140. I have always looked back on Druce's innings as one of the best I have ever seen. Jessop's hitting was prodigious. It was his first century in first-class cricket and those who played for Philadelphia in that match claimed that we discovered Jessop. In his seven preceding innings he had amassed only 145 runs, and it was not long after this that against Yorkshire, then the leading county, he scored 101 in forty-two minutes, a record in first-class cricket. Both Druce and Jessop shortly after this were included in the English XI.

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Four wickets were taken by King, and three by Cregar. I n Philadelphia's second innings we scored only 100 runs with Patterson 14, Wood 25, Ralston 23, and King 13, the only double figure scores. T h e fourth game against Sussex was a very welcome victory for the Philadelphia team, owing to a wonderful bowling performance by King and great batting by Lester. We won the toss and went to bat on a fine wicket. Philadelphia scored 216 in the first innings with Lester 92, Biddle 21, and King 58. King opened the bowling with Cregar at the other end and the innings was soon over, Sussex being all out for 46. King took seven wickets for 13 runs, bowling the great batsman Prince Ranjitsinhji, then at his peak, on the first ball. Cregar took three wickets for 30 runs. Sussex followed on and made 252 in the second innings, King taking six wickets for 102 runs, Cregar two, Baily one, and Clark one, which was Ranji's after he had made 74. T h i s left Philadelphia with 83 runs to win, which they made with the loss of two wickets, Wood making 42 and Lester 34 not out. It was the feat of dismissing seven good men for 13 runs on a hard true wicket that, from this match on, centered attention of English critics on King as potentially one of the world's great bowlers. H e did similar feats thereafter; but because the foretaste of them came in this match, the full score is reproduced below. P H I L A D E L P H I A S v. SUSSEX Played at Brighton, J u n e 17 and 18, 1897 Result: Philadelphians won by 8 wickets. PHILADELPHIAS First Innings Second G. S. Patterson, c. Butt, b. Bland . . . 4 b. Bland A. M. Wood, b. T a t e 10 b. T a t e J. A. Lester, b. T a t e 92 not out L. Biddle, c. Butt, b. T a t e 21 not out J. B. King, c. Ranjitsinhji, b. T a t e . . 58 Byes, etc C. Coates, Jr., b. T a t e 4 F. W. Ralston, b. T a t e 13 H. L. Clark, l.b.w., b. Bland 1 H. P. Baily, c. Bean, b. T a t e 9 Ε. M. Cregar, c. Butt, b. Bland 0 P. H. Clark, not out 0 Byes, etc 4 Total

216

Total

Innings 4 42 34 1 2

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SUSSEX Second Innings First Innings c. sub. b. King W. L. Murdoch, b. King 3 b. Baily Marlow, c. P. H. Clark, b. King 6 c. H. L. Clark, b. P. H. Clark K. S. Ranjitsinhji, b. King 0 c. Wood, b. King G. Brann, b. King 10 b. King W. Newham, c. Biddle, b. Cregar . . . 0 c. Patterson, b. Cregar Vine, b. King 4 c. King, b. Cregar Killick, c. Ralston, b. Cregar 7 b. King Bean, not out 8 b. King Butt, b. King 4 b. King Tate, b. King 0 not out Bland, c. Biddle, b. Cregar 1 Bye 1, leg byes 4, wide 1 Bye 1, wides 2 3 Total

46

1 19 74 41 67 8 4 29 1 2 0 6

Total

.252

BOWLING ANALYSIS SUSSEX

First Bland Tate Killick Ranjitsinhji Bean

Innings Ο Μ 14 .. 32 58 12 4 12 .. .. 5 2 , 7 2

Second R 53 84 30 22 23

W 3 7 0 0 0

Innings Μ Ο 13 2 17.1 10 9 2

R 37 21 23

W 1 1 0

Innings Ο Μ 11 ...13 2 17 6 16 1 .. 5 0 1 0

R 102 41 37 53 12 1

W 6 2 1 1 0 0

Tate

PHILADELPHIANS

First King Cregar

Innings Ο Μ 10 5 10 2

Second R 13 30

W 7 3

King Cregar Baily P. H . Clark Patterson Coates

T h e fifth game at Lord's against Middlesex was played at the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee and it was agreed there should be no play on Tuesday, which was Jubilee Day. In response to a first innings score of 234 by our opponents, it was disappointing that Philadelphia responded with only 117. However, in the follow-on they scored 270 with Wood 80, Thayer 49, and Lester 31, leaving Middlesex 154 to win. Owing to shortage of time it looked like a draw, but F. G. J. Ford, described as "six feet two of don't care," one of England's great left-handed batsmen, hit out in wonderful form for 112, scoring his 100 in sixty-five minutes, and won the game for his team. This was a great innings to see and the bowlers were helpless. T h e sixth game against Oxford Past and Present was disappointing for although that team was not as strong as it should have

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been, the Philadelphia batting was weak and Philadelphia lost by seven wickets. T h e only redeeming feature was Coates' score of 84 in the second innings, marred, however, by several chances. King took five wickets and Clark four. T h e seventh match was at Sheffield against Yorkshire—the strongest county team. Philadelphia scored 225 with W o o d 52, King 49, and Cregar, a very h a r d hit innings of 50. Yorkshire had f o u r wickets down for 104, of which King had taken three when time was called at the end of the first day's play. King clean bowled Jackson on the second ball a n d on the last ball before time was called Moorhouse was d r o p p e d in the slips. O w i n g to rain the the game was not resumed. In the eight match, against Hampshire, Philadelphia batted first for a total of 292, d u e to fine batting by Patterson 88, Lester 60, W o o d 48, and King 35. H a m p s h i r e was all o u t in the first innings for 281, of which M a j o r Spens made 118. T h e wickets were taken by King three, Cregar two, Baily three, and Patterson one. Philadelphia responded with only 163, the only redeeming feature being a fine innings of 50 by Bohlen. T h i s left H a m p shire with only 178 to win, which they did with the loss of five wickets, the professional Barton being not out 93. T h e wickets were taken by King one, Clark three, and Patterson one. T h i s defeat was d u e to the failure of the batsmen in the second innings. T h e n i n t h match was a victory for Philadelphia over Warwickshire by five wickets d u e to another fine bowling performance by King, who took twelve wickets in the two innings, and good batting all the way d o w n the line. Warwickshire batted first and m a d e 296 in the first innings a n d 201 in the second. Philadelphia responded with 269 in the first innings and 230 for five wickets in the second. Lester led the batting with 35 and 67, Bohlen not out in both innings with 56 a n d 31, King 13 and 46 not out, Cregar 28 and 57, and there were a n u m b e r of other double-figure scores. T h e other wickets were taken by Baily four, Clark three, and Cregar one. In the next match against Notts, one of England's strongest counties, George Patterson came into form and led the team in

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a fine batting performance. Winning the toss, he sent in Wood and Cregar, but two wickets, Cregar and Lester, were down for only 14 runs when Patterson joined Wood for a long stand. Both batsmen were conservative, but scored steadily until Wood was stumped for a fine innings of 100 runs, the first century made by a Philadelphian during the trip. Patterson batted all afternoon and was not out with 137 when stumps were drawn, having been assisted by Bohlen 61 and King 30. In the morning P. H. Clark lent further assistance and the innings ended with a total of 421 runs, with Patterson the last man out for 162 made without a chance. He was at the wicket for about five hours, during which 407 runs were made. Nott's first innings started before lunch on Tuesday and they did fairly well due to good innings by Dench, Daft, Mason, and Jones, but could not save the follow-on, and before stumps were drawn on Tuesday, had lost two wickets in the second innings for 25, so their position was about as bad as it could be. However, in the art of playing for a draw, Notts were very proficient and they succeeded in keeping up their wickets all of Wednesday, John Gunn making 107 runs. In the first innings King took three wickets, Clark four, and Baily three, and in the second innings King three, Clark two, Cregar one, and Lester two. Arrangements had been made to draw stumps on the third day at four-thirty because the Philadelphians had a long railway journey to Bristol, where they were to play Gloucestershire the next day. This arrangement may have cost Philadelphia a well-earned victory. "Short Leg" in commenting on the Warwickshire and Notts matches made the following statement: The luck seems to have turned with the Philadelphians and now they are going strong. A splendid victory over Warwickshire and a most favorable draw against Notts constitute their latest work. As Patterson failed so signally in the first of these engagements it was a feat of considerable proportions for them to score a second innings of 226 for the loss of five wickets. Lester, Bohlen and King carried off leading honors. But at Trent Bridge they had a couple of "Centuries," Wood getting 100 while Patterson went on as far as 162. I have repeatedly referred to the latter as their great batsman; indeed he ranks

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with our best Englishmen. Consequently his success is very gratifying. I fully expect that he will reel off another big score or two before their tour comes to an end. The team did not reach Bristol until 1:00 A.M. and had not had dinner. A cold supper was awaiting them and they all retired at about 2:00 A. M. In the morning W. G., who captained Gloucestershire, won the toss and went to bat. T h e bowlers, having been in the field all day Tuesday and Wednesday, were not fresh when the innings started. Three wickets fell rather promptly, but then W. G. and Jessop made a long stand, the old man scoring 113 and Jessop 101. There were no other large scores, but Gloucestershire batted all day Thursday and for a short time on Friday morning, their total being 363 runs. T h e only bright spot from the Philadelphia angle was Patterson's batting and the wicketkeeping of Henry Scattergood. Ralston had done very well in the early games, but his hands were bruised by the hard hammering of the fast bowlers and were in such bad shape that it was necessary to cable for another wicket-keeper. Henry Scattergood was chosen by the Philadelphia Committee and landed in Liverpool only the day before the Gloucestershire match. He kept during Gloucestershire's long innings with only five byes and stumped out C. L. Townsend, one of Gloucestershire's best batsmen, off Baily's bowling. The wickets were taken by King two, Clark one, Baily two, Cregar one, and Bates two. Bates captured W. G.'s wicket, and Cregar caught and bowled Jessop. Philadelphia responded with 181 runs in the first innings, Patterson again making the top score of 59 not out. In the follow on Philadelphia only made 153 runs, with Lester 62, and Patterson 53. Patterson was in the field every minute of play during the week from the time he went to bat against Notts at ten minutes after twelve on Monday until he was out at one o'clock on Saturday, with the exception of a few minutes which it took Notts to capture the first two Philadelphia wickets in the first innings. He made a total of 274 runs for twice out. T h e next match against Somerset was a draw, with Philadelphia in a favorable position. Somerset batted first on a fast wicket but

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the game was interrupted by rain after two wickets had fallen for 78 runs. It rained again on Tuesday, but Somerset managed to complete their innings for 200, the best being 66 by R. C. N. Palairet. Lester took four wickets, King two, Baily two, and Patterson one. Philadelphia batted on a wet wicket and succeeded in making 171 runs for the loss of five wickets. Wood made an excellent 57 and Patterson, who had completely recovered his form, made 52. Scattergood again performed well, getting two stumps and a catch off Lester. The next game, the thirteenth, was against M. C. C. at Lord's, in which M. C. C. won the toss and made 278 runs in the first innings, with F. Mitchell making the top score of 133. The wickets were taken by King one, Clark five, Bates one, and Cregar one. Philadelphia responded with 179, Lester 33, Patterson 64, and King 31. Albert Trott took seven Philadelphia wickets. In the second innings M. C. C. scored 280 with a loss of eight wickets and declared their innings closed. Mitchell made 58 and Rawlins 73. King took four wickets, Bates one, Lester one, and Cregar two. Philadelphia was again unable to handle Trott's bowling and were all out for 152 runs, Trott taking six wickets. The wicket became very difficult on the last day, but Lester scored a hard-hit 71 runs. Unfortunately, Patterson again injured his hand in this game and was unable to bat in the second innings or play for the balance of the trip. During his last five innings he scored 390 runs for four times out. In the fourteenth match Philadelphia was badly defeated by Kent. Winning the toss Kent scored 454 runs with Weigall 138 not out, J. R. Mason 92, and Easby 73. The wickets were taken by King three, Cregar one, Lester four. Philadelphia was able to make only 168 in the first innings and 277 in the second innings. Lester was top scorer with 66 in the first innings and 69 in the second, and Bohlen made 49 in the first innings. In the last game against Surrey the Philadelphia team did somewhat better, but they greatly missed their leader, George Patterson. Surrey won the toss and scored 274 runs with Chinnery 66, and Druce retired hurt 51. The wickets were taken by King

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one, Clark, three, Baily one, and Lester three. Philadelphia responded with 273, Thayer being top scorer with 59 and there being eight other double figure scores. In the second innings Surrey scored 372 with Hayward 85, K. J . Key 82, and a number of other double figure scores. King took three wickets, Baily three, Lester one, and Cregar two. At the beginning of this account of the '97 tour I stated that on looking back after a lapse of fifty years it seems quite clear the '97 trip was a definite success. I say this for the following reasons: First: T h e many fine individual performances by members of the team. Second: After this trip there was no longer any doubt that Philadelphia, when its full strength was available, would be able to meet first-class English teams on fairly even terms. When the 1903 schedule was arranged the first-class counties were included as a matter of course. T h i r d : Many members of the '97 team raised the standard of their play as the result of the experience gained from this trip. It is only necessary to point out that Lester, King, Bohlen, Wood, Cregar, Scattergood, Bates, and Clark of the '97 team, formed the nucleus of the 1903 team. It was unfortunate that George Patterson for business reasons felt it necessary on his return to Philadelphia to retire from international cricket. He was only thirty-four years old at the time and ever since 1885 had been the mainstay of Philadelphia batting and was generally considered the best all-round cricketer in the city. It seems probable that if W. W . Noble, E. W. Clark, Η. I. Brown, and R. D. Brown had been able to accompany this team, it would have made a much better record. T h e y would all have helped in the batting, and E. W. Clark and Η. I. Brown would have bolstered up the bowling. T h e best individual performance by any member of the Philadelphians of 1897 was King's seven wickets for 13 runs against Sussex on a good wicket at Brighton. It showed that when conditions were right for him this man belonged with the world's

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great bowlers, because he possessed something peculiarly deadly in his attack. Bart kept on perfecting this weapon; it was one that our international cricket for the next fifteen years relied on. T h e chapter that follows, therefore, is the proper place for King's own account of his "angler"—how he discovered and developed it. T h e averages of the 1897 tour follow:

J. A. Lester G. S. Patterson A. M. Wood F. H. Bohlen J. B. King H. C. Thayer C. Coates, J r Ε. M. Cregar P. H. Clark L. Biddle H. L. Clark F. W. Ralston H. P. Baily F. H. Bates J. H. Scattergood • Signifies not out.

BATTING AVERAGES—1897 T O U R Not No. Total No. Out Innings Runs 26 891 2 540 1 17 1 26 702 408 21 2 441 25 3 0 18 293 0 15 243 320 22 2 10 191 22 14 149 3 0 9 91 16 123 3 20 1 177 11 0 91 6 31 2

Highest Score 92 162 100 61 58 59 84 57 29 30* 22 40 40 22 13

Average 37.12 33.75 28.08 21.47 20.04 16.27 16.20 16.00 15.91 13.54 10.11 9.46 9.31 8.27 7.75

"CENTURIES" for (2) G. S. Patterson vs. Notts, July 12 A. M. Wood vs. Notts, July 12 Against (9) G. L. Jessop for Cambridge University, June 14 G. J. V. Weigall for Kent, July 26 F. Mitchell for M. C. C. and Ground, July 22 Major Spens for Hampshire, July 1 W. G. Grace for Gloucestershire, July 15 F. G. J. Ford for Middlesex, J u n e 21 N. F. Druce for Cambridge University, June 14 Gunn, J., for Notts, July 12 G. L. Jessop for Gloucestershire, July 15 • Signifies not out.

J. B. King . .. Ε. M. Cregar J. A. Lester . H. P. Baily . F. H. Bates . P. H. Clark . G. S. Pattersoi C. Coates . . . A. M. Wood .

BOWLING Innings . 24 . 20 . 12 . 19 9 . 22 . 13 4 3

AVERAGES Ο R 1730 655.4 185 624 408 133.1 361 1028 64 221 348.4 1051 129.2 322 25 12 9 43

162 100 140 138* 133 118· 113 112 109 107 101

Μ 153 32 31 91 10 72 32 3 2

W 72 23 15 35 7 33 8 0 0

Average 24.02 27.13 27.20 29.37 31.57 31.84 40.25

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A NOTE

ON

W. G.

Cricket GRACE

By JOHN A . LESTER

In the previous year, 1896, at Cheltenham College, some of us had known the kindness of W. G. and his unfailing interest in young players. T h e Philadelphians of 1897 were the last representative American team to meet the Leviathan in the field, and some of our impressions ought to be recorded. Some of the more lyrical among English writers on cricket had prepared me to find in an innings of W. G. a thing of unique beauty—a canvas by Corot or a rhapsody by Brahms. What I saw was roast beef and Yorkshire pudding; the plain common sense that built the English constitution applied to the business of making a century. As the Old Master was piling up his 113 against us at Bristol, those seven words of his kept running through my mind. They were his answer to a question put to him by a group of students at an evening gathering at Cambridge. They were exploring the bodily mechanics involved when you play an offbreak; and at last someone turned to Grace and asked, "What do you think. Sir; how do you play an off-break?" W. G. doubled back his beard and grunted through it, "I put the bat on the

ball."

He was enjoying himself as he made that century against us; it was his first century of the season. And with all the sense of futility that comes to bowlers when W. G. is well set, we in the field were in a fashion rejoicing with the old master. T h e grizzled veteran was on the go again; it was simply a habit he had formed before any of us were born. Three characteristics of that innings stand out in my memory. First was that solid basis of impregnable defense on which all his scoring was grounded. Between the straight bat that looked too wide for any gauge and the elephantine leg alongside, there wasn't a cranny for an off-break to sift through. T h e n there was the uncanny placing of balls on the leg wicket, no matter how the field was moved. And third was the profound respect that the

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old master showed when any bowler he did not know went on against him. The respect lasted for perhaps two overs; but W.G. had to know. He had to be satisfied what was in the bag before he ripped it open. He had some good bowlers on his side—Townsend, Roberts, and Jessop, but he wanted his full day, and bowled us more overs than any of them. In America with Fitzgerald in 1872, Grace rattled down many wickets; but against us in 1897 his one purpose was to lead us into temptation. Fred Willsher called it "baiting a mousetrap." He got seven of our men out, all caught. He invited you to get your foot out and hit him round against the break; and the man going in against him did well to remember the old injunction, "Keep thy feet from evil." While I was in against him I kept wishing that it were possible to see W. G. batting against his own bowling. I think he was a kind of googly bowler before the word, or thing, had been invented. In his advice to bowlers he advocates keeping all the fingers on the ball. They should let go of it "joint by joint as if it were, so that when guided by the little finger, it flies off their tips, and goes away with a regular twirl." This indicates that W. G. never bowled an off-break, for in bowling an off-break, except with rare bowlers like Albert Trott, the little finger is negligible. "Three-fingered Brown" the great pitcher had none, nor had he the next finger to it; only a thumb and the two forefingers; and yet he had as much of the powerful spin that makes the outcurve in baseball and the off-break in cricket as any pitcher with all five. Except for Alfred Shaw, Grace is the only successful bowler I know of who advocated keeping all the fingers on the ball, and Shaw depended more on accuracy than on spin, and when we knew him at Nottingham in 1903, he had very little spin at all. Elsewhere, Grace advocates occasionally bowling with the back of the hand facing the batsman. This, at shoulder level or a little above, made the top spin which got so many men leg before. Six years later Bosanquet was bowling googlies with a high action, and you could sometimes detect the off-break by watching for all the knuckles to show. In retrospect Grace in 1897 seems to

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me to have been two-thirds of a googly bowler. He had the legbreak in various degrees, and the straight one coming quickly from the pitch; but you weren't bothered with having to watch for the off-break. T h e old general routed us completely, but it is now only a joy to know that we helped him to three days of happiness, and to weave a little wreath to his memory.

C H A P T E R

XI

The Angler By J . BARTON K I N G

Introductory

Note by John A. Lester

was without question the finest all-around cricketer ever produced in America, and his playing career almost exactly corresponded with the Augustan age of Philadelphia cricket. He was not only the best cricketer, but also, because of his warm heart, ready wit, and ever-renewed stock of cricket stories, factual and fictional, he had hosts of friends on both sides of the Atlantic, and was the best-known cricket figure in our history. Yet up to now no written statement has ever come from him in explanation of his methods as a bowler. It was during our campaign against the English counties in 1897 that King first demonstrated the effectiveness of the fast right-hand inswinger. We count ourselves fortunate in being able to present his own account of what he always liked to call his "angler." What he says will be clarified by this brief introduction. Nature endowed this man completely with the physical equipment that a fast bowler covets. He stood six feet one inch, weighed 178 pounds, and never in his life has carried superfluous flesh. T h e physical characteristic that impressed Bart's friends most deeply, however, was not his powerful shoulders or the long and loosely hung arms and lean hips. It was rather the power in the wrists and fingers. This hand power had been developed and was maintained by special exercises of his own. With his wrist held tight Bart could send a new cricket ball to the second story window with a snip of two fingers and a thumb. He kept a reli-

B

A R T KING

161

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gious vigil over his physical condition; in consequence he possessed amazing endurance, and extended his career as a fast bowler over nearly twenty-five years. He was a keen student of bowling technique; experimented widely before adopting his own; but having selected his own methods, used them with that supreme confidence that was his outstanding characteristic. T h e incident that most aptly illustrates both this self-confidence and also the control with which King was sending down his "angler" in the early years of this century is, as far as I know, unique in cricket history. It occurred in a match when 9 wickets were down. When the last batsman came to the wicket, Bart dismissed his fielders and bowled him first ball. E. J . Metcalfe, favorably known in Philadelphia as captain of the visiting Incogniti in 1920 and again in 1924, tells the story with several inaccuracies in the Cricketer for August 10, 1940, and evidently dismisses it as a fable. George Brooking, whose brother Bob, the Peripatetic Philadelphian, was playing for Belmont in the match, and was one of the fielders called in, gets it straighter in his Cricket Memories. Since I have recently checked the essential facts in con sultation with King hismelf, they will be set down here. About 1901 the most famous figure in baseball was the great but eccentric picher, "Rube" Waddell, of the Philadelphia Athletics. It was after watching the Rube in an exhibition game strike a man out after calling in all seven fielders in front of the catcher that King began to think of doing something like that in cricket. T h e opportunity came when King's club, Belmont, was playing an eleven from Trenton. The Trenton captain had missed his his train, and arrived on the grounds at Elmwood just as King bowled out the ninth Trenton batsman. As the captain walked to the wicket Bart overheard him apologizing for coming late, and adding that his team wouldn't be in a mess like this if he had only caught his train. It was the kind of remark no wise batsman would make in King's hearing. Bart said nothing. He looked the captain over with an appraising eye, then called his fielders together and sent them to the clubhouse. Walking back, and turning to begin his run before

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delivering the ball, he noticed Edward Leech, the Belmont wicketkeeper, still at his place behind the stumps. "Why Eddie, Eddie, whatever are you doing there? I won't need you, Eddie; join the rest." So there remained on the field at Elmwood two batsman, two umpires, one bowler, and that was all. King would have to hit the wicket or the ball would go for four byes; a snick or any kind of hit would go for four runs. T h e visiting captain protested, and appealed to the umpires. They went into a huddle as they well might. It was a situation that had never come u p in cricket anywhere in the world. They decided, and rightly, that Mr. King was well within the law so long as he did not have more than eleven men on the field. Bart, always happiest in a. dramatic moment, again paused before taking his run, and then called to the pavilion that on second thought he did need one other man on the field. T h e player walked out, and King placed him very exactly in a novel position, twenty yards back of the wicket and four paces to leg, that is, to the right, as the bowler faced him. T h e batsman at King's end was puzzled and inquired: "For heaven's sake, if you don't need a wicketkeeper, what on earth is that man doing there?" "He's not a wicket-keeper," said Bart; "he's not even a fielder. You see I've given the umpires enough trouble already. T h a t man's there for just one thing, to pick up the ball after the game is over and return it to the umpires." T h e n King hit the captain's leg wicket with a fast angler. "You know," he told me recently in recalling the incident, "what pleased me best was not to see the bails jumping, but that I grazed the leg peg just fine enough to take the ball to the man I meant to get it. He didn't have to move a step." King performed another extraordinary feat at Haverford, playing against the Irish Gentlemen in 1909, when he shattered the defenses of all eleven men opposed to him. H e bowled G. A. Morrow, the best bat on the side and the eventual not-out, with a no-ball, and then went on in the second innings to do the hat trick. Certainly these two performances, taken conjointly, are unparalleled in cricket on this side of the Atlantic. It was a remark like that of the Trenton captain that gave King

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another chance to provide entertainment for himself and his mates, this time on board ship as we were returning from the tour of England described in the previous chapter by Percy Clark. A little amateur hypnotist who had attached himself to the party was overheard to say that the Philadelphia cricketers were stout fellows, but there wasn't one of them he couldn't lay low with a few passes. At dinner that night, in Reginald's hearing, Bart let it be known that he couldn't be hypnotized, he would challenge anyone on board to try; and it was soon agreed that Reginald would give a demonstration in the smoking room. Soon after dinner he began making his passes, Bart facing him with a grim countenance and a mouth tightly closed. Suddenly King swayed, collapsed in a backward fall, and struck his head violently on the marble floor. His eyes seemed to be glazed and a white froth began to ooze from the corners of his mouth. Before entering the lists he had harbored behind each gum a nubbin of soap scooped out of his Williams shaving stick. A bystander who knew not King and his ways had already run for a doctor, and it was Dr. John William White, the distinguished Philadelphia surgeon, who entered the smoking room. He knelt to listen to the breathing, to look intently into the eyes. Dr. White knew King, and what kind of patient he was dealing with. He was perhaps ready for the two quick winks that came from the corpse's left eye. But what superb and rapid diagnosis! He snapped and pocketed his watch, stood up and announced gravely, " T h i s man is dead." He turned to one of Bart's confidants, " G o to the bridge and inform the captain; no one else is to leave the room." T h e captain was a sportsman. Being fully informed of the incident from beginning to end, he sent down two of the younger officers, who put the trembling little hypnotist in irons and led him away to the ship's brig. There he cooled his heels for an hour, while we brushed King down and drank Reginald's health. T h e n Bart went magnanimously below and rescued the prisoner. J . B. King's earliest appearance in first-class cricket was against Blackham's Australians in 1893, and his last first-class cricket was played against S. E. Gregory's Australians in 1912. In the course of these twenty years he was a member of all three of the elevens

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that represented Philadelphia against the first-class counties in England. We can best appreciate the part he played in the Philadelphia attack from 1893 to 1912 from an actual count of the wickets he took. Of the first-class wickets that fell to our bowlers in these twenty years, whether at home or abroad, Bart King took 42 per cent. T H E A N G L E R AND HOW I B O W L E D I T By J. Barton King We must always remember that the ball that curves is just an adjunct to the stock in trade of a good bowler. It is a very valuable weapon; but first the bowler must be able to hit the wicket with a good length ball, to turn it from the pitch, and at times to send it down with a deceptive change of pace. When the bowler has equipped himself with these skills he may try to develop the swing. If he always curves, a good batsman will find him just as easy to play as the man who bowls perfectly straight. Writers on cricket have various theories as to what makes the cricket ball curve in the air. I was never a theorist in bowling because I observed that what made the ball swing for one bowler might not do the same for another. A man's physique determines his curve just as surely as it determines his style of batting. In the right-hand outcurve bowled so effectively by P. H. Clark, and in the left-hand incurve of Cope Morton, Harry Brown, and Paul O'Neill—the three best swinging left-handers in Philadelphiait was physique that was determinant. Their methods naturally differed. Hence I am not writing this as a word of advice to the man who wishes to bowl a swinger, but simply making a statement about what seemed to make the ball turn in the air for me, in the way I wanted it to turn. Every seasoned bowler will understand that I arrived at my methods by experiment—by finding out through a longish process of trial and error what worked best for me. I was a pitcher before I was a bowler, and, like Albert Trott, I learned a good deal from my baseball experience. Fifty years ago right-hand outcurve pitching was like throwing an off-break. So

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that it is rather amazing to me to find my good friend Pelham Warner in his excellent Badmington Cricket doubting that Rhodes was right when he maintained that it is possible to make the ball both spin and curve. Every baseball player knows that the old outcurve pitched right-handed will break back if it pitches on level turf. That old curve, pitched with an off-break grip was called the "roundhouse," because it was a true arc of a circle, and started curving when it left the hand. It was soon found to be ineffective because the batsman could see its direction too soon. Today you can watch big-league baseball all through a summer and never see a roundhouse pitched. Fifty years ago pitchers were beginning to learn to throw what is called the "hook," that is, a ball that travels with very little curve until the last ten or twelve feet, when it shoots out for the right-hand pitcher and in for the left-hander. And it was fifty years ago that I began to experiment in order to develop the same kind of ball in cricket, that is, a ball that would keep back, store up as it were, its tendency to swing, and let it go in the last ten or fifteen feet of its flight. Finding that under certain unpredictable conditions the ball would respond, and suddenly swing in at an angle or tangent to the flat trajectory of my fast ball, I christened this infant my "angler." But first I had to discard entirely the grip and the spin that used to produce the old roundhouse. I found a new shiny cricket ball was favorable to a sharp hook but not necessary for it. I found I could hook or angle an old ball as effectively as a new one when conditions were right. My next problem was to examine these conditions, and by trial and error to identify those in my favor. Some of them were beyond my control—for instance wind and weather. But I could study them and use those which helped most. When I began bowling I liked best a following wind just strong enough to flutter the left corner of my shirt collar. Although later, when I felt completely coordinated and physically fit, I could swing the ball with a wind coming from any quarter, I preferred it coming from the batsman's off, and if I could make it to order, I would have a gusty wind sweeping up the gulley to the right of second slip.

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But still on some days I observed that the ball would swing more than on others; and, being by now convinced that I had in the angler a new and effective ball for occasional use, I began to make a careful study of what in my bodily action produced it. T h e fundamental essential I found to be complete relaxation and coordination—an absence of any tension in arms, legs, or shoulders. This was necessary because my angler required a wholesouled follow-through of body and arm that would carry me well on down the wicket. When conditions were favorable I had the feeling that I was hurling myself after the ball toward the wicket. In bowling the hooked or angled curve I found the second essential to be the height of the action and the grip used. I delivered the angler from full height straight above my head, indeed at times from slightly over the left shoulder. I held the ball consistently with the seam just between the first and second fingers, with the thumb opposed. T h e third finger was just in contact with the ball, and the fourth finger idle. It required only a very slight adjustment of this grip to make the ball go straight without any curve, or to give it enough spin for a slight off-break. As to the control of the angler, I found it to lie in the wrist and the fingers. A strong yet flexible wrist, and long powerful fingers are desirable in every curve bowler; I found them quite essential for the control of the angler. Indeed the wrist and the first two fingers are the controlling factors in putting this ball where it should be. I felt the ball last, not with the side, but with the tips of the two fingers, and discovered that a delicate control of its flight depended on the final pressure. This finger pressure came at the end of a sharp downward flick of the wrist. I would like to repeat at the end of these remarks what I said at the beginning—that the perfected angler is of value only as an adjunct to the stock in trade of the good bowler. If it had gone down every time, the best English batsmen would have soon been on top of it. T o be effective it must come as a surprise, and hence the bowler must spare no pains in developing a delivery which can send down a straight ball, an off-break or an angler without any difference of action perceptible to the batsman. This principle of surprise and variety of attack applies to the

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sum total of the side's available bowling. My effectiveness was to a large extent conditioned on what was coming down from the other end. What success I had against English and Australian batsmen with my inswinger was due in good measure to the bowling of P. H. Clark and Η. V. Hordern at the other end; Clark's sharp outcurve and Hordern's googlies were both excellent foils for my angler.

CHAPTER

XII

Between the Tours,

i8gy-igoj

N JULY 16, 1884 Dan Newhall wrote to J o h n P. Green in England:

O

The Gentlemen of Philadelphia have by their absence brought out a lot of good players at home, and I think you will agree with me when you see some of the boys who have been doing the work. Unless I am greatly mistaken, Barker, Walter Scott, Ralston, George Patterson, Joe Clark and Noble will soon be as good as the best on your team.

Dan also might have noticed several other young players who were soon to find their way into international cricket. Chief among these were Ν. Z. Graves, T . C. Jordan, and H. A. Haines. Graves was an all-round athlete, solid and compact, of the Jessop build and disposition, an excellent boxer and rugby quarterback. He could score at a great pace and field in any position. Jordan, though slightly built, was a wicket-keeper of skill and pluck, rapidly working up to the first rank. H. A. Haines was a natural athlete, longarmed, rangy, and speedy, a dangerous batsman when set, and the best mid-off in Philadelphia. While we were abroad in 1897, Patterson had invited Pelham Warner to bring over an eleven to play in Philadelphia in the autumn. It was characteristic of Warner that he should have been the first visiting captain to fall in with a plan that Dan and Bob Newhall had been hatching for years, and that was for the visitors to play one of three matches in Philadelphia against odds with our 169

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Colts. His unselfish spirit was manifest when he consented not only to bowl against twenty-two Colts, but to bat with the whole stable scampering about in the field. This he did knowing what it meant to have twenty-two alert young fielders, many of them baseball players, placed all around the wicket. In 1872 Grace took nearly an hour to make seven runs under these conditions. And the event brought out another quality of Warner's that we were to get another taste of at Lord's in 1903. As a result of good batting by Graves, Haines, Forrest Pearson, and Johnny Evans the Colts had set the Englishmen 229 to get, when their grand old captain, Bob Newhall, declared the second innings closed with nine wickets in hand. There were three hours to play; the wicket had been cantered over for two days; there were twenty-two fielders; Climenson, a promising young fastish bowler, had taken five wickets for 41 in the first innings, and was about to open up again and there was not a chance of getting the runs. There was nothing to do but to play out time doggedly until five-thirty. That is exactly what Warner did. Going in first, he batted three hours for 56 and carried out his bat. Sir Pelham is one of the most genuinely modest men we ever met; but this is one of the innings he remembers with approval in his charming Cricket in Many Climes. Warner's team of 1897 would appear to be slightly stronger than the side he brought over in the following year. It contained two nicely reciprocal bowlers in Jessop and F. G. Bull, then considered the best amateur slow left-hander in England, besides Stocks and Chinnery, and it was equally strong in batting. T h e first test match, played at Elmwood, was quite unique in our cricket annals because of what happened on the evening of the first day. Because of consistent scores from the head of the batting list, with Lester 73 and Coates 44, we had given the Englishmen 242 runs to bat against, and bequeathed them an awkward half hour's batting in a poor light at the end of the day. T h e light, as I still remember, had been none too good in the morning; and even on bright days at Elmwood, in the slanting rays of a late September sun, I never delighted in King. He was not inclined to overlook his opportunities. On this occasion, when stumps were

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drawn, we had four English wickets down and the scoreboard read 0-4 0. T h e captain's wicket was one of the four. He writes in the book just mentioned— It was a very puzzling light. After the ball came off the pitch it was impossible to see it; one could follow it in the air well enough, but as soon as it pitched one lost sight of it altogether. After King had caught Warner off E. W. Clark, the English captain naturally appealed, the umpire said, "Try one more over." Next morning the side was out for 63, King having taken nine wickets for 25. T h e n came the recovery to be expected from any Warner team. With a century by Head, 51 from Warner, and a 63 by Leveson-Gower, always at his best in a crisis, they set us 194 to win with three and one half hours to get them. T h e head of the batting list was equal to the task, and we won with four wickets in hand. T h e Englishmen had a handsome revenge in the last match, played at Haverford, and won by seven wickets. Lester was not available for this game, and indeed was not able to engage in international cricket until 1901. Leveson-Gower, Chinnery, and Jessop among them made two-thirds of the 322 hit up by the Englishmen in their first innings, and then Bull and Jessop bowled us out for 132. In spite of good batting by Noble, King, and P. H. Clark in our second innings, we could set them only 67 to win. T h e best bowling for Philadelphia in this game was P. H. Clark's seven for 83. In the early summer of 1898 R. D. Brown and Graves each scored two centuries, and attracting notice were four younger players who later won places on an All Philadelphia team. These were D. H. Adams, Frank A. Greene, W. P. O'Neill, and W. N. Morice. T h e last named appeared only twice as an All Philadelphian, once against the M. C. C. in 1905, and later against the Incogniti; but he was a splendid athlete, a fine rugby halfback, a fast bowler of fire and resolution, an editor of the American Cricketer, and all his life a lover of the game. Adams, together with a Haverford classmate, Scattergood, had won the intercollegiate championship for Harvard in 1897, and the year before had taken

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63 wickets in England for Haverford College. O'Neill and Frank Greene were promising left-hand bowlers, the former with an incurve and the latter with speed and spin, which, if fully cultivated and combined with a slower ball, would have made him one of our great bowlers. All these youngsters appeared with the Colts against Warner's eleven in this year. There was another Colt of extraordinary promise. L. W. DeMotte was a left-hander on the Dowson model. He had the same high smooth delivery, and the same reliance on length and spin rather than curve. Playing for Haverford College in the spring he had taken seven wickets for 14 against Philadelphia, and with Fred Sharpless, had bowled out a strong University of Pennsylvania X I containing six present or future internationals for ten runs made from the bat. DeMotte took five for 5. If he could have continued to play regularly after leaving college, we might have had a second Lowry. He was bowled too much in the Colts match, but he took Burnup's wicket twice, and clean bowled Warner. Warner's team of 1898, except for Frank Mitchell and the captain, was new to Philadelphia. Its batting strength lay in these two and C. J . Burnup of Kent, C. Ο. H. Sewall of Gloucester, V. T . Hill of Somerset, and Ε. H. Bray of Middlesex. In the opinion of R. D. Brown, who was to captain Philadelphia in the first test match at Wissahickon, the bowling was decidedly weak, particularly as two bowlers, E. C. Lee and E. F. Penn, had been left behind in a Canadian hospital. T h e best one remaining was J . L. Ainsworth, left-hand medium with a pronounced break, and a faster ball coming with his arm. As the event proved, Ainsworth was enough to supply all our needs. Rain had fallen before the first game began, but that was not enough to account for the breakdown of our batting, and our dismissal for 94 and 59. Ainsworth took eleven wickets for about 6 runs each, and Cope Morton four for 13 in the Englishmen's first innings of 84. Bray's wicket-keeping was conspicuous; he caught four and stumped one in the first innings of the Philadelphians. We were beaten handily by eight wickets. This time Warner was taking on only eighteen Colts and a cap tain, all of them to field. T h e game resulted in a draw in Warner's

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favor, who had 73 to get with nine wickets in hand. The highest score of the match was 27, made by both Adams and W. P. Seymour, and the Colts' best bowler was Adams, with six for 27. After an interval in New York, where Warner's XI beat the best eleven of the city by an innings and 247 runs, they were back on a good wicket at Manheim for the third game, against a side that included Morton and Adams. It was a game of very moderate scores, and was won by the Englishmen by four wickets on the third day by a well hit 41 not out by V. T . Hill. Wood's 53 was the highest score for us. It was Ainsworth again who did the trick. His eleven wickets, like Bart's nine, cost 9 runs apiece. Clark's nine cost considerably more. T h e surprise of the early season in 1899 was the big scores of F. H. Bates for Germantown. Beginning with 180 against Belmont, he made 122 against Merion, and in a second match with Merion, 61 not out. T h i s year he won the Childs Batting Cup with an average of 72.50, and was one of the hopes of Philadelphia cricket. Another notable performance in the spring was Bart King's ten wickets for 39, seven of them clean bowled, against Germantown, who nevertheless scored a total of 140, just enough to pull out the match. T h e Colts of the year included two who were to figure largely in the next Philadelphia tour of England. These were F. C. Sharpless and C. C. Morris. T h e latter had begun his cricket in school, and was now working his way u p in junior cricket, but the great promise was evident to any discriminating eye. Fred Sharpless was still a junior at college developing a formidable defense, and a good measure of control in his medium-pace bowling. T h e eleven that Prince Ranjitsinhji brought over in the autumn of 1899 was the strongest batting side that ever came to America. No city eleven in the world had any right to think that, given anything like an equality of bowling on either side, they could win a game from that lot. A draw might be possible, but not a win. Besides Ranji there were MacLaren, Stoddart, Jessop, George Brann of Sussex, Bosanquet of Middlesex, and C. L. Townsend of Gloucester, this year standing fourth in the first-class batting averages.

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But there was nothing like a corresponding strength in the bowling. Townsend, to be sure, was one of the best amateur slow bowlers of the year, and Jessop was a good contrast at the other end. There were also Stoddart, Llewellyn, medium left-hand with both breaks, and Woods, but Sammy was getting to the end of his brilliant career. There was no reason to suppose that we should not be able to respond with reasonable totals to the big scores certain to be made against us. Lester could not play for Philadelphia but we had Bates, with a batting average of 72.50, Brown, Graves, Wood, King, and H. C. Thayer, who had all scored heavily during the summer. It is still a bit inexplicable, this failure of such a batting side to make on the average only 120 runs in each of the four completed innings, with an individual high score of 43. And it was not the unknown Llewellyn who bothered us most; it was two bowlers we knew— Jessop and Bosanquet. The Englishmen's first match was with the Colts at Elmwood. Ranji had stipulated that he would play twelve men against twenty-one Colts and a captain, the youngsters to field only fourteen. Of the Colts, eight had played against Warner's X I the previous year. Among the ponies fresh from the pasture, one, C. C. Morris, was a mere foal of seventeen, but he, with A. W. Jones, F. C. Sharpless, and G. R. White, was to show his breed later in battle with his peers. W. E. Goodman was a youngster of great all-round ability, and W. H. Sayen was a jennet of great speed. The twenty-two compiled 205, and Ranji's team replied with 185, of which the skipper got 42. T h e match was drawn after the Colts had scored 95 for nine wickets in their second innings, of which Justice hit up a fine 35. On the basis of O'Neill's six wickets for 70 runs, he was included in the All Philadelphia side for the first test match. The match was played at Haverford, and there MacLaren played a great innings of 149, and Jessop hit up 64 in thirty-five minutes, at one time making 49 out of 50. Good scores from Stoddart and the captain brought the total to 435. Against this the Philadelphians made 156 and 106, almost half of them from the bat of Graves. The best bowling against us was Stoddart's four for

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175

18; the best for us was Cregar's four for 46, though three of these were tail-enders. Clark dismissed the three men at the head of the batting list. T h e score of this match follows. P H I L A D E L P H I A S v. K. S. R A N J I T S I N H J I S XI Played at Haverford, September 29, 30, and October 2, 1899 Result: Ranjitsinhji's Eleven won by an innings and 173 runs. PHILADELPHIAS First Innings Second Innings J. B. King, b. Jessop 0 c. Robson, b. Jessop A. M. Wood, c. Stoddart, b. Jessop . . 39 c. Townsend, b. Stoddart H. C. Thayer, b. Jessop 0 b. Jessop Ν. Z. Graves, Jr., c. and b. Woods . . 43 b. Stoddart F. H. Bates, b. Woods 0 b. Llewellyn J. E. C. Morton, c. Brann, b. Woods . 4 b. Woods J. H. Mason, c. Robson, b. Jessop . . . 8 b. Stoddart P. H. Clark, b. Woods 22 r u n out Ε. M. Cregar, b. Jessop 16 c. MacLaren, b. Woods W. P. O'Neill, c. Bosanquet, b. Jessop 4 not out J. H. Scattergood, not out 8 b. Stoddart Byes 9, wide 1, no-balls 2 12 Byes 9, no-ball 1 Total

156

11 6 0 36 15 0 17 0 0 2 9 10

Total

106

R A N J I T S I N H J I ' S XI A. C. MacLaren, c. Scattergood, b. Clark G. Brann, b. Clark C. L. Townsend, c. Mason, b. Clark K. S. Ranjitsinhji, c. Clark, b. Cregar A. E. Stoddart, c. Wood, b. Morton S. M. J . Woods, c. Wood, b. Morton G. L. Jessop, b. King B. J. T . Bosanquet, c. Thayer, b. Cregar G. C. B. Llewellyn, b. Cregar C. Robson, not out J. Robertson, c. O'Neill, b. Cregar Byes 23, wides 2, no-ball 1

149 0 28 57 56 7 64 42 6 0 0 26

Total

435 B O W L I N G ANALYSIS R A N JITSINHJI'S

First Jessop m let

Innings Ο Μ 27 13 6 20 9 3 0 5

XI

Second R 51 54 22 17

W 6 4 0 0

Jessop . . . Woods . . . Llewellyn Stoddart

Innings Ο Μ 8 3 6 21 0 2 8 15.2

PHILADELPHIAS

King Clark Morton Cregar Bates O'Neill

Ο 30 37 20 12.4 10 13

Μ 7 9 3 2 1 0

R 100 105 61 46 45 52

W 1 3 2 4 0 0

R 30 43 5 18

W 2 2 1 4

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The result at Manheim was much the same, Ranjitsinhji's team winning by an innings and 131 runs. T o a well-distributed English score of 363 we replied this time with 85 and 147. T h e only good performances for the Philadelphians were King's 40 in the second innings, and Clark's five wickets for 76, both of them remarkable efforts in relation to the total scores. Bosanquet took seven of our wickets for 40, and Jessop three for 21. Looking at the scores of these games today it would appear that Cregar was used too little in the first and O'Neill too much in the second, for the latter was always most effective against batsmen new to him. Ranjitsinhji's visit to Philadelphia raised a turmoil of speculation about what the American Cricketer termed "the deterioration of our cricket," and a determined effort to find the causes, very similar to what had occurred after similar defeats about twenty years earlier. There seemed to be agreement that the reasons for the decline in our cricket were threefold. First, the failure of promising young players to develop into sound and resouceful batsmen was caused by the deterioration of the wickets, both for play and practice, during the last six years. Second, as in 1881, we still lacked good slow bowlers. Patterson and Warner were at one in the conviction that our left-hand bowlers should aim at length and spin rather than at curve alone. Nothing is easier to play than left-hand bowling that consistently curves in on your legs. Third, we needed to play full-day matches beginning at eleven, rather than the half-day matches that were becoming increasingly common. Patterson set the ball rolling. An issue of the Sunday Times in January 1900, ran a story on " T h e Decline of Cricket in Philadelphia." R. D. Brown replied optimistically, but the American Cricketer remarked that "the old guard is almost gone, and now we must rely on new blood." This periodical, which, after the resignation of Dan Newhall, had gone up and down with the ability and interest of the editors, was fortunately now in the hands of Jack Mason, who had the vigorous and forthright assistance of Bill Morice. These men went at once to work on measures to reinvigorate our cricket.

