In 1884-86 I brought forward a scheme for bringing part of the college cricket to the Parks, under the above agreement. The scheme received support from most of the colleges, but in presence of the complicated difficulties, especially of finance, I thought better not to press it, but to await further developments. Time has shown that there are two opposed tendencies going forward in Oxford: on the one hand, unfortunately and unnecessarily, the town is constantly growing; but, on the other hand, the colleges rightly become more anxious to play cricket as near as possible to their work. Even before the O.U.C.C. came to the Parks, Merton had made a ground hard by. Since that time Hertford uses the athletic ground next to Christ Church, and Keble has made a ground to the north of Oxford. Brasenose has—unwisely, I fear—made a ground on the marshy river-bank opposite the Barges. But the most important new grounds are in the vicinity of the Parks. Jowett, who always said that bringing the university ground to the Parks was one of the best things which had been done for Oxford, imitated the policy by founding the new Balliol ground at the back of Holywell Street. Alfred Robinson, in the same spirit, brought the New College ground to the same neighbourhood. The result is, that the university ground in the Parks is becoming a nucleus about which college cricket is slowly gathering. Meanwhile, Oxford cricket suffers one disadvantage, too considerable to be overlooked. When Cowley was the common place for cricket all the cricket was together, and the captain of the O.U.C.C. was able to go about from ground to ground to see promising college cricketers who might be drafted into the University Eleven. Nowadays Oxford cricket is, it must be confessed, too scattered. Further, as colleges get nearer grounds, their members do not subscribe so much to the O.U.C.C. as they did in 1881. What is really wanted is a determined and combined effort of all Oxford cricketers to induce all the colleges, which still linger at Cowley or have not satisfactory grounds near Oxford, to gather under the wing of the O.U.C.C, and as far as possible in the Parks, with such a financial scheme as will satisfy the colleges without impoverishing the University Cricket Club.
Returning now to the university matches, for which since 1881 Oxford Elevens have been trained on the new ground in the Parks, we find that Oxford has, on the whole, made a gallant, though not altogether successful, fight to recover the equality
