X. ROSSALL SCHOOL.
(Colours—Dark-blue blazer, bound with white; dark-blue cap, with vertical white stripes, and sash to correspond.)
The Rossall ground, which is close to the "sounding sea," covers about 14 acres. It has a clay subsoil, is well drained, and fairly fast, while good wickets are always to be found on it. The most important body, from a cricket point of view, is the Upper Club, to which about twenty of the best cricketers belong, selected by the captain of the eleven. These have regular hours of net-practice and fielding on whole-school days, with games or foreign matches on holidays and half-holidays. The rest of the school plays by houses—there are eight houses—on the League system, members of the Upper Club being excluded, though in the Cock-House matches, on the "knock-out" principle, every house plays its full available strength. It is needless to add that the cricket-loving masters—and Rossall has many—assist the regular professional in coaching.
Without being a great cricketing centre, Rossall has produced its fair share of great cricketers, and few schools can boast of a boy like F. W. Wright, who in 1862 played for North v. South, while still at school, and scored 49 runs. Nor is the following story inappropriate. Some time ago the Fleetwood garrison was engaged for a match with the school, and being weak in bowling, had secured the services of Watson, the Lancashire professional, then in his finest form, to support them. That his name might not frighten the boys out, he played as Corporal Jinks, with the