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After an extensive poll of opinion among active cricketers, and a study of the replies to a questionnaire, two recommendations were made; first, to extend the Halifax Cup competition through August and September, and second, to encourage more teams to enter that competition. T h e Associated Cricket Clubs were called on to support junior cricket, to arrange a schedule for the Radnor Cup, to encourage cricket within the schools, and to support interschool competition in the Interacademic and Interscholastic Leagues. T h e results of these policies and the heart-searching criticism that Ranji's excursion had caused were very soon evident. T h r e e new clubs, Radnor, Frankford, and Overbrook, entered the Philadelphia C u p competition; new life was instilled into the Interacademic Cricket Association; Cornell entered the Intercollegiate Cricket Association; T o m m y Irving, a good slow left-hander, was engaged at Merion; and J. H. Scattergood began that thorough, scientific study of American cricket turf, its diseases and the grasses needed to improve it, which so greatly improved the notorious wickets at Haverford. In the spring of 1900 there were encouraging signs that our cricket was not declining. Among the batsmen H. C. Thayer made some good scores for Merion and Lyn Biddle for Philadelphia, and the veteran A. M. Wood was a consistent run-getter for Belmont. More surprising was the sudden burst into the high brackets of Percy Clark, with an almost unblemished 178 against King, Cregar, and Graham for Germantown, and the very next week a 79 not out against Merion. In the early summer W. H. Sayen took six wickets for 15 runs against a strong Germantown eleven, but unfortunately for Philadelphia cricket, this young bowler was not able to play regularly. H e had singular possibilities. Of the Ernest Jones type, with no guile or swing, Henry with the wind was faster than Ring, though not quite so accurate. H e was a grand fielder, and a tonic to any side he played on. Another young player to appear too seldom on an All Philadelphia eleven was A. W. Jones, who in September scored a beautiful 154 out of 281 for Germantown against Belmont. Jones was a left-hander who, in the middle of one of his better innings, reminded one of F. G. J. Ford; he

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had the same height and reach, similar sweeping shots in front of the wicket, and an uncanny power to keep them hugging the turf. T h e 1900 tour of the Haverford College X I in England to play against the public schools is noticed in another chapter. It contained a youngster enrolled as a freshman but not yet a student, who was on that account played in only three games in England. But Chris Morris signaled his return by scoring 47 out of 95 for Merion against Belmont, and then 91 for Merion against Philadelphia; and when Jones had to drop out, Morris was chosen in his place to represent Philadelphia against Canada at Manheim in late September. Christy made the highest score in both innings; and but for the subfreshman, Philadelphia would have lost the game. T h e next year, 1901, was an encouraging one for our cricketers. It showed an increased interest in the schools, and a number of games were played between school teams and the class elevens in the colleges. T h e r e were indeed signs of the decline of the game elsewhere; the well-known club on Staten Island was disbanded, and there was a decrease of interest in Baltimore. But it was different in Philadelphia. T h e American Cricketer had now at its helm that friend of every cricketer in the land, Sydney Young. An admirable pilot, well grounded in the game itself, Sydney knew also its relations with the navy, and at Halifax was witness to what was to become one of the legends of our cricket history, Bart King's aquatics in the North Arm. In April Young could announce, " T h e r e has never been so widespread an interest in the game in Philadelphia." T h e early summer saw an old friend, Major Straubenzie, at the head of a team of Canadians playing a series of games with the six major clubs. He was beaten by Germantown and Belmont, drew with Merion, but won against Philadelphia. Some handsome scores were made against the visitors; but on the way home they beat New York by an innings, J . M. Laing, a fine cricketer, making a century. In the autumn Bosanquet brought over an eleven which was particularly strong in bowlers. There were E. R. Wilson, regarded by Warner as one of the most accurate of all English amateurs;

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E. W. Dowson, who while still at Harrow was fit to play for All England; R. O. Schwarz, the South African, with the good length off-break bowled with the leg-break action, and Bosanquet himself, about this time beginning to experiment with a googly. T h e batting strength seemed not so pronounced; but the side included Mitchell, V. F. S. Crawford, a superb all-around cricketer; R. E. More of Middlesex, and A. M. Hollins of Oxford. T h e year was encouraging because the Philadelphians were successful in two of the three matches played against this powerful eleven. In their first game the Englishmen took on eighteen Colts captained by Sydney Young, all of them to field. Mainly because of the batting of C. C. Morris, P. N. LeRoy, and W. P. Newhall, and the bowling of YVillard Graham, the youngsters won by 186 runs— the first victory ever scored by a team of Philadelphia Colts. Graham, one of five brothers in a cricketing family, was an exceedingly promising all-round player; a left-handed batsman of power, and a left-handed bowler of medium pace with excellent control and spin. H e took six wickets for 37 in the first innings and six for 26 in the second. But at Haverford, in the first test match—a game of moderate scores—the Englishmen won by 61 runs, A. M. Hollins scoring 44 and 32. Lester made 46 and 73 not out for us, and the best bowling of the match was King's eight for 78 and six for 57. T h e tables were completely turned in the second test match, played at Manheim, where the home team batted out a victory by 229 runs. This was made possible mainly because of a first innings total of 312, of which R. D. Brown contributed a fine century, and Bohlen 60. T h e conspicuous bowling for us was done by King with six for 74 in the first innings, and by Clark with seven for 22 out of a total for the innings of 103. Clark took the last five wickets in seven balls without getting the hat trick. And it was a good thing for our cricket to see in October an eleven composed entirely of Newhalls taking the field against Baltimore. T h e sight bound our past with our present; and though the clan were beaten, they were back again later for more in the old family spirit, and hit out a decisive victory. T h o u g h we had no visiting team from overseas in 1902, this also

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was an encouraging year for our cricket. T h e American Cricketer printed 341 fixtures, more than had ever before been recorded. J o h n L. Evans was vigorously at work building up his team as captain at the University of Pennsylvania, and early in the summer there was a remarkable match played between Germantown and Belmont that deserves special mention. King was at the top of his bent as Germantown went to bat, and skittled them out, finishing with the hat trick, seven for 35. T h e n he hit up 77 out of a total of 344, leaving the old club 270 to get to avert a single innings defeat. Germantown out for 74 was a surprise even to Bart, and he took the ball again with some slight degree of confidence. But in this game of surprises he was in for his second. In their next try the Germantown batsmen took charge of all operations. Frank Bohlen, batting for three and a half hours, scored 208 out of a total of 559 runs. T h e scales had swung again; now Belmont had 290 runs to get to win, and that on a wicket on which 977 runs had already been made. But they were equal to the challenge and obtained them with three wickets in hand, Bart scoring 76. T h e score of this remarkable match follows: B E L M O N T v. G E R M A N T O W N Played at Elmwood, May 30 and 31 and J u n e 2 and 3 Result:

Belmont

won by } wickets

and 2 runs

GERMANTOWN First Innings A. W . Jones, c. Hurditch, b. King F. H. Bohlen, b. King Ν. Z. Graves, Jr., b. King F. A. Greene, b. Altemus G. R . White, b. King T . C. Jordan, b. King F. S. White, l.b.w., b. Altemus W . P. O'Neill, not out W. P. Newhall, b. King H. P. Austin, b. King H. W . Middleton, b. Altemus Extras Total

. 6 12 8 12 15 9 0 7 0 0 0 5

Second Innings b. King st. Leech, b. King c. Coates, b. Cregar c. Rolls, b. King b. King c. Coates, b. Graham not out b. King b. Graham b. Cregar c. Hurditch, b. Cregar Extras

74

Total

0 208 60 17 0 63 59 9 41 45 20 37 559

BELMONT First Innings W. F. Keenan, c. O'Neill, b. Newhall 4 Τ . M. S. Rolls, c. G. White, b. Newhall 0 W. Graham, b. Graves 22 J. B. King, c. Bohlen, b. Greene . . . . 77

b. Middleton

Second

Innings

c. J o r d a n , b. Graves l.b.w., b. Graves c. Middleton, b. Graves

61 0 27 76

Between O A. Ε. F. F. Ο. F..

Coates, r. J o r d a n , b. Middleton . . M. Wood, l.b.w., b. O'Neill M. Cregar, b. Jones W. Keenan, Jr., r u n out L. Altemus, b. Jones I'. H u r d i t c h , c. F. White, b. Jones Κ. Leech, not out Extras Total

48 40 68 5 30 39 0 11

the

Tours

c. and b. Middleton not out c. and b. Greene c. F. White, b. Greene not out

11 52 3 12 22

Extras

27 .291

T o t a l (7 wkts.)

344 BOWLING

181

ANALYSIS

BELMONT

InningsΛ Ο Μ 4 J. B. King 14 1 W. G r a h a m 8 F. L. Altemus . . . 5.2 2

Second

First

R 35 28 6

W 7 0

3

J B. King W. G r a h a m . F. L. Altemus . . . C. Coates . Ε. M. Cregar . . . . W. F. Keenan . . . F. W. Keenan . . . C. P. H u r d i t c h . . A. M. Wood . . . .

Innings Μ 5 1 3 0 0 0 0 0

R 133 118 70 20 111 14 11 29 16

W 4 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 0

Innings Μ Ο 26 3 1 18.5 0 8 5 18 1 5

R 91 62 27 58 26

W 3 2 0 2 0

Ο 27 26 9 2 18 2 2 4 5

0

GERMANTOWN

First

Innings Μ Ο F. A. Greene . . . . 21 2 0 Ν. Z. Graves, J r . .10 0 W. P. O'Neill . . . 13 0 H . W. Middleton 2 1 A. W. Jones . . . . 6.2 1 W. P. Newhall . . 6 G. R. W h i t e 0 2

Second R 102 66 70 18 33 36 8

W 1 1 1 1 3 2 0

F. A. Greene . . . . Ν. Z. Graves, J r . . W. P. O'Neill . . . H. W. Middleton A. W. Jones . . . .

Others among the older men were scoring heavily during the summer. Scattergood smacked out 102 not out for Merion against his old college, and Harry Thayer 127 out of 225 in a Philadelphia Cup game with Germantown. King made 168 for Belmont against Baltimore, and took six wickets for 5 runs against Philadelphia. Playing for one of the Germantown teams against the other, R. D. Brown scored a fine 156, and for the P h i l a d e l p h i a s on tour P. N. LeRoy made 123 not out at Halifax against the Wanderers. Toward the close of the season in the international match against Canada Christy Morris scored a fine 72. T h e early season of 1903 was centered mainly on preparations for the coming tour of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia to play firstclass cricket in England.

CHAPTER

XIII

The English Tour of igoj

T

HE fourteen players who had been chosen to represent Philadelphia against the English counties sailed from New York on the White Star liner "Majestic" on May 27, 1903. T h e y carried with them the high hopes of their supporters at home, b u t it was not thought they would be a match for the strong county sides they had engaged to play. O u r opponents were the same as in 1897 with three e x c e p t i o n s Middlesex, Yorkshire, and Oxford Past and Present. In place of these, we were to play P. F. Warner's eleven, Worcester and Leicester, and in addition, two matches not considered first-class fixtures, namely, Glamorganshire and a Scottish eleven in Edinburgh. T h e doubts at home were based first on the fact that two of the men selected, G. S. Patterson and Cope Morton, were not able to go. Patterson's loss was irretrievable. For years he had been one of the mainstays in Philadelphia batting, and because of his experience in international cricket and his uncanny judgment he was the natural captain of our eleven. Cope Morton was precisely the kind of bowler lacking in our attack, a slow left-hander with a good head and a safe pair of hands. T h e n too the doubts were strengthened by the poor showing of the 1903 eleven in the two test matches played here before it sailed. This did not seem to be as strong a side as the opposition called for. It included R. D. Brown, who had made the most runs for the team that played in England in 1889, and eight players who had 182

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Tour of 1903

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toured England in 1897: Bates, Bohlen, Clark, Cregar, King, Lester, Scattergood, and Wood. T h e new blood was represented by Graves, Haines, Jordan, LeRoy, Monis, and Sharpless. Instead of the "manager" who had accompanied the team of 1897, we carried with us George Bromhead, of blessed memory. George was at once the friend and the servant of every cricketer who knew him, and from the beginning to the end of the trip, he was a silent b u t indispensable partner. O n our landing at Liverpool Reynolds Brown was wisely noncommittal about our chance of success, b u t was quite frank with the reporters about the news that one of our number, Mr. King, "intends to enter into the blissful state of wedlock" at the conclusion of the tour. T h e first match was played against Cambridge University on J u n e 8 to 10, and was lost by six wickets. How we missed Patterson and Morton! W h a t we lacked was a bit more batting strength; three-quarters of our runs in each innings were scored by the first three men in. And what we needed in attack was exactly another bowler of the type of H . P. Baily in the 1897 outfit, or Cope Morton. Every Cambridge wicket which fell in either innings fell to a fast bowler; whereas McDonell for Cambridge, bowling slow into the wind, and Dowson the left-hander, captured between them twelve Philadelphia wickets. T h e n too, our fielding was n o credit to an American team. One bright augury was the wicket-keeping of Scattergood, who caught or stumped five men in the first innings of Cambridge. His stumping at once caught the attention of the English—"a bundle of wires, Scattergood looks as if he could keep wicket on his head." At Oxford our prospects were bright when rain stopped play. With two wickets to fall in our second innings we were 213 runs ahead of Oxford, whom we had got out for 87 in their first knock. T h i s favorable position was due mainly to King, who made a useful 47 in our first innings, and then set about knocking down O x f o r d wickets. Bart took eight for 39, capturing all of the first six. At this point his analysis actually read 12 overs, 3 maidens, 15 runs, 6 wickets. T o be sure he was helped by a treacherous wicket. T h a t was clear enough to Bohlen, Graves, and Haines in our second venture, for Whately dismissed the trio with three balls,

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and Bart was lucky in not being out with the fourth. It was a joy to see three of our freshmen, Morris, Graves, and Haines, hitting out a third of our runs in the first innings, and Percy Clark top scorer in our second. N o play at all was possible on the last day. T h e n at Gloucester we accomplished the most decisive victory ever won by an American team in first-class cricket in England, winning by an innings and 26 runs. W e were sorry—in a way—that Jessop was not able to play for his side. By some good hitting King and Cregar scored more than half our total of 155, and then Clark and Lester had a merry time with Gloucester on a bowler's wicket. T h e outstanding performance of this game was Lester's eleven wickets for 33 runs; Scattergood also played a conspicuous part, catching three and stumping two. T h e full score follows: T H E P H I L A D E L P H I A S v. G L O U C E S T E R Played at Cheltenham, J u n e 16 a n d 17, 1903 Result: The Philadelphia/is won by an innings and 26 runs. PHILADELPHIAS First Innings J. B. King, b. Huggins A. M. Wood, b. Cranfield C. C. Morris, c. Langdon, b. Cranfield Ν. Z. Graves, b. Huggins Ε. M. Cregar, c. Fowler, b. Huggins J. A. Lester, c. Board, b. Huggins F. H. Bates, b. Cranfield R. D. Brown, b. Cranfield P. H. Clark, not out H. A. Haines, b. Cranfield J. H. Scattergood, c. Langdon, b. Cranfield Byes, etc. Total

57 15 18

2 35 8 0 16 0 0 3 155

GLOUCESTER First Innings Second Innings "Γ. H. Fowler, b. Clark . . . 0 c. Scattergood, b. Lester . . . Wrathall, c. Scattergood, b. Clark . 1 0 b. Lester Langdon, c. Scattergood, b. Lester . . 25 b. Clark F.. Barnett, b. Lester 10 c. Graves, b. Clark Board, b. Lester 0 c. Graves, b. Lester . . . . Huggins, c. King, b. Lester 9 st. Scattergood, b. Lester H. C. Manners, b. Clark . . 4 b. Clark Nott, b. King 5 c. King, b. Clark Spry, c. Morris, b. Lester . , 11 c. King, b. Lester Mills not out 4 st. Scattergood, b. Lester Cranfield, b. King 2 not out Byes, etc. 6 Byes, etc Total

86

Total

4 10 5 3 4 0 4 3 3 5 43

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of 1903

ANALYSIS

GLOUCESTER

Ο

Μ

R

17 5 46 Huggins Cranfield 16.4 2 67 Mills . . 8 2 22 Spry . . . 5 0 17 Huggins bowled a wide. Mills a no-ball.

VV 4 6

0

0

PHILADELPHIAS

First

innings Ο Μ 11.5 4 King . . . 1 6 5 Clark Lester 15 4 Bates 3 2 Clark bowled o n e wide.

R 26 26 20 8

W 2 3 5 0

Second Clark Lester

Innings O M R 14 4 25 14.4 5 13

VV 4 6

On to T r e n t Bridge to play Nottingham, which had played eight county matches without being beaten. Here we had three happy days against a strong side, who were twice dismissed for moderate scores by Clark and King. T h e success of the two men as bowlers came to be a thing so naturally anticipated as to obscure the splendid and consistent effort behind it. But the game is memorable to those who saw it chiefly for two new features. T h e first was that, while two of the old-timers had actually scored 132 out of the 159 in our first innings, four of the freshmen hit up 265 out of the 400 of our unfinished second innings. T h e main feature was, of course, Chris Morris' 164. What a joy to see this original at the top of his game, merry and feeling his oats, slapping Wass, and Hallam, and J . Gunn here and there—anywhere in fact—as though he had been created by God for the express purpose of making the best bowling seem shabby. Morris' great innings was almost without blemish. At times he went at a great pace, scoring 102 out of 144 in two hours. He had a big quiverful of shots, scoring repeatedly on powerful wristy backplay, mixed up with cuts and the most audacious of pulls. T h e other freshmen who came into their own were Graves, Sharpless, and Jordan. In his hard-hit 62 not out Graves gave a foretaste of that superb innings he was to play later at Old Trafford; Sharpless established himself as a permanent member of the eleven, and one of the most predictable and reliable men on it; and it was Jordan who stayed with Graves until he saw the 400 go up on the scoreboard. In this game Morris and

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Graves established their reputation as the most irreverent of our n u m b e r when in the presence of august bowling. Marylebone Cricket Club \vere ready for us after our victories at Gloucester and Nottingham. Originally intended to be a game against the amateurs of the club, the match was now to be against M. C. C. and Ground, for the team pitted against us included three of the best professional bowlers in England, J. T . Hearne, Mead, and A. E. T r o t t . It was a compliment which pleased us immensely, b u t our pleasure decreased when rain and Providence granted these dangerous bowlers the very wicket they wanted. T h e i r bowling was simply too good for the Philadelphians, and we were out in the first innings for 65, the lowest score on our tour. W e failed to reach one hundred in our second venture. T r o t t in our second innings actually bowled seven balls for three wickets and no runs. Even so, King bowled so well that we were only 39 r u n s short when our second innings began, and though we could set the M. C. C. only 55 to get in their second innings, Clark assisted King so ably that five of their best wickets were down before the runs were made. We felt the absence of Sharpless, who might have stayed with Wood in our second innings. Even without him, if Warner, who saved his side, h a d been taken in the slips at 8, we might, as Warner himself said, have scraped through with a miraculous win. T h e quality of W a r n e r as a cricketer appeared more clearly in his not out innings of 30 than in many of his centuries. With Captain Wynyard incapacitated, and Clark and King playing skittles with the wickets, he alone saved his side from collapse. But he was never at home with King. It was the bowling he faced in this game that prompted W a r n e r to write, King on his day is the most difficult bowler we have seen this season." O u r fielding, which had thrown away the game against Cambridge, had much to do with our defeat at Lord's. We had a most pleasurable game on the beautiful ground at Beckenham against Kent. T h e match held its interest right up to the end, for we had set Kent only 251 r u n s to win, and at any time on the last day a determined stand might have pulled the game out of the fire for the home side. O u r first innings of 311 was the best we had played from the point of view of the spread of scorers.

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Sharpless was back, and he was beginning to attract the attention of the English observers as a second Bannerman. T o be sure his 39 not out took a long time to make; as the paper noted he was at bat for half an hour before he scored a run on the first day of play; but while he was there Graves, Wood, and R. D. Brown were making the runs which eventually won the game for us. Clark and King, practically unassisted, bowled out Kent in their first innings, and Clark and Cregar by knocking up 55 between them, saved us from a pretty bad collapse in our second innings. And then the heat was onl Could we get out a side which included Humphreys, Seymour, Burnup, Alec Hearne, and Dillon for the 251 we had set them? There was never a time during Kent's second innings when a Philadelphia captain could be at ease, almost every batsman seeming to get set. Fortunately, Cregar came up with invaluable assistance to Clark and King, and we had 62 runs to spare when Blythe was caught by Jordan. T h e game at T a u n t o n against Somerset illustrated what Frank Bohlen often used to say—that a well-balanced touring Philadelphia team might just as well take on the strongest counties, for we would find them no harder on us than the weakest. Somerset has had great players, notably Sammy Woods and the Palairets, but Somerset was not considered the equal of Lancashire, Nottingham, Kent, or Surrey. Yet we beat all four of them, and now Somerset beat us by ten wickets. We had an unaccountable collapse in our first innings, in which Braund bowled finely; but we did better in our second, Sharpless playing well for 54, his highest score of the tour. It was Clark who was most successful on attack, keeping a good length throughout, and taking four wickets for 54 runs. Here was another game which would have been much closer but for our bad fielding. T h e Somerset score would have been much reduced if Lee, Palairet, Robson, Martyn, and Braund had not all been missed early in their innings. This match brought us a great misfortune in the loss of Scattergood, who broke a finger of his right hand at the wicket. He pluckily went to bat and was not out. On July 6 to 8 we were at Old Trafford playing a Lancashire eleven which was without the services of MacLaren, Tyldesley, and Brearley, all playing in the Gentlemen-Players match at Lord's.

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We found ourselves some 30 runs ahead when each side had completed an innings. These were notable for King's bowling, five wickets for 9 runs apiece, and for Bohlen's well-garnered 43 for us. But when Lancashire went in again, we saw the best bowling ever done by an American in England. Bart on the prance, with a nice little quarter-gale fluttering u p the flannel on his left shoulder, was always a sweet sight. I saw it at Brighton in 1897, with Ranji's middle stump going end over first ball, and Ranji with that gleeful smile of his telling me how the ball "sprang in at him like a tiger, a good foot from the off and yorked him." Bart was on the prance then, and got seven Sussex wickets for 13. And here again everything was right for him. Bowling all through the innings with one short interval of rest, King took nine Lancashire wickets, eight of them clean bowled, and himself ran out or rather ran down, the tenth man. Among those who recognized the brilliance of this feat was MacLaren, who rather doubted if any of the Lancashire batsmen could have stood u p to King on that day. Another English writer described Bart as a bowler who at the moment of delivery "throws u p both hands behind his head with an action something akin to despair." H e had mistaken the emotion; when Bart and the wind were right it was not despair but berserker joy in seeing the wickets fly. T h a t left us 141 to make, and we were thinking of that 74 we made against Somerset. But Graves and Sharpless opened and were still together when stumps were drawn for the day, with 73 on the scoreboard, and we felt better. Next m o r n i n g when Freddy was dismissed after another of his patient and f r u i t f u l innings, and his place was taken by another stonewaller, R. D. Brown, Graves hit out so solidly that he scored 60 out of the next 70, 56 of them in boundaries, ran his brilliant innings past the century mark, and actually scored 103 runs out of the total of 134 made from the bat while he was at the wicket. Graves was not out, and we had beaten Lancashire by nine wickets. But now we were in for a bad patch. Scattergood had gone to see a "specialist" in London for his broken finger, and King, bowling his second over at Edgebaston against Warwickshire, strained his side and had to stand down. T h e n Lester was injured by a bump-

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ing ball in the second innings of the Warwickshire match, and was unable to play against Worcester. King rejoined the team against P. F. Warner's eleven, but unfortunately Scattergood's injury prevented him from f u r t h e r play, and he r e t u r n e d home. T h i s permanent loss was a great blow to our hopes. Scattergood was a wicket-keeper who made his bowlers always a little better; he reminded the English critics of Halliwell, the South African, who had so impressed them two years earlier. H e had trained himself to snap off a bail with every ball that reached him on the leg side, and he stumped many a batsman on the over-balance. In the four games in which Scattergood had played u p to the time of his injury, he had dismissed fifteen men, six of them stumped. Jordan, a m a n of much slighter physique, had to step into Scattergood's place, and did so nobly. Previously we had alternated Scattergood and Jordan; now Jordan had to stand the p o u n d i n g alone. T h e critics wondered how so slight a man could stand u p to King, Clark, and Cregar day after day, and come u p with a smile for more. W e batted only fairly at Edgebaston, but Warwickshire did not d o m u c h better in the first innings, in which Cregar took eight wickets for 35 runs. O u r second innings was remarkable for a very fine innings by Bohlen, who scored more than half of the total of 191, and was u n f o r t u n a t e in not reaching his century. T h i s left Warwickshire with 151 to win, and now was the time for Bart if we had only had him. T h e home team won with the seven wickets to spare. Percy Clark had been chosen temporary captain for the match at Worcester, and under him, and with his own batting and bowling as an example, the handicapped team made a brave showing, though they lost the game. Worcester scored rather consistently all down the list, and compiled 388, LeRoy bowling well and getting four wickets for 62. With the exception of Clark, who played a fine innings of 67, our batsmen were much puzzled by Simpson-Hay ward, the best lob bowler in England, and were 155 behind when the innings closed. Some very fine bowling by Clark, who captured eight wickets for 91, got rid of Worcester in their second innings for 205. W i t h 360 runs to get, Clark again batted

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well for 52, and Graves for 50, but we lost the match by 215 runs. At Southampton the weather turned bad again, and the match against Hampshire could not be finished. Though we did not pile up a big score, the runs were pretty well distributed in a total of 230. Lester led the scoring with 67 and Cregar hit out powerfully and put on 52 in twenty-five minutes—his best innings of the tour. Though we had four good Hampshire batsmen out for a small score, our bowling was collared when A. J . L. Hill and Llewellyn got together, and we felt again the weakness of our attack with King away. Seven men had a turn with the ball, Clark alone, with five wickets for 112 being successful. Hill and Llewwellyn batted magnificently, both going past the century, and with the scoreboard showing 372 for seven wickets, rain stopped further play. At the Oval on July 23 to 25 we were again beaten by a strong eleven got together by that great friend of American cricket, P. F. Warner. T h e game was played on a wicket recovering from rain, and we again wished for some good slow bowlers. In our opponents' first innings King and Clark each took five wickets at reasonable cost; indeed at one time we had eight wickets down for 98, but their remaining men came through with 100 out of a total of 187. This was the first experience of most of our players with Bosanquet's crafty googlies, and we were all out for 82. Again we made a fairly good start on Warner's batsmen in their second attempt, and had half of the side out for 70 runs, but then Bosanquet and Bevington put on 150 between them, and when we went to bat again at a quarter past one on Saturday afternoon we had 381 to make to win. We came almost 200 runs short. In this game Clark was our mainstay on attack, taking ten wickets at a cost of about 19 runs apiece. It was Bosanquet who beat us. Besides knocking up 69 runs, he took no less than twelve of our wickets for 79 runs. How effective his googlies were is indicated by the fact that three of these were l.b.w. Our scheduled match with Sussex at Brighton was rained out, not a ball being bowled. T h i s was a great disappointment to us, because we had anticipated playing against C. B. Fry, one of the very best of living batsmen, who had made 232 not out against the Players earlier in the month.

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Our match at Cardiff with Glamorganshire, not a first-class fixture, was over by lunch on the second day. On a difficult wicket we twice got our opponents out for less than a hundred. King captured seven wickets for 38 in the first innings, and Lester five for 23 in the second. Our own single innings was marked by another batting performance by Graves, whose 95 included fifteen fours, and one huge drive out of the grounds. But this was nothing like his great effort against Lancashire, for he was missed at least six times, twice on successive balls. In order not to disappoint the crowd expected on the last day, Saturday, we played a second match against practically the same team, and this was drawn. In the game at Leicester against the full strength of the county we recovered our form. This was evident particularly in our second innings; for while we opened on a wicket rendered difficult by an overnight rain, and Lester's century was the only good score, the second innings total of 287 was marked by a healthy distribution of run getting, particularly on the part of Wood, Graves, Bohlen, and Sharpless. In dismissing Leicester for 164 and 222, King and Clark each took seven wickets, and Cregar, usually surnamed by the cricket writers "the stalwart" or "the nineteen stoner," took six for 82. When we journeyed back to London that Saturday evening we were happy and hopeful, for if we could only win our last game against Surrey, we should have more than justified the confidence of our friends at home. T h e game at the Oval on August 6 to 8 stands out in memory as the most satisfactory first-class cricket match I ever played in. We were pitted against a grand team of fine sportsmen; we had at last brilliant weather for all three days, a perfect wicket, hard and fast, on which every ball came true, and brains were needed to get a good batsman out. Further, it was a match in which the interest was heightened as it progressed—all through the three days' play, all through that last sunny afternoon while the clock over the pavilion at the Oval was ticking off the minutes until there were only ten left for us to win the game. But chiefly it is memorable because in my opinion we saw, in Bart's play throughout the game, the finest exhibition of skill and endurance which ever came from an American in first-class cricket.

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At the end of the first day's play we had laid the foundation for a strong bid for victory. We had 348 for seven wickets; every man had scored double figures; Bart had played a grand innings of 98, and would have hit his first century of the tour but for a bit of bad judgment on the part of his clubmate Wood, who called him for a short run. Bart was within two of his goal; he needed a pat on the back and a quieting word, not a shout to make him scramble for a single. T h e Morning Chronicle for Friday said that Sharpless in making his 30 "carried caution to the extreme . . . at one time he was at the wickets thirty-five minutes without scoring a run." No! At this stage of the game Freddy was invaluable; we had against us practically the full strength of the Surrey attack—Dowson, Lees, T o m Richardson, Hayes, and Hayward. This bowling needed collaring, and Freddy collared it, helping Graves, Lester, King, and Bohlen to lay up in the bank those deposits which we were sure would be needed. Wood and King's 116 runs in ninety minutes in the afternoon were possible because Freddy had stood to it in the morning. So comparatively harmless had our batsmen made the bowling appear that the Sportsman predicted a huge score for Surrey when they went in for their knocks on Friday. T h a t morning our innings came rather quickly to an end, with a total of 387. Clark and King opened our attack with great success, and we had six wickets down for 81, four of them taken by Clark, to whom, indeed, much of the credit for our ultimate victory over Surrey was due. He bowled with great courage practically throughout both innings, taking ten wickets, and clean bowling Hayward for 10 in the first. But that Surrey side contained no rabbits, and the tail had raised the score to 241 when the last wicket fell. It was Sharpless who brought about the end by taking the wickets of Lees and Smith in less than two overs. With about an hour to bat, we scored 81 for two wickets—Graves and Wood— and so closed the account for Friday with 227 runs to the good and eight wickets to fall. On Saturday morning the overnight not outs, Bohlen and King, knowing what the game required, scored rapidly, King at one point hitting four boundaries in one over. When Clark joined him 51 were added in seventeen minutes. Bart swung easily into his

The English Tour of 1903

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long-wished-for century, and at one-twenty we closed our innings, setting Surrey 398 to win. King's 113 not out, his best innings of the tour, contained 18 boundaries, and was marked chiefly by powerful, clean, sweeping drives to the off. T h e n he sprang at once, freshly, to the attack, just as if he had spent the morning picking daisies. Before luncheon Clark had clean bowled Bush, and our way seemed open for a rather easy win. After luncheon Clark again bowled so well that we had five wickets down for 73. Hayward alone of the Surrey batsmen seemed able to withstand Clark and King. It became clear that Hayward's intention was to stay and to monopolize the bowling if he could. In this game Philadelphia fielding attained a high pitch of keenness, and so alert were our infielders that two valuable men were run out, when, toward the close of the overs, Hayward attempted to change ends on a short run. But then Stedman joined Hayward; the score mounted; the minutes ticked away; Hayward had his century; and the total was 169 for seven wickets at the tea interval at four-thirty. So that when we took the field again against two excellent batsmen, both well set, with about a hundred minutes to get three wickets, we were none of us without anxiety. This increased throughout the next hour, because Stedman and Hayward seemed to master our bowling, and had put on 82 runs by ten minutes to six. T h e n Graves, with a good catch in the slips off Clark, sent back Stedman. Clark, our most dangerous bowler in this match, was beginning to make the ball rise on a wicket which had seen lots of use and now showed signs of wear. But there was Hayward, playing one of the soundest innings I ever saw, resolved to save his side from defeat. With his great reach he was continually putting our fast bowlers away in front of short leg when a one or a three was needed to keep the bowling on the last ball of an over. We must get two wickets in the forty minutes remaining or else leave the Oval with nothing better than a draw. It was with a great sigh of relief that we saw Smith, the bowler, caught again by Graves, off Clark, after lasting ten minutes. For there was left only T o m Richardson, the great fast bowler, who on the first day of the match had taken his hundreth wicket with a beautiful ball which had snipped away Freddy Sharpless' bails.

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But good old T o m , "the best man that ever bowled a ball or skied a good length off-break to long-on" could never last the course against Clark and King! We joined in the burst of applause which greeted the greathearted bowler as he walked out to the wicket. T o m had his orders —and how well he obeyed them! H e was to stay with Hayward for thirty minutes. Bowling to him was like bowling to Sharpless when he had made u p his mind to stick it. T h e minute hand of the big clock swept around to six-ten, six-fifteen, six-twenty. T h e crowd was tense; T o m was still there; our men crouched like cats in the infield to keep Hayward planted on the last ball of the over. Bart to the rescue! W i t h a very fast ball he finally spreadeagled Richardson's wicket and the game was over. Hayward's 156 not out was his best innings of the year. He went in first, and batted with complete confidence for three hours and three-quarters. He was absolutely steady throughout that last half hour, when as the Sunday St. James Gazette noted, "most people at the Oval held their breath while each ball was on its journey." How we cheered the two big T o m s as they walked back to the pavilion together! P H I L A D E L P H I A S v. S U R R E Y Played at T h e Oval, A u g u s t 7, 8, 9, 1903 Result: The Philadelphians won by 110 runs. PHILADELPHIANS First Innings Second innings Ν. Z. Graves, b. Smith 33 l.b.w., b. Hayes F. C. Sharpless, b. R i c h a r d s o n 30 J. A. Lester, b. R i c h a r d s o n 52 not out F. H . Bohlen, b. Hayes 40 st. S t e d m a n , b. Hayes J . B. King, r u n o u t 98 not o u t A. M. Wood, c. Dowson, b. Lees . . . . 50 b. R i c h a r d s o n C. C. Morris, not o u t 24 P. H . Clark, c. L o r d Dalmeny, b. Hayes 10 l.b.w., b. Hayes H . A. Haines, c. H a y w a r d , b. R i c h a r d s o n 0 Ε. M. Cregar, c. M o u l d e r , b. Lees . . . 12 c. Dowson, b. Hayes T . C. J o r d a n , c. Smith, b. Hayes 8 Byes 25, leg byes 4, no-ball 1 . . . . 30 Byes 5, leg bye 1, wide 1, no-ball 1 Total

387

Total • I n n i n g s declared closed.

II 24 58 113 10 19 8

»251

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SURREY First

Second

Innings

Captain H. S. Bush, c. Morris, b. Clark Hayward, b. Clark Hayes, b. King Ε. M. Dowson, b. Clark Lord Dalmeny, c. King, b. Clark . . . . Moulder, b. Clark L. Walker, b. King Lees, b. Sharpless Stedman, c. Jordan, b. King Smith, c. Morris, b. Sharpless Richardson, not out Byes 5, leg byes 2, no-ball 1 Total

4 10 14 6 35 10 12 68 38 36 0 8

innings

b. Clark not out c. and b. King c. Jordan, b. Clark b. Clark b. King run out run out c. Graves, b. Clark c. Graves, b. Clark b. King Byes 7, leg byes 3, wide 1, no-balls 4 Total

241

4 156 14 0 0 8 14 4 57 3 12 15 287

BOWLING ANALYSIS SURREY

Innings Ο Μ R 0 Dowson ...12 42 74 ...39 16 Lees 18 Richardson . . . . . 4 4 87 4 Smith 52 ...21 4 75 ...29 Hayes 0 Hayward . . . . . . . 4 27 Hayward bowled one no-ball.

Second

First

W 0 2 3 1 3 0

Innings Ο Μ R W 0 0 5 19 0 Lees 12 5 35 1 1 35 12 0 1 44 9 4 Hayes 19 2 82 28 0 3 0 Dowson bowled one wide and Walker one no-ball.

PHILADELPHIA^

Innings Ο Μ King 25 3 Clark 27 3 Cregar 6 0 Lester 3 1 Sharpless 1.5 0 Clark bowled one no-ball.

Second

First

R 89 102 27 8

W 3 5 0 0 2

Innings Ο Μ R W King 24.3 2 98 3 29 5 5 112 Cregar 0 5 0 21 Lester . 5 0 0 17 4 2 6 0 Graves 5 0 18 0 King bowled three no-balls and Clark one wide and one no-ball.

T h i s was the last of our first-class fixtures in England. We had tempting invitations to extend the tour by playing in Ireland and in Jamaica on our way home. But it was impossible to do more than fill out our engagements against a Scottish eleven in Edinburgh, and against a team of sixteen Lincolnshire players brought together by our good friend, Mr. Arthur Priestley, M.P. In Edinburgh the two-day game, which was delayed and interrupted by rain, was marked by a very sound innings of 80 by

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Bohlen, and a sparkling, if lucky, century by Graves. T h e Scottish eleven in their second venture were 74 runs behind with seven wickets to fall at the conclusion of play. T h e game at Grantham, in which sixteen men batted against us and twelve fielded, was an enjoyable and festive occasion. King took eleven wickets for 115 runs, and played a big innings of 178, the largest score ever made in England by an American cricketer. We were amiably captained, and sumptuously entertained by Priestley. Morris bedeviled his captain into putting him on to bowl, and astounded us by taking two wickets. W i t h i n a day or two of the end of this game, which was drawn, most of the Philadelphians were boarding the White Star liner "Cymric" at Liverpool, and bidding England a regretful adieu. T h e comparative results of the tours of the Philadelphians in 1897 and 1903 in first-class engagements can be seen at a glance in this table—

1897 1903

Won 2 6

Lost 9 6

Drawn or abandoned 4 3

Centuries for 2 4

Centuries against 9 3

T h e 1897 team had beaten Sussex and Warwickshire; the 1903 team had beaten Gloucester, Nottingham, Kent, Lancashire, and Surrey. A closer examination will reveal the reason for our better success in 1903. Examine the relative performances of four men who played throughout both tours, and upon whom there fell, in 1903, practically the whole burden of the bowling. T h e i r batting and bowling averages in first-class matches for the two tours are shown in the following table: Batting

Howling

Clark Cregar King Lester

1897 15.91 16.00 20.04 37.12

1903 15.55 11.61 29.23 39.30

1897 31.84 27.13 24.02 27.20

1903 20.67 23.23 16.06 21.33

Av

22.27

23.92

27.55

20.32

T h e batting of these four men had improved one point; their bowling had improved seven points. As a matter of fact the 1897

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team batted better than the 1903 team. T h e averages of the first nine batsmen in 1897 was 22.76; in 1903 it was 22.63. In 1897 eleven of the side averaged double figures; in 1903 only nine men averaged double figures. T h e 1897 side was dismissed for under one h u n d r e d only once; the 1903 side four times. T h o u g h we had better weather in 1897 than in 1903, it was clearly our improved attack which explains the better showing, and that attack was mainly in the hands of two men, King and Clark. Of the 217 wickets we took in first-class cricket, these two bowlers actually captured 157, or more than 72 per cent. T h e conclusion is obvious. It is to King and Clark that American cricket owes most for the best performance any Philadelphia touring team has yet made in English first-class cricket. As the figures show, our batting strength was reinforced by three of the freshmen. Wood's fine record of 1897 was not sustained, his average falling eleven points; on the other hand, Bohlen's improved five points and more. It was Graves, Morris, and Sharpless who, to a great extent, helped to fill the gap made by the absence of Patterson, and two of the four centuries were p u t together by Graves a n d Morris. Much of a bowler's success depends on the man b e h i n d the wicket, and, of course, the men in the field. My own opinion is that a good deal of our improvement in 1903 was because our fielding, erratic as it was in some games, was on the whole better than in 1897. We seldom think when, at the end of an innings, we walk in applauding an opponent who has carried his bat and made a century for them, that perhaps among our own men,—that coverpoint who held the hard drive from another dangerous batsman,— is one who saved a century for us. So that much of the credit for what success we had should go to Scattergood and Jordan, two first-class wicket-keepers. At the time when we lost Scattergood because of a broken finger, he had attracted the favorable comments of all critics. T h e Yorkshire Post referred to him as "the finest stumper playing cricket today." Jordan was almost as good, and a better batsman. T h a t Philadelphia was now able to hold its own in English first-class cricket is

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indicated by the fact that in the English first-class averages f o r 1903, King was tenth in bowling and Lester thirteenth in batting. •

·

*

*

It is my belief that the time will come when another American team will cross the Atlantic to play cricket in England; in any case it is the duty of everyone who attempts to give an account of a season's cricket abroad to p u t down what that experience teaches. Every touring team should have at least four bowlers of sufficient ability to open the attack. We had two. Particularly we lacked a good left-hand slow bowler. T h e wet season accentuated this need. King and Clark would each of them have been more effective in many situations with such a partner in the attack operating at the other end. It is true that Clark and King in a way complemented each other, one going away, the other swinging in. But what came down was in general at the same pace, and that is not to say that both of these bowlers did not use a change of pace effectively. Nonetheless, there is a mental adjustment to be made by a batsman after every over, when at the one end is a Richardson or a Fielder, and at the other a Dowson or a Blythe. Slow bowlers can be developed here; and if they are effective on our hard wickets at home, they will be still more effective on wickets sure to be encountered by a touring team in England. W. C. Lowry, a lefthander of thought and cunning, took 110 wickets for an average of 12.72 during a tour made by a team of Philadelphians in England in 1884; H. P. Baily in 1897 was occasionally deadly, and whenever the Parson could be persuaded not to pattern himself on King, he was a useful change. A touring team in England needs two fast and two slow bowlers, and in addition batsmen who can take wickets on their day. T h e n too a touring team should be a good fielding team—a side which gets runs by saving them. It is mortifying to recall the matches we lost in 1897 and 1903, when a muffed catch threw away games the fates could not restore. Much practice in fielding ought to be a part of the preparation of every American side that plans to play in England.

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A last comment on the tour of 1903. We left behind in England a host of friends and well-wishers. T h i s warm feeling came about because we played fairly and generously, and were always ready to go on with an exhibition match if a game had ended early and spectators were likely to be disappointed. Cricket has always been the sport which best draws people together. It draws a team together, and it draws players and their opponents together. T h a t is the thing which makes a cricket tour in England one of the most delightful experiences that can befall a man, and at the same time supports him in the conviction that he is not merely on a spree. Cricket is unique among sports in this power to draw opponents together. I have always remembered those words Lord Alverstone said to me at the banquet given us at the Oval after we had beaten Surrey. He had just finished his labors on the Joint Board of Arbitration charged with fixing the southern boundaries of Alaska. "We settled this matter," said the Lord Chief Justice of England, "in the spirit of cricketers." T e a m s have been coming and going between England and America for nearly ninety years, and they have almost without exception generated respect and friendship. So that among the satisfactions which, for international cricketers, outlast the years, this knowledge that they have contributed to the solidarity of these two great nations is not the least. COMMENTS

ON

THE

1903

TOUR

By PERCY H . CLARK

I would hesitate to add anything to J o h n n i e Lester's account were it not that the success of the team was due in large measure to the harmonious manner in which all of its members pulled together; and for this our captain, J o h n Lester, deserves great credit. H e not only led the team as captain, b u t he led the batting—in the very first innings he made 96 against Cambridge, followed by 40 in the second innings. His greatest batting performance, however, was against Leicestershire. I will quote from the account of that game in the American Cricketer for September 13, 1903:

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During Sunday night heavy rain fell at Leicester, but the match began on Monday morning, when, on a drying wicket, the Americans made a useful score. For this they had chiefly to thank Dr. Lester, who, going in first wicket down, carried his bat for 126, after a stay at the wickets of three hours, during which he showed great skill all round the wicket. His innings, which is his best of the tour, was quite faultless. King helped him a little, but for the most part he towered above his companions. T h e first innings total was 200. Lester made 64 in the second innings out of a total of 287. Philadelphia won by 101 runs. Lester's batting average in first-class matches was 39.30, and for all matches 36.09. He was the mainstay of the batting. He was also second in the bowling averages for all matches, taking thirty-two wickets for 16.06 each. T h i s included one extraordinary performance against Gloucester on a very sticky wicket, when he took eleven wickets for 33 runs. He and Clark retired Gloucester in the second innings for 42 runs, and Philadelphia won by an innings and 26 runs. T h i s is the only innings in an international match I know of in which Bart King was in the field and not asked to bowl a ball. Lester bowled in twenty innings, and his bowling was a great asset throughout the trip. In batting averages only twelve Englishmen stood ahead of him. I would like to add a few words about some of the other games. T h e match against M. C. C. at Lord's was to me one of the most interesting I have ever played, perhaps because we had a bowler's wicket. It rained hard all the first day, and the ground was so wet on the morning of the second day that play was impossible before lunch. But before lunch on the third day the match was finished. T h i s early ending was because we were on a sticky wicket at Lord's, quite generally recognized as the most difficult wicket in the world. We faced the bowling of J . T . Hearne, medium to fast, with a deadly off-break, and Mead, medium to slow, breaking both ways. Sticky is exactly the word; a hard-hit grounder just would not go to the boundary. Mead was breaking so far that when he pitched on one side of the wicket, he broke clear across and missed on the other side. But despite the extensive use all

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batsmen made of their legs, not a single man on either side was out l.b.w. In the first innings Bosanquet, the top scorer for M. C. C., misshit a ball from King, which went high in the air and came down at square leg. King called "Mine," and making for it head in air, ran straight into one of the running batsmen. Both were knocked down, and though King scrambled up, he was too late for the catch, which might have changed the result of the game. In M. C. C.'s second innings a similar mishap occurred. Bart had slowed down in his pace, and several times a miss hit had fallen short of the slips. I was second man, close to short slip. Bart several times beckoned us closer until finally we were very near for fast bowling. T h e n the unpredictable King sent down a very fast one. It glanced from Warner's bat and hit Chris Morris at short slip on the shoulder. H e had no chance to close on the ball. Warner had only 8 at the time. T h e r e was one other incident, known, probably, only to me. In the first innings Bart bowled from the pavilion end, b u t before the second innings started we decided to change ends. T o the pavilion-end bowler the wind was coming from long leg; to the bowler at the other end it was coming from extra cover. A wind from extra cover helped Bart to curve in; a wind from long leg helped me to curve out. In M. C. C.'s second innings we had Marriot, Nichols, Bosanquet, T r o t t , and Bevington out with 20 on the scoreboard, and Wynyard not able to bat because of a smashed finger. Hartley then joined Warner. It was rumored that Ranji, who had expected to play against us b u t was down with lumbago, was offering even money in the clubhouse that Philadelphia would win. Hartley was blocking everything as the score rose r u n by run. Both batsmen covered the wickets entirely with their legs every time I sent down an off-break bowling over the wicket. Several times I considered bowling round the wicket, like T r u m b l e , so that the offbreak would have pitched on and prevented the batsman from playing me with his legs. I decided against it and we lost the game.

