Page:Cricket (Hutchinson, 1903).djvu/481

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COUNTRY-HOUSE CRICKET
359

time coming up, as a suggestion, to include Cambridge 'Varsity players and others, when it was unanimously resolved and carried, that the club be called "The Oxford University Authentics," and confined to members of Oxford University only. Special rules were drawn up for membership, etc., and many matters of detail arranged. More important matches were played during the summer vacation, with a view of unearthing latent cricket talent, and giving members an opportunity of being brought more prominently before the cricket authorities at Oxford, and their respective counties—an opportunity they could not otherwise then have had. Above all, it had in view the keeping of old 'Varsity cricketers of the past in touch with the present, and the present in touch with the future. Professor Case of Corpus Christi College—the well-known old Oxford cricket blue of 1864, 1865, and 1867—readily consented to become the President, and took much interest in the club, and to him we owe its motto: "By Jove's authentic fire." It may be mentioned that the name "Authentics" was given to the club by the founder, who, being a musical enthusiast, coined the word "Authentics," as from an authentic cadence in music, and as derived from the Greek αύθεντέω, "to rule"; and from Professor Case's happy thought the colours of the club were suggested—"Blue" for the sky, "Blood Red" for Jove's arm, and "Old Gold" for the lightning.

Reverting to country-house cricket—aye, and the observation does for all club matches—the great aim