VIII. MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE.
(Colours—Dark-blue blazer, edged with white ribbon; cap, dark-bhie, piped with white; dark-blue sash with white stripe.)
Marlborough possesses for its cricket a ground which is in some respects unique—the side of a piece of downland, possessing a fairly steep slope. The upper part of this slope is devoted, by a species of paradox, to the games of the Lower School, quite youngsters, which are organised and supervised by the master of the Lower School. The next part of the slope has been quarried out into a flat and level terrace, with a bank on the upper side and a fall on the lower side, both of considerable steepness. This level area is the scene of the school matches and the upper games. The rest of the school games are played underneath the terrace, on a ground that, from a cricket point of view, slopes considerably, and is anything but beneficial to the junior cricket. The total acreage is large—i.e., it can accommodate numerous games, though a little "sandwiching" is necessary. On the first ground—alias "The Eleven"—no boundaries are recognised, except the pavilion, and the batsman finds, as he stands on the wicket, a bank 10 feet high on one side, and enormous possibilities on the other three. Hits for 6, 7, or 8 runs are by no means uncommon, and the "record" is put at 13; but to discount this, a hit against the bank on the other side never realises more than 2. The turf is inclined to be coarse, and requires very careful and delicate treatment; but on the whole there is little to complain of, and the light is quite perfect, especially at the eastern wicket, as the bowler's arm comes from the line of the sky, so high is the elevation of the ground. For throwing up the ball, when hit over the terrace, the boys have a regular system of telegraphy, and the unsuspicious stranger has frequently been run out by a ball thrown up by an unseen and unsuspected fieldsman, but in inter-school matches the bank is a boundary.
The selection and management of the eleven are in the hands of the captain absolutely, though naturally he looks to the advice of masters and others, and he has the main control of cricket arrangements generally.
The matches for "Cock-House" are played on the "knockout" principle, and are always settled by the middle of June, contrary to the practice of most schools; but the theory is probably sound, that slogging away in house-matches at weak