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Ever since I have wondered whether we might not have won it if I had made the change. Another comment on the game against Lancashire— It was a raw, cold day spitting with rain, and a strong wind blowing over Bart's left shoulder, just where he liked it. It was bitter in the slips stopping miss hits from his bowling. H e was a terror to sitters and tailenders; to Bart they were always "rabbits.'' T o w a r d the end of Lancashire's first innings when Bart had nine wickets, a small batsman came on the field dragging his bat behind him. It was Worsley being tried out as a wicket-keeper, and playing his first game in first-class cricket. He proved to be a good wicketkeeper, and played regularly for Lancashire for a number of years. Bart took a look at him and said, "Boys, look what's coming! A rabbit and I hate to take the money." Worsley took his block and then Bart walked far afield for his first ball. Coming in swinging arms in air, he delivered a very fast yorker. Worsley stopped it without effort. Bart cast a look of wonder upon him and repeated. Worsley played the ball to Fred Sharpless at cover, and Radcliffe, the other batsman, shouted " C o m e o n ! " Worsley yelled " G o b a c k ! " then, seeing a chance, " C o m e o n ! " T h e batsmen met in mid-wicket. Freddy threw to Bart, and both batsmen tore to his end and were safe. Bart, taking no chances, and seeing a great vacancy at the other end of the pitch, ran down the wicket ball in hand, pursued closely by both batsmen. He put down the wicket and appealed. Neither batsman had crossed the popping crease. W h o was out? T h e umpire said Worsley. Amid a roar of laughter from the rest of us, Bart threw down the ball—"just my luck." For once Bart had missed his rabbit. W h a t a difference it made when King had to stand out of the Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Hampshire matches, with Lester out of the Worcester game! W e lost all three; two out of the three centuries against us on this tour were made by Hill and Llewellyn for Hampshire. T h e absence of King threw a tremendous additional burden on the other bowlers. During the three days when we were in the field against Hampshire and Worcestershire I bowled over 600 balls.

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I was walking to the clubhouse after the close of play at Southampton with good old Jim Phillips, the umpire. "Mr. Clark," said Jim, "is your father a clergyman?" "No, Jim; why?" "I never saw a man bowl in such hard luck without cussing." What Jim had in mind was that when Hill was batting, he seemed very much at home except for one blind spot. Every time I bowled him an off-break just outside his off-peg he missed it. It seemed to me I had taken the varnish off that wicket at least twenty times and tried again and again to make the ball turn a little more, but without success. Finally something clicked. Carrick Jordan caught the ball and I appealed for a catch. "Not out," said Jim. At the end of the over I said to him, "Jim, I certainly thought I heard that ball hit the bat." "No, sir," said Jim, "it hit the wicket." I then asked Jordan about it: "Yes," said Carrick, "he didn't hit the ball. T h e ball hit the wicket hard enough to lift the bail from the groove. But it didn't drop, and I put it back in its place." In the case of Llewellyn I bowled him a yorker which hit the back of the block hole and popped straight u p in the air just over the top of the middle peg. These two batsmen must have made about 200 runs after what I have recorded. Altogether we lost six games during the tour. W h e n both King and Lester played we lost only three. T h e absence of these two men was irreparable. A last word about the fielding. We had great difficulty in finding the right man to play at short slip. This man had to make the catches and to shag the miss hits on the leg side. Finally Huck Haines took this position, and with Squire Graves as second man and Bart and me alternating at third for each other, I think this situation was pretty well taken care of. On the whole the fielding during the tour was reasonably good. T h o u g h there were two or three soft spots in our defense, we had in Haines, Bates, Morris, King, and Graves fielders of the top rank. As in 1897, when our defense cracked, it tended to cave in. T h e averages of the 1903 XI follow:

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BATTING AVERAGES-ALL MATCHES Total Most in No. of Times inns. not out runs an inns. •126 25 794 3 t j . A. Lester (capt.) . . . . 28 107 Ν. Z. Graves 2 791 24 1 653 •113 t j . B. King 26 0 720 93 f F . H. Bohlen 1 411 164 C. C. Morris 22 F. C. Sharpless 20 1 54 349 24 358 50 | A . M. Wood 2 354 27 4 67 | P . H. Clark 22 2 219 55 | Ε . M. Cregar T . C. Jordan 19 22 9 99 • • R . D. Brown 1 34 15 137 11 P. N. LeRoy 2 87 25 11 f F . H. Bates I 70 24 H. A. Haines 16 86 •20 3 t j . H. Scattergood 7 2 5 12

Aver. 36.09 30.42 28.39 27.69 19.57 18.36 16.72 15.39 10.95 9.90 9.78 9.66 7.00 6.61 2.40

• Signifies not out. · · Visited England in 1889. f Visited England in 1897. B A T T I N G AVERAGES-FIRST-CLASS MATCHES J. A. Lester (capt.) 23 3 786 «126 J. B. King 22 I 614 · 113 F. H. Bohlen 24 0 639 93 Ν. Ζ. Graves 26 2 589 ·103 C. C. Morris 20 1 395 164 F. C. Sharpless 18 1 323 54 A. M. Wood 23 2 358 50 P. H. Clark 25 4 333 67 Ε. M. Cregar 20 2 209 55 R. D. Brown 15 1 137 34 T . C. Jordan 16 7 87 22 P. N. LeRoy 10 2 62 18 F. H. Bates 11 1 70 24 H. A. Haines 13 1 78 «20 J. H. Scattergood 7 2 12 5

39.30 29.23 26.62 24.54 20.78 19.00 17.04 15.55 11.61 9.78 9.66 7.75 7.00 6.50 2.40

• Signifies not out. " C E N T U R I E S " For (5) Ν. Z. Graves—vs. Lancashire, July 6 Ν. Z. Graves—vs. Scottish Eleven, August 10 J. B. King—vs. Surrey, August 6 J. A. Lester—vs. Leicestershire, August 3 C. C. Morris—vs. Notts, J u n e 18 • Signifies not out. " C E N T U R I E S " Against (3) Hayward—Surrey vs. Philadelphia, August 6 A. J. L. Hill—Hampshire vs. Philadelphia, July 16 Llewellyn—Hampshire vs. Philadelphia, July 16 • Signifies not out.

· ]03 107 *1I3 * 126 164

· 156 121 »136

The English

Tour of 1903

BOWLING AVERAGES-ALL MATCHES Inns. Ο. M. R. J . B. King 25 523 133 1387 J . A. Lester (capt.) 24 211.5 54 514 l>. H. Clark 30 570.2 95 1743 Ε. M. Cregar 21 172.4 20 626 P. N. LeRoy 9 66.3 10 265 F. C. Sharpless 14 84.5 17 198 Ν. Z. Graves 3 9 0 45 H. A. Haines 3 7 0 45 F. H. Bates 5 19 5 66 T h e following bowled in (2-0-8-0), and R . D. Brown Wides—Clark, 14; Cregar, No-balls—King, 5; Clark,

205 W. 93 32 85 26 8 5 1 0 0

Aver. 14.91

16.06

20.50 24.07 33.12 39.60 45.00

one innings only: T . C. Jordan (3-0-17-0), F. H. Bohlen (1-0-2-0). 8; King, 6; Sharpless. 4; Bates, 1; Haines, 1. 4.

BOWLING AVERAGES-FIRST-CLASS Inns. Ο. M. J . B . King 21 451.S 106 P. H. Clark 26 520.2 83 J . A. Lester 20 188.2 31 Ε. M. Cregar 18 164.4 17 P. N. LeRoy 8 63.3 9 F. C. Sharpless 13 79.5 14 Ν. Z. Graves 3 9 0 H. A. Haines 3 7 0 F. H. Bates 5 19 5

MATCHES R. 1253 1633 448 604 254 196 45 45 66

W. 78 79 21 25 8 5 1 0 0

R . D. Brown (1-0-2-0). Bowled only once. Wides—Clark, 11; Cregar, 8; King, 4; Sharpless, 4; Bates, 1; Haines, 1. No-balls-King, 5; Clark, 4.

Aver. 16.06 20.67 21.33 23.23 31.75 39.20 45.00

CHAPTER

On the Plateau,

XIV

igo^-igo8

of importance for Philadelphia cricket took place in / A Edinburgh on the evening before the last game of our X A - tour, the match against Scotland. T h i s was the formation of the club known as T h e Philadelphia Pilgrims. T h e membership was to be drawn from those players who had represented Philadelphia in international matches played abroad, or at home against teams from Great Britain or Australia. T h e club was to consist of those cricketers who, in the opinion of the committee, had earned their right to represent Philadelphia in such cricket; and it was the hope of the founders that the organization might encourage the game by electing to honorary membership leading cricketers in other parts of the United States and in Canada, and by sending Pilgrim teams on cricket tours. T h o u g h George Patterson was not present, he was nonetheless unanimously elected president of a club of which he had not yet heard even the name. Percy Clark was chosen as secretary. On our return, the club met in October at Manheim, with every member but one present. For years it continued to perform the function for which it was founded. T o u r s were made into Canada and elsewhere; the eleven picking u p here and there cricketers who had been elected honorary members. Percy Clark and Christy Morris have kept the Pilgrims alive to the present day. It has proved to be the most persistently cohesive body of cricketers that Philadelphia has known; a single qualification unites us; and I N

EVENT

206

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though the struggles we engaged in were on various fields, they were for a common cause. A generation after international cricket ceased in Philadelphia there are some forty of us left. While the team was in England, A. W. Jones had been scoring so consistently at home that he won the Childs Cup for the year. And with Ring and Clark safely beyond seas, Parson Baily broke from hiding to take thirty-one wickets and to win the bowling cup, which, strange to say, he had never done in the years when hair grew on his head. T h e only English county that ever brought its team to play in Philadelphia was Kent, in the autumn of 1903. In C. J . Burnup the captain, E. W. Dillon, K. L. Hutchings, J . R. Mason, and the professional, Seymour, they had five fine batsmen; and in Fielder and Blythe they had one of the best fast bowlers, and one of the finest slow left-hand bowlers in England. Alec Hearne was one of the best all-round professionals. They played first against eighteen Colts, with Carrick Jordan as captain on a rather difficult wicket at Manheim, and beat them by seven wickets, mainly owing to a good innings by Seymour. The youngsters could do little with Fielder, Hearne, Mason, and Blythe. T h e best performance for the Colts was Frank White's 35 out of 117; Frank was at the wickets nearly two hours, and his batting won him a place in the second of the two test matches. Willard Graham's seven for 32 in the Englishmen's first innings was the best feat of bowling done by the youngsters. Both of the test matches were won by Kent, and each by seven wickets. In the first, at Wissahickon, on a wicket inclined to be fiery, the Philadelphians were in a fairly good position until Kent's final innings. Owing to good innings by King and by Lester with 93 not out, and to some remarkable bowling by King in Kent's first innings, in which he took seven for 39, we had set them 190 runs to win on a wicket that was playing none too surely. But Burnup and Mason got together after we had three wickets down for very reasonable scores, and hit off the runs, Burnup's innings of 94 not out being the best innings of the series of games. In none of them did a side score 200 runs in an innings; this was because the wickets throughout favored fast bowling kept

On the

Plateau

209

short. Both at Wissahickon and at Haverford, where the second test match was played, the ball was rising sharply; Huish, the Kent wicket-keeper, caught six and stumped one in the two games; Jordan caught four in the first match, and was unfortunately kept out of the second by business. Dillon's 64 was the best innings played in the second match, and the fast bowlers, Fielder, King, and Cregar, were naturally the most successful. Noticeable in the spring of 1904 was the amount of cricket played in the schools. Seven schools, including Drexel Institute, were associated in the Interscholastic League, and a little later the Interacademic League, a body of ten private schools of which Germantown Academy was the original nucleus, played forty-five matches. For a while competition was keen in the Interscholastic League for the right to claim the Merion Cup, a trophy presented by that good friend of cricket, A. J. Cassatt. Early in J u n e another eleven representing Haverford College embarked for England to play a series of matches with the English Public Schools, this time under the captaincy of C. C. Morris. This, the most successful of the six Haverford tours in England, is noticed in a preceding chapter. On their return they played a match with the Pilgrims at Haverford, and were defeated mainly by King, with his 126 not out. An early century of 1904 was John Evans' 112 for Merion against the bowling of King, Graham, and Cregar, another was by A. M. Wood for Belmont against Frankford. In default of any visiting team from abroad, the annual match with Canada, this year played at Haverford in July, attracted a good deal of attention. T . S. C. Saunders, a brother of the great Canadian, "Dyce" Saunders, played a good innings of 61, but the Philadelphians won by seven wickets. Nine of the home side scored double figures; Phil LeRoy, who was in great form this year, played a good innings of 77, and H. A. Haines hit out well for his 69. R. H. Patton, who had been chosen when Baily found it impossible to play, was a young cricketer of bright promise—an all-round player who occasionally scored rapidly, and bowled right-hand off-breaks with considerable speed and an easy action. Patton took four Canadian wickets for 39 in the first innings.

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There was a grand four-day festival at Manheim in October to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Germantown Club. In a match between twenty-eight veterans captained by William Rotch Wister and twenty-eight more under George M. Newhall, some of us newcomers on the scene had our first sight of the great men of old in action. As the American Cricketer noticed, "Every batter surprised his fellows in one way or another." Many of them had not handled a bat since the Civil War, but each took his mannerisms to the wicket. There was John Samuel, a veteran of the forties, and the beloved Henry Cope, whose monument is Haverford cricket, bustling around with the batting order. Nothing but underhand bowling was allowed; but the old trundlers were at it again—Dan and Charlie Newhall, Vernou, Hopkinson, and Jones Wister. There was a happy throng at the ladies's reception in their clubhouse in the afternoon, and a memorable banquet with William Rotch Wister presiding in the evening. It was even more inspiring next day to see George Bromhead squaring off for his photograph in the middle of thirty-seven juniors, his young friends and pupils. The youngsters were now going to have their own match, the picked twelve—which included four future internationals, against the next twenty-five. Stanley Pearson made 22 out of his side's total of 47—enough to win the game. The last two days of the festival were devoted to an interclub match between Philadelphia-Germantown and Belmont-Merion. Several of the Belmont players chosen were not able to participate, so that with the exception of King, the entire Belmont-Merion eleven was from the latter club. Even so, the match would have been a close one but for a remarkable innings by LeRoy. This player had come on rapidly since he played with the 1903 team in England. As he was scoring his 168 not out—an innings with no blemish until he had reached 140—1 was impressed with LeRoy's growth in judgment and restraint, without any loss in sustained power. It was impossible that day to entice him into a miss hit. Phil's innings accounted for about half of the Philadelphia-Germantown total, to which Belmont-Merion could reply with only 184, A. P. Morris and Lester being the chief contribu-

Οτι the

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tors. In the second incompleted innings of Belmont-Merion, P. H. Clark did an extraordinary bowling feat, taking six wickets for 8 runs. The year closed with King winning both the batting cup and the bowling cup, a feat never accomplished before since the awards were first made in 1880, except by George Patterson in 1890, and by King himself in 1902. The early summer of 1905 found an eleven representing the Hamilton Club of Bermuda playing in Philadelphia. T h e team included J. R. Conyers and B. Kortlang, an Australian, both fine batsmen. Their bowling, however, was not quite strong enough for a touring team, and some big scores were made against them. Hamilton had the best of a draw with Germantown, and much the worst of a draw with Belmont, for whom Bart King scored 150. Merion beat them by ten wickets, owing to good bowling by Baily and A. P. Morris, and Lester's 134 not out; then a combined Philadelphia team beat them by an innings and 1 run. Midsummer found Graves in good form with a 135 for Germantown against Frankford; Willard Graham made a fine 111 for Belmont against Frankford, and W. N. Morice, an excellent 103 not out for Merion against the same club. T h e year also saw J. A. Lester, playing his first full season in the Halifax Cup, in a scoring mood which yielded six centuries during the season. But the most remarkable innings of the year was King's 315 out of 572 for Belmont against Germantown B. We had the unusual pleasure of having an M. C. C. XI playing three games in Philadelphia during the month of July. It was not so well-balanced a side as Kent had brought over in 1903; and going on into Canada for August, where they won four of the five games played, they got a scare from the Ottawa XI, which, because of a fine piece of bowling by that grand sportsman, Hal McGiverin, led them by 49 runs in the first innings. T h e fifth Canadian match was drawn, and the M. C. C. team left for England with only one defeat, suffered in the last test match in Philadelphia. The English side had batting strength in the captain, E. W. Mann, H. J. Wyld, L. J. Moon, and M. W. Payne; and two excellent bowlers in K. O. Hunter and H. C. McDonell, with his

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shrewdly bowled leg-breaks. T h e r e was rain on the first day of the opening match, and the home side was dismissed for 108, Hunter taking five for 21. After a moderate score of 181 by the Englishmen, we were out again for 155, this time before McDonell, and lost the game by seven wickets. In a match that was interrupted by rain, the M. C. C. next took on seventeen Colts, with their regular captain, Sydney Young, at Wissahickon. C. M. Graham, going in first for the youngsters, played a fine innings of 51 out of a total of 224. T h e Englishmen were out for 116 in their first innings, and had six wickets down in their second innings for 110. Priestman was evidently put on too late in M. C. C.'s first innings, in which he took four wickets for 12 runs. T h e last match, played at Haverford, was a fine contest, with interest running high up to the finish. In this game Wood was played in place of Cregar, and, for a left-hand bowler, Willard Graham instead of O'Neill. Bart King, with a fine innings of 83, aided by C. C. Morris with a 55 not out, gave us a reasonable start with a total of 212. Wyld and the captain were the chief contributors to the English total of 244. In our second innings Morris batted well for the second time for 44, and Lester made 101, this setting the Englishmen 212 to win. T h e wicket was giving our bowlers considerable assistance, and with Lester taking seven for 33, we pulled off the victory by 61 runs. T h e Philadelphians were not able to take a representative eleven to play against Canada and Toronto, and though they had King, LeRoy, and Morris, they were beaten by a fine eleven from the Dominion by an innings and 29 runs. T h e y were successful, however, against Eastern Canada at Ottawa by two wickets. T h e r e had been a close race this year in the Halifax Cup competition, and late in September the deciding game was played between Merion and Belmont, \vho were tied in the contest. Those who came to see a closely fought match were disappointed. King and Cregar were in fettle, and bowled out a good Merion side for 56 runs. This year the batting cup fell to J . A. Lester, and for the fourth time in five years the Childs Cup for bowling was won by J . B. King. At a boisterous victory dinner held at the Belmont

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Club, the winning of the Halifax Cup and Bart's individual honors were duly celebrated. Fitting recognition was given to the marked recent development of Mervyn Graham, the young batsman who was third in the Belmont averages, and Bart received a loving cup from his teammates with blushing modesty. The American Cricketer had now developed into a periodical of twenty-four pages, and had increasingly become the source of current news of other seasonal outdoor sports. During the winter season considerably less than half of its space was devoted to cricket, and during the height of the cricket season rather less than half was given to tennis, golf, and rowing. T h e beginning of the 1906 cricket season was marked by a surprising defeat of Haverford College by Cornell, for whom E. J. Gregson played a beautiful innings of 118 not out, and did some useful bowling, and by a brief Canadian tour by an eleven of the University of Pennsylvania. T h e mainstay of the team, which won two and lost two, was Lothrop Lee, who scored 125 not out against the Rosedale Rovers, and did some good bowling. His batting average for the tour was 67, and his bowling average 6.5. July was marked by an innings of 344 by King in a Halifax Cup match at Elmwood against Merion B. This score stands as a record for the United States and Canada. Bart, with Donald Graham, 92, accounted for 436 of Belmont's total of 553, no other man scoring more than 16. Though Bart scored at a great pace, and made at one time 133 out of 157, he played many finer innings than this one, for the bowling was not strong and he was missed four times. T h e annual match with Canada was played at Manheim in July, against a visiting team that unfortunately was far from representative. King, Bohlen, LeRoy, and Lester made most of our first innings total of 274, and then the Canadians were put out twice for scores of 90 and 62. Bart, with eight for 17, did deadly execution in the Canadian second innings. In the absence of any eleven from overseas, the old intercity game with New York was revived; a representative eleven captained by Dan Newhall journeyed to Staten Island, and in a low-scoring game defeated the New Yorkers rather easily. T h e game was remarkable for the work of the brilliant young wicket-keeper, C. H. Winter, who was to

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contribute so much to the effectiveness of Hordern on the University of Pennsylvania tour of England in 1907. Winter stumped four batsmen, most of them from the bowling of Lester, who took six wickets for 19. In this year there arrived from Australia one who in a dispatch from Sydney was described as "a leg-break bowler of a type rarely seen." Before arriving to take up his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Η. V. Hordern had been experimenting with the googly, and some of his early exhibitions of it made us think that this description was meant to be sardonic. Warner writes that when Bosanquet was at last trying his googlies at 22 yards, one would occasionally start out toward point, and some of them would bounce twice before they reached the wicket. Bert Hordern has been known to bounce three times. But this was in the earlier days that are described whimsically enough in his book entitled Googlies. It is enough to say here that he was the first Philadelphian, with the possible exception of C. C. Morris, who bowled a googly in America, and in the next two years with the Philadelphians, and later with the Australians, he rose to be one of the acknowledged experts in this style of bowling. In the slack season of August the Pilgrims set out to play in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. We were by no means representative of the full strength of Philadelphia, and except for Percy Clark had no first-class bowler on the side. And yet, for three reasons this tour stands out in memory as one of sheer delight. First, our official captain, and occasionally our playing captain, was the veteran George M. Newhall. One had to travel with him and play under him to know the great qualities of the men who made Philadelphia cricket, and it was a grand sight to see G. M. opening against East Canada with his young nephew W. P. T h e n we had a glimpse of the top level of Canadian cricket when Dyce Saunders played his great innings of 109 against us in the second match at Toronto. And again, we saw Bill Lowry renewing his youth in Montreal. T h e r e was a strong breeze blowing straight down the wicket, and seeing that we had plenty of runs in hand, Lowry was persuaded to go on against it. T h e bowling analysis of this game has been lost, and that is greatly to be deplored, because

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Bill got the side out for 64 and took nine wickets. When Lowry was in England the cricket writers kept referring to the effectiveness of his change of pace to a slower ball, coming perhaps once in two overs. They called it his "flighty" ball; and here he was again after twenty years hanging it up in the wind that blew full in his face from Mount Royal, with an action that recalled that of F. G. Bull bowling for Warner's team in 1897. You could see the batsman's stroke, beginning, ending; the bat in air, and then the wicket falling. One regrets now that we did not then seek out the secret from the little left-handed magician. There could be no underspin, the delivery was too high; there was no wrist action such as a baseball pitcher uses for his "jump ball." There was no drag on the arm; Bill brought it over rather more briskly for his floater; the arm action alone meant a faster rather than a slower ball. A good guess is that Bill's slow killer was bowled from the first and third fingers and the thumb, with the second finger lifted clear of the ball. In September there was an interesting international match played with the Corinthians, the association football team which was touring Canada and the United States in the autumn. T h e team opposed to them was an eleven of Philadelphia "football cricketers." It was a genuine side except for J. B. King, who somehow wormed his way in. T h e Corinthians had the best of a drawn game, exactly half of their runs coming from Sam Day, whose bat had won for Malvern ten years before against Haverford College. Germantown stood at the head of each of the two divisions of the Halifax Cup competition, and the curtain was rung down with the play-off match between Germantown A and Germantown B. It was Pete O'Neill's bowling—seven for 43 in the first innings and five for 67 in the second—that turned the scales in favor of Team A. For 1906, therefore, Germantown won the Halifax Cup; King won the batting cup for the third time, and Lester won the bowling cup. Early in 1907 a batting cup was presented to the Associated Cricket Clubs, to be competed for by boys under fifteen years of age. This incentive seems to have been a stimulus to the youngsters, and the cup was won appropriately by the son of the donor,

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A. A. Hirst, Jr. Tony Hirst had made a century at the age of twelve. A lad gifted with bright intelligence, rare coordination of eye and body, he had resolutely disciplined himself so as to acquire the skills needed by the good batsman. Tony was a decoration to our cricket while he lived, and his early death was mourned as a personal loss by all of us who knew him. There was some heavy scoring in May and June, centuries being recorded for J . B. King, W. H. Sayen, H. W. Middleton, and H. C. Thayer before June 11. Frank White scored a fine 90 against Frankford, and H. P. Baily was still taking wickets. Lester was unfortunately not able to play cricket during this year but Ν. Z. Graves, who had been in a sort of temporary retirement, was out of his shell again, and making runs. T h e year 1907 was made memorable by the most successful cricket tour ever made by an American eleven in England. T h e well-balanced eleven of the University of Pennsylvania, playing the best of the public schools, lost only two of the fourteen games played. T h e tour is noticed more fully in the chapter devoted to school and college cricket. T h e match with Canada was this year played in Toronto early in August between two sides neither of which was representative. In fact the Canadian captain did not know the abilities of his own men. Black, who took seven wickets for 46 in the Philadelp h i a ' s second innings, had not been used at all in the first. If he had been tried earlier, the Canadians might well have won a game that they lost by 80 runs, mainly because of LeRoy's seven wickets for 31 in the first innings, and Cregar's seven for 62 in the second. J . P. Dornan, a rising young understudy for Winter, kept wicket in good style. Another promising young player who was making his mark in Associated Cricket Club competition was H. G. Pearce. He ;vas a bowler who reminded one of Jones the Australian, with good shoulders, a tear-away style and great speed. He took six wickets for 19 for Merion against Moorestown, and four for 7 against Frankford. For the first time in our history the international matches in September against the visiting M.C.C. eleven were spoiled by

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weather. Rain caused both test matches to be left uncompleted, and in the only finished game the Colts were beaten by an innings and 173 runs. T h e American Cricketer was much disturbed by their defeat; their cricket was "feeble in the extreme; the Colts' match is indeed a mistake." T h e writer recommends its discontinuance, and the substitution of a match against the next fifteen players after the selections for the test matches had been made. Except for the writer's strictures on the Colts' fielding, which seems to have been thoroughly bad, the criticism was too severe. It was Simpson-Hayward who wrecked the youngsters; he took thirteen wickets in the second innings for 33; but SimpsonHayward was a bad dose for one who had never batted against a lob bowler. Later he got out King and LeRoy for 9 runs apiece. None of Mann's M.C.C. eleven of 1905 revisited us with Hesketh-Prichard's XI of 1907, and this was a considerably stronger team. In K. O. Goldie, L. P. Collins, G. T . Branston, and Captain E. G. Wynyard the 1907 eleven had conspicuous scoring strength; and in R. O. Schwarz and G. H. Simpson-Hayward they had two bowlers more formidable to batsmen who had not met them before than any on the 1905 eleven. As change bowlers there were Hesketh-Prichard himself, and S. J. Snooke, the South African. T h e first match was rained out on the third day, after the M.C.C. had scored 162 in their first innings and the home team, 157. Branston for the Englishmen was top scorer with 63; Wood with 40 and Bohlen with 36 not out did the best batting for us. O u r most successful bowler was Hordern, with five for 41. In the match against sixteen Colts and their adult captain at St. Martins, K. O. Goldie scored 147 out of the M.C.C. total of 329, an innings marred, according to the reporters, by at least a dozen chances. T h e Colts failed before Hesketh-Prichard and Simpson-Hayward, and were all out for 86 and 70. T h e only redeeming feature of the game was the wicket-keeping of C. H. Winter. Play in the second test match at Haverford was postponed by rain, and interrupted after cricket was possible, so that by agreement the match was continued on the fourth day u p to one o'clock. This extension was almost enough to see the game finished, for the

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Philadelphians had nine of their wickets down for 60 when time ran out, leaving us 59 runs behind with the last men in. T h e chief scorers for the M. C. C. were Simpson-Hayward in the first innings and Schwarz in the second; for us Bohlen and Morris accounted for about half of our first innings total of 227, which gave us a 5-run lead on the first innings. With only 120 to win, our batsmen failed before Hesketh-Prichard in our second venture; Frank White and Jordan were the men who averted defeat. White's 8 not out was a plucky innings. One of Simpson-Hayward's dropping full tosses struck him on the head, opening a nasty gash, but Frank had it bandaged and went back for more. Hordern, with four for 68 and five for 38, bowled best for us. Hesketh-Prichard took seven for 20 and did the hat trick in our second innings. A noticeable feat of bowling was done by P. H. Clark in September, when the fast bowler took eight Belmont wickets for 25; and the work of young A. L. Baily, Jr., stood out in the Radnor Cup competition. He scored 133 against Philadelphia; averaged 51.30 in batting, and took fifty-three wickets at an average cost of 7.64 runs. T h e 1907 bowling of Η. V. Hordern set a record for the United States and Canada. In this year he took 213 wickets, being the first American player to secure more than 200 wickets in a season. T h e early months of 1908 saw a Philadelphia team playing in Bermuda. Though they lost their first match, they won from All Bermuda mainly through the bowling of Hordern, who took seven for 25 and six for 37. In one of the first games of the early summer the same bowler performed an extraordinary feat for the University of Pennsylvania against Radnor, taking all ten wickets for 8 runs, eight of them clean bowled. Germantown Academy, the cradle of Philadelphia school cricket, was still maintaining its traditions. T h e school which had won the Interscholastic and Interacademic championship in 1907, and had not lost a game during that year, was in the field again with a good side. As the title of this chapter indicates, Philadelphia cricket between 1903 and 1908 seems to have flourished from the momentum of the past. While it is clear that the clubs were finding greater

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difficulty in persuading young boys to endure the discipline of practice and training, still there was excellent competition among the juniors for the Radnor Cup, and the interest in school cricket was fairly well maintained. And one of the most brilliant exploits in the history of Philadelphia cricket was to come next year, when J. B. King headed the English bowling averages as a result of his efforts for the Philadelphians during the tour of 1908, described by Chris Morris in the next chapter.

CHAPTER

XV

The Tour of England in igo8 By

Introductory

C . C . MORRIS

Note by John A.

Lester

HE author of this chapter had a longer career in international cricket than any other American, and while this is being written, is getting ready to play against Haverford College on Commencement Day for the Alumni. He was gifted with a good eye, shifty feet, and a very safe pair of hands in any position in the field. O n e of the first of our native-born cricketers to experiment with the googly, he got many wickets with flighty slow bowling toward the end of his active career. But it was as a batsman that he made his mark. H e was willing to take his risks, and so long as he was in, runs were coming. Christy was one of the very few Philadelphia cricketers who scored a century while still a schoolboy, and he holds two very enviable records. One was the 147 not out with which he saved the game in the second innings at Winchester for Haverford College in 1904. T h i s was the highest individual score compiled in any of the seven tours made by American colleges to play the English public schools. T h e other was his 164 against Nottingham in 1903—the highest individual score ever made by a Philadelphian against first-class county bowling. *

*

*

220

*

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In the American Cricketer of November 1906 there is an item stating "It is by no means certain that the Gentlemen of Philadelphia will visit England next season." T h e South Africans were planning to play in England that year, so the visit of the Philadelphians was put off until 1908. Early in the year the Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia chose twelve men for the forthcoming tour. T w o of them, G. S. Patterson and P. H. Clark, had to decline and their absence proved a great loss to the team. However, of the original selection the following ten accepted: F. H. Bohlen, Τ . C. Jordan, F. S. White, and Ν. Z. Graves of Germantown; J. B. King and A. M. Wood of Belmont; J. A. Lester and C. C. Morris of Merion; C. H. Winter of Frankford; and Η. V. Hordern of the University of Pennsylvania. Later, F. A. Greene and W. P. Newhall of Germantown; Ε. M. Cregar of Belmont; D. H. Adams and W. H. Sayen of Merion were included. Sayen, the Merion fast bowler, had the exceptional experience during a slack period of this tour of playing on loan for the Gentlemen of England, in a game against Cambridge University at Eastbourne. Henry scored 23 and took two Cambridge wickets for 44 in their first innings. T h e day the team left Philadelphia, June 20th, 1908, local papers predicted thunder showers, and this proved to be a portentous omen, for Jupiter Pluvius harassed and annoyed the Philadelphians throughout the entire tour. In fact, one game, that at Folkestone, was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Wisden's Almanac mentions that the Philadelphians were plagued by the weather and by wet pitches generally throughout their trip. This proved a very great handicap as Philadelphians have never been at home on soft wickets. T h e above-mentioned players with the exception of F. H. Bohlen and C. C. Morris, who were already on the other side, sailed on the "R. M. S. Umbria" from New York. Upon landing at Liverpool the team proceeded to London and registered for a few days at the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square. T h e M. C. C., with their usual and unfailing hospitality, gave us the privilege of practicing at Lord's. Later, most of our time in London, we stayed at the Victoria Hotel.

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The first game was at Cardiff against South Wales. J . A. Lester, who was captain of the team, won the toss, and batting first, we made a very poor showing against Creber, slow left-hand, and Nash, medium pace, on a wicket damaged by rain. Five of the team reached double figures, led by Graves, who managed to secure 30 runs, giving us a meagre total of 108. When South Wales batted they scored 192, Silverlock obtaining 61, Bancroft 36, Penfield 20, and Nash 20. On our second attempt we recovered some lost ground and made 257, of which Wood got 60, Morris 62, Bohlen 30, Hordern 29, and White 23. In South Wales' second innings Silverlock made 64 but no others helped to any extent, and Philadelphia won by 36 runs. T h e bowling of Creber and Nash was very good. T h e former took twelve wickets for 152 runs and the latter six wickets for 104 runs. On our part, King got twelve wickets for 94 runs, Hordern eight for 155, and Greene three for 26. Rain more than once interfered with the progress of the game. The second match was played with Worcestershire at Worcester and, as at Cardiff, rain delayed play on more than one occasion. We batted first and made 138, of which White scored 38, Graves 25, Hordern 23 not out, and Morris 17. Worcestershire then went in and made 192, Η. K. Foster, the eldest of that famous family of cricketers, making 56, Burns 53, and Pearson 20. In our second innings we scored the respectable total of 278 runs, thanks being due to Wood, who made 132 in about three hours and a half without a chance. He hit a six and nineteen fours. He was ably assisted by White with 43, King 29, and Bohlen 25. On Worcester's second attempt King and Hordern were in fine form and, supported by splendid fielding, had nine of them out for 66 runs; then Hunt got 40 not out and Bird 20, to carry the score to 129. In this match King took eight wickets for 88 runs and Hordern eleven for 108 and we won by nearly 100 runs. As the last wicket fell rain came down in torrents and not another ball could have been bowled. The third game was played at Southampton against Hampshire. For some reason or other our fielding was atrocious, as it had been in the 1903 tour against this same county and on the same grounds.

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Hampshire won the toss and made 463 runs, batting all day, the last wicket falling as stumps were drawn. For this large total Bowell made 160, W. N. White 87, A. J. L. Hill 66, Llewellyn 50, and Bignell 40. Bowell was missed when he had 14 and again at 63 and at 83. Llewellyn was missed at 17 and White was dropped three times. On the next day, owing to rain, there was no play until about one o'clock and with only 27 runs scored the play was delayed again by the elements. However, the Philadelphians batted rather well on a wet wicket and scored 275 runs, with the aid of Graves 76, Morris 74, King 52, and Sayen 29. Graves was missed three times. Philadelphia had to follow-on and made a rather poor showing, scoring but 152, of which Graves scored 32, making eight slashing fours along the carpet, past point and cover-point, all characteristic of Squeer at his best. King made 25, Wood 25, and Hordern 23, and we were beaten by an innings and 36 runs. T h e bowling of Kennedy for Hampshire in both innings was admirable and he took nine wickets for 107 runs. In the second innings Morris was caught in his first over on the leg side, the ball lodging in the wicket-keeper's pads. T h e next match was to be against Folkestone C. C. on their beautiful seaside grounds, but rain prevented a single ball being bowled. At the Hotel Metropole the second evening, a large and sumptuous dinner was given in our honor. Lord Harris presided and conducted affairs in a most acceptable and happy manner. Several speeches were made. After dinner J. B. King entertained Lord Harris, E. G. Wynyard, F. H. Browning, Lester, Bohlen, and Morris with his impossible anecdotes. T h e next day several of the team crossed over to Boulogne and had a very unprofitable time with les petits chevaux. In the evening we were guests of a local theatre and saw an interesting play, " T h e Mollusc." T h e next match was against Middlesex at Lord's, and Wisden states that "so complete a mastery did the ball obtain over the bat that on a treacherous pitch this match was played out in one day, Middlesex winning by seven wickets." We batted first, Graves making 14 and Lester 13, being the only double figures in a score of 58. Middlesex, with a fairly strong side, especially in bowling.

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totaled only 92. On our second venture we made 55, Wood 13, Hordern 11, and Lester 10. This left Middlesex 24 runs to obtain, which they did with a loss of three wickets. Tarrant and Trott bowled unchanged throughout the match, the former taking ten wickets for 46 runs and the latter nine wickets for 59 runs. For us, King got six wickets for 30 runs and Lester three for 12. Besides their deadly bowling, Middlesex had to thank C. N. Bruce for a well played 30, and Tarrant for 28. Patsy Hendren, who later became so prominent in English cricket, was unfortunate in bagging a brace. This match is of special interest because here Tarrant and Trott twice got the Philadelphians out for a smaller score than any other eleven representative of Philadelphia ever made in first-class English cricket, with the exception of our 37 against Kent later on this tour. T h e lowest score we made on the tour of 1897 was 86 in our second innings at Old Trafford, against Briggs, Hallam, and Cuttle; the lowest score we made on the tour of 1903 was 65 in the first innings against M. C. C. at Lord's, again on a sticky wicket, and this time against J . T . Hearne, Mead, and Trott. But this year all we could do against Tarrant and Trott was 58 and 55, so that we may at least be thankful that Tarrant wasn't bowling against us in 1903. T h e full score follows: M I D D L E S E X v. P H I L A D E L P H I A N S Played at Lord's, July 20, 1908 Result: Middlesex won by ^ wickets. MIDDLESEX First Innings Second L. J . Moon, c. Hordern, b. King . . . . 1 not out Tarrant, c. Morris, b. Hordern 28 C. A. L. Payne, c. Winter, b. Hordern 1 Hon. C. N. Bruce, c. Morris, b. Lester S9 C. W. B. Magnay, l.b.w., b. King . . . 0 not out S. G. Etheridge, c. Wood, b. Lester . 8 Murrell, st. Winter, b. Lester 3 b. Green T r o t t (A. E.), not out 1 b. King Hendren, l.b.w., b. King 0 c. and b. King Mignon, l.b.w., b. King 0 Hearne (J. T.), absent 0 Byes, etc Byes, etc 11 Total

92

Innings

T o t a l (3 wickets)

3

9 10 0 0 2 24

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PHILADELPHIAS First Innings Second Innings b. Tarrant F. S. White, c. Murrell, b. TarTant . . 3 c. Tarrant, b. Trott J. B. King, b. Tanrant 6 b. Tarrant A. M. Wood, st. Murrell, b. Tarrant . 9 c. Moon, b. Tarrant Ν. Z. Graves, c. and b. Trott 14 l.b.w., b. Trott C. C. Morris, c. Hendren, b. Tarrant 2 l.b.w., b. Trott J. A. Lester, c. Payne, b. Trott 13 c. Moon, b. Tarrant F. Η. Bohlen, c. Payne, b. Tarrant .. 3 c. Mignon, b. Tarrant Η. V. Hordern, c. Murrell, b. Trott . 0 run out W. H. Sayen, Jr., b. Trott 0 not out F. A. Greene, b. Trott 0 b. Trott C. H. Winter, not out 0 Byes, etc Byes, etc 8 Total

58 BOWLING

First King Hordern Lester Sayen First Tarrant Trott

Innings Μ Ο 8 13.3 11 1 4 1 0 2 Innings Ο Μ 14 3 13.5 5

Total

W 4 2 3 0

W 5 5

Second

King . . Greene

Middlesex R 19 31

55

ANALYSIS

Philadelphians

R 19 42 12 8

0 7 13 1 I 10 9 11 0 I 2 0

Tarrant Trott

Second

Innings Ο Μ 3 0 3 0

R 11 11

W

Innings Ο Μ 14 6 13.1 2

R 27 28

W 5 4

2 1

T h e next day some of us went over to the Crystal Palace and played with the immortal W . G. Grace for London County C. C. T h e following evening Sir Arthur Priestley dined nine of us in the House of Commons. He had visited Philadelphia in 1899 with Prince Ranjitsinhji's famous X I . T h e following evening some of our old cricketing friends, E. W . Mann, L. J . Moon, H. J . Wyld, K. O. Hunter, and R . C. W. Burn, wined and dined several of us at the Gaiety Restaurant and then took us to the Empire Theatre; a very pleasant party. T h e next match was against T h e Royal Artillery, Woolwich, where for once the wicket was in very good condition, and in the two days of play 682 runs were scored, the game being drawn. T h e Royal Artillery batted first and Major Turner with 84, Captain Bond 57, and F. Brooks 45, were the principal contributors to the total of 252. Upon the Philadelphians going to bat, Lester was run out after a splendid 124, making fifteen fours. Hordern

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scored 55, White 37, and Adams and Sayen 26 each. O u r last wicket fell at 319 and we led T h e Royal Artillery by 67 runs. T h e latter batting again made 111 for two wickets, Captain Nuttall scoring 47 and F. Brooke 48 not out. T h e best bowling on our side was done by Lester, who took three wickets for 17 runs. Result—a draw. T h e n we journeyed to N o r t h a m p t o n for a game against Northamptonshire. T h e y were giving a trial to two new men for the county, Ellis, a wicket-keeper from Lancashire, and S. G. Smith, a West Indian from T r i n i d a d . W e batted first on a very p l u m b wicket b u t made only 166, W h i t e getting 41, Bohlen 38, Sayen 24, and Morris 20. Northamptonshire totaled only 152, of which T h o m p s o n made 32, Smith 23, and Kingston 22. In our second innings we fared rather poorly and made b u t 136, of which King scored 34, Lester 27, and Wood 20. T h i s left Northamptonshire 151 to get, which they did with a loss of five wickets, Smith obtaining 76 not out. King's bowling was not u p to his high standard, b u t he took six wickets for 102 runs, and H o r d e r n eight wickets for 83 runs. So Northamptonshire won rather handily. T h e match being over in two days, we had the third day off, and the Vice-President of the County Club, Mr. Wentworth Vernon, J. P., a descendant of a friend of George Washington after whom Mt. Vernon was named, kindly invited us all to his beautiful estate, Stoke Bruerne Park. T h i s involved a ten-mile drive in a brake through typical English lanes and byways. T h e r e we had lunch and later tea, and returned to N o r t h a m p t o n after a very pleasant day. T h e team then took train u p to L o n d o n and played Surrey at the Oval. T h e county had only a moderate side in the field but were qualifying an Australian named Marshall. T h e y batted first and made 210, Marshall and Hayes making 58 apiece. T h e Philadelphians on their first attempt made 234 runs, Bohlen 49, Graves 34, King 29, and Lester 24. Surrey batted the second time, and d u e to 103 by Marshall, 41 by Ducat, and a 30 by W. Davis made 251, leaving the Philadelphians 227 r u n s to win. In the first over of his fine innings, Marshall, facing King, survived a confident appeal for leg before wicket, made on a fast in-swinging full toss which struck his foot.

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In our second innings we made a mere 105 runs, of which Morris got 26 and White and Graves 17 each. O u r bowling was not too effective in this match, King obtaining nine wickets for 111 runs, Hordern three for 129, and Greene four for 112. Jordan's wicket-keeping was sensational. T o w a r d the end of our second innings, Lester joined Morris with 150 runs to make and but three more wickets to fall. Morris snicked one between first and second slip, a bad shot, but it went away down to the lower end of the field. As the fourth r u n was being made Lester, in passing Morris, advised him that he was coming back for the fifth run, and he was badly r u n out. After such a shot Lester may have thought he had better take over the bowling, and his effort for the side sacrificed his own wicket. T h e first evening of the match Surrey County C. C. entertained with a d i n n e r at the Oval. Following this game at the Oval the Philadelphians journeyed to Ireland and played All Ireland at Dublin on the University Grounds. T h e y batted first and made b u t 86, Meldon scoring 25. T h e Philadelphians then went in and Bohlen made 43, Lester 40, Morris 32, and Newhall 28, for a total of 171. W h e n Ireland batted again they could only muster 78 runs, Corley making 27, so that we won by an innings a n d 7 runs. King took fourteen wickets for 63 runs, and Greene two for 15. T h i s game was played on a fast, dry wicket. Arriving in D u b l i n the afternoon before the match, we drove for tea to Woodbrooke, Mr. Cochrane's beautiful country place. T h e following evening several of us were honored by an invitation to dine with Captain Ruttledge, who was the manager of the Irish X I which visited Philadelphia back in 1892. T h e next evening we all were the guests of the Gentlemen of Ireland teams who had visited America, and were most hospitably entertained. In Dublin we were also guests of the Gaiety T h e a t r e and the Royal Theatre, and were p u t u p at several clubs. From there we journeyed n o r t h to Belfast and played a two-day match against Ulster on the Armean Ground. Again the Irishmen fared badly and made b u t 95 runs, O. Andrews getting 32 and Flemming 20. Upon our going in, the first three men scored well, King 53, W h i t e 52, and Graves 62. T h e n Lester made 24 and later

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Bohlen 56 and H o r d e r n 35, our total being 319. While Ulster batted again, McClinton scored 30 and W. Andrews 21. T h e i r total was 110 and they were beaten by well over an innings. At Belfast we were the guests of Paul Knabenshue, American Vice-Consul, and brother of the well-known aeronaut, Roy Knabenshue, of Toledo, Ohio. We had tickets to the Palace T h e atre and the Hippodrome. Having four days off, more than half the team took in the Giant's Causeway, and then went to the Lakes of Killarney. At the latter place we got into an argument with our Cook's guide and some Irish peasantry, which very nearly broke out in open hostilities—the event being known as the Battle of Cobblestone Creek. Bohlen's oratory prevailed and saved the day. T h e next match was back in London at Lord's against an M.C.C. XI, and for once was played on a fairly dry wicket. W e won the toss, batted first, and King's 31, White's 17, Wood's 67, and Bohlen's 32 helped us to score 186 runs. U p o n M.C.C. going in G a n n o n obtained 39 not out and Weigall 29, for a total of 154. We were seen to better advantage in the second innings and got 214, of which White scored an invaluable 62, Hordern 32, and Wood 28, leaving M.C.C. 247 runs to win. Upon M.C.C. batting, Fane secured 42, J. H. King 43, V. F. S. Crawford 37, and F. H. Browning 27, their total of 221 being short of winning by 26 runs. Again our bowling was chiefly responsible for our victory. King took seven wickets for 134 runs and H o r d e r n ten wickets for 152 runs. T h e M.C.C. had a rather good side and we were playing against several old friends, among them being Hesketh-Prichard, the author of many attractive best sellers, who had skippered so acceptably the M.C.C. eleven in Philadelphia in 1907, and also, F. H. Browning, J. W. Η . T . Douglas, who in October won the Olympic middleweight boxing championship, and V. F. S. Crawford, all of whom had visited Philadelphia in other years. T h e famous bowler, Walter Mead, played against us, and an old friend of many years, G. J. V. ( "Jerry") Weigall; F. L. Fane, Buckingham of Essex, and J. H. King of Leicestershire were also on the team. T h e first evening of the game, the M.C.C. entertained us at

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dinner at Lord's, as no other club could do. T h e r e is something unique about playing and dining at Lord's. T h e second evening of the match F. H. Browning very kindly invited several of us to dine with him at the Imperial Restaurant on Regent Street: those present included Lester, King, Bohlen, Cregar, White, and Morris of the Philadelphians, and of the M.C.C. side Hesketh-Pritchard, Jerry Weigall, J. W. Η . T . Douglas, J. R. C. Gannon, G. E. Bromley-Martin (one of the Oxford team in 1897), and others. It was a very pleasant affair and King tried to entertain them by telling each Englishman how he was going to get him out the next day. Several of our opponents got their backs u p and we had a very close call, winning the match by only 25 runs. T w o days later we took train for Derby and were p u t u p at the Bell Hotel, one of the very old English inns, which was well kept and typical of the hostels of some two or three h u n d r e d years ago. We began our game next m o r n i n g against Derbyshire on the county grounds. T h e y won the toss and were out at lunch time foi 78 runs. T h e wicket was hard and just the pace for a big score, but King Avas unplayable, obtaining seven wickets for 28 runs. Upon the Philadelphians going in they scored 247 r u n s in a little over three hours, W h i t e scoring 55, Greene 47 not out, and Morris 42. In their second attempt Derbyshire again batted rather poorly but with the help of a 43 by W a r r e n , 34 by Wright, 33 by Needham, and 27 by Lawton, made 185 runs. King again bowled well, taking five wickets for 88 runs, and Sayen four for 44. T h i s left us with b u t 17 runs to get in our second innings, which we did with the loss of one wicket. T h e match being over in two days, the Derbyshire County Cricket authorities kindly arranged an allday coaching trip for us u p the valley of the Derwent to Matlock Bath, through some beautiful English country. T h i s was by the courtesy of Mr. Phillips, manager of the Bell Hotel. T h e next m o r n i n g we left Derbyshire in a drizzling rain and proceeded to Nottingham, which was only some fifteen miles away. We began our match at noon against Notts on the famous T r e n t Bridge grounds. T h e y won the toss and batted on a fine p l u m b

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wicket. They scored only 139 runs, Hardstaff getting 35 and Payton 25. We did little better and made 140 in our first innings, Wood making 41 and Greene 24. Then when Notts went in again Hardstaff got 77 but was missed early in his innings by Morris at silly mid-on, George Gunn 59, Iremonger 35, and John Gunn 25, for a total of 206. On our second attempt our batting fell down badly and we could only tally 75 runs, but this was on a soft wicket which had been affected by considerable rain. Graves got 23 not out and Greene and Morris 20 each. We lost by over 100 runs. King again bowled splendidly, taking fourteen wickets for 130 runs, while for Notts the best bowling was done by Hallam, who secured in all eight wickets for 48 runs; Wass five for 107, and Iremonger six for 51. As Wisden's sympathetically noted, the Philadelphians got much the worse of the weather. T h e second day rain restricted play to a little more than three hours and the bowlers were handicapped by a wet ball. The following day, in the pouring rain, we took the Midland Railroad to Sunderland, where we were to play Durham county. Our match was on the Ashbrooke grounds. They won the toss and put us in on a wicket which improved somewhat as our innings progressed, but we made only 122. However, we got them out for 85. Of our batsmen Adams was run out for 56 and Lester secured 30. On the second attempt we made 110 runs, Adams again being top score with 28 and Graves getting 23. Durham, batting a second time, made only 41 runs, but there again the wicket was very much affected by weather. However, King bowled very well, taking eight wickets for 34 runs, Hordern had eleven for 65. These two were certainly too much for the Durham batsmen. On the second evening we were all entertained in box seats at the King's Theatre, and the following evening we were guests of the Empire Theatre. During the match we were subjected to some good-natured barracking by several thousand shipyard strikers. From Sunderland we journeyed up to London, reaching there about eleven in the evening, and the next morning took the morning train from Charing Cross for Canterbury, arriving there half an hour late for our match with Kent County, the last on our schedule. Lester won the toss and was of two minds whether to bat

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or p u t them in as the wicket was on the soft side from plenty of rain the night before. However, we went in and made 188, which they told us was a very good score on such a wicket, especially against bowlers like Woolley and Fairservice. Of this score Morris got 48, Lester 34, and King 28. W h e n Kent batted Seymour made 39, and J. R. Mason 17, and they totaled b u t 102 runs. So Philadelphia was in a very happy position at the end of the first day. T h e next day not a ball could be bowled owing to the adverse weather and on Saturday when we went to bat for the second innings conditions were very poor indeed. Woolley took four wickets for 22 runs and Fairservice six for 12, and we made only 37 runs, H o r d e r n getting 10 not out and being the only one to score double figures. T h i s left Kent with 124 runs to make in their second innings and some more rain made the ball too wet to handle. T h e wicket was not too difficult and Kent passed our total with six wickets down, Seymour again getting a good score of 34, and was dropped with b u t a few runs to his credit at short mid-on by Morris. H u m p h r e y s secured 43 not out. O u r bowling was again commendable on such a wicket, King got six wickets for 74 runs, Hordern four for 84, and Lester four for 33. T h e best bowling, however, was done by Woolley for Kent, who took eleven for 97. T h e first evening a d i n n e r was given us at the County Hotel by the Kent County Cricket C l u b and was a very jolly a n d pleasant party. T h e second evening our old friend Dr. W. G. Heasman gave the team a dinner at the County Hotel and then we were invited to attend the Royal T h e a t r e to see a play. After o u r match at Canterbury we took the evening train for London a n d most of us dined together at the Trocadero Restaurant before the team broke up. Sir A r t h u r Priestley, M.P. from Grantham, who accompanied Prince Ranjitsinhji's famous team to Philadelphia in 1899, invited us to stay with him at his beautiful home, H u n g e r t o n Hall, and play against a Grantham XIV. Eleven of us journeyed to Grantham and started play the next day, b u t by lunch the rain came down so hard that f u r t h e r cricket was out of the question. T h e second day rain continued through most of the m o r n i n g though we were able to get a little cricket after lunch. Our captain, J o h n n y Lester, made 101 runs out of our total of 229. Grantham got 140 for six

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wickets and then stumps had to be drawn. Sir Arthur put us up for two nights in his luxurious manor, and dined us most sumptuously and royally. Back in 1903 he had also entertained us with hospitality par excellence. He was the proud owner of a beautiful white Arabian mare, which he mounted and put through her paces. T h e next day, Wednesday, September 2nd, what was left of our team took the train from Waterloo for Southampton and sailed home on the "R.M.S. Majestic." Several of the Olympic athletes were on the boat and we had a very pleasant voyage crossing the big pond with them. T h e results of our tour were only fair. In first-class matches we won four and lost six. In all, we played fourteen matches, seven were won and six lost, one drawn, and one abandoned. Our medi ocre batting was principally responsible for the rather poor record. A. M. Wood had the best batting average, of nearly 24 per innings. In 1903 there were five batsmen with averages of 24 and over. T h e outstanding bowler of our tour was undoubtedly J . B. King. In fact he led the first-class bowling averages for all England that summer, and that generally on soft wickets. He varied his pace with rare deception, and as English critics noted, his bowling seemed to have lost some of its pace, but there was no wit in bowling fast on such wickets. He had two or three fielders close in on the leg side and Hordern was certainly outstanding in this respect. He had long fingers and long arms and could reach quite a distance gathering in one-hand catches. T h e bowling of Hordern was also very good, but if we had had hard wickets we certainly would have fared better both in our batting and our bowling. King and Hordern both preferred hard wickets, in spite of the fact that some of the English authorities claim googly bowling does better on slow wickets. But this was not true of Hordern's style of bowling, and his googlies took pace off the hard and plumb creases. T h e captaincy was in very capable hands. Lester managed the bowling, and placed the field with rare skill. We should have given him better support. Our wicket-keeping was excellent. Jordan, the whippet, was wonderful and tireless as always; and when he had to leave us after the Surrey match, Winter stepped into the breach and no one could have done better. T h e averages of the 1908 team follow:

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B A T T I N G A V E R A G E S - A L L MATCHES Total Most in No. of Times not out an Innings Innings Runs 0 Λ Μ Wood 19 132 452 0 124 520 J. A. Lester (capt.) . . . . 25 0 F. S. White 62 497 25 0 74 C. C. Morris 452 25 4 334 Η. V. Hordern 24 55 1 76 Ν. Ζ. Graves, J r 25 389 0 53 398 25 J· B. King 0 56 F. H. Bohlen 22 342 7 F. A. Greene 21 •49 202 0 120 56 D. Η. Adams 9 15 139 W. H. Sayen, J r 2 29 8 0 28 71 W. P. Newhall 8 1 Ε. M. Cregar 13 59 10 4 T . C. Jordan •13 47 8 15 31 C. H. Winter 12

233

Average 23.78 20.80 19.88 18.08 16.70 16.20 15.92 15.54 14.42 13.33 10.69 8.87 8.42 7.83 4.42

• Signifies not out.

J. B. King Η. V. Hordern J. A. Lester F. A. Greene W. H. Sayen, J r Ε. M. Cregar

BOWLING A V E R A G E S - A L L Overs Maidens 471.4 145 583 54 82 13 146 20 79 10 60 8

MATCHES Runs Wickets 1274 120 1265 74 266 15 443 16 303 10 249 1

B A T T I N G AVERAGES-FIRST-CLASS MATCHES No. of Times Most in Total not out an Innings Innings Runs A. M. Wood 16 0 389 132 0 F. S. White 18 62 352 18 0 C. C. Morris 74 347 0 W. P. Newhall 3 28 55 18 0 290 52 J· B· King I 18 Ν. Z. Graves, J r 76 261 4 F. A. Greene 15 160 •49 18 0 F. H. Bohlen 246 49 18 4 Η. V. Hordern 180 32 18 0 40 J. A. Lester 213 1 W. Η. Sayen, J r 113 12 29 T . C. Jordan 8 4 •13 36 6 1 10 Ε. M. Cregar 34 11 C. H. Winter 5 24 12 4 0 D. H. Adams 6 8

Average 10.61 17.09 17.73 27.68 30.30 249.00

Average 24.31 19.55 19.27 18.33 16.11 15.35 14.54 13.66 12.85 11.83 10.27 9.00 6.80 4.00 2.00

* Signifies not out. B O W L I N G AVERAGES-FIRST-CLASS MATCHES Overs Maidens Runs Wickets J. B. King 338.3 103 958 87 J. A. Lester 48.4 7 164 10 Η. V. Hordern 274.1 42 930 45 F. A. Greene 104 13 309 13 W. Η. Sayen, J r 69.3 9 259 9 Ε. M. Cregar 37 3 195 0

Average 11.01 16.40 20.66 23.76 28.77

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••CENTURIES" For (2) A. M. Wood 132 v. Worcester J. A. Lester 124 v. Royal Artillery Bowell

'CENTURIES" Against (1) 160 for Hampshire RFCORD FOR THE TOUR

Played f i r s t class All m a t c h e s

10 16

Won 4 7

Lost 6 6

Drawn 2

Abandoned 1

CHAPTER

Gradual Decline,

XVI

igog-igi8

N THIS chapter we shall first set down the main facts of our cricket story in the five years preceding the outbreak of the First World War. In January of 1909 a team from Philadelphia, including J . R . Conyers from New York, played six games in Jamaica—won four, lost one, and drew one. It was Conyers' batting and Hordern's bowling that made the strength of the side. T h e early summer brought out some good all-round cricket from LeRoy, who made 101 out of 238 for Philadelphia against Merion, and in addition took five for 10, and it found P. H. Clark in form with the bat. He scored 104 for Germantown against Merion, and a little later 149 against Frankford. T h e University of Pennsylvania sent a team on tour into Canada, where it won four of the five matches played. Hordern was the pivot of the team both with bat and ball, and captured, with Winter behind the stumps, forty-four of the sixtytwo Canadian wickets that fell on tour. T h e Haverford College eleven, which played Pittsburgh on its way into Canada, was less successful, for they won only two of the five games played. Lester had retired from cricket, and Bart King had taken up golf. But King turned out in mid-September against a very moderate side of Irish Gentlemen, who played seven matches on their tour, three of them in Philadelphia, where they were beaten twice. On the form displayed they possessed only one reliable bat, G. A. Morrow. T h e Philadelphians won each of the two test matches

I

235

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by an innings and many runs, and the sixteen Colts who opposed them at Manheim came out with a very creditable draw. T h e first test match was marked by a fine three-hour innings by Frank White, who scored more than half the runs made by the side from the bat. Our batting was stout at the top and the bottom, with a lean patch in the middle. Huck Haines, going in tenth man, scored a sparkling 58 by hard hitting. B u t these feats were overshadowed by King's bowling. W i t h his curve diving in very sharply at the end of the flight, he took ten wickets in the Irishmen's first innings, for good measure shattering the wicket of Morrow, the not out, with the only no-ball he sent down. T h e Irish batsman showed his appreciation by making a fine 5 0 not out. In the second innings, King did the hat trick. T h e score of this remarkable match follows: G E N T L E M E N O F I R E L A N D v. P H I L A D E L P H I A S Result:

Played at Haverford, September 17 and 18, 1909 The Philadelphians won by an innings and 168 runs.

GENTLEMEN OF IRELAND First Innings Second Innings b. King W. Mooney, b. King 1 b. King G. A. Morrow, not out 50 b. Hordern O. Andrews, b. King 5 b. Hordern J . M. Magce, c. Haines, b. King . . . . 16 b. King F. H. Browning, b. King 1 b. King J . G. Aston, b. King 0 b. Hordern Η. M. Read, b. King 16 run out W. P. Hone, b. King 0 YV. Harrington, b. King 11 not out b. Hordern VV. H. Napper, l.b.w., b. King 0 c. Wood, b. Hordern J . E. Lynch, l.b.w., b. King 1 Byes 6, leg bye 1, wides 2. noBye 1, leg byes 4, no-ball 1 ball 10 Ill

Total

Total

6 74

Total

PHILADELPHIANS C. C. Morris, c. Hone, b. Harrington F. S. White, c. Browning, b. Morrow R . Patton, c. Andrews, b. Aston J . L. Evans, c. Browning, b. Andrews J . B. King, b. Harrington A. M. Wood, b. Harrington W. Graham, b. Andrews Η. V. Hordern, b. Morrow P. H. Clark, b. Morrow H. A. Haines, c. Read, b. Morrow C. H. Winter, not out Byes 18, leg byes 3, wides 6

0 15 0 4 0 () 0 9 27 2 11

2 118 31 8 1 5 12 32 41 58 18 27 353

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237

B O W L I N G ANALYSIS PHILADELPHIAS

First Innings O M R W King 18.1 7 53 10 Hordern 11 2 38 0 Clark 5 1 8 0 Graham 2 0 2 0 Clark bowled 2 wides, King bowled 1 no-ball.

Second

Innings O M King 11 2 Hordern 10.1 0 King bowled 1 no-ball.

R 38 30

W 4 5

G E N T L E M E N O F IRELAND

ο Μ 34 7 0 15 15 Andrews 2 Morrow 12.2 2 Aston 8 0 Lynch 0 6 Lynch bowled 4 wides, Napper 2 wides.

R 108 70 58 42 19 29

W 3 0 2 4 1 0

It was King's bowling again, with strong support from Hordern, that got out the Irishmen for 78 and 68 in the second test match at Manheim. In the two games Bart took twenty-eight wickets for 153—a bowling average of 6.12. T h e year 1910 might be called the Year of Tours. No team from overseas was to appear in Philadelphia until 1912; that absence and void seems to have been the signal for an invasion by the teams from Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and New York for a week's cricket against our clubs. At the same time our own city sent out touring teams in all directions. In the early winter the Associated Cricket Clubs sent an eleven to play in Bermuda. Though it included Clark, LeRoy, and Hordern, it was hardly representative, and lost the test match with All Bermuda. That grand bowler, G. C. Conyers, was in form, and took thirteen of our wickets for 69 runs. In June the fourth cricket eleven from Haverford College to play against the English public schools sailed from New York. What success it achieved was due to the captain, H. A. Furness, a player of power and skill, who, with regular play, would have developed into one of the great American all-rounders. Furness scored three centuries in England; he batted best under pressure, took the most wickets, and led the averages both in batting and bowling. Meanwhile a University of Pennsylvania team was again in Canada. Hordern, having completed his work at the dental school,

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was on his way back to Australia, where he soon appeared in firstclass cricket; but even without him, under Winter, the Pennsylvanians, playing five games, lost only to Toronto. And the Belmont Club, without King, headed west for nine games, including matches with Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, and with Staten Island on the return trip. Of these matches five were won, two lost, and two drawn. Belmont had won the Halifax Cup in 1909, and repeated in 1910, largely because of the batting of the Graham brothers, Willard and Merwyn. Associated with King, who appeared only occasionally in 1910, but in July knocked off 112 against Moorestown, Willard scored a big innings of 173, and later 113 against Merion. That year he joined a very small number of Philadelphia players who have won both of the Childs Cups in the same year. By 1911 it had become clear that Halifax Cup teams were finding it increasingly difficult to come out on Monday afternoon to resume a game left unfinished on the previous Saturday, and the Cup Committee proposed that the cup be awarded on the basis of a single match between one club and each of its competitors, and that such games be begun and finished on Saturday afternoons, the available time being equally divided. The local scene was enlivened by the appearance of a good All Bermuda eleven which included the two Conyers brothers. They were beaten by Germantown, drew with the Pilgrims, won from Merion and Philadelphia, and then beat All Philadelphia in an exciting match by 7 runs. The home team seemed on the way to a safe victory in their last innings, needing only 166 to win. Then G. C. Conyers found his spot, performed the hat trick in successive overs, and took nine wickets for 69, the last six of them for 2 runs. It was in 1911 that the Frankford Club made its successful tour westward to the Pacific during August and Septembereleven thousand land miles traveled in two months—probably a record for cricket clubs. T h e University of Pennsylvania again toured in Canada, again under Winter, but with much less success than in the previous year. T h e old international, H. A. Haines, now stationed in Canada, singlehanded brought them

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low at Toronto by a wonderful pick-up and return from cover, resulting in the run out of Weidersheim, who was going strong with 53 and only 4 to win. In 1911 for the first time in our history, a strictly club eleven toured in England. Germantown was the club that was making the most intelligent effort to sustain the interest of Philadelphia youth in cricket, and two-thirds of the Germantown Club that toured England were under twenty-three years of age. An interesting account of the trip, written by Pete O'Neill, who acted as captain until the arrival of Dr. J . N. Henry, is given in Part II. On the home grounds Merion won the Halifax Cup, and for the fourth time Bart King carried off both the Childs Cups. By 1912 Frankford was without a ground of its own, and Belmont faced the same fate. T h e interest in interclub games so far declined that it was proposed to invite New York to enter the Halifax Cup competition. T h e decrease in the number of fixtures at home perhaps explains the continued interest in keen cricketers for tours away from Philadelphia. T h e Associated Cricket Clubs sent a team to Bermuda in the winter, and an eleven from the University of Pennsylvania played there in June, but neither with brilliant success. T h e Germantown eleven made a trip to Canada, winning three games easily, and losing only to Montreal. Earlier in the summer the Rosedale eleven from Canada toured in Philadelphia, where they lost three games, O'Neill scoring a century against them for Germantown, and Ruckman Lee another for All Philadelphia. T h e tour of the most interest in 1912 was another invasion of England, this time by an eleven from the Philadelphia Cricket Club. T h e leader was John H. Mason, a genial and tactful captain. There were other men who could lead a team. Jack could do more; he could create it. He was the Autolycus among captains, able to live off the land, plucking what he wanted from the hedgerows. Any team of his, however unpromising at the start, possessed a sort of nucleonic power to attract whatever additional forces were needed. He would welcome into comradeship with his campfollowers any unentangled, able, and congenial player like J . R . Conyers, on the look-out for a knock, and then he would weld the

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whole into a body of devoted servitors. His original side was the only eleven that ever set out to tour England with only one topflight bowler—and he was a Bermudian—G. C. Conyers. But once in England, there promptly popped up as a member of the Philadelphia club the useful medium-pace off-break bowler, G. V. Campbell, and then Jack snatched up from the by-way a mercenary called Banks, purveyor of subtle right-hand slows, who did loyal day-labor against the Mote with seven for 15. But still the strength of the attack was the pseudo-Philadelphian, G. C. Conyers, who, when he found himself in the mood, and the conditions right, was a great bowler. He took seven for 9 against the Royal Artillery, and in eight games captured thirty-four wickets for less than 4 runs each, and for the tour 75 of the 130 wickets taken, at a cost of 7.93 runs apiece. Mason came home with more than his share of the bacon; won 4, lost 3, drawn 3. In September of 1912 an Australian team was playing again in Philadelphia. The Australians of 1878, 1903, and 1906 were the official teams of the colony returning home after a summer's cricket in England. This team was not. In the first place, because of a dispute with the Australian Board of Control, seven of the best players never sailed for England; then of those who did make the tour, Bardsley, Macartney, Minnett, Hazlitt, and Jennings did not accompany the team when it came to Philadelphia. Indeed, in the second match played in Philadelphia, the Australians had to fill in with a "resident kangaroo.'' T h e eleven came over to play in Philadelphia only after signing an agreement that no games played here were to be considered official Australian matches. The side included only one batsman regarded as first class by Warner, namely Kelleway; but in Matthews, Whitty, and Emery it did include three of their best bowlers. Whitty was left-hand medium, Emery, according to Warner, "potentially the most difficult googly bowler I have ever seen," but he was inclined to be erratic. Both Emery and Whitty had a very fast surprise yorker. The first test match beginning at Manheim in September after four days of rain, was one of the most exciting games ever played in Philadelphia. The home side, captained by the veteran P. H. Clark, after leading the visitors in the first innings by 63, col-

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241

Decline

lapsed before Whitty for 74 in the second innings, and left the Australians only 137 to win. Bart King, w h o had taken five for 40 in the first innings, came to the rescue again, and dismissed the last of the Australians w h e n they n e e d e d only three runs to win. W. P. Newhall's 57 in the first innings and King's b o w l i n g were the determining forces. T h i s was the closest match ever played in Philadelphia against an Australian team, and the full score follows. P H I L A D E L P H I A S v. AN AUSTRALIAN ELEVEN Played at Manheim, September 27, 28 and 30, 1912. Result: Philadelphia won by 2 runs. PHILADELPHIAS First Innings Second b. Emery J. B. King, b. Whitty 13 b. Whitty F. C. Sharpless, b. Whitty 20 b. Emery H. A. Furness, b. Matthews 0 r u n out S. W. Mifflin, c. and b. Matthews . . . 14 b. Whitty W. P. Newhall, b. MacLaren 57 R. P. Anderson, c. Whitty, b. Whitty b. Matthews 0 b. Emery C. C. Morris, c. Whitty, b. Matthews 0 l.b.w., b. Whitty P. H. Clark, st. Carkeek, b. Matthews 7 l.b.w., b. Emery W. P. O'Neill, b. Emery 36 not out T . C. Jordan, not out 24 b. Emery F. A. Greene, c. Matthews, b. Emery 0 Byes, etc 14 Byes, etc Total

185

Total

4 4 3 13 33 11 16 6 1 28 0 3 122

BOWLING

8 9 8 17 1 9 7 0 0 2 0 13

Total

AN AUSTRALIAN

First Innings C. E. Kelleway, c. and b. Clark S. H. Emery, b. King T . J. Matthews, b. King E. R. Mayne, c. Clark, b. King S. E. Gregory, b. King D. Smith, c. Newhall, b. King H. Webster, b. Greene J. W. MacLaren, c. King, b. Greene . W. J. Whitty, c. Anderson, b. Greene W. Carkeek, not out E. Penfold, b. Greene Byes, etc

Innings

74

ELEVEN

Second b. King c. King, b. Clark b. Clark c. Newhall, b. King b. Newhall b. Clark l.b.w., b. Newhall r u n out b. King b. King not out Byes, etc

Innings 2 3 2 20 10 0 54 0 23 4 0 17

Total

135

ANALYSIS

AN AUSTRALIAN ELEVEN

First

Innings Μ Ο 20 7 1 2.2 6 20 11 3 1 5

Second R 49 6 65 39 12

W 2 2 5 1 0

Whitty Emery

Innings Ο Μ 3 13 1 12.5

R 23 38

W 4 5

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PHILADELPHIANS

First

Innings

Ο

King Clark Greene O'Neill

22 13 7.3

6

Μ 8 1 0

1

R 40 32 27 20

Second

W 5 1 4 0

King . . Clark . Greene Newhall

Ο 20 17 5 7

Innings Μ 7 4 3 0

R 38 40 10 30

W 4 3 0 2

T h e early stages of the test match at Haverford in October pointed to a much easier win for the Philadelphians, for after King with five for 22 had helped to dismiss the Australians for 101, the home side replied with 237, 43 of them extras, and thus led the visitors by 136 runs. S. E. Gregory with 70 helped the Australians to recover ground in the second innings, b u t they left us only 126 to get. But Whitty, with six for 38, cut us down, and the side was out for 81. In his very intelligent commentary on this game printed in the American Cricketer, J. L. Evans remarks on the changes in batting form that were taking place about this time; the absence of forcing forward strokes, the elimination of the late cut as too dangerous, the increase of rapid footwork in the direction of the wicket, and the pulling of anything short of a length. Evans found himself baffled by Whitty's fast yorker; "his delivery gave no indication of the pace of the ball." T h e third match was played against twenty-one Colts captained by J. Henry Scattergood. It resulted in a fairly even draw, and revealed good batting promise in T . F. Dixon, Jr., with 31 and F. H. T r i p p with 57. In 1912 the Halifax C u p was won by Belmont, the batting cup by King, and the bowling cup by Clark. There is little to record about interclub cricket in 1913 or thereafter. T h e American Cricketer mentions only fifty-two fixtures for 1913. Only three clubs competed in the Halifax Cup. It was won by Merion; the batting cup by W. N. Morice and the bowling cup by H. G. Pearce. King was out of cricket for almost the whole season. T h e only cricket event of importance on the local grounds except the matches played in J u n e and August against the touring Australians, and in September against the Incogniti, was the partnership of Billy Morice and Lothrop Lee for Merion against Moorestown. These two wood-lovers scored 174 between them in a trifle over an hour, and, thus, in the story

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of our local cricket, established a speed record for Philadelphia run-getting. T h e Australian team that visited Philadelphia twice in 1913 made a more extensive tour in America than any of its predecessors. Of representative All Australia quality, it included Warren Bardsley, the leading left-hand batsman of the day; C. G. Macartney, the best bat in Australia, thin, wiry, and catfooted; J . N. Crawford, the old Surrey player, a top notcher with bat and ball; S. H. Emery and E. R. Mayne. T h e tour, like that of the previous year, was a private venture of a group of Australian cricketers, who had unsuccessfully sought the official sanction of the Australian Board of Control. T h e team did not appear on paper to have bowling strength to match its batting, but it was enough to swamp opposition in all four games played in Philadelphia in June. But Bart King played in none of them. In the first test match at Manheim, Η. A. Furness played one of his great innings, carrying out his bat for 106, more than half of the total scored from the bat in the Philadelphians' second attempt. But that was far from enough to offset the big first innings of the Australians, 521 runs, with Bardsley making 117 and Cody 97. T h e visitors won by an innings and 178 runs. In the second match the Australians won by ten wickets. Bobby Anderson, with 46, scored about half of our first-innings total, and Harry Pearce bowled admirably, taking seven for 57 in the Australian first innings of 105. But the Philadelphians then collapsed before Crawford and Macartney, and the 78 runs set the visitors to win were hit off without loss. T h e third test match at Haverford at the end of J u n e ended in a technical draw. T o our first innings total of 164, of which Chris Morris claimed 78, the Australians replied with 412 for only five wickets down, Macartney scoring 109, Bardsley 101 not out, and Cody another 97. Emery was their most successful bowler. In early July the visitors played their fourth match in Philadelphia against an eleven presumably representing the full cricket strength of both the United States and Canada. It included H. S. Reid and P. E. Henderson from Toronto, F. J . C. Goodman from Montreal, and A. A. Hoskins from New York. For the

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Americans the best batting was Furness's 41, and the best bowling Pearce's four for 54 in the first innings of the Australians, who in this match scored their most decisive victory in Philadelphia. Having declared at 416 in their second innings with a wicket still in hand, they dismissed the Philadelphians for 150, and won the game by 409 runs and one wicket. Bardsley again played a fine innings at 142 not out, and Cody for the third time in Philadelphia just missed his century. " T h e showing in every department of the game," comments the American Cricketer in reviewing these four matches, "was the worst ever charged up against an eleven supposed to represent the best cricket in America." It was a querulous and rather stupid comment; this was a time to understand conditions, not to blame players. And the remarkable game between the Australians and the Germantown Club in August compelled this critic to eat his words. T h e story of first-class cricket in Philadelphia ends with this extraordinary match, the full score of which is given below. The Australians, on their leisurely and lengthy jaunt, had won seven games in Canada with ridiculous ease, and in late June, as already related, had beaten an All Philadelphia team once by ten wickets, again by an innings and 178 runs, and then defeated an All American eleven even more decisively. They came to Manheim to give a sort of farewell exhibition, and there on August 6 and 7, the Germantown Club single-handed beat them by three wickets. T h e Australians were to have played twelve men, but J . N. Crawford, their best fast bowler, was ill, and Diamand, the Australian captain, generously agreed to play eleven against Germantown's twelve, so as not to disappoint any man who had expected to play. O'Neill, the Germantown captain, who seems to have managed his bowling with rare skill, wisely opened the attack with Greene and Savage, neither of whom had bowled against the Australians during the summer. T h e Australians were all out for 144. T h e critical innings of the match, Clark's 82 : of which 64 came from sixes and fours, gave Germantown a lead of 46 on the first innings. Then Clark and Greene dismissed che

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Australians again for 126, and the h o m e c l u b had to get only 81 to win. But four wickets were down for 14. T h e n Clark and Billy Newhall took the score to 41, w h e n Clark was r u n out, and fittingly enough it was the dogged will of a Newhall that b r o u g h t the old craft into port. Bill carried his bat for a priceless 31. T h i s was the game that was won by fielding. I n their two innings only three Australians were bowled out. Frank Greene, who had a great part in the victory, writes— Except for the score made by Clark in the first innings and Newhall in the second this game was won almost entirely by the best fielding I ever saw on the cricket field. What we did was to put out twice a very strong batting side for about one third of the runs they might be expected to make, and then to scratch together runs enough to beat them. Pete O'Neill made ten catches in the game, which may be a record; but this alone does not indicate the clean fielding performance of the team as a whole. Fifteen balls were hit in the air and fourteen of them were caught. T h e only one missed was at the tenth wicket in the second innings; and the batter, Diamand, was dismissed on the next ball by O'Neill's tenth catch, so that the error did not cost a single run. T h e best catch Pete made was when he dismissed Cody at second slip from Savage's bowling in the first innings. I was at short slip and remember it well. T h e ball was never more than eighteen inches from the ground, and O'Neill had to fall full length forward, and then reached it only with the knuckles of his hands flat on the ground. Pete's first innings catch of Bardsley was also difficult. It was from a ball that got up very fast; Bardsley tried to stop his stroke, but tipped the ball, which went right through the hands of Jack Stewart at the wicket. Pete had to sight it with Stewart's arms waving wildly across the flight of the ball. Harvey T r i p p made a very brilliant catch of Macartney at short slip in the second innings. It came very fine and very low, and had changed its direction after hitting Stewart's glove. Bob Anderson's catch of Emery from Clark's bowling in the second innings was an example of the fielder rather than the bowler getting the wicket. Bobby was playing at pull, about as far from the wicket as the leg umpire. As Emery miss hit the ball, Anderson turned and sprinted, and then jumped for it as it came over his shoulder. It was this same fielder who threw down the Australian captain's wicket in the first innings. And it was the ground fielding of Bill Newhall at cover and Ralph Pearson at mid-off that completely stopped Macartney's fine scoring shot to the right of cover, and enabled me to get him in both innings.

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A U S T R A L I A N S v. G E R M A N T O W N C R I C K E T C L U B XII Result:

Played at M a n h e i m , August 6 a n d 7, 1913 Cermantown Cricket Club XII uon by 2 wickets.

AUSTRALIANS First Innings Second Innings L. A. Cody, c. O'Neill, b. Savage . . . 2 I.b.w., b. Clark H. L. Collins, c. O'Neill, b. G r e e n e 1 b. G r e e n e E. R . Mayne, c. Anderson, b. Savage 18 c. O ' N e i l l , b. G r e e n e C. G. Macartney, I.b.w., b. G r e e n e 58 c. T r i p p , b. G r e e n e W. Bardsley, c. O'Neill, b. G r e e n e 3 c. O'Neill, b. C l a r k S. H . Emery, c. O'Neill, b. T r i p p 12 c. A n d e r s o n , b. C l a r k G. S. Down, c. O'Neill, b. Savage . 24 b. C l a r k G. C. C a m p b e l l , not o u t 14 c. O'Neill, b. Clark 0 b. Clark P. S. Arnot, c. Stewart, b. Savage . A. D i a m a n d , r u n o u t 4 c. O'Neill, b. G r e e n e 0 not o u t A. A. Mailey, c. O'Neill, b. G r e e n e Extras 8 Extras Total

144

Total

126

GERMANTOWN First Innings Second C. M. G r a h a m , c. D i a m a n d , b. Emery 13 b. M a c a r t n e y c. Cody, b. E m e r y R . L. Pearson, b. Mailey 27 c. Mailey, b. E m e r y R. P. Anderson, b. Macartney 0 I.b.w., b M a c a r t n e y H. S. H a r n e d , c. Emery, b. Mailey . . 6 \V. P. Newhall, b. Mailey 10 not o u t run out P. H. Clark, c. a n d b. Macartney . . . 82 W. P. O'Neill, c. Emery, b. Macartney 22 b. M a c a r t n e y A. G. Priestman, r u n o u t 0 b. E m e r y J. R . Stewart, b. Cody 0 not out F. A. Greene, c. D i a m a n d , b. Emery 12 F. H . T r i p p , b. Emery 4 J. H . Savage, Jr., not o u t 0 Extras 14 Extras Total

190

0 6 6 9 64 4 1 26 6 0 0 4

Total

Innings 0 6 0 8 31 17 13 2 0

4

(7 wickets)

81

B O W L I N G ANALYSIS AUSTRALIANS First Macartney Emery Mailey Cody

Innings Ο Μ 14 6 13.3 2 10 2 10 1

Second R 26 51 55 44

W 3 3 3 I

Macartney Emery Mailey Cody

Ο 12 11 4 6

Innings Μ 3 3 1 0

R 22 23 15 17

W 3 3 0 0

Ο 18 9 11 3 6

Innings Μ 6 3 0 0 0

R 28 20 38 16 24

W 4 0 6 0 0

GERMAN-TOWN CRICKET CLUB First Greene Savage Clark Tripp Anderson

Innings Ο Μ 15.1 1 15 1 6 0 10.4 1 2 0

Second R 38 46 20 19 13

W 4 4 0 1 0

Greene Savage Clark Tripp Priestman

Gradual Runs

Decline

at the Fall of 1 2 3 A u s t r a l i a n s (first i n n i n g s ) 2 12 24 A u s t r a l i a n s (second i n n i n g s ) 7 16 33 G e r m a n t o w n (first i n n i n g s ) . . . 19 20 53 G e r m a n t o w n (second i n n i n g s ) 0 1 14

Each Wicket 4 5 6 7 31 62 119 131 98 100 104 110 58 67 134 140 14 41 73 78

247 8 132 121 140

9 140 126 165

10 144 126 190

11 ... ... 190

This was the single defeat the Australians suffered in the entire tour. They played fifty-two matches, won forty-eight, drew three, and lost one. If it was time for a finale, this was a fitting one. T h e old club of the Newhalls, the Pattersons, and the Clarks was playing through the last act and ringing down the curtain. One of the old warriors was enjoying victory for the last time. After that first-class competition ended. T o be sure the comparatively weak Incogniti were beaten in their first match in Philadelphia in September; but thereafter no club team or representative team won, or looked like winning, any match against a visiting team from overseas. It will be noticed that three of the families that had most to do with developing the quality of cricket in Philadelphia were represented on this Germantown team. T h e Newhalls, as we have seen, were the first and the most important family in the history of Philadelphia cricket in terms of numbers and playing ability. But our cricketing strength always tended to r u n in families. Of the sixty-six men who bore the b r u n t of our international matches from their beginning in 1859 (see page 114), more than one-third were representatives of the following cricketing families: the Morgans, the Newhalls, the Hargraves, the Thayers, the Clarks, the Scotts, the Browns, the Bailys, the Morrises, the Grahams, and the Crosmans. T h e paragraphs immediately following will note the members of these families who do not appear prominently in the international matches, and yet had a distinct influence on our cricket. Of the Thayers, John B., Jr. and Harry are described elsewhere. G. C. Thayer was scoring for the University of Pennsylvania in 1880, and Walter, the youngest of the brothers, played against Warner's team in 1898 in the first match at Wissahickon. Sydney, for years captain of the Merion second XI, often played on the

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first, and was one of the most ardent and enthusiastic cricketers in Philadelphia. T h e last J . B. Thayer played with Merion's touring X I in England. Of the Clarks, besides F.. W., J r . and Percy, J . S. Clark and C. M. were members of the Young America first X I , and later of the Germantown teams, and H. L. Clark was on the first Philadelphia eleven to play in England against the counties. Of the Scotts, }. I. was captain of the University of Pennsylvania team in 1883; J. Allison was a member of the 1884 team of Philadelphians in England; and Walter Scott was one of the mainstays of the Philadelphians in England in 1889. Of the Browns, the father of the two internationals, Reynolds and Harry, was Henry W. Brown, captain of Germantown in 1886. In the previous year he and his son Harry, the left-hander, got all ten of the Baltimore wickets for 38 runs. "Parson" Baily was the international spin bowler; but there were also F. L. Baily, who scored heavily for Haverford College in 1876, and A. L. Baily, J r . , who was second in bowling and third in batting on Harold Furness's college touring team in England in 1910. Of the Morrises, Harold toured England on his brother Christie's team of 1904, was captain of the University of Pennsylvania in 1908, and later, as a medical missionary in China, made many runs for the Shanghai Cricket Club. A. P. Morris, a cousin, and a powerful, fastish bowler with a very high action and a good off-break, played against Bosanquet in 1901, and took many wickets in club and college cricket; indeed he was the mainstay of Merion's Halifax Cup team, bowling for many years, and won the Childs Bowling Cup in 1900. Another cousin, Sam, was captain of Haverford in 1894, and I recall being in with him when he made a long score against St. Paul's School the previous year. Charles Morris, later a physician, was making runs for the University of Pennsylvania in 1876-77, and earlier still, Christie's father, Theodore H. Morris, was scoring runs and getting wickets at Haverford. Of the five Graham brothers, Willard and C. Merwyn appear in the table, page 114; they were part of the main strength of the Belmont eleven for several years. T w o other brothers, Donald and Archie, played at different times on the University team, and Donald and Merwyn were useful members of the Pennsylvania eleven that

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made the very successful tour of England in 1907. Kenneth, the fifth brother, appeared only occasionally in cricket. Of the Crosmans, John Marshall, " M a m i e , " the best young batsman in Philadelphia in 1916, played in five international matches, and his brother Ε. N. kept wicket in every first-eleven game during his four years at Haverford College. T h e third brother, W. M. ("Woodie") Crosman, was with Marnie on the 1914 college tour in England, and captained Haverford in 1917. T h e r e were other families of great importance in our local cricket. Of the three Hopkinson brothers, the eldest, William, played against Willsher in 1868, and the next brother, Joseph, was chosen as an alternate. T h e youngest brother, Edward, played in both matches in Halifax in 1874, and against the Australians in 1878. He must have been a versatile athlete. Besides being captain of the University of Pennsylvania cricket eleven in 1871 and 1872, he was captain of the crew and of the baseball nine; and, though played for his batting and fielding, there is a record of his keeping wicket in 1877, and of catching four Germantown batsmen besides stumping two others. Of the younger generation Edward Hopkinson, Jr., was a regular member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club's first eleven from 1920 to 1924, and an effective player for the Pilgrims on their English tour of 1921. His younger brother Richard played cricket at the Penn Charter School. T h e three Haines brothers were contemporaries of the three original Hopkinsons. All of them learned their cricket at Haverford College. Lindley, the eldest, was known as a bowler, William H. Haines as a batsman, and Charles E. Haines, together with Alec Van Rensselaer, were the regular wicket-keepers for All Philadelphia elevens from 1879 to 1884. " H u c k " Haines, who was on the team that played the English counties in 1903, and Art Haines, who played on the first Haverford College eleven in England, were sons of Lindley. T h e n again, all four of the Lee brothers made their mark on our cricket during the first two decades of the century. Lothrop Lee, a fine all-round cricketer, was captain of the University of Pennsylvania on tour in England in 1907, and his brother Ruckman, a powerful hitter, was third in the batting averages. Alden Lee was on the Merion team that toured in

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England just before the war began in 1914, and was captain of the University eleven for that and the two following years; the fourth brother, Philler, was captain in 1916. T h e n there were the Comforts. Ε. T . Comfort bowled against the Australians in 1878; his cousin Howard was captain at Haverford, and Howard's son Bill, late president of Haverford College, bowled and batted for the college and later, for Harvard. D u r i n g his presidency he did all that was possible to preserve the game, and in recent years his son Howard has been the mainstay of cricket at the college. Another of the few three-generation families was the Garretts. Alfred C. Garrett, a powerful batsman at his best, was captain at Haverford in 1887, and later played for Harvard for several years. His son T o m was captain and the best bat on the last Haverford College eleven that toured in England—a team that included T o m ' s twin brother, Philip C., whose son is playing cricket in Philadelphia today. T h e early Wisters, William Rotch, John, Francis, Rodman, and Jones, were all players, and it was Jones who published the characteristic A 'Bawl' jor Cricket. Of the same clan, though with a different letter in the name, T o m Wistar was on the first Haverford College eleven that went to England, and his son, T o m , Jr., was a member of the college team. Next in numbers to the Newhalls, who at one time fielded an eleven of nothing but, stood the Hilleses. T h e r e were seven of them on the Frankford eleven at one time, and it was William S. Hilles who printed the demand for a professional bowler at Haverford in 1884, and screamed "At Haverford we will play cricket." T h e best-known cricketer on the eleven of the Incogniti, who played three games in Philadelphia in September, 1913, was M. Falcon, the bowler and ex-Cambridge captain, who, playing for the Gentlemen against the Players, had taken five wickets in twenty balls for 8 runs. It was not a strong batting side and was beaten by three wickets and 2 runs in the first match against All Philadelphia at Manheim. Anderson and Savage got them out for two very reasonable totals, and then the home team went on to win, through a good innings of 74 by Chris Morris and useful help from J o h n Evans. T h e second match at Haverford was won by the Incogs rather easily by eight wickets. In the third game at

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St. Martins against the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Bart King, now without a home ground of his own, made his first appearance in important cricket for the year. But in spite of his bowling (seven for 46 in the first innings and five for 49 in the second), and in spite of the fact that the Philadelphians were set only 141 to win, the Incogs were victorious by 99 runs. This was because Falcon again hit one of his streaks of irresistible bowling. In fifteen overs and two balls, he took eight wickets for 14, and the home team was out for 61. Though clouds of approaching war were thick on the horizon when the 1914 season opened, and official cricket ceased in England in September, the English tours of both Haverford College and Merion were completed, though with slightly changed schedules. Though the college tour was not successful, Haverford scored a notable win against Eton, rated in 1914 first among the public schools. All six Haverford teams which toured in England played against Eton, but this was the only one to beat them. Merion won four, lost two, and left three games drawn. T h e strength of the side lay in the batting of Morris, Evans, Lothrop Lee, Billy Morice—of whom a spectator at Blackheath remarked " 'E's not stylish but 'e likes wood"—and Sam Mifflin, and in the fast bowling of Harry Pearce. J. H. Scattergood, manager of the team, wrote an entertaining account of the tour for the American Cricketer, and his statements about some extraordinary performances may be trusted. Against Mitcham, Morris, and Lee, with 80 and 87 respectively, both not out, scored 151 runs in sixty-one minutes. Against the Kent Club and Grounds at Tonbridge, Merion had 153 runs to get in sixty-five minutes to win. By the time that the fourth ball of the last over had been bowled, Mifflin and Evans had nudged u p the score to 151. Four to get in two balls. T h e n , to prevent further scoring, the last two balls were rolled "ground hockey" close to the turf, and the match was drawn. There were two remarkable bowling achievements in the game against Beckenham. Pearce at the top of his form took eight wickets for 8 runs, all clean bowled. Even more remarkable was the bowling of Ν. Z. Baker for Beckenham. At his first try Baker, who had bowled for the county, had

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40 runs knocked off him without getting a wicket. But when he was put on again for the second time, he bowled 6'5 balls and took four wickets for a single run. T h e season of 1914 at home saw the establishment of a new Halifax Cup record of 266 for first wicket by Ruckman Lee and John Evans for Merion against Moorestown. King was playing this season for the Philadelphia club, and again carried off the batting cup. Another record for 1914 was the feat of the Philadelphia club in winning every cup deposited with the Associated Cricket Club authorities for award for team play, namely, the Halifax, Philadelphia, Radnor, Hirst, Associated Cricket Clubs and Incogniti Cups, the latter being a handsome trophy left by the Incogs for competition among the junior elevens. But the holding of a cup had ceased to be a motive for playing cricket, if indeed it ever was; the competition for cups was far from keen; there were only three junior teams in the field. After August of 1914, though cricket was continuing on our grounds, the thoughts of the older players were with their English brothers in Flanders. George M. Newhall's committee that called for the sending of a thousand tins of pipe tobacco to English cricketers in the trenches was overwhelmed with subscriptions. T h e idea had naturally come from Henry Cope. T h e cricket played in Philadelphia from 1915 to the armistice of 1918 is not worth much comment. Players were going away to Plattsburg; some of them were already with the Allies overseas; the Moorestown club had disbanded and a New York team had taken its place in the Halifax Cup competition. They won the cup in 1917, when five of the first seven batsmen in the cup batting averages were New York players. For the winners of the various cups in the war years the reader is referred to the lists in Appendix A. Heavy black lines begin to take the place of cricket scores in the pages of the American Cricketer; it is of equal news value to note that in 1916 Sammy Woods spent six hours shoveling coal in a stokehole in the Dardanelles as to notice the remarkable scores of J . M. Crosman, now the best young batsman in Philadelphia. Between May 14 and J u n e 3, Marnie, now captain of

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Haverford, made 105,* 132,* 82, and 114.* In spite of the approach of our entrance into the war, in 1917 a team from Cleveland played a week's cricket in Philadelphia, where they lost to Frankford, Philadelphia, and Merion, but beat Germantown and had the better of a match with All Philadelphia. During 1917 the competition for the Philadelphia Cup was discontinued, and the Halifax Cup left Philadelphia for the first time since it was won in 1874. New York won it after a play-off with Frankford. I During 1918 there was no organized cricket in Philadelphia. But the signing of the armistice in November was the signal for a revival of hope for the future of our cricket. George M. Newhall came forward with an ambitious proposal for a grand cricket tournament to be held in Philadelphia in 1920 between four teams representing England, Australia, Canada, and Philadelphia; the indefatigable Sydney Young began negotiating for a visit from the Incogniti in 1919; and a patriotic cry went up, like that in England, for the recovery of the "ashes," calling all hands to join in the effort to bring back the Halifax Cup in 1919. From 1908 to 1913 good cricket had been played in Philadelphia, and there was a lot of it. T h e number of fixtures ran on the average of about 250 for the season; there were seven tours into Canada, three to England, five to Bermuda; and ten tours to Philadelphia by elevens from overseas, from Canada, or from New York. Why then should this be called the decade of gradual decline? ! It was because, with some exceptions to be noted later, the effective nucleus of representative teams from 1908 to 1918, indeed up to the time when good cricket ceased to be played, was composed of men who had been our representative players ten years earlier. T h a t was true to the last, even up to 1929, when Chris Morris and Johnny Evans, finding their occupation gone at home, packed their cricket bags and sailed for England to have a few more knocks on the old sod. For more than a decade we had been living on our cricket capital, and were now at the end of it. In 1914 the average age of the eleven that won the Halifax Cup was thirty-seven. Indeed, some of the redoubtable batsmen of these • Signifies not out.

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years seem to have improved with time. As they put on weight they proportionately laid on wood. Among these was Alfred Scattergood, brother of the wicket-keeper. T h o u g h he had headed the Philadelphia club's averages in 1908, it was not until 1919 that he began to t h u m p and thrash. In that year he scored 140 for Phila delphia against Merion, 84 of thein in boundaries, and was second in the Halifax C u p averages. In 1918 there were in Philadelphia young players who could have carried on the best traditions of our cricket if conditions had been favorable. T h e r e was Bobby Anderson, who, according to Warren Bardsley, had the making of the world's greatest allrounder. T h e r e were the youngsters developed in such organiza tions as the Germantown Colts XI, started in 1910. A. C. M. Croome, of Oxford University, saw some of them on the Germantown eleven at Lord's in 1911, and he wrote, "I dearly wish that Stewart, T r i p p , Anderson, Mann, and Savage were qualified to play for my own county, Gloucester, and that I could have a month or two to coach them." T h e n there were tried players like Roy Vetterlein, Η. A. Furness, Ε. Μ. Crosman, W. R. Clothier, Lothrop and R u c k m a n Lee, Cyril Woolley, and Herbert Harned. But the conditions were not right. An ice age was creeping over the cricket landscape. T h e public interest in the game that was the prime motive for youngsters being eager to learn it, had been dwindling away. T h e r e were fifteen thousand on one day to see the Australians of 1878; the n u m b e r who came to see the Australians in 1913 was said by a reporter to be "ridiculously small." T h e r e were young players fit to carry on in 1913, but no more were being developed. T h i s was a period of decline because the roots of the plant had withered, the springs of the stream had dried up. In 1905 there were at least ninety interschool cricket matches played in the spring and early summer. After 1908 school after school dropped out of the two leagues, so that by 1923 the American Cricketer records only one appearance of a school eleven—Penn Charter playing the juniors of the Philadelphia Club. Stagnation slipped into rapid decline when, with the beginning of the First World War, cricket officially ceased in England. When

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the United States became involved in 1917 the young cricketers of Philadelphia joined the colors as they had done in 1861. There were fewer fixtures in 1917 than in 1880, and they continued to decline from then on. Indeed it was the war that administered the coup de grace to Philadelphia cricket. One other circumstance contributed. T h e Frankford club lost its grounds in 1912, and the Belmont Club was sold to the city of Philadelphia early in 1913. It was therefore natural that the greatest all-round cricketer in our history, J. B. King, should begin to disappear from the game. T h e American Cricketer announced in May 1913 that King "was out of cricket for this season at least." But he played a few games in the autumn, appeared for the Philadelphia club in 1914 and won the batting cup, bowled a little in 1915, and then became a symbol of the bright days of the past.

CHAPTER

XVII

From igig to the Death of the American Cricketer, April ig2g

HE record of these years is the story, grievous for cricketers to read, of the dwindling interest in the game, and a decreased ability to play it. From 1919 on the n u m b e r of fixtures in the Philadelphia area were far fewer than in 1879; by 1926 there were only forty-two; and by 1928 the American

Cricketer

prints none at all. But the old lady had a kick or two left in her. Philadelphia showed in the tour of the Pilgrims to England in 1921 that she could still hold her own with English amateur teams of high quality; and although the last recorded victory in Philadelphia over a good eleven from overseas was the defeat of the Incogniti at M a n h e i m in September 1913, the Philadelphians were at least able to play a fairly even draw with the same club as late as August of 1924, when at the close of play the visitors had two wickets in hand with 11 runs to get. T h e players who did the j o b , however, were the old boys. T h e strength of the Pilgrims lay in the six men who were in their prime from ten to twenty years earlier. Jack Mason, the captain, began his career as an international player against Ranji's X I in 1899. T h e s e were the men who during the last decade were doing most to keep the game alive. " T h o s e whose spirit keeps cricket going," 256

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says a writer in the Cricketer for April 1923, "are Morris, Evans, O'Neill, Ne\vhall, Clark, Hopkinson, Winter, Foulkrod, Mifflin, and Mann." In 1920 Μ. B. Burrows of the Incogs said "Of your batsmen C. C. Morris is in a class by himself"; and Christy had begun his international career twenty years earlier. Within this decade three English teams visited Philadelphia; the Incogniti, under E. J. Metcalfe in 1920, and again in 1924, and an eleven of the Free Foresters, which played two games in Philadelphia in September 1923, captained by E. G. Wynyard and promoted by Norman Seagram, the great supporter of Canadian cricket. W i t h i n the decade two teams of Philadelphians toured in England; the Pilgrims in 1921, r e t u r n i n g the visit of the Incogniti in the previous year, and the eleven of Haverford College that played the English public schools in 1925. T h i s was the last of the series of tours of Philadelphia cricketers in England, which had begun in 1884. This chapter will not attempt a very detailed notice of cricket played in Philadelphia after 1922. T h e record in the American Cricketer becomes increasingly careless and unreliable, and the cricket itself was falling apart. T e a m s began to t u r n u p shorthanded, or indeed to forfeit outright in 1923, and by 1926 there were only thirteen players in Halifax C u p cricket who scored as many as 100 runs in the season. T h e best eleven playing Halifax C u p cricket in 1919 was undoubtedly the team from New York. New York was admitted to the Halifax C u p competition in 1915, won the cup in 1917, kept it through 1918, when official cricket was suspended in Philadelphia, and won it again in 1919. In the past it has been the custom for each of the Philadelphia clubs to submit to the Halifax C u p Committee a list of players who were to be its representatives in cup games, but the question of who was eligible to represent "New York" never came u p until 1921. T h e n the right of the New Yorkers to play as a member of their eleven any passenger pigeon of a cricketer who chanced to alight in the metropolis was challenged, and they were henceforth restricted to playing only members of the Manor Field Cricket Club. W h e n the grounds at Staten Island were sold in 1923 the New York Club officially

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recognized in the Halifax Cup competition was the WestchesterBiltmore Cricket Club, and when this eleven dropped out of the competition in 1925, New York passed out of our Philadelphia cricket. T h e five notable New Yorkers who from 1915 to 1923 were interwoven in our cricket were B. Kortlang, an Australian; J . L. Poyer, Leslie Miller, J . H. Briggs, and Lawrence DeMotte. Of these the chief was Kortlang, a peripatetic cricketer like Bob Brooking, equally at home in South Africa, in New Zealand, where he played for Wellington, in Australia, where he played for Victoria, as he was in New York, where he was director of the cricket department of A. G. Spalding's store. He was a sound, obstinate, and avaricious batsman, winning the batting cup in 1915, 1916, and again in 1919, when in J u n e he scored 162 and 136 not out in two games against Merion. Of the same Shrewsbury type was J . L. Poyer, who in the 1919 season scored heavily but slowly. His 121 not out against Merion in August took nearly four hours. Leslie Miller won the batting cup in 1917, but he was of greatest value to his team as a bowler. A stumpy left-hander, slow and flighty, he took more Halifax cup wickets in 1917 than any other bowler, and in 1920, Μ. B. Burrows of the Incogs thought he and Mann were the best bowlers they played against in America. J . H. Briggs, though no relation of Bouncing Johnnie, was a Lancashire leaguer, left-hand, slow with much spin, who won the bowling cup in 1917. Lawrence W. DeMotte, who captained and bowled well for various New York clubs and captained Staten Island in 1922, was the old Haverford College left-hander. At the close of the war, and for a time thereafter, New York could put a stronger team into the field than Philadelphia. Representative elevens from each city played three matches in 1918, and New York won two of them. In 1920 notable events on the home grounds were few: H. A. Haines was back again in Philadelphia cricket; Mervyn Graham was scoring heavily for Germantown and his brother Willard occasionally for Philadelphia; H. S. Harned and Η. Z. Maxwell scored 203 between them, out of 320 for seven wickets, for Germantown against Philadelphia, and each of them made over one

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hundred runs; Germantown won the Halifax Cup, bringing it back to Philadelphia again; C. M. Graham won the batting cup and O'Neill the bowling cup. Eight of E. J. Metcalfe's Incogniti, who played seven games in Philadelphia in 1920, were old public school or university cricketers. Perhaps the most famous was Capt. St. L. Fowler. T h e match he won for Eton against Harrow in 1910 is still known as "Fowler's match." Eton had to follow on, and when their ninth wicket fell they were only 4 runs to the good. Fifty runs were added for the last wicket, leaving Harrow 55 to win. Fowler, who had already been the highest scorer in both Eton innings, now took the ball, captured eight wickets for 23 runs, and Eton won with 9 runs to spare. T h e excitement d u r i n g Harrow's second innings can be imagined. It was so widespread in London that a telegram from Fowler's home in Ireland addressed to "Fowler's mother, London" was promptly delivered to her at her hotel. Besides Fowler, with a quick off-break and a deceptive change of pace, there were the fast bowler, Capt. Μ. B. Burrows, and Major H. S. Cartwright. And these three, with D. R. Jardine and J. S. F. Morrison, were the best batsmen. T h i s team played seven matches in Philadelphia in September and October of 1920, five against the Philadelphia clubs, and two against teams representative of our full cricket strength. They won them all, except the game with Merion, which was stopped by rain when the home side in their second innings, with five wickets down, were still 33 behind the Incog first innings total. Frankford, Philadelphia, and the New York Halifax C u p XI which played the Incogs at Manheim, were all beaten by an innings or more, and Germantown by nine wickets. Indeed the only real opposition the visitors found was in the last test match at Manheim, when they won by five wickets. T h o u g h they played seven games in Philadelphia, the Incogs needed b u t nine innings, only four of them complete, and averaged over 32 runs for every wicket that fell. T h e i r good batting performances included G. O. Shelmerdine's 143 against the Philadelphia club, Fowler's 142 in the first test match, and Jardine's 157 against New York. For the clubs, W. T . Long scored best for Frankford; Ed Hopkinson made 63

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for Philadelphia; Chris Morris 52 for Merion; and Pete O'Neill 54 for Germantown. In the first test match at Haverford, Fowler's strong hitting enabled the visitors to set up 326 for us to aim at, and the Philadelphians almost matched them with 308, of which Morris with a fine 102, and Evans with 50, contributed more than half. In their second innings the Incogs declared at 259 for nine wickets, of which Burrows scored 87. T h e n Fowler's spinning off-breaks, the more effective because they were bowled with a shrewdly varied pace, got the home side out for 135, and the Incogs had won by 142 runs. Of the Philadelphians thus beaten only four—Morris, Evans, O'Neill, and Harned—appeared against the Incogs in the second test match at Manheim. It is difficult to understand what was in the minds of the selection committee when they failed to renominate Merwyn Graham, who had made 53 out of 135 in our second innings, and J . M. Crosman, one of the best batsmen in Philadelphia. T h e new selections were Willard Graham, Mifflin, W. T . Long, H. A. Haines, Waad, Winter, and Harry Pearce. T h i s time the Philadelphians made a better game of it, though they failed before Major Cartwright in the first innings, and scored only 86 to the Incogs' 219. T h e Major took six for 30. But in our second innings Willard Graham with 55 and Sam Mifflin with 59 helped to run the total to 225. T h e n the Incogs hit off the 93 needed to win with five wickets still in hand. One bright aspect of this match was O'Neill's bowling. T h e veteran's left-hand still retained its old sting. He took eight wickets for 67 runs. T h e r e followed in the American Cricketer the usual lamentation about the decline of our cricket. We had, it was said, been uniformly beaten throughout three weeks of cricket by a team "that would lose to an average university eleven." Among the cricket events of 1921 the first that should be mentioned is the death of George Bromhead. He had been identified with the Germantown club and with the development of Germantown players since 1880. Loyalty to his club was the very marrow of his bones, yet he was an umpire of incorrigible integrity, and a friend to every cricketer in Philadelphia.

1919 to Death

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261

T h i s was a short season in c l u b cricket. T h e c u p c o m p e t i t i o n e n d e d with July, because at the end of that m o n t h the P i l g r i m s w e r e o p e n i n g t h e i r t o u r in E n g l a n d , a n a c c o u n t of which, f r o m t h e p e n of P e t e O ' N e i l l , a p p e a r s in P a r t II. T h e early s u m m e r was m a r k e d by b i g scores by F r a n k f o r d batsmen—173 by G o r d o n B o t t o m l e y , 149 a n d 102 by B o b b y A n d e r s o n , 106 by W . B. E v a n s —and by M a r n i e C r o s m a n ' s t w o c e n t u r i e s f o r M e r i o n . A n o v e l f e a t u r e of the season was t h e first visit of a C a n a d i a n college eleven in r e t u r n for t h e m a n y C a n a d i a n t o u r s of t h e U n i v e r s i t y of P e n n sylvania a n d H a v e r f o r d College. A n eleven of y o u n g players f r o m fifteen to e i g h t e e n years of age f r o m R i d l e y College, at St. C a t h e r i n e ' s , O n t a r i o , beat the A r d m o r e a n d P h i l a d e l p h i a clubs, b u t lost to G e r m a n t o w n a n d M e r i o n . I n S e p t e m b e r C h r i s M o r r i s gave n o t i c e t h a t t h e P i l g r i m s h a d r e t u r n e d , by scoring 127 a g a i n s t A r d m o r e for M e r i o n , w h i c h w o n the H a l i f a x C u p f o r 1921. B o b Anderson captured the batting c u p and W . Clothier the bowling cup. I n t h e early s u m m e r of 1922 M o r r i s a n d E v a n s w e r e still s c o r i n g m e r r i l y . T o g e t h e r they m a d e 231 o u t of the 278 m a d e f r o m t h e b a t by M e r i o n against P h i l a d e l p h i a , in a p r o l o n g e d m a t c h t h a t c o n t i n u e d u n t i l eight o'clock at n i g h t . I n d e e d , t h e b a c k b o n e of all f o u r of o u r c l u b s in t h e H a l i f a x C u p — G e r m a n t o w n , M e r i o n , Philadelphia, and Frankford—were m e n who had been playing for f i f t e e n to t w e n t y years. A good c o l o r e d eleven of W e s t I n d i a n s t u r n e d u p at H a v e r f o r d in A u g u s t a n d h a d m u c h t h e b e t t e r of a d r a w n g a m e w i t h M e r i o n . W . W . F o u l k r o d , o n e of t h e most dev o t e d cricketers in t h e history of P h i l a d e l p h i a cricket, missed his first H a l i f a x C u p g a m e since 1903, a n d t h a t was because h e was t o o ill to play. F r o m 1902 t o J u l y 1922 h e h a d fielded a n d b a t t e d in every H a l i f a x C u p g a m e t h a t F r a n k f o r d h a d played. A n d h e h a d t h e satisfaction to see his c l u b w i n t h e c u p again in this year. T h e b a t t i n g c u p w e n t to J o h n Evans, a n d t h e b o w l i n g c u p to R . W a a d . I n 1922 t h e Staten Island Cricket C l u b h a d r e p r e s e n t e d N e w York in t h e c o m p e t i t i o n f o r t h e H a l i f a x C u p ; b u t w h e n , in 1923, t h e b e a u t i f u l g r o u n d s of t h a t old c l u b w e r e sold to t h e S t a t e n Island A c a d e m y , t h e N e w York e n t r y in t h e c o m p e t i t i o n b e c a m e k n o w n as t h e W e s t c h e s t e r - B i l t m o r e C r i c k e t C l u b . N o t a b l e per-

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formances on the local scene, before the two international matches with the Free Foresters in September, were a Merion total of 331 made in four hours against Frankford, Mifflin and Jacobs each scoring 118, and a fine century by Percy Clark in July for Germantown against Philadelphia. A Bermuda eleven, without the Conyers brothers, returning the March visit of the Philadelphians, played seven matches here in June. T h o u g h they lacked the best batsman and the best bowler in Bermuda, they beat Frankford and Haverford College, drew with Philadelphia, lost a low-scoring match with Germantown because of O'Neill (seven for 30); lost to Merion (Sam Mifflin 106 not out); and were defeated once and drew once in matches with All Philadelphia. T h e first match at Manheim was decided mainly by Sam Mifflin's slow leg-break bowling (seven for 32), and the second match at Haverford by Marnie Crosman and Chris Morris (125 and 133, respectively), who, with the thermometer at 100 degrees, scored more than half of the runs that came from the bats of the home players. N o r m a n Seagram, the great lover of Canadian cricket, had induced Capt. E. G. Wynyard to bring out an eleven of the Free Foresters, an English club that drew its players largely from the universities, public schools, and the army and navy. Seagram wished to return the kindness shown in England to the team of Canadians he took over in 1922, and the Free Foresters' schedule was originally confined to Canada. But they found occasion to slip over the border and play two matches with All Philadelphia in the late a u t u m n . T h e eleven included Capt. R. St. L. Fowler, who had been here with the Incogs in 1920, and J. C. Hartley, now a colonel, who had first bowled in Philadelphia on Frank Mitchell's Oxford and Cambridge XI in 1895. In Major Leroy Burnham they had an accurate and heady bowler, but the team had some weight of years to carry, and was not particularly formidable. But they beat us at St. Martins by seven wickets, in a game notable chiefly for the first innings bowling of two veterans, J. C. Hartley, who took seven of our wickets for 77, and Pete O'Neill, who took six of theirs for the same number. Fowler had his turn at us in the second innings,

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taking five for 40, and the Foresters were equal to the task of hitting off 73 needed to win in the last forty-five minutes of the match. I n the second test at Haverford, Cupitt, Clark, M a n n , and Greene were substituted for Long, Woolley, Hopkinson, and Waad. T h e Englishmen by well-distributed scoring m a d e 357, a n d the Philadelphians 223 in their first innings, B u r n h a m d o i n g us most damage with six for 67. T h e n , having to follow on, the h o m e side had difficulty with Hartley, who bowled n i n e overs, for f o u r wickets and 12 runs. Jacobs and Morris stubbornly staved off defeat, a n d the match ended with the h o m e side holding three wickets in hand, b u t with 44 still to get to avoid a single innings defeat. T h e record of local cricket in 1924 is in the m a i n the story of the deeds of the older players. Eight of the G e r m a n t o w n eleven were veterans, and this year they reached back into the preceding century to pick out their wicket-keeper, Η . H . ( " T o d " ) Brown, w h o had been in his p r i m e with Belmont in 1897. H e n c e f o r t h , we are not justified in a t t e m p t i n g a detailed description of o u r interc l u b cricket because its scope had now become so narrow. T h e extent of this shrinkage will appear most clearly in comparative figures. T h e n u m b e r of cricket fixtures f r o m 1924 on was hardly oneeighth of what it had been twenty years earlier. At that time a good batsman would score in all games over 1,000 r u n s for the season: Patterson did so for five successive years. But in 1926 only thirteen players in Halifax C u p cricket made 100 r u n s or more. T h e following table shows the extent of the downward trend:

Batsmen making 100 runs or more Bowlers taking 10 wickets or more

Halifax Cup 1905 1925 51 17 28 9

Philadelphia Cup 1905 1925 39 18 35 8

H a v e r f o r d College was now the only source of supply for new players. T w o past captains, H o w a r d C o m f o r t and T o m Logan, were b o t h promising, b u t the best cricket in 1924 was still that of the veterans. It was a rainy season, and the spin bowlers m a d e the most of it, especially the left-handers. O'Neill, renewing his youth

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like the eagle, bowled better than ever; he won the Halifax C u p for Germantown, the team he captained, and the Childs Bowling Cup for himself. Another good left-hander, DeMotte for the Westchester-Biltmore X I of New York, within a week took six for 38 against Philadelphia, and seven for 38 against Germantown. Noteworthy batting performances were Howard Comfort's 139 not out (of a total of 210) for Haverford College against Merion, and the big share of Merion's 383 for four wickets against Philadelphia, contributed by Mifflin and Ε. M. Crosman, with 132 and 101 not out, respectively. On the Incogniti eleven of 1924, aside from their captain, E. J . Metcalfe, there were only T . C. Lowry, the Cambridge and Somerset player, and J . L. Brocklebank of Eton, who had been here with the Incogs of 1920. Except for an eleven of Oxford and Cambridge "Vandals" in 1933, this was the last English team to play in Philadelphia. Though it was by no means so strong as previous Incog sides, T . C. Lowry was clearly a much-improved player, and the other Cambridge blue, the fast bowler, A. H. White, proved to be a finished batsman. T h e Incogs came to Philadelphia after drawing a game with New York that the home side might have won if it had possessed three or four rapid scorers. T h e Englishmen declared when they were only 91 ahead, with some ninety minutes left, and the New Yorkers came within 29 for five wickets down. T h e match was notable for J . L. Poyer's 101, the only century ever made by a New York player against a visiting English eleven. T h e Englishmen, however, were strong enough to defeat Frankford and Merion, and to draw, all of them in their favor, the other four of the six games they played in Philadelphia in September. It was T . C. Lowry's batting (105) and A. H. White's bowling (nine wickets in the match for 90 runs) that defeated Merion by ten wickets, and that in spite of scores above fifty by Mifflin, Morris, and J . M. Crosman. T h e first test match at Haverford was a good contest and ended with the Incogs within 7 of a win with two wickets in hand. T h e Philadelphians started well with a first innings total of 315 (Crosman 91 and Bottomley 58), but could

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gather only 141 in their second. T h e English side lacked a good wicket-keeper; 58 extras were allowed us in our two innings; the Incogs' scoring was well distributed throughout. Rain prevented a decision in the match with the Philadelphia club. Two-thirds of the club's runs from the bat in their total of 192 came from Ed. Hopkinson with 58, and from Jack Mason, who had played against Ranji's team twenty-five years before, with 55. White scored a fine 101 not out for the Incogs, and in their first innings they were 87 runs ahead with five wickets still to fall at the finish. In this game Lowry took six for 33. T h e visitors then defeated Frankford by an innings and 58 runs, mainly through Gilligan's fine innings of 117, and the bowling of White, who in this match took twelve wickets at a cost of less than 8 runs each. T h e second test match was stopped by rain after one day's cricket, in which the Incogs scored 275 and All Philadelphia 34, with Evans and Bottomley out. Rain again postponed the opening of the Incogs' last match against Germantown until the third day, but play was continued over Thursday in the hope of a finish. Lowry and White, two of the best Incog players, had left for home. Pressed into service, Sam Mifflin, a Philadelphia Incog, contributed the highest individual score to the visitors' first innings total of 243 for seven wickets. Earle then broke down the home batting with five for 29. and Germantown had to follow on with an hour and a half to bat. T h i s time A r n o t t took four of the first five wickets very cheaply, and five Germantown wickets were down for 17. Here the veterans, Clark and Greene, saved the old club from defeat, and Clark was still in with 37 when stumps were drawn. A. H . W h i t e was the outstanding cricketer in this series of matches. H e led the Incogs' batting with an average of 46.60, and the bowling with an average of 11.76 for thirty-four wickets. For us J. M. Crosman played four innings against the Englishmen for an average of 42.75, b u t we had no effective bowler except O'Neill with fifteen wickets for 23.80 each. W h a t we needed was a good fast bowler; and with Harry Pearce and Henry Sayen out of cricket there was none in sight.

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In 1925 the New York team dropped out of the Halifax Cup competition, and only twelve cup games were played. T h e cup was won by Philadelphia, the batting cup by C. B. Dixon, and the bowling cup by G. VV. Cupitt, J r . Dixon for Philadelphia and Crosman for Merion scored heavily, and the latter took seven wickets for 21 against Philadelphia. Haverford College started its 1925 season by winning the first six games at home, but it was not successful in England. This tour, the sixth and last that the college made to play the English public schools, is mentioned in the chapter devoted to school and college cricket. In 1926 there were but forty-two fixtures made in the Philadelphia area; Morris, Crosman, and Mifflin, now a slow bowler, were chiefly responsible for Merion winning the cup; the batting cup went to Ε. H. Swingler, and the bowling cup again to O'Neill. Chris Morris, late in his career, appeared as a starting bowler for Merion; he took five for 48 against Philadelphia, and six for 11 against Germantown. In a heavy scoring match between Merion (J. M. Crosman 98) and Frankford (Bottomley 105 and S. H. Hart 105 not out), Merion squeezed out a victory by nine runs. By 1927 the Frankford eleven had ceased to exist, but it is pleasant to note in a Germantown match with Merion, that P. H. Clark took four wickets for 47, and Mifflin seven for 30. Up to July 22, Merion had won twenty matches in succession. In August of 1927 the great fast bowler, Charles A. Newhall, last of the famous brothers, died. In June a team from Bermuda played four games in Philadelphia. They drew with "a Philadelphia eleven," defeated Ardmore, lost to the Pilgrims, and beat a team of British Officers who were playing this season on the grounds of Haverford College. In 1926 a Philadelphia team had won its two matches against a Canadian eleven at Armour Heights in Toronto, but in September of 1927 a visiting Canadian team reversed the score by winning both of its games in Philadelphia. T h e American Cricketer had now become interested mainly in the cricket of the past, or cricket in remote places, and had become a very unreliable guide to the game in Philadelphia. By 1928 there

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was no printing of fixtures, although twenty-eight games appear to have been played. Neither Germantown nor Philadelphia p u t a team in the field and the cup competition ceased. But nine games were played by Haverford College, including one with the Princeton Graduate School. W i t h the issue of April 1929 the American Cricketer breathed its last.

CHAPTER

XVIII

Keeping Up the Wickets During the Decline,

igjo-igjo

HE fifty-seven-year cricket career of F. H . Taylor is apparently the longest in the annals of Philadelphia. In 1876, as captain at Haverford College, he scored the first century ever made there, and was still making r u n s in 1927. T h o u g h he never counted heavily in our best cricket, he joined a club wherever he went, in this country or any other. If there was none, he made it; and as long as his legs would carry him as far as the wicket, he buckled on the pads. Frank Taylor represents the cricketers who "play as the birds sing, because they must."* It is such men that have kept cricket alive in Philadelphia for the last twenty years. Not only the game, but what goes with it. T h e i r maxim is still the one adopted in 184b by the I Zingari, when that great cricket club was founded "under the perpetual presidency of the late Bolland, W. P."; a maxim accepted by Sir David Beatty and Sir Douglas Haig in the First World W a r for British officers in both services—Keep your promise, keep your temper, keep your ivicket up. W h e n the old grounds were sold or cut up, these men set about to find new ones, and the game that had died out in the big clubs lived on in some of the smaller ones. • Cricketers'

Cricket,

by the great West Indian, L. N. Constantine. 268

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The number and extent of these smaller Philadelphia clubs can be seen from the list in the appendix. T h e majority of them disappeared from 1920 to 1930. In 1919 Dr. F. C. Benson and C. T . Hole organized the Ardmore Club, with grounds near the Ardmore Station of the Philadelphia and Western Railroad, and when those grounds had to be abandoned, the club played their matches on Cope Field at Haverford College. Players were recruited from the disbanded Interstate League Clubs, from Frankford, the British Officers, Haverford College, and the University of Pennsylvania. Fresh strength came with the arrival of G. B. Lacey from Schenectady, and soon there were more players than a single team could provide for. In 1929 Lacey founded the General Electric Cricket Club, which in recent years has done so much to keep the interest in cricket alive in Philadelphia. In 1937 this club began to play a few of its matches on the grounds in Fairmount Park, where, since 1941 it has played all home games. T h e General Electric, whose membership has never been confined to employes of the company, joined the New York and Metropolitan District Cricket Association in 1938, won the championship in that year and seven times since. It has helped to keep the name of Philadelphia cricket still green through five successful tours in Canada since 1930—tours whose success depended mainly on the bowling of Lacey and A. M. Broadhurst, and the batting of C. H. Archer, who has scored twelve centuries. In 1933 other members of the Ardmore Club organized the Haverford College Alumni, who at irregular intervals played on Cope Field. T h e Ardmore Club transferred its home grounds to Fairmount Park in 1937 and assumed the name of the Fairmount Cricket Club, which, together with General Electric and the Philadelphia Archery Club, formed the Philadelphia Cricket and Archery Association in 1938. Dr. F. C. Benson, whose memory is honored in the annual Memorial Service at Valley Forge Chapel on the first Sunday in May, was the prime mover in this project; and Samuel Fleisher, Chairman of Recreation in the Fairmount Park Commission; Frank H. Biggs, Supervisor of Recreation; and Russell Vogdes, the Chief Engineer, all gave strong support to the

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cricket and archery enthusiasts. Plans were approved by the Park Commission in 1939, and a fund-raising campaign was launched for building material, the labor to be furnished through federal funds. In 1942 the building was completed and turned over to the Association, which elected W. J . Hole as its first president. William F. Lahner, Secretary of the Association, Louis Robinson, Association Board Member, neither of whom ever played cricket, and J . E. Rowland, former President of Fairmount, performed services in organizing the present association and in building the clubhouse that should be recognized and long remembered by cricketers. Among the Fairmount players, Laurence Woodhead, formerly of the British Officers, with several centuries to his credit, has been the most consistent batsman. Thomas H. Hughes has been a brilliant all-round performer, and Norman Davies, who took all ten wickets in a match against Haverford College in 1935, has been the outstanding bowler. Philadelphia cricket gained when John H. Hobart came from Montreal in 1947. He brought strength both to Fairmount and to Haverford College, where his son, John H., Jr., was captain in 1950. In the preceding chapter it was observed that during the last years of organized cricket in Philadelphia the strongest teams in the Halifax Cup competition were often the elevens representing New York. Since then the geographical shift of cricket interest from Philadelphia to New York has been accelerated. When the Halifax Cup retired for good behind the glass in the trophy room at Manheim, the Dewar Cup in a fashion took its place. Fairmount and General Electric competed annually with Staten Island, Brooklyn, Paterson, and Westchester County for its possession. It is significant that in 1932 a team of Australians, including Bradman, though it played eighteen of its fifty-one matches in the United States and six of these in New York, never visited Philadelphia at all. Indeed, since the visit of the Incogniti under E. J. Metcalfe in 1924, no international match with a team from overseas has been played in Philadelphia, with the exception of the game at Manheim in 1933 against the Cambridge University Vandals." In 1937 an eleven representing the Chicago Cricket

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Club made a two-week tour of 1,800 miles by auto. The team, which included J . Greenlees and C. W. Knight, both fine players, won three of the four matches played in Philadelphia. Perhaps the most memorable international cricket in Philadelphia in the last twenty-five years was played just prior to, and during the early years of, the Second World War. Memorable not for its technical quality, for it was completely informal, but as an example of the peculiar power of cricket to weld international friendships. When the Exeter, flagship of the West Indian fleet, carrying the pennant of Commodore (later Admiral) Sir Henry Harwood, lay in Philadelphia on a good-will tour three months before the war began, Jim Hole invited officers and men to come out and have a knock at Fairmount. They came in a troop—Commodore, Commodore's lady, and the entire ship's band. It was not much later that Harwood, in command of the Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles, had at last cornered the Graf Spee and run her scuttled in the La Plata; almost the entire team that had played at Fairmount had been cited for heroism, and the bandmaster had given his life. And then, after Lend Lease, when ships of all classes lay at the Philadelphia naval base—the Royal Sovereign, Resolution, Nelson, Manchester, Furious, Argonaut, and Cleopatra, as well as corvettes, destroyers, escorts, and submarines—the Royal Navy personnel from captain to stoker, regularly played cricket with or against our men, and entered the homes of our cricketers as guests. It was in recognition of this service that the King bestowed on W. J . Hole his Medal of Merit in the Cause of Freedom, and Commander R. S. Barry gave him the ship's crest of the submarine Severn. Five men have been among the foremost in keeping up the wickets at the Philadelphia end: G. B. Lacey, W. J . Hole, Howard Comfort, Don Baker, and in the background, modest but effective, C. C. Morris. W. J . Hole has always been eager to welcome young cricketers at the Fairmount Club, and to accept as members any promising youngsters developed at Haverford College. Cricket has continued there after it disappeared at the big clubs because of Howard Comfort. Here again, cricket was in the blood; Howard's grandfather had been captain of Haverford; his father,

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W. W. Comfort, the late President, had played for Haverford and later for Harvard; his great-uncle, Ε. T . Comfort, had played against the Australians in the great match of 1878. Howard himself scored 139 not out from a total of 210 against Merion in 1924, and was one of the best cricketers on the last college tour in England in 1925. D. G. Baker was on the same team, and he continues to turn out an eleven at Ursinus College every May. In Philadelphia today cricket springs from the grass roots, as it did in England in the fifties and sixties, when local club cricket was at its healthiest stage. With the wealth and prestige of the big clubs no longer behind it, with the artificial stimulus of prizes and cups largely gone, the game continues to be nourished from its own internal resources. It is true that all cricket in Philadelphia is now on matting, first-rate players are fewer, matches begin later and are often played on a time division; and it is true that the ball rather than the bat tends to decide the outcome because the opportunities for youngsters to learn sound batsmanship have so greatly decreased. Yet the game lives. In 1949 there were 69 engagements scheduled in the Philadelphia area—more than the American Cricketer records for any year since 1924, the year of the last visit of the Incogniti. Three Philadelphia clubs listed a total of seventy-two games on their schedules for 1949, including fourteen in New York City, six in Ontario, and one each in Rochester and Buffalo. Nonetheless the decline of Philadelphia cricket, by comparison with what it was forty years ago, is obvious. It is a decline both in quality and in quantity, and no account of cricket in Philadelphia can be complete without some attempt to explain it. The present writer has persistently sought from cricketers who remember the great days in Philadelphia a satisfactory answer to this question— What caused the decline of our cricket? The replies are usually prompt, positive, amazingly various, and generally unsatisfactory. They range from the indignant snort of an old war-horse—"That's easy—the supply of gentlemen has given out!"—to Professor Weygandt's ingenious suggestion that the change of the dinner hour from midday to seven broke into the

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leisurely late-afternoon cricket and dinner at the club customary with city men in the late nineteenth century. T h e usual reply is that cricket "isn't suitable to the American temperament.'' But one must ask how this American temperament is to be identified, where it may characteristically be seen. In Salem, Massachusetts, or in Jefferson City, Missouri? In the bleachers at Ebbet's Field when the Giants are playing the Dodgers, or at the Merion Cricket Club when the Australians are playing the United States for the Davis Cup? Whatever it may be, the American temperament takes color from its environment like the chameleon. It may be urged that the traditional characteristics of the American temperament are an intense love of personal liberty, a resentment against any infringement on it, and a profound confidence in the powers of the unfettered individual. But these are precisely the characteristics that marked the birth and growth of Young America, the first great cricket club in Philadelphia. If these are the typical characteristics, then the Wisters and the Newhalls personified the American temperament. In any case, the love of liberty was not a sentiment that distinguished the American from the Englishman. As E d m u n d Burke remarked, it was in the blood and in the ancestry of the colonists. And there would seem to be n o difference between the "temperament" of the inhabitants of the United States and of Australia marked enough to account for the decline of cricket in the one and its continued growth in the other. T h e facet of the "American temperament" which Cornelius Weygandt fixes upon as intolerant of cricket is impatience. "Americans do not like a game in which proficiency can be attained only with labor and patience." W h a t then has produced the succession of American winners and runners-up at Wimbledon; the Olympic champions in hurdling, high jumping, pole vaulting, and swimming,—all of them sports in which the highest proficiency can never be achieved except through long hours of labor and patience? It is a rare professional in England who devotes the same labor and

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patience to perfect his skill in cricket as the professional league player habitually expends in his training for baseball. O n e of the reasons most frequently given for the decline of cricket is that a match takes too long to play. And indeed a threeday game would seem to be an anomaly in times of restless and irrational movement. Yet the English, who have held speed records in various kinds of transportation on land and water and in the air, have found it good to preserve a sport that is unhurried. Cricket is slow because that's what they want it to be— "Cricket's too slow!" And, beret-crowned, bright-shirted, in his car, T h e film-like youth spoke thus and sped afar, And left me to September sunset glow, T o summer ghosts that tarried at their game, A gently-dying yet eternal flame. Cricket is slow, Thank God for that, when fever drives the mind Through burning miles to leave more miles behind, T o build new hells and let the beauty go. Let's hold this picture, though the seasons pass— T h e sunlit field, the shadow on the grass, And keep it slow, With brief swift moods—the catch, the stolen run— T h e whole a tranquil pageant in the sun, A gracious game, with fickle ebb and flow, That breeds good fellows, kind and quiet-faced, Not bound upon the chariot-wheels of haste.* Once we too liked games that were conducted with deliberation and mutual respect. It was the Connecticut Yankee's temperament that invented the game of wicket, and made it popular for one hundred and fifty years; and a game of wicket needed five hours to play, and sometimes lasted over to the second day. It was the American temperament that expressed itself in baseball, and played it originally with a natural courtesy. T h e characteristics of the "American temperament" have to be explained in terms of the environment in which they occur. T h e man best qualified to say what caused the decline of our • With acknowledgments to Punch,

London.

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cricket is William W. Comfort. He watched the influence of disintegration at work from the best point of observation—as president of the college that was the cradle of Philadelphia cricket. He observed the interest in the new sports of tennis, golf, and motoring begin to divert the enthusiasm of boys into new channels. A little later came organizations that gradually assumed a function that the Philadelphia cricket clubs had been the first to perform, namely to emphasize high standards of sportsmanship in the open-air group activities of the young. Both the Boy Scouts movement and the summer camps, when there was good leadership at the top, sought to activate normal group experiences of youth with an ethical and moral code of decent conduct; a value almost peculiar to the cricket clubs forty years earlier. It is interesting to notice then, that the clubs, in so far as their purpose was the promotion of cricket, did not so much die as commit suicide. For it was in them that the new sports were first introduced—archery, lawn tennis, association football, the first intercollegiate football, squash—and it was the high standard of sportsmanship so jealously guarded at the cricket clubs that was felt to be desirable for larger segments of American youth. So that about 1910 the big clubs seemed to become aware that Othello's occupation was gone or going, and a correspondent asked in the American Cricketer, "We have splendid cricket fields, but what are we going to do with them?" Some of the influences mentioned had begun to work forty years before their effect became evident to Dr. Comfort in his watch tower. John P. Green first saw tennis played on the grounds of the Germantown Cricket Club at Nicetown in 1872, and before the seventies ended young ladies impeccably attired began to trip about the green that bordered the cricket pitches at the other three clubs, holding up their skirts with one hand and their racquets with the other. What Mr. Punch called "the Golf Stream" began to flow in 1885, and soon the American Cricketer was giving more and more space to these "minor" sports. T h e idea of the summer camps was hatched as early as 1880, when Ernest Balch, who bought Chocorua in 1881, was brooding over "the miserable condition of boys in summer hotels." T h e development of the summer camp,

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like the foundation of the Country Day Schools, was part of the "back to the land" movement, and reached a peak in the years from 1910 to 1920. In 1920 there were four h u n d r e d summer camps, eighty per cent of them in New England. T h e era of better roads and motor transportation hastened their multiplication, but this was after the decline in cricket had set in. T h e Boy Scout movement, with a much broader and more democratic base, came even later. T h e Boy Scouts of America was not incorporated until 1910, and was not chartered by Congress until 1916. All these influences, however, were operative in England and to a lesser degree in all countries where cricket is played. T h e y disrupted cricket here, b u t not elsewhere. O n e has a disturbing feeling that they do not give a complete answer to our question. In his three studies of the life of Victorian England, Esme Wingfield-Stratford traces the influence of the industrial age on the sports of England from the time when cricket began to flourish in Philadelphia to the point of its a"brupt decline. For our purpose what he writes about the rapid development of "vicarious sport" is of prime importance: The modern machine worker, . . . who was continually more closely approximated to the status of a machine, turning out products that he seldom saw completed, to produce dividends which he did not share, for companies toward which his trade union encouraged him in an attitude of class-conscious hostility, naturally demanded, to fill his leisure, relaxation hectic enough to compensate for workaday conditions.* W h a t a hundred years before had been a game tended to become a spectacle; the sport of playing began to transform itself into the act of watching; the impact of the industrial age tended to make what had been something personal into something that was vicarious. T h e tendency has been at work in various degrees wherever the Anglo-Saxon feeling for sport was indigenous; in England it is seen most clearly in the cup-tie final, in the United States in the World Series and the Rose Bowl. Spectacles cost money. T h e village cricketer of 1850 had to pay little or nothing to play; it costs the vicarious sportsman of 1950 • The Victorian Aftermath,

19011914 (London, 1933), p. 14.

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a dollar fifty to watch. " T h e money player" has superseded the village slogger; the gate swallows up the game. As more and more people become vicarious sportsmen it is more and more profitable to provide the kind of play that pleases them best. T h e player, and even the rules of the game, tend to be shaped by the box office, and the game to be lost in the spectacle. So are the ideals of the good sportsman. These are consumed by more primitive instincts when the spectator is one of an Australian mob "laying for Larwood," or in the bleachers at Ebbets Field watching a fan sitting on the body of a prostrate umpire. In each instance both the personal and the social sense of good sportsmanship is outraged; in each instance the prospect of a bigger gate for the next engagement is enhanced. It is easy to overemphasize the change that has taken place since George W h a r t o n Pepper defined sport as "the gentleman at play" in his great address at the Merion Cricket Club fifty years ago. It was that change that caused Paul Gallico to bid good-by to amateur sport in America in 1938.* Yet there are still purely amateur teams of baseball, cricket, and association football players in both America and England. But the better they become the more they expose themselves to the tentacles of commercialized sport. In Philadelphia, cricket was affected by both the impact of the industrial age, and by the recoil from that impact. Its impact built factories on cricket pitches, and caused the genuine sportsman to seek relaxation in briefer and stronger doses; it created the moneyseekers to supply them; it kept driving the vicarious sportsman to more hectic spectacles. T h e recoil from this impact led the young into the Boy Scouts, and parents and offspring together to the summer camps of New England. Further, each of the World Wars struck into our game at a critical moment, and hastened the process of disintegration at a time when some recovery was possible. It remains to consider whether the causes of this decline are permanent and decisive; whether cricket must be written off as a * "Football begins to come into its own as the leader in the field of doubledealing, deception, sham, cant, h u m b u g a n d organized hypocrisy. . . . I say farewell to a game riddled with hypocrites, liars, p e r j u r e r s and sophists." Farewell to Sport, New York: Knopf, 1938. C h a p t e r xvi.

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casualty incident to our civilization; and whether the game has any contribution to make in alleviation of the parlous condition of our amateur athletics. That will be considered in the last chapter. But the present chapter on "Keeping up the Wickets" ought not to close without giving what help is possible to the young player who has few of the opportunities to learn the fundamentals of the game provided in the Philadelphia clubs of fifty years ago. We who played cricket in the old days ought to pass on to the youngsters whatever wisdom we possess that can help them have some fun out of the game when they put on the pads and walk to the wickets. There is no fun in being a rabbit, the victim of any long hop or full toss that may come along; no pleasure in being one of a side that is put out for 30 runs. T h e purpose of the rest of this chapter will be, therefore, to show the young player the means whereby, without the advantages his father had, he may nevertheless get pleasure out of the game from the beginning. This part of the chapter may be entitled How to Score Runs Your First Season C. T . Studd, who with his 118 helped Cambridge beat the Australians in 1882, and two years later scored 107 against the first touring eleven of Philadelphians, had the reputation of playing the straightest bat in England. A few years later Studd began his important work as a missionary in the Belgian Congo, and his biographer tells us of the methods he employed during the winter months in Cambridge to prepare himself for the coming cricket season. Studd's equipment was an old carpet on the floor of his study and a full-length mirror facing it. On the carpet he would draw a white chalkline, and then he would practice forward strokes and back strokes, watching in the mirror the line made by the bat, the finish of the stroke, and the position of his legs. His chief concern was a full-facing upright bat, and the proper finish of the

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two strokes on which, as he knew, all his ability to keep up his wicket depended. I think the self-training I devised in my first year at Haverford College had some advantage over Studd's. As soon as the football season was over, I bought a composition ball of the kind sometimes used for indoor practice, put a stout screw into it with a piece of trout line wound round the head. T h e end of the string I attached to a hook in the ceiling, so placed that the swing of the ball would take it through the open door of a closet and return without striking anything. In the intervals of study I would pick up a bat, and play forward strokes and back strokes at will for about fifteen minutes. My practice brought expostulations from the students who occupied the rooms below; my study was on the third floor at the east end of Barclay Hall. It was usually enough to explain that all I was doing was practicing cricket strokes; if that was not enough I made it clear that I was going to get on with it anyhow. I checked this practice from time to time by doing Studd's exercises in some study that possessed a full-length mirror, in order to satisfy myself about the sweep and finish of the strokes, and the position of the feet. But in the main I think my methods were preferable to Studd's for the following reasons: All through the winter I was making my strokes in terms of a moving ball, and the strokes had to be accommodated to a ball that was coming onto the bat at a greater angle than any ball bowled even by a slow bowler. Hence to keep the string tense, I had to play the ball, whether forward or backward, with a stroke that could not possibly put up a catch. When the ball jumped on the string I knew I was wrong in the timing. T o be sure the ball came to me more slowly than from any bowler; but I had to be moving my right foot back, or my left foot forward with each return of the ball. I had to bring the left shoulder well into the forward stroke to ensure a smooth backward flight of the ball into the closet; I had to keep my left elbow well up to play a back stroke on a ball rising so sharply. We had at that time at Haverford the old single-pitch wooden

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cricket shed where A r t h u r Woodcock coached us. His coaching was invaluable, and yet I think that what transformed me from a futile batsman who had never made a good score in his life into one who could make centuries and end his first season for the college with an average of over 100 was precisely this daily handling of a bat in terms of a moving ball to perfect the two basic strokes of any batsman who wants to stay in. T o make runs the first season the batsman must have automatic control of his actions. T o pause to think what the next action should be might prove disastrous. I write this with profound pity for the young player who goes out, bat in hand, with a multitude of instructions in his head, b u t n o fixed bodily habits, ingrained in his muscles, for carrying them out. T h e young player will be able at least to stay in if he will grant himself daily throughout the winter a brief vacation f r o m study and swing a bat at a moving ball. I know this because I did it; and every youth with a reasonable physique and coordination can do the same if he wants to. But first, resolve not to be a rabbit. If you stay in you will make runs against the bowling you are likely to encounter. But first you must get rid of the idea that there are foul lines on a cricket field. T h e long hops and full pitches that come not infrequently should be sent not lengthwise with, but squarely away from, the wicket. Don't attempt to learn the cut; to a long hop on the off get the left foot over and slap it square; hit a full pitch square on the other side. If you get a mate to throw long hops on the off side of the wicket, and full pitches at your chest, you can soon acquire the knack of these two shots. T h e n , when green comes on the cricket field, and you put on the pads and walk out for your first innings, there must be in your mind nothing whatever in this world or the next so important, for the moment, as keeping u p your wicket. Go not with any intention of scoring a r u n for the first two overs. If the bowler gives them to you, all right; b u t your sole object is defense, not defiance. Read the account Hobbs gives in his How to Score a Century, of his mental attitude at the beginning of an innings, and remember the profound respect Grace had for any new bowler—for a couple of overs.

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As for the beginning bowler, more room is needed. But it is not impossible to find, indoors or out, a space 35 yards long. Measure off a distance of 22 yards and mark each end with a clear line at right angles. Tape down a square of white cloth about 7 inches square at a distance of 10i/£ or 11 feet inward from each line. Let two men, one at each end, bowl at the white cloth; when you can flutter it once out of three times, count yourself a length bowler. You can bowl straight if you can hit a spot. For the bowler who has acquired a length, exercises for wrists and fingers on the machines in a gymnasium are invaluable. After a winter's work on these, the spin bowler will find in the suppleness and strength of elbow, wrist, and fingers, a new power to turn the ball. Pending the time when in Philadelphia we shall have once more a properly constructed cricket-shed open to all cricketers on Saturday afternoons from November to April, these are the practices that young players will have to rely on. More important than any of them is the resolution that you are going to play this game as well as you can if you are going to play it at all—the resolve not to be a rabbit.

CHAPTER

XIX

What of the Future?

j o i n my fellow cricketers in the opinion that firstclass cricket in Philadelphia is dead and buried, because I am conscious that the game has contributed something to the culture of English-speaking people too precious to be allowed to perish. T h e present chapter seeks to identify some of the unique values of the game, and to suggest some measures that might be taken to insure its survival.

I

CANNOT

T w o tendencies favor that survival. T h e first is the advent of greater leisure, and some increase of wisdom in its use; the second is a deepening concern about the effects of our present school and college sports on the ethical and spiritual growth of the young, and a g r o w i n g revolt a m o n g thoughtful students themselves against the overemphasis that comes with commercialization. In each of these t w o directions the outlook is hopeful. T h e r e has been a vast expansion in the facilities for recreation both for adults and for the young; the week end becomes longer. (Coal miners on strike could play a three-day match each week, and if the operators would field an eleven against them agreement would be easier.) T h e concern for sport as an ethical teacher is not new. For a hundred years the best schools have regarded athletics, whether for the individual or the group, as the most valuable training for the ethical and moral development of the young. In these schools games are regarded as occasions when the boy's conscience is in action. In such schools, the best and the most revered 282

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coaches, like Mike Sweeney of T h e Hill School, have always been the men who were busy about something higher than teaching a game. They know the disaster that results in a boy's judgment of values when he finds that the law of God takes precedence in church and Sunday school, but the law of the jungle reigns supreme on the playing field. T h e number of such coaches has increased enormously, and it would not be far from the truth to say that all good coaches urge their charges to play in accordance with the rule book. Cricket is unique among group sports because its foundations go deeper than the rule book. In thirty years of cricket here and abroad I never saw a rule book opened on or off the field. T h e rule book may have been there, on the field, under the duster, in a pocket flat against the umpire's behind. But it lay there undisturbed—east or west in the United States, in Canada, in England— not a rump rumpled in thirty years. I never read the Marylebone Cricket Club's so-called "official" laws of cricket until driven by conscience to do so in the preparation of this history. T h e laws of cricket cannot be written because they are inside the cricketer. Cricket is an ideal in practice. In this respect it is a better ideal than Christianity. You assume a code of honor when you pull on the white flannels. Would you get virtue? T h e n play cricket; the virtues spring up on the cricket field. You will pray for the man who despitefully uses you so long as you can spank him past cover, and entirely love the enemy you can sweep up and over at square leg. Cricket is the means by which the Englishman hands on his conscience in action from one generation to the next. Those who have jealously watched over the game to preserve its ideals, the men "whose cricket was their chivalry," have always preferred standards to rules. They have known that no rules, fines, or penalties alone can keep the game above petty jealousies, chicaneries, and personal animosities; these disappear only when the player's conscience is in action. You incur no penalty if you dispute the decision of an umpire. But it simply isn't done. It is only the umpire who can be right when he is wrong. And how right he can be in his wrongness! T h e r e was that match before a great crowd at the Crystal Palace

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in 1899, to honor the fiftieth birthday of YV. G. Grace. Not so light of foot as he used to be, the great batsman, after making three, called his partner for a short r u n and was out by two good yards when cover-point threw d o w n the wicket. " H o w ' s that?'' U p went the umpire's hand; and then, in a stentorian voice, " B u t not on his fiftieth birthday I" It was a time for justice to bow to generosity, and the decision was widely acclaimed, even by the opponents in the field. C u s t o m and tradition so universally prevail a m o n g cricketers that the occasions are rare when this inner law of ideals in practice breaks out into operation. O n e o c c u r r e d when the first team of Philadelphians were playing at Lord's in 1884. G. F. Vernon, playing for the M . C . C . , cut u n d e r a ball and was apparently caught out low down at third m a n by J . B . T h a y e r , J r . T h e only m a n on the field who knew

that the batsman was not out was the

fielder

himself. As V e r n o n was leaving the wicket T h a y e r explained to the u m p i r e that he had trapped, not caught, the ball, and the batsm a n resumed his innings. It was such actions as T h a y e r ' s that m a d e the Philadelphians welcome wherever they played in England in the n e x t forty years. E x a m p l e s of similar acts could be cited for Canadian, English, and Australian teams that played in Philadelphia. F o r e x a m p l e , H a r r y T h a y e r , batting for All Philadelphia against one of W a r ner's elevens, missed a b u m p i n g ball and immediately left his crease to bat down the turf. H e might legitimately have been stumped;

the wicket-keeper, ball in hand, was in d o u b t ;

but

W a r n e r at point, sensing that T h a y e r had stepped out in a mom e n t of forgetfulness, shook his head, and H a r r y was allowed to continue. Cricketers dislike even the appearance of chicanery or sharp practice. W h e n the batsman at the bowler's end is too keen in backing up, rule 35 specifically allows the bowler to go through the motions of bowling, b u t to hold the ball and whip off the bails. B u t most bowlers don't like the suspicion of trickery in this action. T h e y prefer to warn the overzealous batsman against leaving his g r o u n d before the ball is delivered. W h e n you read the M . C . C . " L a w s of C r i c k e t , " you find that a Philadelphia lawyer could drive a bulldozer through them. T h e y

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are, in the main, not a code of laws at all, but, like the British constitution, a collection of customs. They are indeed often so phrased—"it is the custom" to do this and that: or as conditional obligations—under certain circumstances "the captain should" do this and that. The "laws of cricket" are, fundamentally, merely a description of conditions conducive to a pleasant game. This is clear from law number 11. This rule requires the bowler to have one foot on the ground at the moment when he delivers the ball. I think it was obsolete ninety years ago, when over-arm bowling came in. A fast bowler's spikes are clear of the ground before the ball leaves his hand. At least that is true of our Philadelphia fast bowlers as indicated by action photographs. If you regard the right arm as the hour hand, action photographs of Bart King show his right foot on the ground at nine o'clock, his toes on the ground at twelve, and his toes three inches clear at two o'clock, with the ball still in hand but about to leave it. It would be grievous to think that our Philadelphia fast bowlers had broken the rules in taking all those good English wickets. But all slow-motion pictures of Engish fast bowlers that I have seen show that they habitually do the same thing, and corroborate the statement of Constantine, the West Indian fast bowler—"No really fast bowler can deliver the ball with his back foot on the ground."* In any case it is impossible to detect a violation of this rule, for with T o m Richardson or Kortright in action, no umpire can keep his eyes simultaneously on two spots eight feet apart. In practice, the umpire is satisfied so long as the bowler's back foot comes down behind the bowling crease, and this essential has preserved for a hundred years a law of cricket that has been habitually violated by every fast bowler. G. S. Patterson injured the thumb of his right hand, already split between the fingers, in the match with Lord Hawke's XI in 1894, and asked the visiting captain if he might be allowed to field with a kid glove. "Naturally," writes Hawke in his Recollections and Reminiscences, "I had to refuse." Pat accepted the decision. Why? Law 41 permits the fielder to stop the ball "with any part of his person," and the term person is interpreted to • Cricketers' Cricket (London: Eyre 8c Spottiswoode, 1949), p. 137.

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include the fielder's clothing. He may make a legal catch with his shirt, without even touching the ball with his hands; he may stop a batted ball with the buckskin of his shoes. Why not then with the leather o£ his glove? I have often wondered what the umpires would do if a fielding team came out fully equipped in baseball paraphernalia. There is nothing in the laws of cricket proscribing itl Nothing but custom. Here then are two rules that govern the game: one of them is habitually violated; another, that isn't a law at all, is habitually observed. Cricket is played by unwritten laws. More amazing still, the M.C.C., which publishes and distributes throughout the world the "Laws of Cricket, Official, price ninepence post free," has no legal right to promulgate any laws at all. Yet no authority in sport is more unquestioned. Wherever in the world cricket is played, not only in English-speaking countries but in Holland, Denmark, and the Argentine, the authority of the Marylebone Cricket Club is completely recognized. In the present state of the world it is worth-while to consider how this authority was acquired. For the distinctive ethical characteristics of the game were very rare when the M.C.C. was founded in 1787, and a previous chapter has touched upon the shocking reputation of cricket in the early nineteenth century. How did it come about that the best instincts of the Englishman could infuse themselves into a corrupt game, and transform its character so completely that, in course of time, this simple sport could give back to English society a touchstone for all decent and generous conduct in the phrase " T h a t isn't cricket"? T h e authority of the M.C.C. is a moral authority, and it was acquired by integrity and plain good intention. T h e body of gentlemen who have composed the club, though they have made mistakes, have throughout sought to preserve cricket as a game, and to prevent it from becoming a mere industry. Their prime aim was always to maintain and to improve its standards of sportsmanship. T h a t there exists a game like this to play and to love is because year in and year out this purpose was foremost in the actions of the great English club, and in our own cricket clubs in Philadelphia.

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The coming "one world," too, will have to depend on a moral authority. Its nucleus is beginning to appear. That nucleus is essentially a body of people who understand the phrase "That's not cricket." T h e understanding has no relation to color or religion. It is significant that while Europeans, Hindus, Parsees, and Mohammedans cannot worship together, they can play cricket together. They have scrupulously observed its traditions ever since cricketers like Lord Harris and Lord Wellington were governors of Bombay. While the armies of India and Pakistan were locked in combat, the Hindus and Pakistani kept on playing cricket. They celebrated the Kashmir Truce with a five-day match, and then they combined their forces and played together against the strong visiting team of negroes from the West Indies. We in America might consider inore deeply the power of such a game to build bridges, and the part played by the seventeen cricket teams from Philadelphia that have toured in England since 1884, in strengthening the bonds of friendship between these two countries. It was the great Australian batsman and captain, M. A. Noble, who wrote, No visiting ambassador has greater influence for good or ill in Australia than the captain of an English eleven. One can allow for the enthusiasm of Noble; he was a great player and a superb captain. T h e Right Hon. John Curtin was neither. But he was Prime Minister of Australia; and, referring to the immense moral influence of the Marylebone Cricket Club in London, he declared in a public speech delivered in 1944, Australia will always fight for those twenty-two yards. Lord's and its traditions belong to Australia just as much as to England. While it is absurd to think that cricket in Philadelphia can ever regain the place it once held, it is even more absurd to think that we can afford to reject the ideal of sportsmanship that cricket typifies. T h e simmering kettle of our amateur athletics cries aloud for this salt—the cultivation of the inward, unwritten laws of sportsmanship. Beyond that, the republic demands of the citizen a sense of personal responsibility for the good conduct of the state. Liberty must be developed from within, and there is only one

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form of government that can breed it—personal self-government. Hence our constitution, dedicated to liberty, had of necessity to assume a moral code of honorable conduct without which there can be no liberty, only license. Our youth cannot be properly trained for that heritage unless games and sports are infused with this inner compulsion toward honorable and generous conduct. If cricket is alien to our ideal of democracy, so much the worse for our democracy; because in the end it is the decent respect, lodged in the breast of each citizen, for the feelings and opinions of others, that alone can preserve it. If the preceding considerations are accepted, it follows that cricket ought to be encouraged. There follow suggestions of possible means whereby the interest in cricket might be increased. T h e best center from which a renewed interest can spread in the Philadelphia area is Haverford College. This is where, one hundred and sixteen years ago, young native-born Americans first organized to play the game. This is the only place in America where it has been played ever since; almost the only place where cricket refuses to die. This vitality appears throughout the entire history of the college. A hundred years ago two clubs had established a sort of prescriptive right to the best playing fields on the lawn. Then three or four men led by Edward Bettle, in actions that recall the origin of Young America, challenged this exclusive right of the two older clubs and organized the Dorian Club, which eventually became the Haverford College Cricket Club. In the winter vacation of 1857 they manufactured their own cricket bats and wickets at a cost of $1.50, and in January pitched their stumps on the smooth crust of the snow and began practice where Alumni Hall now stands. They rolled out their own wicket in the spring, and proceeded to beat each of the older clubs in turn, and then the combined strength of both of them. Thirty years later, William S. Hilles, making his plea for a groundsman and professional bowler, wrote, " W e at Haverford will play cricket. Haverford and cricket are inseparable." Throughout the bad years, Haverford almost singlehanded has kept in existence the Intercollegiate Cricket Association, founded by John B. Thayer in 1881. T h e four orig-

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inal members, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Princeton, and Trinity, and the two subsequent members, Harvard and Cornell, have all fallen out. Haverford, which joined the association the moment the managers' embargo was lifted in 1883, has stood alone as its center. It was Haverford men, led by Robert C. Folwell, son of Bob, the great University of Pennsylvania footballer, who in 1941 exhumed the J. Alison Scott trophy, revived the constitution, and set up the association again with Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Ursinus, and Haverford as members. Haverford College, then, is the best anchorage ground for cricket in Philadelphia, and the first suggestion is obvious. In the plans for the construction of more ample facilities for winter athletics, provision should be made for a two-wicket practice batting crease such as we had in the old cricket shed. These facilities should be made available for all cricketers in the Philadelphia area to use on Saturday afternoons. In the past at least twelve universities and colleges in the East had organized cricket teams. But except for the University of Pennsylvania and Haverford they were annuals rather than perennials. In the spring a university would find itself with a cricket eleven, and this condition is likely to continue. It is therefore sug gested that the Intercollegiate Cricket Association remain a flexible organization, ready to welcome any newcomers into competition, even if they are only transient guests. With students from abroad coming in increasing numbers to our universities, it is certain that there will be cricketers at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania anxious to play, and it should be the function of the association to invite them into competition. T h e third suggestion also arises from the experience of the past. In 1915 and 1916 the week after commencement was "cricket week" at Haverford, during which six matches were played, each with a different team of visitors. In the coming years the college might well consider whether a revival of this cricket festival is not possible. T h e last suggestion is more general and ambitious.

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T h e best cricket in America is now Canadian. T h e most successful team from this continent that ever toured England was the Hon. R. C. Matthews' Canadian eleven of 1936. T h e y played against amateur teams comparable with the opponents of the Philadelphians in 1884 and 1889, and did better against them, losing only one game out of fifteen, and drawing seven. T h i s eleven was the only one to beat Newman's M.C.C. X I on its Canadian tour of 1937. It may not be long before Canada will field a team able to play the English counties. T h e obvious path to the improvement of the quality of cricket in the United States is to match it against the best elevens in Canada. T h e ancient cricket rivalry between these neighbors, begun in 1843, should be revived. T h e first step toward that revival is to establish some organization in the United States similar to the Canadian Cricket Advisory Board. T h e r e is a good deal of active cricket interest in New York, Chicago, California, and Philadelphia. These interests should be combined with the one object of improving our game. T h e united cricketers might adopt the old name of the organization founded in 1878—"The Cricketers Association of the United States"; b u t it should avoid the excessive centralization of authority that quickly killed that organization. If such a cricket authority existed on each side of the northern boundary, it is pleasant to think that one of Dan Newhall's plans might in due time be realized. H e longed to establish an August cricket festival at some summer resort on the Atlantic seaboard, where in beautiful surroundings and pleasant weather a series of international cricket matches might be played. Dan had in mind Newport, Rhode Island, where in the eighties the Old Haverfordians used to play two matches annually with teams from New England. If Canadian and United States cricketers could combine to create such an international festival, in time it might include matches with the West Indians, Bermuda, and even with a team flown over from England. T h e instinct of the Englishman has consciously or unconsciously convinced him that his relations with other English-speaking peoples were sweetened by the intercourse of cricket. Hence arises the interest of the Marylebone Cricket C l u b to strengthen the bonds

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of friendship by means of international cricket. Canada is now joining the other countries that are thus linked together—Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, England. Once the United States, through the humble instrumentality of the Philadelphians, was among them. When one considers the much greater need today that the United States understand and be understood by each and all of the six countries mentioned, the reentry of our country on the list seems almost a matter of national concern. T h e first part of this volume has attempted to tell the story of the birth, growth, and decline of the game in Philadelphia. We have faith in its future because of its unique insistence on the ethical basis of good sportsmanship. Our story can best end with the message of Lord Harris, at one time Under-Secretary of State for War, and Governor of Bombay, to his fellow-cricketers, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday— You do well to love cricket, for it is more free from anything sordid, anything dishonorable, than any game in the world. T o play it keenly, honorably, generously, self-sacrificingly, is a moral lesson in itself, and the classroom is God's air and sunshine. Foster it, my brothers, so that it may attract all who can find the time to play it; protect it from anything that would sully it, so that it may grow in favor with all men.

PART II

Sidelights and Reminiscences

CHAPTER

I

Cricket in Philadelphia, 1878-1884 By

GEORGE W H A R T O N

PEPPER

HE author o£ what follows calls the six years from 1878 to 1884 the dawn of the golden age in Philadelphia cricket; and in this chapter we have the sense of stepping out into a fresh spring morning. T h e writer was in it and of it; he was then a lad learning from George Bromhead and Charlie Braithwaite to play a straight bat, and to go in and thump a half volley whenever Charlie would say "Them's them, Mr. Pepper; them's them to 'it." Charlie did not know that he was bowling to a future United States senator. George Wharton Pepper first broke into the recorded scores as a Germantown Junior, and later as a member of the University of Pennsylvania X I , and of the Germantown First X I . He was President of the U. of P. Cricket Club in 1886. As a batsman he was best known as one who occasionally got his powerful torso solidly behind a roaring drive out of the field—the kind of hit that creates that tingling ecstasy never forgotten—and as a trundler, he was going strong as late as October of 1898, when he bowled out six of the New York veterans at Elmwood. In the days when association football was springing up in the cricket clubs, Pepper was a powerful Merion fullback. On one occasion he was in collision with a beloved professor of Latin at Haverford College playing left inside. "What's the name?" he 295

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asked, as he gave the scholar a hand up and apologized for what might appear unnecessary roughness. "Mustard." "Well, mine's Pepper, so we're square." •

·

·

·

T o a boy of eleven, who, within a few months, had played cricket for the first time, the Australian Match in October 1878 was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. T h e r e are only a few living cricketers who actually saw that game. All will, I am sure, agree that they remember it as one of the greatest sporting events they ever witnessed. Such is the testimony of Alec Dixon, who served as official scorer, of Reed Morgan, of Reynolds Brown, and of Blight Robinson, contemporaries of mine and, at that time, fellow junior members of the Germantown Cricket Club. Harry Brown tells me that as a boy of eight he too has vivid recollections of the game. I have read with keenest interest the account of the match written by William B. Morgan.* His testimony corresponds in every particular with Alec Dixon's. T h e latter, at ninety-six, kept himself well posted on current sporting events, but always with a preference for the brave days of old. I recently talked with him about this particular match and his recollection of the details of the play was most refreshing. When one reflects that the newcomers from Australia had just finished a triumphal tour of England, and that for the first time in an international match we were venturing to pit eleven men against eleven, it is easy to understand the pride we took in the record made by our team. T h e contest had been well advertised. I can remember hundreds of life-size posters throughout the city which depicted a gigantic Australian batsman, behind a terrific beard, in the act of cutting the ball to the boundary. I understand that similar posters had advertised the coming of W. G. Grace's team in 1872 but I do not seem to recall them. T h e newspapers, too, had done full justice to the skill of the visitors. Alex Bannerman (whom we boys identified as the giant of the poster) was heralded as an invincible batsman, SpofForth as a demon bowler, and the bearded Blackham as a • See Chapter IV of Part I.

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wicket-keeper of uncanny skill and with a cannibalistic eagerness to "eat 'em alive." In those days it was considered that Australia was at least as remote as Mars. Orson Welles could not have painted a more alarming picture of the visitors from the Antipodes than was done by the publicity men of that day. Morgan's account of the game, dictated f r o m memory nearly seventy years later, is obviously authentic. W h e r e his recollection differs from mine, I accept his version. Recalling the two most sensational drives made by our batsmen—one of which sent the ball into the clubhouse and the other over the roof—I am ready to agree with Morgan and credit the former to Bob Newhall and the latter to Dan, although my own impression had been the other way round. In any event they were fine drives which thrilled us youngsters and might well have overstimulated the hearts of older enthusiasts. I have heard it suggested that Philadelphia's good showing in that memorable first innings was due to the fact that the Australians were both travel-weary and overconfident. T o this belittling suggestion Australia's second innings is the best answer. At that stage "sea legs" must have gone, and overconfidence as well. W h e n the Australians came to the bat a second time with only 99 r u n s needed to win, their demeanor m a d e it perfectly evident—even to a boy—that they intended to give o u r players not only a licking b u t an impressive one. It was at this point that admiration for our team reached its climax and Charley Newhall was the bright, particular star. During all the intervening years I have held in memory the incident which Morgan r e c o r d s Charley, in fighting mood, handing his cap to the u m p i r e and marking off some additional feet for the r u n that was to give him impetus for the fastest bowling of which he was capable. And, believe me, it was fast! Charles Bannerman, the first victim, played at a ball that simply couldn't be stopped. By the time Spofforth's bat had reached his calculated point of contact with the ball, one of his stumps was t u r n i n g end-over-end on its way to a distant resting place. Murdoch's bails were dislodged by a ball which forced its way past his bat after he believed that he had smothered it. Even after sixty-nine years I can hear the applause from sea-

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soned onlookers and the delirious shouts of the small boys when these great batsmen were thus disposed of. Hardly had a teammate taken Murdoch's place when one of Charley's sizzling "yorkers" did the trick for him—and the Australians were still fifty runs short of victory with their best men gone. If only the game had been played in the Senate Chamber it would have been possible to move back the hands of the clock and allow the innings to be completed. Alas! that performance is not cricket: and the agreed time for drawing stumps had arrived. Accordingly, the game was declared a draw and the Men from Mars made a hurried getaway. Cool-headed critics might be in d o u b t about the final outcome if there had been another hour of play. T o us boys, however, it was a glorious certainty that Charley would, in that event, have mowed 'em down like standing grain. We acted accordingly, and easily converted a drawn game into an overwhelming victory. Naturally enough such a sporting event was a great stimulus to local and to international cricket. D u r i n g the four years following the Australian match of 1878 four teams came from abroad. T h e Gentlemen of Ireland came in 1879 and in the same year "Dicky" Daft brought out a strong aggregation of Englishmen. In 1881 Alfred Shaw did the like; and in 1882 the Australians came again. If the Irishmen were less skillful than the others, they made u p for it in social charm. T h e Philadelphia team that faced them included seven of the men who had played against the Australians —Brewster, J o h n Hargraves, Caldwell, and the four Newhalls. T h e new men were J o h n Large, "Sud" Law, Walter Clark, and J o h n Thayer. In Philadelphia's only innings Large and the Newhalls accounted for 106 of the total of 149. T h e visitors were disposed of for 58 in their first innings and 82 in their second, Charley Newhall taking nine wickets for 84 runs, while Dan took the same n u m b e r for 44—a remarkable performance. Philadelphia won by an innings and 9 runs. Arrangements had been made to play a r e t u r n match on the third day in case the principal contest ended on the second—as in fact it did. In this second game, of one innings each, Philadelphia

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was disposed of for 108, while Ireland accumulated 122 and thus won by 14 runs. Eight Irish wickets had fallen for 71 b u t a tail-end stand did the trick. T h e outstanding performance in these matches, except for the bowling of the Newhalls, was the wicket-keeping of Brougham, who "kept" for Ireland. N o such thrills were provided for Philadelphia rooters as those we had experienced the year before. In talking over the match recently with Alec Dixon I f o u n d him, as usual, full of reminiscences. H e said that N u n n , one of the Irish bowlers, had boasted to him of direct descent f r o m the Biblical Joshua who, some will recall, was styled the "son of N u n . " T h e match with Daft's team was played a fortnight after the Irish game. Instead of pitting eleven men against eleven, Philadelphia (much to the disgust of us youngsters) conceded inferiority at the outset by playing fifteen. As the extra f o u r players contributed only 10 runs in two innings they added n o t h i n g to our batting strength b u t one of them, Alex Van Rensselaer, did good work behind the wicket a n d made six catches. T h e other eleven players were the same who had played against the Irishmen. England won by 145 runs, having accumulated 149 and 133, while Philadelphia made 70 and 67. W e did well to hold the English batsmen down to such moderate totals. Walter Clark and Charley Newhall proved very effective. T h e latter took ten wickets for 143 runs, while Clark got seven for 48. It was at the bat that our weakness was painfully evident, Large and Bob Newhall being the only two to reach double figures in either innings. T h e advantage enjoyed by English amateurs, who were continually playing against first-class professional bowling, such as Shaw's and Morley's, is not to be overlooked. Shaw was simply unplayable. H e took sixteen wickets for 37, and Morley was n o t far b e h i n d him with eleven for 76. Pinder, the English wicket-keeper, was bothered by the b u m p y wicket and scarcely justified his reputation. W h e n Shaw reappeared at Nicetown two years later he came as captain of a team of English professionals who had just made a fine showing in an Australian tour. Like Daft's team they outclassed Philadelphia both in batting and bowling. Philadelphia for some reason played twelve men but England won by an in-

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nings and 104 runs. In their only innings the visitors made 277. Charley Newhall took six for 71. T h e only other Philadelphia bowler who "came off" was John Thayer, who got four for 48. Philadelphia scored 126 and 47. I remember a feeling of humiliation when in our second innings Peate, a slow left-hander, took seven wickets for 21.1 never saw a batsman so completely "beaten" by a ball as George Thayer by the ball that bowled him. Strangely enough, Shaw proved ineffective, getting only one for 27. Big Midwinter, a giant in stature, took four for 18, while Ulyett got two for 8. Nobody made any runs to speak of in Philadelphia's first innings except Bob Newhall, John Thayer, and Harry Dixon, who scored 40, 33, and 20—or 93 out of 126. T h e top score in the second innings was Walter Clark's 8 not out. A partial explanation of our inability to play Peate was the fact that a heavy overnight rain between innings had provided him with an ideal wicket for a bowler of his type. But, even so, we had to concede that we were no match for our visitors. Pilling, the English wicket-keeper, played his position in masterly fashion. I remember with particular pleasure the batting of Scotton, a left-hander, who showed beautiful form. John Thayer's first innings score was a good performance and made him a fixture on any international team. He was given a bat as a prize for the highest Philadelphia batting average—which was 21. It took a lot of youthful enthusiasm to survive the overwhelming defeat of a Philadelphia XVIII in October 1882 by our old friends the Australians. It was not the defeat that was hard to swallow but our inexcusably bad fielding. But for this the game would have ended in a draw instead of an Australian victory by nine wickets. Two professionals—George Bromhead and 'Arry Tyers—played for Philadelphia. T h e other new faces were Arthur Wood, Billy Brockie, Irv. Scott, Howard MacNutt, and Charlie Haines. T h e others had played in one or more of the last four international matches. T h e professionals added little to the strength of the team, and of the other new men Brockie was the only one who justified his selection. Philadelphia's first innings yielded 82 and the second 76. Walter Clark with 24, and Charley Newhall 32, were the only two who seemed unafraid of Garrett

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and Boyle, two Australian bowlers who in this game completely eclipsed Spofforth. Garrett took twelve wickets for 66, and Boyle sixteen for 46. Clark took three Australian wickets for 12 runs, and Charley Newhall five for 47. In retrospect it is easy to see why Bob Newhall was acclaimed the premier batsman of America. During the seven years from 1876 to 1883, inclusive, he played 103 innings for a total of 2,428 runs, was "not out" six times, and wound up with an average of 25.03. His best season was 1881, when his average was 41.50. After this survey of the international matches played between 1878 and 1883 it may be enlightening to glance at the less immediate but equally important effect of the first Australian match on the rank and file of Philadelphia cricketers. T h a t effect was highly stimulating. My impression is that first-eleven matches were thereafter played with renewed enthusiasm. Some excellent second elevens and summer teams were developed and the pickers of junior elevens had plenty of material from which to choose. Then, too, a number of small local clubs were formed in the metropolitan area, and the cricketing equivalent of "sand-lot" baseball teams became popular. I have agreeable recollections of two of these. One was a junior aggregation styled the Acorn, in which Sydney Thayer, Lew Rutter, and Crawford Coates were among the boys who later became first-class cricketers. T h e other was a club known as Cheltenham, organized near Jenkintown by Perry Smith and Fritz Hallowell. This team played with more enthusiasm than success. I remember playing for Cheltenham at Elmwood against a Belmont summer eleven on July 2, 1881. T h e temperature was over 100 degrees but my enthusiasm was not in the least quenched by being called upon to play drive at both ends while Belmont was scoring nearly three hundred runs. I happen to remember the exact date because as we came off the field we heard the news of the assassination of President Garfield. All this activity among younger men naturally stimulated the interest of the older players and helped to develop a generation worthy to succeed them. I owed my own initiation into the mysteries of cricket to my cousin and contemporary, Sydney Thayer, and to his older brother John, for whom Syd and I cherished some-

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thing like hero-worship. These kinsmen made me feel at home on the old Merion grounds at Ardmore, where in 1878, I had my first instruction from Charles Braithwaite. Later (my family having removed to the Germantown area), the old grounds at Nicetown became my out-of-door home, and George Bromhead my coach. There I welcomed the friendship of Sam Welsh, Billy Brockie, and Billy Morgan, all slightly older than I, and could catch occasional glimpses of Walter Clark (later my valued friend), and of the Newhall brothers, who were the mainstays of the neighboring Young America Club. Playing as a Germantown Junior against the Belmont Juniors, I first met Al Scott, who later became my brotherin-law and lifelong friend. His batting in that match was a revelation of what a boy was capable of and was a foretaste of his achievements in later years. Another Belmont player who won his spurs in the years immediately following the Australian match was Dave Stoever. Meanwhile, John Thayer, Billy Lowry, "Sud" Law, and Joe Fox were helping to win games for Merion. Walter Clark, Howard MacNutt, and Hazen Brown were playing acceptably for Young America, while Billy Brockie and Billy Morgan (wearing Germantown's colors) were developing rapidly into first-class cricketers. From time to time I experienced a sort of vicarious exhilaration when some of these older friends of mine were picked for international competition. T h e r e were scores of somewhat younger players of great promise, such as George Patterson, Frank Bohlen, Billy Noble, Arthur Wood, Harry Baily, Reynolds and Harry Brown, Frank Ralston, and Crawford Coates. Altogether this period from 1878 to 1884 was the dawning of what may justly be called the golden age of Philadelphia cricket. Naturally enough there developed during these years an ambition to send a Philadelphia team to the British Isles, and this took definite form in 1884. Of the "veterans" who had played against Australia in 1878 there were still available Frank Brewster and Charlie and Bob Newhall, George having retired and Dan being compelled to stand aside for business reasons. T o this nucleus were added eleven men who in the interval had won their spurs in firsteleven cricket and, in several instances, in international contests. They included Walter Clark, Hazen Brown, Joe Fox, "Sud" Law,

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Billy Morgan, Billy Brockie, John Thayer, Dave Stoever, Al Scott, Howard MacNutt, and Billy Lowry. Bob Newhall was chosen captain and the "Dauntless Dozen" were ready for the great adventure. Sixty-three years have since rolled by. Father T i m e has long since retired all the members of the team and has claimed all but one of the loyal sportsmen who accompanied them. T h e survivor is Thomas Robins, whose wisdom and experience, as well as his genius for companionship, made him an altogether indispensable member of the party. Before writing this comment on the trip I called upon him and drew upon his ample reservoir of recollection. H e gave me a little volume which all these years he has treasured—James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual for 1885, which contains the scores of all the games played by our team. I have also had access to the little volume containing the brief record of the trip compiled and published by that grand old sportsman, the late John P. Green. All this material I have used to supplement the recollections of a boy of seventeen who eagerly watched the preparations for the trip and with breathless interest read the accounts of the matches as they appeared daily in the columns of the Philadelphia newspapers. T h e team played eighteen matches, of which five were lost, five were drawn, and eight were won. T h e y were beaten by the Gentlemen of Scotland by five wickets, by M.C.C. by an innings and 171 runs, by Hampshire by five wickets, by Sussex by ten wickets, and by Kent by six wickets. T h e y drew with Dublin University (181 being scored by each side in the first innings); with the Scarborough Club, with the Lansdowne Club, with Derbyshire, and with the United Service. T h e y won from the Gentlemen of Ireland by six wickets, from Cheshire by an innings and 292 runs, from Leicestershire by an innings and 108 runs, from Gloucestershire by 168 runs, from the Castleton Club by an innings and 16 runs, from Liverpool by 4 runs, from Northumberland by 96 runs, and from Surrey by three wickets. T h e highest batting average was made by Al Scott, then a boy of nineteen. His 30.11 was closely followed by Bob Newhall's 29.24, and by J o h n Thayer's 28.5. Lowry's bowling average (12.79 for 110 wickets) was an out-

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standing performance which (in the words of Lord Harris) would have given him "a very good chance of being selected in most English county elevens." T h i s passage occurs in a restrained comment upon a statement made in the American Cricketer which evidently had aroused His Lordship's ire: T h e statement was this: " T h e right of the Philadelphia Eleven to claim equality with the Amateur Elevens of the English counties is fairly established." "Now we are not prepared to say," comments Lord Harris in the article quoted above* "that after one or two more visits to this country this might not be the case, but we cannot admit it at present. T h a t the Philadelphians are now equal to the amateur elevens of some counties is very possible, but not, we must insist, to those counties who n u m b e r among their supporters a few firstclass amateurs." Probably Lord Harris's appraisement of our team was a just one. Even so, the performance of our men was most creditable. T h i s is especially true in view of the fact that Charley Newhall sustained an injury early in the trip and was able to play in only ten of the eighteen matches. Of the five matches that were drawn the chances were good that, had the games been completed, Philadelphia would have won from Scarborough and from Derbyshire. In the first of these games Philadelphia scored 438 in their only innings, of which Scott made 68, Bob Newhall 86, Stoever 100, and Brockie 113 not out. In Scarborough's second innings the game was called when seven English wickets were down, and the Englishmen still had 65 runs to make to avert a defeat in one innings. Against Derbyshire the Philadelphia total was 400, while Derbyshire in their second innings needed 200 to win with five wickets down for 60. In the other three drawn games the outcome was anybody's guess. In the United Service match our guess seemed the more plausible, as Philadelphia had in the first innings scored 311 to their opponent's 237. T o this first innings lead of 74 Philadelphia had added 160 for the loss of one wicket. Scott and Thayer were not out, the former having made 71 and the latter 64. T h e big disappointment of the trip was the match at Lord's, • Lillywhite's Cricketers'

Annual

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when M.C.C. won by an innings and 171 runs. In Philadelphia's first innings the score was 174, of which Scott made 44, Law 37, and Thayer 35. In our "follow-on" a rot set in and the side were all out for 61, Bob Newhall and Law being the only batsmen to reach double figures. "It is evident," wrote Lord Harris, "that our visitors were bitterly disappointed at their performance against M.C.C.; but they may take heart from the well-known fact that to the visitor—be he Australian, American, or Englishman—Lord's is the most difficult ground, perhaps, in the world. T h e mysteries of the side hill, and how to use it to advantage, must be learnt by batsman, bowler, and fielder; and even then, with years of experience to help them, some of our best cricketers are pronounced failures." Over against the defeat at Lord's are to be set (among the eight victories) the gratifying triumphs over Gloucestershire, Surrey, and Liverpool. T o win against "W. G." was of course an immense satisfaction and went far to compensate for the disappointment at Lord's. T h e Liverpool game proved to be the most exciting of all the matches played. Philadelphia had scored 287 and when Liverpool began their second innings they needed only 119 to win. In the closing minutes of the game Lowry took six wickets for 16 runs, a n d Philadelphia won by the narrow margin of four. Reviewing the trip as a whole it may be said with confidence that our men worthily maintained the Philadelphia tradition and opened the way for the stronger teams which in later years carried Philadelphia's colors to notable victories on English fields. T h a t Lowry should have done such outstanding work with the ball was not surprising as he had won the Child's Bowling C u p in 1880 and again in 1883. Al Scott's performance in attaining the highest batting average was particularly creditable as he was only nineteen years old and had had no experience in international competition. For all-round play the palm should be awarded to John Thayer, who not only batted well b u t bowled with considerable success, and was the most brilliant fielder on the team. W h i l e the team was abroad, Billy Noble, playing for Young

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America, came into his own and won the Childs Batting Cup for 1884 with an average of 41. He was one of the men who might have added great strength to the Philadelphia team. T h e absence abroad of so many good players gave a chance to some of the rest of us to play on elevens which were normally beyond our class. In checking the files of the old American Cricketer for the scores which I have just summarized, I came with amusement upon an account of a match between the First Elevens of Young America and Germantown played at Stenton on May 30, 31, and J u n e 3, 1884, and found it there recorded that Pepper, playing for Germantown, made 19 runs in twenty-two minutes and twice "elicited tremendous applause" by driving the ball over the fence for 6. T h i s record pleasantly recalled to me a longforgotten sporting experience and renewed the thrill which it gave to a boy of seventeen to find himself in such fast company. A feature of that game, by the way, was a magnificent innings played by my dear friend Frank Ralston, who made 95 without giving a chance. H e was a great sportsman, a brilliant bat and a great wicket-keeper. He was destined thereafter to figure creditably in international competition.

CHAPTER

II

Cricket Reminiscences of the Period By

H E N R Y I. B R O W N

appeared regularly as an international during the decade 1886 to 1896, playing first against W. E. Roller's English XI and last against Trott's Australians. He was played mainly for his bowling. He was an accurate lefthander, slow to medium, with considerable spin and incurve. Brown won the Childs Bowling Cup in 1888 with an average of 7.75, and in the same year took seven wickets against the Gentlemen of Ireland for about 10 runs apiece. Though he took five Australian wickets for 45 at Manheim in the first match in 1896, his best bowling in international cricket was done against Lord Hawke in 1891, when he took ten wickets for 90 runs.

H

ARRY B R O W N

Apart from his bowling, Harry was a safe fielder and a very useful right-handed batsman. On his return from the English tour in 1889 he hit up a not out century against Philadelphia, and with Frank Bohlen, scored 195 out of the 245 made from the bat by his side. In the same year he stood at the head of the Halifax Cup batting with an average of 38.50, but was not eligible for the Childs Cup. If he had been able to play two more innings he would probably have been one of the very few Philadelphia cricketers who have won both of the Childs Cups. *

#

In 1885, the year following the first English tour of Philadelphia cricketers, Young America, under Dan Newhall, won every 507

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one of their matches. But my own club, Germantown, was coming on with their team of youngsters, and they showed up strongly in 1886. T h e Gentlemen of England, a strong eleven of amateurs, captained by E. J . Saunders, played the Philadelphias at Nicetown in September of 1885. W e won by 109 runs. Walter Clark and Dan Newhall were our leading batsmen, and Bill Lowry and Bill Noble our successful bowlers. This victory gave cricket a great stimulus, the more so because the Engishmen won every other game they played during their long tour of the country. T h e Rev. R. T . Thornton, an excellent batsman, preached on Sunday at St. Paul's Church in Chestnut Hill, and the opinion was that he preached as well as he batted. Bill Noble was fast becoming a leading factor in Philadelphia cricket. He reached first-class form in 1884, and it was unfortunate that he was not on the eleven that visited England. T h e feature of his batting was his wonderful timing; he was also a very useful bowler. A game on May 30, 1885 against Baltimore is worth recording from my personal standpoint. Germantown made 338 runs; Bill Morgan 106, Bill Brockie 65, and my father, Henry W. Brown, 56. My father and I together got all ten wickets of Baltimore for 38 runs. I have recently come into possession of an old cricket bat, used in the 1860's by Mr. Charles F. McKim, head of a firm of New York architects, who designed the beautiful colonial clubhouse at Manheim in 1889. I am presenting the bat to Haverford College, where Johnny Lester tells me it will be put to use for the encouragement of the cricketers there. I made my real dibut in cricket in 1885, and under our popular captain, Sam Welsh, I was asked to play a good deal on the Germantown first eleven, which included Lew Wister, Bill Brockie, George Patterson, Sam Bettle, Warrie Duhring, Bill Morgan, T o m Hargrave, my father, and my brother Reynolds. My father, to his great joy, was elected captain of the Germantown eleven of 1886, which included Reed Morgan and Ned Comfort. In that year, my father was thirty-nine, half again as old as most of the other players; but none was more enthusiastic and

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none a better judge of the game. After winning the championship for the year, this team became known as the Daisy Eleven. Thomas McKean, the generous president of the Germantown Club, gave each member of the team a silver and gold daisy pin for the front of our cricket caps. Only recently I gave mine to my oldest grandchild. It was youthful enthusiasm and energy that were mainly responsible for the rise of the Germantown Club to the championship. In 1888 Bill Brockie became our captain—one of the very best of captains, and a leader in sports and business for many years. George Patterson was our greatest cricketer—the W. G. of America—perhaps the most successful batsman we ever had. He always played with his head, and his bat was almost always where the ball actually was, rather than where the average batsman might imagine it to be. He was a shrewd medium bowler, but he never exerted himself in the field, as I knew from sad experience, fielding next to him in the slips. I could beat him to the ball, if in no other respect, and he never tried to prove the contrary. He was a very fine sportsman, and the only cricket fielder, except of course, the wicket-keepers, who was allowed by our opponents to wear a fielding glove, because of a tender and badly scarred hand. Warrie Duhring was our most successful fast bowler. T h e year 1887 was not a year of particular importance in Philadelphia cricket. There were no international matches. Belmont won the Halifax Cup with Germantown and Merion tied for second. In batting, George Patterson, with an average of 72, was in a class by himself. Dave Stoever also had a good average, but he was never so safe a batsman nor so good an all-round man as George. Bill Morgan was our best wicket-keeper, and a sturdy batsman. My brother R. D. developed in this year into an excellent batsman, and with an average of 45, stood next to Patterson. At that time he was captaining the Harvard University cricket eleven. Perhaps 1888 was most conspicuous because of the retirement from active play of Charley Newhall, the greatest American bowler of his day. T h e following figures of his bowling performances speak for themselves:

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1868 vs. Willsher's English Professionals 1872 vs. W. G. Grace's Amateurs 1874 vs. Canada (two games) 1878 vs. Australians 1879 vs. Gentlemen of Ireland 1879 vs. Richard Daft's Professionals 1879 vs. Daft's Eleven (For Young America) 1882 vs. Australians

Cricket 11 wickets 10 wickets 17 wickets 8 wickets 13 wickets 10 wickets 13 wickets 5 wickets

for for for for for for for for

69 69 127 96 127 143 127 47

runs runs runs runs runs runs runs runs

Charley Newhall's record was thus 101 wickets for 1,049 runs, an average of just over 10 runs per wicket against first-class batsmen. About 1890 a real successor to C. A. Newhall began to come into his own. I have not the record before me, but I clearly recall that about 1920 the editor of the English Cricketer put out a questionnaire asking world-wide replies to the question " W h o was the greatest bowler that ever lived?" T h e y tabulated the replies, and then commented to this effect: Most of the great bowlers have been named, but I miss the name of one who, at the top of his power and speed, was at least the equal of the greatest of them all—J. Barton King of Philadelphia. I'm inclined to agree with this opinion. Providence had given King just the right physique for a fast bowler—height, broad shoulders, slender hips, untiring legs; and he had acquired, above all, complete self-confidence. Eighteen eighty-eight was a year of great interest, especially for the Browns. T h o u g h Germantown did not win the cup, my brother R . D. led the batsmen with an average of 30.29, and I was lucky enough to be at the head of the bowlers with an average of 7.36. My most vivid recollections of international cricket center about Lord Hawke's visit in 1891, and the Austral ians in 1893 and again in 1896. T h e game at Manheim against Lord Hawke's team was heralded with tremendous interest, for Sammy Woods of Cambridge and Somerset, was at that time reckoned the best amateur bowler in England, and Hawke himself was a great batsman, and for many years captain of the Yorkshire County eleven. T h e game was chiefly remarkable for our second innings, in which we scored 183 for the

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loss of two batsmen, and won the match by eight wickets. It was the batting of Coates, Patterson, and R. D. Brown that made our victory possible. I believe this success marked one of the brightest days at Manheim, and I am glad to say that I did pretty well as a bowler. At Elmwood in September of 1893 we caught the Australians with their sea legs still on, scored 525 in our first innings, and beat them by an innings and 68 runs. It should be recorded that their fielding was woefully below par, and a great many catches were dropped. Frank Bohlen, with a beautiful innings of 118, and Bill Noble with 76, carried the score from 131 to 311 for the fifth wicket. George Patterson was run out for 56 when he looked settled for a big score. Bart King made 36 not out, and took a total of seven wickets for 168 runs. I should add that in the return match at the beginning of October, they beat us by six wickets, Hugh Trumble, a great bowler, taking no less than thirteen of our wickets for 96 runs. Bohlen was again our best batsman with 33 and 54 not out. T h e Australians were back again in 1896, and beat us by 123 runs in the first match at Manheim, and by an innings and 71 runs in the second match at Belmont. I naturally remember more vividly the third game at Haverford in early October, which we actually won by an innings and 61 runs. Australia for the third time won the toss; they batted first, but were dismissed for only 121 runs. Bart King took five wickets; the other five fell to Percy Clark, who was playing his first international match. Here he established his right to open the attack at the end opposite to King in all international matches for many years to come. In the spring of 1897, I had the honor of being invited to join the first American cricket eleven which proposed to match itself against the full strength of the English counties in a cricket tour. It was one of the great disappointments of my life that business duties made it impossible for me to take the trip.

CHAPTER

III

The Manheim Grounds Fifty Years Ago By

PERCY H . CLARK

HE event which contributed most to making the Germantown Cricket Club the leader among the clubs o£ America was the consolidation with Young America in 1890. The union had been agreed upon at a meeting held on April 1, 1889, when the boards of the two clubs were authorized to work out the necessary arrangements. The actual consolidation was effected on March 17, 1890, at a meeting held at the Germantown club. Dark blue and white, the old colors of Young America, were then adopted as the colors of the consolidated club. Improvements to the grounds and the new clubhouse were completed in the fall of 1891, and the first match on the new grounds was played against Merion on September 19. Merion won by 55 runs. T h e two matches against Lord Hawke's XI came shortly afterward, and the club had a most auspicious opening. Since these developments at Manheim stimulated the entire movement for bigger and better cricket grounds in the Philadelphia area, I think it well to quote here from the report of the Board of Governors read at the annual meeting of the club held in the new clubhouse on November 28. This, the thirty-eighth year of its existence, finds the club as a leading cricket organization of this country, its progress having far exceeded the greatest anticipation of its many well wishers. T h e membership is now 1103, made up as follows: Honorary, 10; 312

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Life, 66; Family, 428; Senior, 228; Playing, 32; Active, 112; Junior, 181; Non resident, 46. T h e number of tickets issued to ladies, through the privilege of family membership, brings the grand total of those interested in the welfare of the organization to nearly 2000. The interest shown in the international cricket matches played on the grounds with Lord Hawke's team of English cricketers in September and October, had led the managers to believe that Manheim has been chosen as the international cricket grounds of America; and it may not be amiss to state that not only is the Germantown Cricket Club the only one in the United States that ever attempted, single-handed to bring a team of English cricketers to this country, but that it reflects honor upon the organization that an undertaking of such magnitude should have been so successful, not only financially, but from a cricketing point of view. During the six days of these matches nearly forty thousand people witnessed the play. The first eleven has secured the Halifax Cup for this year, while the all-round good play of the various elevens has won also the Club Record cup, thereby giving promise that for some years to come the present high standard of the cricket played at Manheim may be maintained. It is appropriate to state that the Germantown team had the honor to make the largest score ever made in the United States in a single innings: viz., 631 in the match with the Rosedale Club of Toronto. That the grounds are socially a success is now an undisputed fact, and too much credit cannot be given the Ladies' Committee for their untiring efforts to promote the welfare of the club in this direction. Ladies' teas have been served every Tuesday; Thursday has been made music day, and Saturday match day, so that the entire week has been made attractive, and the attendance consequently large. It is proposed that these attractions shall be continued and new ones added during the coming year. T h e Treasurer's report, which gave an excellent financial showing for the club, contained a statement that the total cost of the ground and club house at Manheim, was nearly $220,000. When the club was opened, the old Littel house fronting on Manheim Street east of the East Gate, which had been equipped with lockers and showers, was used as dressing quarters for the cricketers and tennis players. In course of time more ample accommodations were provided in the south wing of the main clubhouse; the swimming pool building, a pet project of Bob Newhall, was constructed; then squash courts and bowling alleys were

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added, and still later the north wing was given to the club by E. W. Clark, then its president. This wing includes private dining rooms and dressing quarters for the lady tennis players. These buildings, the ladies' clubhouse (the old Price house completely done over), and the old square barn adjoining which was fitted up for the accommodation of the juniors, furnished ample facilities for the members, not to mention the grandstands erected on the west side of the cricket field at the time of the matches against Lord Hawke's eleven. T h e main clubhouse and connected buildings were designed by Charles F. McKim of the well-known New York firm of architects, McKim, Meade and White. A view that follows, taken from the top of the grandstand during a Halifax Cup match gives us a glimpse of Manheim as it was fifty years ago. T h e German town team is in the field with O'Neill bowling to Jordan, Percy Clark playing short slip and W. P. Newhall at cover-point. T h e other players have not been identified. T h e ladies' clubhouse shown under the trees on the right was a popular place during a big game, if only for the reason that the seats were cool and shady under the awnings and commanded a clear view of the play. Another favorite spot was on the turf in the shade of the big buttonwood rising midway between the two clubhouses. From the opening of the club in 1891 for a period of over thirty years these grounds and buildings were the center of great athletic and social activity. It was enthusiasm for cricket that brought about the extensive improvements and developments described above, and it was from this enthusiasm that sprang the interest in tennis, squash, association football, bowling, swimming, billiards, pool, cards, dancing, and other activities, for all of which successively the club made provision. During the height of the cricket season nets were stretched along the Hansberry Street side of the cricket grounds for practice from Mondays to Fridays, the nets being taken down before match days. One or two nets were reserved for the first eleven, others for the second eleven, juniors, and Zingari—five or six nets in all at the height of the club's activities, when it had two Halifax teams, and two Philadelphia Cup teams in the field. T h e juniors were re-

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quired to practice before four o'clock, when they could have the attention of the coaches; the older men did not come out until four-thirty or later in the afternoon. When the nets were filled and the tennis courts in operation, the ground was a busy place, and even after they were down the younger men would practice fielding, catching, and throwing to the wicket. Thus were developed such expert fielders as George Warder, Cope Morton, Forest Pearson, Howard Middleton, Huck Haines, Bill Newhall, Pete O'Neill, and Bobby Anderson. Cricketers of all classes had the benefit of George Bromhead's coaching. He was a medium slow bowler, and, like Alfred Shaw, very accurate. He taught the batsmen where to put their feet and how to make their strokes, but he did not talk too much. "Left foot nearer the pitch, Mr. Patterson"; "Elbow up, Mr. Graves; now try it again," and the ball would pitch in the right spot to bring out the stroke that George wanted to develop. Always a word of praise for a correct shot; but for a hard hit, even though it was badly executed, never a word of rebuke. That was kept for the miss hit. One of the great features of the club was its loyal staff of groundsmen and coaches with George Bromhead as chief. He came from Nottingham, and was head groundsman and head coach from the time he arrived at the old Nicetown ground in 1881 until his death in 1921. Without doubt he developed more good cricketers than any other coach who ever came to Philadelphia. Among them were George Patterson, Frank Bohlen, Bill Brockie, Sam Welsh, Frank Brewster, Ned Comfort, Carrick Jordan, Norman Henry, Frank Greene, Arthur Goodfellow, John Stewart, Bud Mann, Herbert Harned, Howard Savage, the Pearson brothers, Glyn Priestman, John Bretherton, Bill Newhall, Paul O'Neill, Squeer Graves, Arthur Jones, and Horace Austin. Other Germantown cricketers, for instance the Clark brothers, Bill Noble, Cope Morton, Harold Haines, and Bobbie Anderson, though they started their careers under other coaches, benefited from Bromhead's oversight. George went to England with the 1903 and 1908 teams as assistant manager, and was most efficient in that capacity. He was not so much a man as an institution; all cricketers who knew

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him loved him for his solidness and soundness, his constant good nature and his warm heart. Saunders Handford from Notts, who had been coach at the Young America club for some years, came on to Manheim and later went to the Philadelphia club. He was an expert grounds man, and famous for his good wickets and tennis courts. He was largely responsible for the early development of such cricketers as Bill Noble and the Clark brothers; he was in addition an excellent umpire and accompanied teams to Canada and to Halifax in that capacity. George Wooiley, also from Notts, was brought out by the Germantown club, and became a splendid coach and groundsman, and a fine all-round player. He left Germantown to go to the Philadelphia club, where he was in charge for many years. Fred Luffman came out to Manheim from England about the same time as George Wooiley. He was a hard-working practice bowler who made many friends. He had been a prize fighter in England, and some of the younger men, notably Norman Henry, George White, and Squeer Graves loved to box with him in the evening after cricket practice was over. T o m Irving was brought out from Lancashire. He was a fine slow left-hand bowler, who took a great interest in the man he coached. He was much valued for his friendship and loyalty, and his inherent honesty made him an excellent umpire. Fred Bray was brought from Nottingham by the Baltimore Cricket Club, and later came to Germantown. On the ground staff were also George Varley and Arthur Lancaster, and others whose names appear in the list of Philadelphia professionals in Appendix F. In every cricket club in Philadelphia the responsibility for providing good wickets rested ultimately on the shoulders of the grounds committee. Bob Newhall, the first chairman of the grounds committee at Manheim, continued to function in that capacity for many years. Every afternoon he could be seen entering the Hansberry Street gate at about six o'clock. Joining George Bromhead, the two would walk about the premises together observing needs and discussing problems. After Bob Newhall re-

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signed as chairman the position was filled successively by Charlie Davis, Percy Clark, and Frank White. After practice on weekdays and particularly after matches on Saturdays, the club was filled with members and their friends, often including the members of opposing teams, who stayed to dinner. T h e steward never knew how many to expect. On a rainy day he might have twenty, but after a clear afternoon in summer sometimes a hundred and twenty would walk in on him. Whatever the number, members still remember the dinners served by Martin Frankfurter; he was one who knew where to get and how to serve good food, and Gustavus Apostle, who succeeded Martin, carried on the good work. After international matches a dinner was generally given in honor of the visiting cricketers in the ballroom. On many occasions ladies were included and the room was filled to overflowing. This hospitality extended to visiting teams will always be remembered as one of the features of cricket in Philadelphia, and it cemented warm friendships begun on the cricket field with many players from overseas and from Canada. T h e ballroom for many years has been used for club dinners, private balls, and other entertainments, including theatricals. T h e walls of this room are ringed about with silhouettes of club members skillfully prepared and put in place by George Newhall. His intense interest in the game and in the club continued throughout his life, and in his later years found its outlet in such activities as this. We cannot write about Manheim without mentioning tennis. Most of the Philadelphia cricket clubs furnished facilities for tennis players and much good tennis was developed. As in the case of cricket, the beginnings started in the Young America club. In 1882 Clarence M. Clark and Frederick W. Taylor, of that club, won the United States championship by defeating Dwight and Sears in the finals of the national tournament. Joseph S. Clark was the Philadelphia singles champion for a number of years, and ranked among the first ten American players at that time. T h e interest in tennis increased as the years rolled by, and a tier of grass courts was laid out in front of the main clubhouse,

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from the score box near Hansberry Street to the big buttonwood near the ladies' clubhouse. They were popular courts. T h e older members liked to sit on the clubhouse porch and watch the play, and even the duffer players were delighted to have a gallery. More courts were constructed on the Hansberry street lot back of the grandstand as well as all around the edge of the cricket field. T h e expensive plant at Manheim was assembled in years of prosperity. While the club at times has had financial difficulties, these have been faced and overcome by the members, and at the present time it is in better financial position than it ever has been since the consolidation of 1890.

CHAPTER

IV

Some Reminiscences of Wicket-Keeping By

J . H E N R Y SCATTERGOOD

N THE order of their appearance on All Philadelphia teams our wicket-keepers have been Joe Hargrave, Charles E. Haines, A. Van Rensselaer, Jr., G. M. Newhall, W. C. Morgan, Jr., F. W. Ralston, J. H. Scattergood, T . C. Jordan, and C. H. Winter. But Philadelphia never had a first-class stumper until, in the early nineties, Frank Ralston began standing up to King and taking him close to the wickets. After that in Scattergood, Jordan, and Winter we had a succession of wicket-keepers of the very first order. T h e best bowler-stumper combination in the history of Philadelphia cricket was Hordern and Winter, between whom there was an uncanny understanding. Charlie caught nine and stumped eighteen off Hordern on the tour of the University of Pennsylvania in 1907, and with the Philadelphians in England the following year he caught nine and stumped eleven. Jordan's record in 1908 of five caught and seven stumped was also remarkable. It was natural that with our reliance on fast bowling against the English counties we should encounter hand injuries. This casualty had not been sufficiently considered by the selection committee in 1897. It is remarkable that of our keepers, the two who seemed physically the most fragile, Jordan and Winter, should have proved

I

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to be the most enduring. They had their own secrets for hardening the hands. T h e early English professional stumpers came on the turf in the spring with hands hardened from the winter's work. Lockyer, perhaps the best of them, was a bricklayer, and Pinder was a grinder. Our men had to substitute pickle for toil; and each had a formula for a hand-callouser that was private and peculiar to himself. In college, besides being our catcher in baseball and stumper in cricket, Scattergood was a fine all-round athlete, remarkable for extremely rapid coordination in all sports. On the few occasions when I have been batting with Henry behind me at the wicket, I have had the uneasy feeling of having a cat on my rear, crouched and silent, but ready to spring. With an indifferent wicket-keeper you can concentrate on the danger in front; with this man behind you had to be a Janus, in thought at least. Miss anything on the leg side and there's a little click and one bail is off; and if there's a reasonable doubt about the position of your right foot, and only then, a sharp appeal. Your right foot had to be grounded, and grounded so plainly that the umpire could see it. I was a little surprised at Henry's statement that he got nearly as many batsmen stumped as caught. But it would probably stand up against the complete count if that were available. T h e American Cricketer for January, 1907, prints a table of stumps and catches made by the twenty-one leading first-class wicket-keepers in England during the season of 1906. On the average there is one stump to 4.4 catches. In the games in which Scattergood kept for us in the 1903 tour, he stumped six men and caught nine—a ratio of one to one and one-half. In the years just before the First World War, Scattergood developed into a run-getter. On one or two occasions he topped the century and had an average of 36 in Philadelphia Cup batting in 1916. And there is the record that he took five wickets for 11 runs bowling for Haverford College in 1915 against Delaware County. But the sunniest moments in his life as a batsman were at Lord's in 1896, when he sent every ball of Maude's over to the boundary to the wild delight of friend and foe. T h e author of this brief chapter is not the only one who remem-

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bers the second innings of Warner's side at Belmont in 1897. Jessop, one of the victims, remembers it too, and has put it down in print: " T h e wicket-keeping of Scattergood was every bit as remarkable as was the bowling of Bart King. In the second innings he caused the downfall of six wickets." Jessop recalls that he reached out at a quick outswerver from Clark that got up, and for one instant lifted his foot. Scattergood took it wide of the off stump and head high and had the bails off before that cat-footed batsman could recover. But Scattergood's services to cricket extended far beyond his play. Always a defender of the faith, and one of those who strove hardest to stem the decline, he is still an influence in keeping it alive. •

*

*

*

It was my good fortune to be on the cricket scene in Philadelphia in the great days of the nineties, and up to the First World War. The great upbuilders of cricket in Philadelphia already had done their work. These were the Newhalls and Clarks of Germantown Cricket Club; the Evanses, Phillers, Thayers, Sayres, and others for the Merion Cricket Club; the Houstons, Woodwards, Edward Buckley, and others in Chestnut Hill for the Philadelphia Cricket Club; and Captain Green, J . B. Colahan, and others for the Belmont Cricket Club. Because we had such leaders, no city anywhere had finer facilities for the game in respect to grounds and clubhouses. These proved also to be the starting points for the later development of tennis, golf, squash, etc. College cricket, too, was at its height in those days, and thrived at Harvard, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and Haverford. As William Rotch Wister has observed, the game had been introduced at Haverford by William Carvill, the English gardener, who laid out the grounds and landscaped the campus in 1833, and helped to start the earliest club at the college—the Dorian Cricket Club. The game has thrived at Haverford ever since, despite the difficulties of recent years. My own first contact with cricket was at Haverford College

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from 1892 to 1896. Having always played baseball at school I had expected to carry on with it at college. But I soon fell under the charm of cricket in the winter shed practice under Arthur Woodcock, our English professional. I can remember to this day my first thrill from a hard hit on the center of my bat that made Woodcock jump for his life. Having been a catcher on my school team, I naturally graduated into wicket-keeping. I progressed from the third eleven to the second in the first year, and to the first eleven in the sophomore, junior, and senior years. T h e n came Haverford's first English tour, in 1896, under John Lester's captaincy. W e had fifteen matches with the great public schools, with a summer eleven of Cambridge University, and a game at Lord's with the Marylebone Cricket Club—a wonderful treat throughout. Lester, who was born in England but learned his cricket at Haverford, far surpassed the rest of us in all features of the game. In his first year at Haverford he actually had a batting average of 100.5. Haverford, in his day, won a good proportion of its intercollegiate contests. In wicket-keeping a high standard had already been set in Philadelphia cricket by Frank Ralston. He made a name for himself when he first stood up to King in the international matches in the nineties. Ralston was, of course, selected to be the wicketkeeper for the English tour of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia in 1897, under George Patterson's captaincy. In the middle of the tour his hands were so badly battered that he had to be relieved. T o my great joy a cable was sent to Philadelphia calling for me to take his place. I sailed immediately, and joined the team in the Gloucester match at Bristol; that was the game in which both W. G. and Jessop scored centuries against us, and Philadelphia was roundly defeated. I had come straight from the ship, but had the good fortune to earn my place by allowing one bye in a score of nearly 400, and also, as last man in, I made 13 not out. I remember jumping out and hitting three fours off W . G., and how the old gentleman chuckled! From that day for several years I kept wicket in the international matches, until this pleasant task was later shared with Carrick

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Jordan, who had been developing brilliantly at Germantown. In the English tour of 1903, under John Lester's captaincy, Jordan and I were both included and alternated in the matches. At Taunton against Somerset, a fast tip from Percy Clark's bowling broke my middle finger joint, forcing me to give way for the rest of the tour. After recovery I always had to use a right-hand mit in the Halifax Cup contests, and in those international matches in which I was selected. Jordan continued for some years later with a splendid record, and he was followed in international matches by Charlie Winter of Frankford, likewise one of the best wicket-keepers Philadelphia has ever developed. During all these years the burden of bowling in international matches was largely borne by Bart King and Percy Clark. They were ably helped by Harry Baily, Eddie Cregar, George Patterson, John Lester, and others. Each had his own special style. King and Clark were our famous fast bowlers, always steady and dependable. I especially enjoyed keeping wicket to Percy Clark, because his swerve, swinging out, brought more tips at the wicket and more frequent chances for a stump than the delivery of most bowlers. I was always an advocate of standing up close to the wicket, even for the fastest bowling, rather than standing back to make sure of catches, as had generally been the practice. Perhaps this was because I always had been taught by John Lester, my earliest tutor, to be ever on the alert to stump out a batsman. Lester also taught me always to put down the wicket on any leg ball that came to hand, for the reason that, if a batsman misses a leg ball, he is often off balance and drags his foot, giving a chance for a stump. Again, when a wicket-keeper is at all times close to the wicket, the batsman feels more restrained than he otherwise would be, and is made conscious of an enemy on his rear. He must constantly keep inside his line; he must avoid dragging his foot when playing forward; and he knows that to jump at the pitch and miss the ball spells disaster, especially with slow bowling breaking from the leg, whether from right- or left-hand bowling. In my long experience behind the wickets I think I had almost as many stumps as

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catches. T h r o u g h o u t the years there was rarely an innings in the field in which I did not have at least one catch, or stump, or r u n out, and I often had several. Everyone has his especially happy memories, which he may be pardoned for recalling. Besides that long siege at Bristol, with one bye, I think my best day's work in wicket-keeping was against Warner's English team of 1897 at Belmont, when I caught five at the wicket and stumped Jessop. These were largely from the bowling of Percy Clark, who had an unusually difficult swerve that day. T h e best catch I ever made was on a leg-glancing ball from the bat of A. C. MacLaren,* of Prince Ranjitsinhji's team, at the international match at Merion in 1899. Ordinarily the ball gets out of sight when it comes to the wicket-keeper on the leg side, especially if hit. On this occasion MacLaren had reached far forward, so that when the ball broke from the off he unintentionally made a glancing shot to the leg, which generally would have gone for a four. Although the ball came very low, I saw it all through its flight, and much to everyone's surprise, I pulled off the most difficult catch I ever made. • T h i s was [he catch t h a t ended MacLaren's great innings of 149.

CHAPTER

V

English Tour of The Germantown Cricket Club igu By

W . P. O'NEILL

HE following story shows that in the first decade of the century we had a group of young cricketers able to maintain the best traditions and the highest quality of the game in Philadelphia. Cricket is among those flowers of civilization that war tends to destroy. Among our international players Pete O'Neill had the longest career, with the two exceptions of A. M. Wood and Christie Morris. He first appeared for All Philadelphia against Ranjitsinhji in 1899, winning his place because of his fine bowling in the Colts' match, and played last against the Incogniti in 1924. O'Neill was a left-hander of the type of Η. I. Brown, but with a higher action. He appeared to improve with age, as he changed from a mediumpaced to a slow bowler with an occasional fast inswinger. There are many reasons why Pete's name will live in our history—among them that he was the last American bowler to capture the wicket of W. G. Grace. O'Neill's account of the Philadelphia Pilgrims' tour of England in 1921 is given in Chapter VII. *

*

#

325

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T h e decision of the Germantown Cricket Club to send a purely club team to England in 1911 was a startling innovation in Philadelphia cricket. Many critics said the club was too ambitious, and would win few games. But the Cricket Committee of Germantown believed that we needed something to keep the promising young cricketers interested in the game, and that continuous daily play against good English club teams would develop them. It was a long-term view for the club to take, b u t it was justified by the event. O u r schedule was arranged by F. E. Lacey, that grand secretary of the Marylebone Cricket Club later knighted by the King. No American cricketer ever had a better friend in England. Five veterans constituted the core of the team: P. H. Clark, J. N. Henry, T . C. Jordan, W. P. O'Neill, and H . P. Austin. T h e remaining ten ranged in age from seventeen to twenty-three: R. L. Pearson, A. G. Priestman, J. R. Stewart, R. P. Anderson, Η . Z. Maxwell, J. H . Savage, Jr., Ε. M. Mann, H . S. Harned, J. P. Bretherton, and F. H . T r i p p . T h o m a s Evans was our manager. Unfortunately, J. N. Henry, our captain, P. H . Clark, and T . C. Jordan were unable to sail with us. O'Neill was appointed to captain the team until they arrived. T h e youngsters kept the ship in a pleasant turmoil, and O'Neill and Evans were glad to get to London without casualties. W e made the Hotel Victoria, Trafalgar Square, our headquarters for matches in and near London. After only one day's practice at Lord's we went to Woolwich to play our first match, against the Royal Artillery. We found a hard wicket, too fast for our sea legs. We were out for 128, Anderson making 39 of them, eight men being clean bowled. T h e soldiers replied with 293, the last three wickets adding 104. Major T u r n e r , the Essex player, scored 47 in perfect style. T h e n our second innings started with a rush, for Pearson and Stewart scored 99 for the first wicket. But only Priestman with 41, and T r i p p with 26, gave them support, and our innings closed for 245. T h e Artillery got the 81 required to win for the loss of two wickets. A grand

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party with military formality was given us in the big mess hall after the first day's play. Our next match was at Lord's, against the Free Foresters. Their team included such well-known men as Captain Sarel, Basil Foster, M. W. Payne, Sir T . C. O'Brien, and E. C. Mordaunt. Again we won the toss, and Pearson and Stewart for the first wicket scored 50 and 54, respectively. T h e rest of us failed, and the innings closed for 156. T h e Free Foresters made 351—Captain Sarel 84, Payne 67, Mordaunt 61, and O'Brien 51. Our second try yielded 201, Pearson and Stewart scoring again, and O'Neill hitting u p 52. T h e soldiers got the seven runs they needed to win for one wicket. Mann did the best bowling, five for 70. Basil Foster, the actor member of that famous cricketing family, entertained us that evening at the theatre where he was playing. Our next match was at Belmont in Kent, on the private grounds of Lord Harris, a member of Fitzgerald's XII that played in Philadelphia in 1872, one of our oldest and best cricketing friends, and one of the mainstays of the M.C.C. all his life. No American team ever visited Great Britain without experience of his friendship. H e put up most of our team in or near by his own house for the two days of the match. It was a royal welcome and a delightful experience of English country house cricket. For the third time in succession we won the toss and went in to bat on a perfect wicket. Lord Harris had a good side to welcome us: among them our friend Captain Sarel, N. Haig, A. O. Snowden, G. S. Marriott, Jerry Weigall, our host and his son. Four men made practically all our 256 runs; Stewart with 51, Anderson a very well played 84, O'Neill, 40, and Austin 30. Lord Harris's "Band of Brothers" replied with 379, Captain Sarel getting 115, Snowden 60, and Haig 40. For the first time on the trip our fielding was poor: several missed catches cost us at least 100 runs. In the second innings, with scant time and a deficit of 123, we could only play for a draw, and had 168 for four wickets when time was called. Anderson batted well again for 49, and Pearson was 66 not out. Haig bowled best for the Brothers, O'Neill for us. T h e Mote at Maidstone, one of the most beautiful cricket

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grounds in England, was the scene o£ our next two-day match. W i n n i n g the toss again, we made 320 on a beautiful wicket, of which Priestman got 104 not out, a grand innings combining patient defense with powerful hitting—the first century of the trip. Stewart with 61, and Austin with 38, backed him up. T h e Mote got only 167 in their first innings and had to follow on. T h e i r second produced 157, leaving us five r u n s to win, and we lost two wickets in getting them. In contrast with the previous match, in this game our fielding was really superb, and accounted in large part for the low scores of our opponents. It was our first win in England and we were greatly encouraged. W e went next to Chatham, the great naval and army base, for a two-day match with the Royal Engineers. Just before the game P. H. Clark and T . C. Jordan arrived from Philadelphia, and we had high hopes for more victories. For the fifth successive time we won the toss and chose to bat. But we came to grief in the first innings, scoring only 87, Clark and O'Neill getting half of them. T h e Engineers replied with 167. T h e n late in the afternoon Pearson and Stewart, opening our second innings, made u p the 80-run deficit without loss before stumps were drawn for the day. Next morning they carried the total to 102, the highest first wicket partnership of the tour, before Stewart, with 41, was r u n out. T h e six following batsmen scored freely—Pearson 79, Austin 68, Anderson 65, O'Neill not out 53, Priestman 26, and Clark not out 29—and at 391 for five we declared, leaving the Englishmen three hours to get 312. It was a good batting recovery on our part. T h e Engineers failed badly in their second innings, and were all out for 71, Clark taking five for 29. T h i s gave us our second victory of the tour by 240 runs. O u r bowling was good all through. In the first innings O'Neill took seven for 45 and T r i p p two for 9; in the second innings Clark took five for 29, Savage two for 0 in six balls, and M a n n two for 0 in four balls. Needless to say, we celebrated loud and long in the party the Engineers gave us in their barracks. O u r next match took us to Lord's, where the M.C.C. p u t a nicely balanced team against us, among them our old friends Basil Foster of the Free Foresters and Major Guggisberg of the Engineers. Dr. J. N. H e n r y had now arrived and took over as captain.

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Club

329

We lost the toss and the M. C. C. began to bat in the hottest weather of the summer. M. C. C. made 246 runs, of which Foster contributed a hard hit 100. We made 211, Pearson and Stewart making 74 for the first wicket, and Anderson, O'Neill, Jordan, and Clark assisting with good scores. We had five of the best M. C. C. wickets down for 75 runs in the second innings, but Barnett, Headlam, and Coleman, an M. C. C. professional, added 190 for the next three wickets. With eight wickets down the innings was then declared closed, leaving us about three hours to hit up 249 runs. Their attack opened with Young, an Essex professional, at one end, and Holton with lobs, at the other. Instead of playing for a draw we flew at the lobs with fatal results for five of us, and we were all out for 128, losing the match by 120 runs. Lack of experience with lob bowling was one cause of our downfall. Mitcham Green, the most famous village cricket ground in the world with the single exception of Hambleton, was the scene of our next match. As early as 1707 the village was strong enough to challenge London, and in 1810 five of the Surrey eleven that played the rest of England were Mitcham men. As at Hambleton there was something in the air that drove young men to cricket. About 1870 two village elevens, the Early Risers and the Peep-o'-Day Boys, rose before daybreak, pitched wickets at 3:30, played from 4 to 7, and then went home for breakfast.* It was this long association of the village with English cricket that made us look forward to our one-day match on the old Common. It was a memorable and exciting game. Practically everybody on both sides scored runs, Germantown leading off with 313. When the time came for drawing stumps, H. Lacy, the Mitcham captain, though he was some 75 runs behind with but 2 wickets in hand, offered to play fifteen minutes more. Clark took the last Mitcham wicket with three minutes to spare, leaving us victors, thanks to the generosity of our opponents, by 55 runs. For Carrick Jordan this match brought a moment of strangely mingled emotions: delight as he drove a half-volley out of the grounds, dismay as he watched the arching ball fall plump into a • Surrey Cricket, ed. Lord Alverstone (London: Longmans, 1904), p. 406.

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baby carriage pushed slowly by a young mother along the edge of the Common. Dropping his bat, Jordan rushed out to know the worst, and found the baby unhurt and still sleeping peacefully. Our next match, a one-day fixture, was at Blackheath. Here the famous W. G. Grace did us the honor of turning out against us; it was a great day for us all to play against the fabulous "Old Man" of English cricket, now in his sixty-third year. T w o Kent County men, A. P. Day and R. N. R. Blaker, were among our opponents. Blackheath batted first on a perfect wicket. Our bowling was on the spot and our fielding keen. W. G. got 15 in a couple of overs and was then caught and bowled by O'Neill. Day batted well for 59 but they were all out for 162. It seemed not too difficult to pass this score, if we could master Day, who was bowling well that year. However, W. G. nearly proved our undoing, as he trundled to the wicket and tossed up his slow leg-breaks, with most of his fielders on the leg side.We slashed at him and were caught in the outfield, our first four wickets falling for 13 runs. But O'Neill and Clark made a good stand, and then T r i p p came in, and taking his block about a foot to leg of the leg stump, drove Grace hard to the off, where no fielders were stationed, soon made 43, and with Priestman, carried the score to 160. T r i p p was then bowled, and a few balls later Priestman hit a three for the winning runs. Savage bowled well for Germantown, taking five wickets. Kennington Oval was the scene of our next match, a two-day fixture against the Gentlemen of Surrey. Good weather and a perfect wicket greeted us. Surrey, batting first, were all out for 140; Germantown replied with 213, thanks largely to the batting of Pearson 73, and Clark 59. Surrey's first five batsmen all scored well in their second innings, but we captured their last five wickets cheaply, and they were out for 246, leaving us 174 to get in an hour and fifty minutes. Now our batting collapsed, four of our first six batsmen getting only 8 runs between them, and the last five men had to bat for an hour to make a draw. T h i s was finally accomplished, Harned and Savage, our last hopes, holding the fort for eighteen minutes till time was called. Again it was a slow leg-break bowler, Wills, who got us out. T h e setting for our next game was Liverpool, on the other side

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of England. Here we scored the most overwhelming victory of our tour. On a wicket on the soft side, Liverpool, batting first, were all out for 117, O'Neill getting six wickets for 68. Germantown started badly, losing three men for 35 runs, T h e n , after Clark with 53 and O'Neill with 50 had taken the edge off the bowling, Jordan played a brilliant innings of 106, and with Priestman 72, and Maxwell 35, our innings closed for 382. Liverpool scored only 96 in their second try, and we won by an innings and 169 runs. We crossed to Ireland for our next match at Bray, the country place of Mr. Cochrane, who called his team "Woodstock." On his side were five professionals, with G. A. Faulkner, the South African, one of the leading googly bowlers and batsmen in England that year, and Captain E. G. Wynyard, an All-England man. Against them we could not do much and lost the match by 163 runs. W e made only 99 r u n s the first innings and 172 the second. Woodstock made 273 the first innings and 161 for seven the second. Faulkner bowled well for Woodstock, and O'Neill for Germantown. Pearson and Priestman were our only effective scorers. T h e n to the famous Phoenix Park grounds at Dublin for our next match. Faulkner again played against us and J. C. Ross, an All-England man, together with Browning, Morrow, and Wynyard, all top-notch English cricketers. Opening on a soft wicket, Phoenix made 256, and Germantown 207. O n the second day the wicket began to crumble, and when Phoenix had 141 for eight they declared, leaving us 190 to get in an hour and a half. T h e pitch was now just right for Faulkner's googlies and Ross' off-breaks, and they rattled us out for 55 runs, Ross getting six for 19 and Faulkner three for 25. T h e last game of the tour was played at Cork near Blarney Castle. Here we had the first bad weather of the entire trip, and rain stopped the match after each side had played one innings, Germantown getting 165 and Cork 136. After this game our men separated, some going to the Continent or back to England, and some home. T h e trip had been a wonderful success for Philadelphia cricket, because it developed

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six or seven able new recruits. But for the interruption of the World War, Stewart, Anderson, Tripp, Harned, Maxwell, and Mann would have formed the nucleus of a powerful All Philadelphia eleven. These youngsters, with O'Neill, and Jordan behind the wickets, made this one of the best fielding teams that ever left Philadelphia. Bobbie Anderson was one of the best fielders in the history of our cricket—quick, fast, and sure, and a powerful thrower. Three of his feats on this trip are worthy of mention. In the game at Lord's against the M.C.C. he made an extraordinary one-handed catch at short slip, dismissing Basil Foster off Clark's bowling before he scored. In the first innings Foster had made 100 runs. The ball was a fast one which kept very low, and Anderson had to throw himself full length forward on the ground to get his hand under the ball. In the same match, running from short slip and fielding a ball from long-leg near the far boundary, he threw on a line to the top of the wicket on the first bounce and ran out the captain, Major Guggisberg, attempting a fourth run. He repeated the very same performance at Bray against Cochrane's team and ran out Captain Wynyard, who knew that a fourth run was usually safe on the throw from such a distance. For so young a team our record was not bad: we won five, lost five, and drew three.

CHAPTER

Germantown

VI

v. Belmont,

By

igoo-igio

PERCY H . CLARK

HE table in Appendix A shows the competitors for and the winners of the Halifax Cup during the forty-six years in which it was played for in Philadelphia. Merion won the cup in 1888, and Merion A won it again twenty years later. But in between the cup was consistently won by either Germantown or Belmont except for a tie midway through this period. T h e quality of club cricket in and around Philadelphia was at its peak between 1900 and 1910, and the competition at its keenest. In the eight years from 1900 to 1907, Germantown won the Halifax Cup four times, and Belmont won it four times. It was on the training ground of the Halifax Cup competition that Philadelphia cricketers earned their places on our international teams. In this chapter Percy Clark gives us a glimpse of this competition by centering attention on fifteen Germantown-Belmont matches played out during the years 1900 to 1910. After the visit of the Patterson and several came less active, but tinued and the rivalry

Philadelphias to England in 1897, George of the other mainstays of our cricket bethe interest in Halifax Cup cricket conwas greater than ever. T h e Tioga Cricket 333

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C l u b had disbanded in 1897, and King and Cregar, joining Belmont, had brought new strength to that eleven. Colonel J o h n P. Green, president of the Belmont club, in his unpublished book entitled " T h e Belmont Club and its Record in Philadelphia Cricket," calls attention to the high level of performance reached in the Germantown-Belmont matches played during the first decade of this century. T h e heaviest scorers for Belmont were Wood and King, but Cregar and C. M. Graham also scored centuries; and for Germantown Bohlen, Jones, Graves, Bates, P. H. Clark, F. S. White, Goodfellow, and Henry achieved the same distinction. T h e great burden of the bowling on the Belmont side fell upon King and Cregar, with the Grahams, Altemus, Keenan, and Hordern in support; while for Germantown P. H. Clark and Greene stood the brunt of it, relieved by O'Neill, W . P. Newhall, Morton, Bissell, George White, Henry, Priestman, and others. I have collected some scores of the matches during the eleven years from 1900 to 1910 that seem to be of special interest because of large scores, close scores, or because individual centuries were compiled. T h e following matches are those that appear to the writer to be worthy of special mention. T h e bowling feats, except for King's 5 wickets for 5 runs, are omitted for lack of space. Some of the heavy scoring matches straggled over portions of four days, so that the date given indicates that on which each match began. Date May 30, 1900 J u n e 23,1900

Germantown 155 326 (Henry 116)

July 4,1900 July 21,1900 Aug. 25, 1900 Sept. 8, 1900

174 362 128 281

May 30, 1901

56 and 49

May 30, 1902 May 30, 1904 July 2,1904

74 and 559 (Bohlen 208) 217 179 and 179

July

269

16,1904

for 7 wickets (Clark 178) for 8 wickets (Jones 154)

Belmont 153 330 for 7 wickets (Wood 165·) 173 245 125 282 for 8 wickets (Wood 1 0 5 · ) 96 and 55 (King took 5 wickets for 5 runs) 344 and 291 for 7 wickets 251 (King 141) 268 and 91 for 0 wickets 398 (Cregar 117)

Result G'tn by 2 runs Bel. by 3 wickets G'tn by 3 wickets G'tn by 117 runs G'tn by 2 wickets Bel. by 2 wickets Bel. by 46 runs Bel. by 3 wickets Bel. by 34 runs Bel. by 10 wickets Bel. by 129 runs

Germantown June July

Date 6, 1905 4, 1905

July 4, 1908 May 30, 1909 May 28,1910

v. Belmont;

Germantown 434 (Graves 135) 40 276 (Goodfellow 119) 456

124 and 367 (F. S. White 107) * Signifies not out.

Halifax

Belmont 150 572 (King 315; Wood 106) 93 226 and 162 338 (Wood 9 1 · ) and 136

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335

Result G'tn by 284 runs Bel. by 532 runs G'tn by 183 runs G'tn by an innings and 68 runs G'tn by 17 runs

Comments on these matches appear later in this chapter. When the Tioga club withdrew from the Halifax Cup competition in 1897, Radnor and Belfield joined it. T h e leading players were absent with the Philadelphia team in England, but the competition was keen and resulted in a tie between Germantown and Merion, each team having won eight games and lost two. In 1898 the same six teams competed. Germantown and Belmont tied, and the play-off resulted in a victory for Germantown. Belfield withdrew from the Halifax Cup competition in 1899, and Germantown won the cup for that year. Radnor withdrew in 1900, and this would have left but four teams, Germantown, Belmont, Merion, and Philadelphia, in the competition. T o meet this situation Germantown put two teams in the competition. How this came about was explained in the pages of The American Cricketer by W. N. Morice: The cricket season of 1899 being a thing of the past, the question naturally arises, is the standard of cricket higher or lower than it was last year? At first sight many will jump at the conclusion that there has been a retrograde tendency, judging merely from the results of the recent international matches. The question, however, is not so easily answered, and a careful analysis of the entire season is necessary before a fair estimate of the present strength of cricket in Philadelphia can be made. As will be remembered, the season opened with but five clubs in the cup competition, the Belfield Club having withdrawn at one of the early meetings of the Associated Clubs. Naturally it was felt that it would be inadvisable to go back to the old five-club schedule, which necessitated the leaving off of one club each week. Those actively interested in the matter began to look around for some club that could put strong enough elevens in the field to warrant admittance into the Associated Clubs. It was at once seen that, though there were several clubs that could put a fair first eleven in the field, none could get out good

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first, second, and j u n i o r elevens. J u s t when all plans seemed about to fail, a n d when things were looking blackest, the G e r m a n t o w n C l u b c a m e forward with a plan whereby they were to place two elevens in the field to c o m p e t e in the H a l i f a x a n d C l u b R e c o r d C u p games, whilst the R a d n o r C u p was to be c o m p e t e d for by but five teams. O b j e c t i o n s were i m m e d i a t e l y raised to this plan by M e r i o n and B e l m o n t , on the ground that they would not be playing G e r m a n t o w n ' s greatest strength, but would meet what would practically be little better than a second eleven. A n o t h e r o b j e c t i o n was raised a b o u t the i n t e r c h a n g i n g of players on the two G e r m a n t o w n teams. W o u l d these teams have to be n a m e d to the C o m m i t t e e before the season began, or would they be allowed to change the elevens as they pleased, placing strong teams in the field against B e l m o n t and M e r i o n , and weaker teams against Radnor and Philadelphia? A f t e r considerable discussion, it was decided that G e r m a n t o w n was to be allowed perfect freedom in the selection of her elevens, and all o b j e c t i o n s to the plan were withdrawn. Discussion then changed to the question, would G e r m a n t o w n be able to place two elevens in the field on the same day, strong enough to compete with M e r i o n , B e l m o n t , and Philadelphia? T h i s was almost unanimously answered in the negative, for it was argued that both Merion and B e l m o n t had either been q u i t e as good as or very little inferior to G e r m a n t o w n in the past few years, and with the l a t t e r club compelled to divide its forces, the elevens from H a v e r f o r d and W e s t P h i l a d e l p h i a would be a b l e to more t h a n hold t h e i r own. However, it was here that a source of strength h i t h e r t o u n c o u n t e d on, c a m e to the Daisies' aid. F o r several years the G e r m a n t o w n Zingari had been playing a very strong game, and had been considered superior to the second eleven of the club. T h i s was the source o f supply from which the club drew its e x t r a m e n . G e r m a n t o w n a g a i n p l a c e d t w o t e a m s in t h e c u p c o m p e t i t i o n in 1 9 0 0 , a n d t h e s c h e d u l e was e x t e n d e d by p r o v i d i n g t h a t e a c h t e a m s h o u l d play f o u r g a m e s a g a i n s t e a c h of t h e o t h e r s . I n t h e list of e x c i t i n g m a t c h e s g i v e n a b o v e it will b e n o t i c e d t h a t six o c c u r r e d in 1 9 0 0 . T h i s was possible b e c a u s e G e r m a n t o w n with two t e a m s in t h e c o m p e t i t i o n m e t B e l m o n t n o less t h a n e i g h t times. I will n o w p o i n t o u t briefly w h y these g a m e s a t t r a c t e d ticular

par-

interest:

May 30,1900.

T h i s was t h e r e g u l a r D e c o r a t i o n D a y g a m e p l a y e d

a t E l m w o o d . G e r m a n t o w n b a t t e d first a n d w e r e all o u t f o r

155;

G . R . W h i t e 4 9 a n d W . W . N o b l e 4 7 m a d e m o s t of t h e r u n s . B e l m o n t lost six of t h e i r best w i c k e t s f o r 8 5 r u n s , b u t

Watson,

Germantown

v. Belmont;

Halifax

Cup Duels

337

Morgan, and Mack raised the score to 153 before the last wicket fell. Morgan was top scorer with 36, and Clark took 6 wickets. Germantown thus won by 2 runs—a very close and exciting finish. June 23, 26, and. 27, 1900 at Elmwood. Germantown batted out 326 runs on Saturday, with Henry 116 and R. D. Brown 61, Cregar taking 5 wickets for 58. On the following Monday afternoon Belmont passed this score with the loss of but 6 wickets, owing chiefly to Wood's very fine innings of 165 not out, and a well hit 67 by Crawford Coates. Clark took 5 of the 6 Belmont wickets. July 5, 1900 at Manheim. Wood with 67 was largely responsible for Belmont's total of 173. Henry took 5 Belmont wickets for 29 runs. Germantown responded with 174 for 7 wickets, with Noble 65 and Morton 47. King did not play in this match. July 21, and 31, 1900 at Elmwood. Germantown batted first and made 362 chiefly through Clark's innings of 178. King took 5 wickets. T h e game was finished ten days later, when Belmont were all out for 245. Wood was again top scorer, and Clark took 5 wickets. August 25, 1900 at Elmwood. T h i s was a low scoring match. Belmont were all out for 125, Robinson taking 6 wickets. In passing this score Germantown lost 8 wickets, with G. R. White top scorer with 37—a close finish. Sept. 8, 1900 at Elmwood. This was truly an exciting match. Germantown batted first, and King and Cregar had 5 Germantown wickets down for 39 runs, when Jones and Graves, who arrived late, took their places at the wickets, and soon had the ball rolling to all parts of the field. T h e scoring was very fast, and though Graves was bowled by King after he had hit u p 61, Jones was not dismissed until he had made 154, probably the finest innings he ever played. T h i s batsman scored mainly in front of the wicket by well timed forward shots which sent the ball along the turf to the boundary. His strokes off his legs were also particularly fine. It reminded me of the treatment F. G. J. Ford handed out to Bart King at Lord's in 1897, b u t Jones kept the ball closer to the carpet than Ford. Germantown were all out for 281—a good recovery after a bad start. King took 5 wickets.

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The game was not finished until September 19, when Belmont passed Germantown's score with the loss of only 3 wickets, due to King's 79, and Wood's 105 not out—fine uphill batting when the runs were needed. Clark took the only three wickets that fell. I have discussed these matches because Colonel Green has mentioned them as matches of particular interest, and for the further reason that Germantown and Belmont for many years had been the chief contenders for the Halifax Cup. Germantown won the cup more often than any other Club. In the games Colonel Green mentioned, Bart King made the play. There is no other Bart, and the satisfaction which comes to a cricketer who scores runs or takes wickets against his team is greater and deeper than results from corresponding performances against other good teams. In addition Wood, Cregar, Coates, and Willard and Merwyn Graham are no mean opponents. Batsmen and bowlers who performed well in these games immediately brought themselves to the attention of the selection committee. It was this stern competition that developed many fine cricketers. There were many other interesting matches played in 1900 but I will mention only two. On September 22, 25, 28 and October 4, Philadelphia defeated Belmont by one run—Philadelphia batted first, making 330; F. A. Evans 90 and A. G. Scattergood 80. Belmont responded with 329, Coates 83 and W. T . Keenan 65. King and Wood did not play in this game. Merion and Germantown were tied for the Halifax Cup and the tie was played off at Manheim on October 6th on a very bad wicket. Germantown batted first and were all out for 88, of which T . C. Jordan going in late, made 32 not out. A. P. Morris took 7 wickets for 49 runs. Merion were all out for 79, the wickets being divided by Greene 4, and Clark and Morton 3 each. Nineteen hundred was the most active year in the history of the Halifax Cup competition. All matches scheduled were played, but many of them could not be finished on the day started; and the necessity of turning up to finish an important match on several weekday afternoons following the start of the match was very awkward for many of the players. It was because of this as

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much as any other one thing that the schedule was shortened in subsequent years. T h e averages for 1900 show the large amount of cricket played, and deserve attention. Arthur Wood won the batting cup with a total of 791 runs for 15 innings and an average of 60.85. N o other batsman scored over 500 runs. R. H . Patton led the bowling averages with 23 wickets, for an average of 7.91. P. H. Clark bowled the most balls and took the most wickets, 69, average 12.85, while Bart King, who bowled fewer balls, took 68 wickets for an average of 10.79. I return now to make some brief comments on the remaining games listed above. May 30, 1901 at Elmwood. Belmont batted first and were all out for 96, Morton taking 6 wickets. Germantown responded with only 56 runs, King taking 5 wickets for 5 runs. Belmont was then dismissed for 55, Morton again taking 6 wickets, and Germantown were all out for 49, King taking 7 wickets, or a total for the match of 12 wickets for 17 runs. Belmont thus won by 46 runs. May 30, 31, June 2 and 3, 1902. Germantown A against Belm o n t at Elmwood. This game was a great contrast to the one just mentioned, and is perhaps the most surprising match ever played in the Halifax C u p contest. T h i s was the game in which Germantown scored 67 and 559 (F. H . Bohlen 208), and Belmont 344 a n d 291 for 7 wickets, thus winning by 3 wickets. An account of this game and the full score appears in Part 1, page 180. T h e r e was nothing particularly surprising about Germantown or any side being bowled out on a p l u m b wicket by King for 74 runs, nor was it at all surprising that Belmont should follow u p by making 344, with King top scorer with 77. After this had happened Frank Bohlen was heard to say, "If I ever get the time of Bart, I'll make him sick." Frank was as good as his word, b u t Bart was still well enough to make the top score for Belmont again in the second innings. H e won the game for his team. In view of the state of the game and the strength of the Belmont bowling, the making of 559 runs is probably the finest batting performance ever given by a Germantown team, and Belmont's recovery in

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the fourth innings was superb. Except for King's brilliant performance in the first innings there is not much to be said for the bowlers except that they stuck to their jobs until the game was over; and it is such experience that teaches a bowler how to handle himself against first-class batsmen May 30 and 31, 1904 at Elmwood. Merion had put two teams in the Halifax C u p competition this year, and Frankford's inclusion had raised the n u m b e r of competing teams to seven. T h i s meeting of Belmont with Germantown Β was all Bart's match. He went in first and made 141 out of 251, then took 8 Germantown wickets for 64 runs. Morton took 5 Belmont wickets, and made top score of 67. July 2 and 4, 1904 at Manheim. Germantown were all out for 179, with Freeland top scorer with 52. King took 7 wickets. Belmont scored 268, of which King made 118. E. W. Clark took 5 wickets. Germantown again made 179 in the second innings, with A. H. Brockie's 46 the top score. King and Wood, with 44 and 42 respectively, batted out the 91 needed to win without the loss of a wicket. July 16, 1904 at Elmwood. Belmont scored 398; Cregar 117, Wood 84, W. Graham 68. Greene and Haines each took 3 wickets. Germantown were all out for 269, Jordan's 70 being the top score. Belmont thus won by 129 runs. June 6, 1905 at Elmwood. Germantown batted first and made 434 r u n s - G r a v e s 135, Jones 63, Jordan and G. R. White 59 each. Cregar took 5 wickets. King did not bowl. Belmont was all out for 150, two men being absent. T h e wickets were divided equally among O'Neill, Haines, G. R. White, and Middleton. July 4 and 5, 1905 at Elmwood. T h i s match is particularly noteworthy because of King's large score of 315 out of a total for the side of 572. Wood made 104, and Newhall took 6 wickets. Germantown were all out for 40, with two men absent. King took 3 for 20, and Cregar 4 for 20. July 4, 1908 at Elmwood. Belmont made 93, Clark taking 8 wickets for 37. Germantown responded with 276, of which Goodfellow scored 119. May 28, 1910 at Elmwood, on a perfect wicket. Germantown s

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first venture closed for a paltry 124 runs, to which Belmont responded with 338, Wood's 91 not out being the top score. Germantown then compiled 367, Frank White with 107, leaving Belmont 153 to get. T h i s they started to do in a way most disheartening to their opponents, King and C. M. Graham, the first men in, making 58 and 29 respectively. But Priestman, bowling on a true wicket, soon put an entirely different complexion on the game, and came out with the remarkable average of 6 wickets for 33 runs, and the match, largely through his success, ended in a victory for Germantown by the narrow margin of 17 runs. T h e r e is a popular notion in this country that cricket lacks excitement, b u t those who are familiar with the game and who are fortunate enough to take part in one in which the score is close, I feel sure will agree that no other game carries with it the prolonged, intense interest of a close cricket match, nor does any other game demand in a crisis the sustained coolness that is required of a batsman who is endeavoring to pull his side out of a deep hole.

CHAPTER

VII

The Tour of the Philadelphia Pilgrims in England,

ig2i

By W . P . O ' N E I L L

The founding of the club called The Philadelphia Pilgrims at Edinburgh at the close of the tour of 1903 has been noted at the beginning of Chapter XIV, in Part I. The club has continued in existence ever since. Of the various cricketing expeditions made by its members the most important was the tour of England in 1921. This was the last occasion when a qualified eleven of Philadelphia cricketers played in England. *

T

*

·

o

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THAT famous English cricket club, the Incogniti, the Philadelphia Pilgrims owe their wonderful tour of England in 1921. T h e idea of a return match by the Philadelphians was suggested by the Incogs during their stay in this city in 1920. They were enthusiastically received by us and on their return to England, their leader, Captain E. J . Metcalfe, arranged a most attractive schedule of games for us. As one of the most famous of London clubs, all doors in the English cricket world are open to the Incogs. Our schedule was arranged so that we met the best of the Army and Navy teams, had some delightful country house matches, and played against the most famous of the club teams in England. Our schedule follows: 342

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August August August

1- 2 3- 4 5- 6

August August August August August August August August

8- 9 10 11-12 15-16 17-18 19-20 22-23 24-25

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Band of Brothers Royal Artillery Crusaders Lionel Robinson's X I Incogniti Free Foresters M. C. C. The Army Royal Engineers Royal Navy Gentlemen of Essex Eton Ramblers

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At Belmont, Faversham, Kent At Woolwich At Cambridge At Old Buckenham, Attleboro, Norfolk At Wimbledon At Wimbledon At Lord's At Aldershot At Chatham At Chatham At Brentwood, Essex At Oxford

John H. Mason captained the Pilgrims' side, which consisted of the following players: C. C. Morris, S. W . Mifflin, J . L. Evans, and J . M. Crosman of the Merion C. C.; W . Paul O'Neill, W. P. Newhall, and W . R . Clothier of the Germantown C. C.; J . H. Mason, E. Hopkinson, Jr., Cyril G. Woolley, and H. R . Cartwright, Jr., of the Philadelphia C. C.; and R . P. Anderson, C. H. Winter, and G. F. Bottomley of the Frankford C. C. On arriving in London, we were put up at the Sports Club, in St. James' Square, and this was the team's headquarters during the tour. It was a delightful place in which to be quartered, central to everything in London. Its typical British club atmosphere was most agreeable and the Incogs couldn't have chosen a better spot for us. At the end of the trip, we said goodbye to our London home with genuine regret. First Match Pilgrims vs. Band of Brothers at Belmont Played—July 29, 1921 Our first match was at Belmont, in Kent, the house of that great friend of all American cricketers, Lord Harris. When the Germantown C. C. team visited England ten years before, in 1911, their first match was played on this same spot, and for some of us it was like coming back home. Lord Harris has been president of the M.C.C., captain of All

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England teams, has played cricket everywhere, and has always given Philadelphia teams the warmest welcome and most hospitable entertainment. It is no small feat in entertaining to put u p a whole team at your house overnight, and this Lord Harris has done twice for Philadelphians. When we arrived at Belmont, we f o u n d Lord and Lady Harris had brought in some charming ladies from the neighborhood and were giving us a house party. Each of the ladies "adopted" two of our team as "godmother" for the whole visit. O n e of the team found in his "godmother" the attractive lady he had met on his last visit to Belmont ten years before, and a joyful reunion resulted. Playing against us were the captain of the Kent County eleven, L. H. W. T r o u g h t o n ; their wicket-keeper, G. E. C. Wood; G. T . Bryan, one of their best bats; J. R. Mason, a former Kent captain himself who visited Philadelphia with Kent in 1903, and Lord Harris himself, who had first visited America with W. G. Grace in 1872. We won the toss and went in to bat. T h e wicket was a bit bumpy and fast because of a very serious drought in England this year. We were all out for 148, Mason, who showed his old skill in bowling, getting most of us caught on his deceiving slow ball. Evans 36, and Winter 23 not out, were the chief scorers. Mason took five wickets for 34, and Lord Harris with his lobs, three for 36. Mason and Bryan opened for the Band of Brothers. We got Mason for 16, and several wickets cheaply, and it looked as if we might win. But Bryan, who had been batting carefully, now began to hit and to keep the bowling to himself as much as he could. Finally, he was caught off O'Neill for a beautiful innings of 70, which saved his side. We had nine of our opponents' wickets for 117 runs, a very even draw, when time was called. T h e next day, at Canterbury, where Kent was playing Hampshire, we saw Bryan go in first for Kent and make 107 runs, so we felt not too badly about his score against us. Clothier took two wickets for 17 runs, Hopkinson three for 26, and O'Neill three for 38. A delightful dinner party and evening's entertainment with all the house guests and our "godmothers"

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followed, and then to bed. Next morning we left in a motor bus for Canterbury to see the first match of Canterbury Week, meeting there again our charming host and hostess and many of our friends of the preceding evening. Second Match Pilgrims vs. Royal Artillery at Woolwich Played—August 1-2, 1921 At Woolwich, we played our second match against the Royal Artillery, the first of our Army and Navy games. Batting first on a hard wicket and fast outfield, we scored 199 runs, got the Royal Artillery all out for 84 by good bowling and excellent fielding, and thus compelled them to follow on. They lost two wickets for 67 in their second innings before play ended and next day got a total of 211. This left us 96 runs to get to win our first victory. This we did for the loss of three wickets. Anderson, Hopkinson, and Bottomley bowled well, and Evans, Anderson, Mifflin, Morris, and Crosman did well at bat for us. We were put up at the famous barracks of the Royal Artillery, entertained at one of their famous mess dinners, and spent most of the night afterward in playing football with a feather pillow, and "chuting the stairs" on trays. Several Philadelphians came down from London to see us play the first day. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. William B. Kurtz, Mrs. Henry Cartwright, Jr., Mrs. Charles Dixon, and Mr. Alfred G. Scattergood and his family, Third Match Pilgrims vs. Crusaders at Cambridge Played—August 3-4, 1921 For our third match we traveled to Cambridge University and played the Crusaders at Fenner's Field. They put out a good side against us, among them two of our Incogniti friends who had come with their team to Philadelphia the preceding fall, T . C. Lowry and G. O. Shelmerdine. T h e famous Ashton cricket family was represented by Hubert and Claude, both of whom were on the Cambridge eleven this year. Hubert had already made a century

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against the Australian team, and later in the year was to help Maclaren's team beat them for the first time that season. T h e Crusaders batted first after two hours' delay caused by a light rain, and scored 219. Cuthberton 58, Lowry 42, and Hubert Ashton 67, were the main scorers. In our innings the batting collapsed and we got only 98 runs, Anderson 24 and Winter 26 scoring the only double figures. T h e bowling and fielding of our opponents were not extraordinarily good and the wicket was one of the best, so it was just one of those innings where everyone failed for no good reason. T h e Crusaders in their second innings were all out for 159, and but for a stand by Lowry 60 and Hubert Ashton 32 would have done about as badly as we did in our first innings. W e had 280 runs to make in less than three hours. W e got 150 for four wickets; then came a slump, and we were fortunate to get a draw by batting out time with a score of 204 for eight wickets. Evans 33, Crosman 52, Morris 65, and Woolley not out 26, made most of our runs. O'Neill, Clothier, and Anderson shared most of the wickets. A beautiful catch of Hubert Ashton by Clothier at short square leg of a very hard-hit ball was the outstanding piece of fielding in the match. Fourth Match Pilgrims vs. Lionel Robinson's X I at Old Buckenham Played—August 5-6, 1921 Our fourth match was played at Old Buckenham, Norfolk, the beautiful estate of Mr. Lionel Robinson, an Australian by birth, who had shortly before entertained the eleven of his countrymen then playing in England, probably as fine a side as ever came from Australia. We found that our host had many of our old friends to play against us: Archie MacLaren, the famous bat and All England captain, who had visited Philadelphia with Ranji's X I of 1899; Colman, Roberts, Fowler, and Lowry of the Incogs; Enthoven of this year's Harrow eleven; Colonel Hartley, and our jovial guardian and guide, J i m Metcalfe. We batted first under a rainy sky. O'Neill, who had intended not to play on account of a torn cartilege, finally filled in for our

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opponents, who were one man short. Evans and Morris, our first batsmen, though interrupted by rain, carried the score to 53 before the first wicket fell. T h e n our old friend Fowler began to bowl with his usual skill and break, and seven were down for 100. Evans was still in, batting slowly and safely. Woolley finally joined him and, batting very well, stayed with Evans till stumps were drawn for the day at half past six in a bad light. O u r score stood 158 for seven wickets. O n two successive no-balls, Evans had hit Fowler for six and four. Next m o r n i n g Evans was out for 64. H e had batted for nearly three hours on a difficult wicket. Woolley and Clothier, with 43 and 20 respectively, helped lift our total to 213 runs. Our opponents f o u n d difficulty in making runs in their turn at bat and we dismissed them for 124. Hough 69 and Fowler 22 scored the only double figures for their side. Hough was missed twice or this total might have been much smaller. O u r second innings was not at all good. W e made 98 runs, only two men, Mifflin 40 a n d Anderson 20, getting double figures. Mifflin hit hard and clean for his runs and Anderson might have gotten a larger score, for he looked well set, when he was r u n out in a curious m a n n e r . Mifflin hit a ball to third slip and Anderson called a r u n . In starting to r u n Mifflin touched his wicket with his foot and a bail fell off. Anderson, seeing this, thought Mifflin had hit his own wicket and was out and never attempted to get back to his own wicket, which he could have done easily. T h e ball was returned to Anderson's end, the wicket p u t down, and he was properly given r u n out. Robinson's eleven was left with 188 runs to win, b u t only a short time to d o it, so a finish was impossible. T h e y got 51 r u n s for three wickets when time was called, leaving the game a very even draw. O u r fielding was good in the match. T o be noted was a quick r u n out of Roberts by Anderson and a splendid one-hand catch of Fowler by Winter. W e lost five wickets l.b.w. in our two innings, f o u r to Fowler. Fowler took eleven of our wickets for 106 r u n s in the match, a fine performance, and Morris for us got f o u r wickets for 17, a very good bowling performance.

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Fifth Match Pilgrims vs. Incogniti at Wimbledon Played—August 8-9, 1921 O u r fifth match took us to Wimbledon, where our old friends and hosts, the Incogniti, were our opponents. They played nine of the men who had made the trip to Philadelphia in 1920. These, with H. R. Kirkwood, a good left-hand bat, and A. E. R. Gilligan, a fast right hand bowler who played for Sussex, made u p the team. Mason stood out of this match as did O'Neill, whose injury still bothered him. Morris captained the side, won the toss, chose to bat, and started the innings with Evans and Bottomley. T w o wickets fell for 13 and our batting failed badly, only Morris, Crosman, Mifflin, and Anderson making double figures. A fine innings of 58 not out by Mifflin saved a bad situation, b u t we were all out on a good wicket for 159. T h e Incogs got 168 for three wickets before play ended for the day, and next day Kirkwood carried his score to 104 before being bowled by Mifflin. T h e Incogs got 382 runs for their first innings, almost all their batsmen scoring double figures. We opened our second innings 225 runs behind the Incogs, an almost hopeless situation. But Evans and Morris started the innings and, batting carefully but fearlessly against very good bowling, not only wiped out our deficit of 225 runs, but scored a total of 239 runs before Morris was bowled on a half volley from Burrows. Needless to say, this was the best partnership for any wicket of the whole tour, either for or against us. T h e wonderful batting performance of these two men turned what looked like a hopeless situation and a certain defeat into a very creditable draw. Neither batsman gave a chance until each had passed his century. Crosman and Newhall with 32 and 44 not out, respectively, carried our total to 349 for four wickets when stumps were drawn. Sixth Match Pilgrims vs. Free Foresters at Wimbledon Played—August 10, 1921 O u r sixth match, a one-day affair, started the next day at the

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same ground at Wimbledon. T h e Free Foresters, one of England's famous amateur clubs, put out a good side against us. Winning the toss and going to bat on a perfect wicket, we failed badly and gave one of our worst batting performances of the trip. Only three men got double figures, and the whole side was out for 99 runs. But for Anderson, who gave a fine display for 43 when wickets were falling rapidly, we would have made a sad showing indeed. Evans stood down for this game, the only one he missed, and possibly he might have made the picture look a bit brighter for us. Morris, after a century the day before, was out the first ball. Doggart got seven of our wickets for 28 runs, and Payne, their wicket-keeper, who played for both Cambridge and Middlesex, caught five of our side behind the wicket. W e dismissed their first man before a r u n was scored, b u t their next two batsmen, our old friend Fowler, and A. C. Wilkinson, gave us a real day in the field, each scoring 103 runs by some beautiful batting. Late in the day the Free Foresters declared for a total of 223 runs for three wickets. W e had a little time left to bat and lost three wickets for 31, leaving the game a win for the Free Foresters on first innings scores. Seventh Match Pilgrims vs. M.C.C. at Lord's Played—August 11-12, 1921 O u r seventh match was played at Lord's against M.C.C. Lord's is the ground on which every cricketer hopes at some time to play. Philadelphia teams have been honored in playing at Lord's on previous trips; so to some of us it was not new, b u t to many of our team it was an inspiring first experience. W e were further honored by having our old friend Lord Harris captain the M.C.C. side against us. Although over seventy years old he can still handle a bat, and teach many a younger man to make a short run. M.C.C. p u t a good side against us, six of them being our old friendly enemies, the Incogs, of their 1920 Philadelphia team. On an easy wicket M.C.C. won the toss and opened against Anderson and O'Neill. After the first wicket fell at 61 the scoring increased

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rapidly when Burrows hit off 79 runs in about ninety minutes. He, too, was missed at extra cover when he had only 30. Practically all their side scored well, only two failing to reach double figures. Lord Harris made 25, running a few short ones, for excitement, and the innings closed for 348 runs after about five hours' batting. Our fielding was only fair in this innings, due partly to the condition of the outfield at Lord's, which was dry and crumbling, owing to the unusual drought in England. It was a batter's wicket and our bowlers, except for O'Neill, had little success. O'Neill took six wickets for 95 runs, clean bowling three, an excellent performance for a slow bowler on a hard wicket. After five hours in the field, the Pilgrims started their innings rather poorly, three wickets falling for 62 runs when play was stopped for the day. Next morning, Morris and Bottomley took the score to 124 before the latter was out in trying to hook a short bumping ball. Anderson followed, and with Morris, took the score to 163 when Morris missed one of Wynyard's lobs and was caught at the wicket. Our innings closed for 230 runs, about 20 runs short of averting a follow-on. Fowler took five wickets for 78, bowling his usual good length and breaking from the off very sharply. Our second innings was a very poor attempt. T h e whole side made only 87 runs, and we were beaten by an innings and 31 runs. Evans batted very carefully and patiently for 27, going in first and being the last man out. Cartwright's bowling in this innings was deadly. Constantly varying his pace and breaking a little, he took eight wickets for 50 runs. Fowler also bowled well and caught and bowled Anderson on a diving catch, taking the ball just a few inches off the ground with one hand. Eighth Match Pilgrims vs. the Army at Aldershot Played—August 15-16, 1921 Our next match was at the great Army base of Aldershot, situated in beautiful rolling country and the home of some of the most famous English regiments. An ideal day, lovely surround-

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ings, and first bat on a perfect wicket seemed to indicate a lucky day for us. Evans and Crosman opened the batting for us and everything looked set for a big first wicket stand, when Crosman was caught off Firbank, a left-hander, and Mifflin was bowled by the same bowler for 6. Morris looked well set when he was bowled by our old nemesis, Fowler, and Anderson was caught off the same bowler for 11. Meanwhile, Evans was batting steadily and well, and when Bottomley came in a real stand was made, Evans finally departing for 112, one of the most valuable of his many good innings on the trip. Charlie Winter stayed a while with Bottomley, who was not out for 58, a helpful score toward our total of 283. Two fine bats, Lt. Col. White and A. Wilkinson, opened the attack and we were in for a bad couple of hours. On a perfect wicket and helped by some bad fielding and missed catches on our part, they put on 200 runs before Wilkinson was caught at the wicket by Winter for a well-played 73. White, meanwhile, who had been missed several times, kept on punishing severely any bowling we could offer him, and was not dismissed till he had made the huge score of 200, when he was caught and bowled by O'Neill. Major Leventhorpe with 59, and Captain Brooke with 52, helped swell the score till it reached 465 for six wickets, when the Engineers declared. Our only hope now was to play for a draw. This we were lucky enough to pull off. T h e saving score of the match was Bottomley's 54 not out, toward a total of 180 runs for six wickets, when time was called. Bottomley shared with Evans the batting honors, scoring a total of 112 runs in the two innings, without being dismissed. T h e night we spent at Aldershot and were entertained royally in the true sense of the word. Prince Henry, one of the King's brothers, was training with one of the regiments there, and several of the team were quartered in his barracks and had some good bridge games with him. T h e rest of the team were divided and quartered with some of the most famous regiments, and the evening passed merrily and rapidly for all of us.

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Ninth Match Pilgrims vs. Royal Engineers at Chatham August 17-18, 1921 T o Chatham, the great English naval base, we went for our ninth match, against the Royal Engineers. We had already played at Woolwich, the famous artillery and ordnance center; at Aldershot, the heart of the army training activities; and now were to enjoy the hospitality of the Naval Engineers. W e lost the toss, however, and took the field with uneasy memories of the punishing innings the Army had inflicted on us the day before at Aldershot. However, we were to do better this time. O u r bowling was good and smart fielding brought us three runouts. T h e soldiers batted very consistently and p u t together 262 runs; D. F. McCarthy 51, and Major St. G. Kirke 89, being the main contributors. Major Kirke's innings was a fine display, and we were greatly relieved when he fell to a catch by Morris off Bottomley. Evans and Crosman opened our innings and our start did not look too good when Crosman and Mifflin were out for 9 and 0, respectively. T h e n Morris joined Evans and another good partnership of these two batsmen resulted. T h e scoreboard showed 126 before Evans left with 54 runs to his credit, a careful, steady innings. Morris, after getting set, hit freely and aggressively, and fell at 94, a beautiful innings. W i t h five down for 167, there was a chance we could not top the Engineers' total of 262, b u t Newhall hit hard for a six and three fours out of a total of 33, and O'Neill and Clothier carried the good work along so that we finally ended with 273, a lead of 11 runs on the first innings. In the second innings our bowling and fielding were excellent. With Mifflin and O'Neill both bowling steadily, we had six of their wickets down for 74 and things looked bright for us. Major Perkins and Wyatt, however, gave us a bad half hour, b u t we got the side out for 147. Mifflin in the second innings got five for 43, and Morris' catch of Perkins' high hit over mid-off was a fine one.

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We were left 137 runs to win, which did not look too much. Evans, however, fell for 9 and four of our following bats got only moderate scores. T h e reliable Christie was again in evidence and his score of 57 not out was the big factor in our reaching the required total of 137, with six wickets down. Chris Morris can always remember this game with great pleasure, for he made 149 runs for once out and caught four men. T e n t h Match Pilgrims vs. Royal Navy at Chatham Played-August 19-20, 1921 We had but a short distance to go for our tenth match against the Royal Navy, moving from the Engineers' barracks to the beautiful Navy quarters at Chatham, just a few minutes' trip. As in our Army games, we were all p u t u p in officers' rooms and ate at their mess. T h e Royal Navy takes great pride in its barracks at Chatham and rightly so, for no club could offer better service. T h e Navy grounds at Chatham are on top of a steep bluff, several hundred feet high, overlooking the town and the great naval base. In one spot the boundary is so close to the edge of this bluff that it looks as though a hit would fall over down on the roofs of the houses far below. Large stretches of bare common are on the other sides, with nothing b u t the pavilion, the marquee, and the bandstand in sight. T h e wind always blows on the bluff at Chatham; it was blowing so hard when we arrived that you often had to brace yourself out on the field to stand up, and you wondered if the pavilion might not go over the edge with an extra hard puff. Navy won the toss and batted on a fine, hard wicket. O u r bowlers, while on the spot, were not getting wickets cheaply, and the Navy had 141 for five after most of our bowlers had had a try. T h e n Mifflin was tried for the second time, and he ran through the side in one of the best bowling performances of the trip, taking the last five wickets in six overs for 14 runs, and the Navy was all out for 187. Mifflin's analysis was seven wickets for 49 runs.

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T h e Pilgrims got 200 in their first innings, no one making a large score; Mifflin 39, Morris 37, Winter 32 were the main contributors. T h e match was still very even. I n their second innings the Navy got 185, almost a duplicate of their first, Major Brooke making a fine 64. It was O'Neill's t u r n to carry off the bowling honors, and he took seven wickets for 60 runs. In the two innings of this match, O'Neill and Mifflin each took nine wickets, or eighteen out of a total twenty. W i t h 172 to win, we lost Evans for 9, but Morris and Crosman, batting beautifully, soon p u t the game out of danger and we passed the Navy score with only four wickets down, the second wicket partnership of Morris and Crosman putting on 100 runs. Crosman played a magnificent innings of 92. H e hit hard any loose balls and his pulling of short pitched bowling was deadly. W e were glad to win this match for it gave us one more win than loss so far and we now had two more to go to finish the trip. We were sorry to leave Chatham. We had scored two victories there, and had made many good friends among the officers of His Majesty's Army and Navy. Eleventh Match Pilgrims vs. Gentlemen of Essex at Brentwood, Essex Played—August 22-23, 1921 T h e charming little town of Brentwood, Essex, about twentyfive miles outside of London, was the scene of our next match. T h i s field is known as the Old County Ground. T h e interest in the match was shown by a fair crowd around the ropes and a n u m b e r of motor cars scattered among the large oak trees surrounding the field. Essex put a very good batting side against us, some six of their men being of county caliber. H u b e r t Ashton, C. T . Ashton, and F. L. Fane were particularly outstanding. T h e i r bowling was not u p to their usual strength because three of their best men had been h u r t during the week preceding the match. Essex won the toss and started batting on a good wicket. Anderson and O'Neill, as usual, opened our attack. Fortunately for us, they were both on their game and bowled beautifully,

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keeping a good length and doing a lot in the air. H u b e r t Ashton, one of England's best bats, who had previously scored very well against the Australians, played well for 78 not out, b u t he never found runs easy to get and always had to bat carefully and cautiously. Fane, the Essex county player, got 21, but no one else was at home with the bowling. T h e side was dismissed for 169 runs, Anderson getting four wickets for 84, and O'Neill five for 56. We made a good start in our innings, having 191 for four wickets at the end of the first day's play. Evans was largely responsible with an 85 not out; Bottomley and Crosman made 35 and 31 respectively. Next morning Anderson with 59 gave a very good display, being out to a fine r u n n i n g catch by Claude Ashton on the boundary, the fielder crashing into a fence after making the catch. Shortly after, Evans was caught at the wicket for 124, his third century of the tour. H e was always on top of the bowling, and gave a very fine display of scoring all around the wicket. Newhall came in next and started to score rapidly, hitting every loose ball hard in characteristic fashion. H e got 65 not out and might easily have made a century b u t n o one would stay with him, and our innings closed for 397. Gilligan, the Essex wicketkeeper, was superb in this long innings. H e took four catches, allowed very few byes and was keen and alert throughout the game. Essex had to make 200 runs to save an innings defeat. They started off well, Dixon and Gilligan, the first two batsmen, making a total of 68. After they left, the other batsmen offered little resistance. Clothier was our star bowler in this innings, getting five wickets for 30 runs, and O'Neill four for 55. Clothier varied his pace and his swerve, bowled a fine length, and always had the batsmen in difficulties. O'Neill in this match took nine wickets for 111 runs. Winter's wicket-keeping, as on the whole tour, was of the highest order. In the two innings he took three catches and had only one ball get past him. W e were delightfully entertained overnight in various private houses near the grounds, and shall always remember the warmhearted welcome we received here from all the players and residents of Brentwood.

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Twelfth Match Pilgrims vs. Eton Ramblers at Oxford August 24-25, 1921 It was hardly believable that \ve had been in England a month and were about to play our twelfth and last match at Oxford against the Eton Ramblers. Our old Incog, friends, Brocas Burrows, "Buns" Cartwright, and J i m Metcalfe, were our hosts, and a great trio they were, both on and off the field. W e left London about nine in the morning by special saloon car on the Great Western Railroad. T h e track from London to Oxford is a fine piece of roadbed and a non-stop run from London brought us to Oxford in about an hour. Busses met us and took us to Queens College, one of the oldest in the University, where we were put up for the match. T h e long vacation was still on at Oxford, so there were few students in the town, but many American tourists. As we walked through the town in our cricket flannels and blazers, we were probably regarded by the townspeople as collegians and not as tourists. T h e beautiful cricket field of Merton College was the scene of the game. Eton Ramblers won the toss and chose to bat. Metcalfe and Wilkinson were their opening pair. Wilkinson had already made large scores against us in the Free Foresters and Army matches, being one of the best bats in the Army. It was a great relief to have Anderson catch him off his own bowling when he had only 5. It was one of the finest catches of the trip, the ball coming back only about halfway to the bowler and Anderson throwing himself forward flat on the ground to get one hand under it just off the ground. We had eight of their wickets down for 130, of which Metcalfe had made 54. It seemed at one time that we were going to get the whole team out for a small score. Cartwright and Severne, however, put on 56 runs for the ninth wicket, of which Cartwright made an invaluable 50. T h e side was all out for 186. W e commenced our first innings very badly, losing the first three wickets for 14 runs. Morris and Mifflin, however, put on

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45 runs for the next wicket, Winter and Woolley helped to even our total to 160. Fletcher got six of our wickets for 22. With 26 runs lead over us, the Ramblers opened their second innings. Wilkinson again fell cheaply, l.b.w. to Anderson, but Metcalfe and Nugent put on 53 for the second wicket. T h e n Ed Hopkinson began one of the best bowling performances of his life. He had Metcalfe caught, bowled Nugent, and began to go through the side like a whirlwind, bowling with good pace and excellent length. Cartwright with 26 was the only remaining batsman to score double figures. Hopkinson took seven for 26, the best bowling feat of the tour. Still we were left 160 to win, and the wicket had begun to crumble. Evans fell for 3 but Crosman was going well and 41 was up for the second wicket when Morris was bowled for 6. T h e n Mifflin and Crosman put on 43 runs for the fourth wicket, which fell at 91, Crosman going out for a beautiful innings of 49. T h e n Anderson played a good innings of 45 not out, and with Mifflin scoring 20 and Newhall a hard-hit 21 we won the game with six wickets down. We shall always remember with gratitude famous Queens College for their many courtesies during our stay in Oxford. Our last, farewell banquet in the beautiful dining hall will never be forgotten. At the height of that celebration the Chief of Police, not to be outdone in courtesy by the college authorities, stopped in to see if by chance we had opened the Queens College fall term a little early that year! T h e team took this occasion to present to J i m Metcalfe, our wonderful guide, friend, and planner of our trip, a silver cigarette case, appropriately marked, as a small token of our appreciation of his constant kindness. W e cannot but feel that for him it was a labor of love for which we can never repay him. T h i s was the sixteenth and last tour of Philadelphia cricketers in England, with the exception of the Haverford College tour of 1925. W e played against the highest class of amateur clubs—army and navy and country house teams. We met many of the best amateurs

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in England, and after our team acclimated itself, we gave a good account of ourselves, winning five games, drawing five, and losing two. We were fortunate in having a dry, clear summer in England, and in batting on hard wickets such as we have in Philadelphia. Evans made three centuries and Morris one, and against the Incogs this pair made 239 runs for the first wicket in our second innings. Crosman, Bottomley, Newhall, Anderson, Mifflin, and Winter all made runs fairly consistently. Morris and Evans led the batting averages by a good margin. In our bowling we lacked a good fast bowler, but had plenty of medium-paced and slow bowling, both right and left hand. Of the wickets taken O'Neill claimed 46, Anderson 28, Mifflin 26, Hopkinson 24, and Clothier 18, the rest being scattered among the other team members. Hopkinson led the bowling average, taking his 24 wickets for an average of 12.91 runs each. Our wicket-keeping was in the safe hands of C. H. Winter. He was uniformly excellent throughout the trip. He made twentyone catches behind the wicket, several stumps, and allowed very few byes in any match. T h e English critics said that with a little more experience he would be welcome on any county side. In the field the team was excellent. As is usual on a long tour, we had about two bad fielding innings, which were costly, but except for those lapses we made our opponents earn their runs and the critics were quite complimentary on our out fielding. T h e team was always entertained with the warmest hospitality. Sir Rowland Blades, M. P., entertained us at dinner in the House of Commons, where were present some members of the British Cabinet and many members of the House of Lords and House of Commons. After the dinner we were given seats in the "Distinguished Visitors' Gallery" of the House and saw some of our dinner companions take their seats on the main floor. On the first day of the last test match between All England and Australia, Sir Jeremiah Colman, President of Surrey County Cricket Club, invited us to a large luncheon, attended by Prince Henry, Mr. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia; Armstrong and Tennyson, captains, respectively, of the Australian and Eng-

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lish elevens, and many other notables in English public life. A large luncheon at Lord Northcliffe's London house and a Sunday spent at Lord Burnham's house, the old home of Disraeli, were also outstanding events. W e did well to survive all this kindness and still play cricket! T o all of us that experienced it, this tour will be an unforgettable memory.

CHAPTER

VIII

Curving with the Seam By

PERCY H . CLARK

ERCY H . CLARK, in the first-class matches of the most successful of the three tours in which the P h i l a d e l p h i a s played the English counties, bowled more overs and took more wickets than Bart King. Both at home and abroad he was for many years one of the mainstays of our attack. A batsman in against Clark was engaged in two battles in one—a contest of skill and a battle of brains. If he was to be successful he had to be thinking one step ahead of the bowler. H e had to guess with some degree of accuracy whether what was coming down would be the outswinger, the fast straight ball, or the slower breakback.

P

T h i s chapter on " C u r v i n g with the S e a m " is a clear account of how he bowled each of them. Clark was a complement to King, and what follows is a necessary continuation of what Bart writes about his " a n g l e r " in Part I. •

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T h e r e has been much said and written about curving balls in the air, yet even at this late date there are those who remain convinced that the air-curved ball is an optical illusion. I do not subscribe to this view. I have n o doubt that balls can be made to curve, and have certain ideas about what causes the curve and how to make it. I will state these ideas for what they are worth. W h e n I was a j u n i o r practicing in the nets at Manheim, the coaches told us that if we wanted to curve we should hold the 360

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ball with the first fingers on top of the ball and on either side of the seam, with the thumb opposed underneath. We were told to deliver the ball well over the head off the ends of the two fingers; this would cause the ball to "curve with the seam." I found that these precepts worked for me, but not always; and sometimes, when the ball curved, it would curve more widely than at other times. I discovered in practice what all swing bowlers know, that a new ball will curve more readily than one that has been batted around for many runs on a hard ground. Without doubt this is because the crisp rough seam of the new ball has been flattened by the pounding of the bat and the hard turf. Finding that these instructions often produced the results predicted by the coaches, I began to seek for causes. I asked myself what all this meant, and why a cricket ball curves under favorable conditions when it is delivered. Here I found myself in a region where my coaches could give me no guidance, and I had to proceed as Bart did to evolve my own theory and prove it by my own practice. When I held the ball as directed, and delivered it with the intention of curving it from the leg, I felt I was casting the right side of the seam against the resistance of the air; that is, the ball when so delivered would travel down the wicket toward the batsman with the seam revolving slowly backwards and pointing from mid-on to short or second slip. This would mean pressure on the leg or right side of the seam, and no corresponding pressure on the other side. I believe this pressure on the leg side of the seam caused my outcurve. T h e reverse result occurs when the ball is delivered by a left-hand bowler. It will be asked at once, and quite naturally, how it was that King, a right-hander like myself, produced as his most effective weapon a curve which went in, not out. Bart came in very sharply from off because his long arms and fingers and supple body enabled him to deliver the ball from a point so far overhead as to cause the seam to point from mid-off to long leg, as in the case of a left-hand bowler. Both of us were "curving with the seam." A fast ball curving with the seam does not start to curve when it leaves the hand but at a point in its flight where air pressure proves sufficient to cause the curve. Its direction is, of course,

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changed when it curves, and it continues in the changed direction after it pitches. My leg curves were generally aimed at a point to leg of the wicket, depending on how much I was curving under existing conditions. W h e n my good length curve ball pitched on the leg wicket it was already moving at an angle across the wicket which, in the case of even a moderate curve, w o u l d cause the ball to miss the off peg. If the pitch is say eleven feet from the wicket, it will have to move to the off only seven or eight inches in that distance to clear the off peg. It is for this reason that a curve bowler should not be able to get a batsman leg before wicket on a good length ball. If it pitches on the wicket it will miss the wicket on the side to which it is curving. T h e situation was different in the case of Bart King's inswinging Yorker (which usually pitched nearer to the wicket than to the block hole). T h i s ball had a longer flight than the good length ball and therefore curved more before it pitched. If it hit the batsman's foot on the fly, the foot being on the wicket at the time, the umpire should give the batsman out even though the ball would have missed the wicket. T h e r e is no doubt that many balls intended to curve did so only slightly or not at all. W h a t I have said above must be understood to apply only to such balls as did actually curve. My conclusion is that I am glad I was not an umpire. Ability to bowl a curve is a great asset to a bowler. It increases the variety of his offerings and frequently leads the batsman into bad footwork, when, after he has planted his feet for a particular shot, the ball late in its flight changes its direction. Batsmen soon get adjusted to curved balls, and a bowler, to use his curve to the best advantage, must be able to bowl at will balls that do not curve. By experimenting with different grips I gradually developed two balls that proved especially helpful in adding to the effectiveness of my outcurve when the time came to use it. For the first of these balls, I placed the middle finger diagonally across the seam with the thumb underneath and the forefinger idle, and delivered the ball off the right tip of the finger. W h e n I was bowling steadily and frequently I developed a small callus on the finger that gripped the seam. I found this ball could be delivered without any change of action, and would travel straight through the air and break back because of the spin generated

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by the grip of the right tip of the middle finger on the left side of the seam. I developed the second ball because I felt the need of a change of pace, and found it came best as a result of another slight modification in finger work. It was a slower ball delivered off the right side of my first finger placed firmly around the left side of the seam—a spin ball that broke back from the off. T h e more the spin the greater the break and the less the speed. T h e speed of the ball could be varied at will, and the angle of the spin could be so adjusted as to make the ball kick from the pitch. These balls constituted a marked contrast to my outcurve, and, I believe, to all of King's deliveries as well as to those of Frank Greene and Paul O'Neill, with whom I frequently shared the attack. They were both left-hand bowlers who curved from the off to a right-hand batsman, and who also bowled straight balls breaking from leg. I liked to invite the batsman's attention to my outcurve in order to dull his vigilance against the two balls I have described. T h e outswinger is always at its best when unexpected. T h e curve from leg naturally results in a certain number of catches in the slips and at the wicket, but I found it quite surprising how often even good batsmen missed the curve altogether. This made them more wary of it, and more vulnerable to a fast straight ball or a slow break from the off. I believe my leg curves got me more wickets on off-breaks with which they were intermingled than on catches in the slips from the curves themselves. A fast curve from leg that continues in the direction of the curve after it pitches often finds the batsman in the wrong position to play his contemplated stroke. For instance a batsman who starts a glide to leg is not in the best position to play a curve ball that is fading to the off, and the same is true when the batsman starts to play forward on such a ball, and finds himself with his front foot well to leg of where it should be. It is in such cases as these that chances often occur. I have been asked whether in my opinion it is possible for a bowler to bowl a curve ball that will break back in the opposite direction to that of the curve. A ball that curves with the seam cannot be made to break back from the pitch; after the pitch it

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continues in the direction of the curve. However, a baseball, curving because of the spin creating air pressure on its side, breaks back sharply when it pitches because of this very spin. I have often tried to bowl a cricket ball with sufficient spin to curve perceptibly before it pitches, but I have never succeeded. Paul O'Neill, who has added a paragraph of his own to this chapter, in his later years bowled a slow ball that had a very deceptive flight. It curved in, and I think broke back, but not very sharply. There may be other bowlers who have been able to do this, but I do not know them. A NOTE

ON

CURVING

By W . P . O ' N E I L L

As in baseball, a bowler who curves the ball can bowl a slow curve or a fast curve. T h e slow curve starts soon after leaving the bowler's hand and is delivered with a lower action than that which the fast curve requires. T h e nature of the slow curve is apparent to the batsman early in its flight, and must depend on change of pace and accuracy of length to deceive him. T h e fast breaking curve is delivered with the arm high overhead. It does not start to curve till the last few feet of its flight in the air, when it swerves sharply. Consequently, a good length ball of this kind is more deceptive to the batsman, because he starts to play for the apparent pitch of the ball only to find the ball swerving inside or outside his bat at the last moment. Against a good batsman this ball is more likely to clean bowl him or make him give a chance in the slips than the slower, wider curve. Of course, as in all bowling, variety of pitch and pace, and a mixture of curve balls with straight and breaking balls is essential for good results. All bowlers who curve the ball will truthfully and cheerfully admit that they don't always know what the ball is going to do after it leaves the hand. Sometimes the mightiest effort to produce a curve results in nothing but a perfectly straight ball, and often, with no effort or intent, a wonderful curve is produced as puzzling to the bowler as to the unfortunate batsman. That is one of the mysteries of curve bowling.

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