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CHAPTER IX.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY CRICKET.
By W. J. Ford.
There is no more entrancing sport than cricket, and nowhere does cricket present itself in a more entrancing form than at Cambridge, The best of grounds, the snuggest of pavilions, and the most charming sociality are to be found everywhere; and there is cricket of every kind, whether for the crack 'Varsity bat or bowler, whose county is sighing for the Long Vac, or for the fifth-rate cricketer, who never achieved any greater distinction than getting his "house" cap at school: every class and kind is amply catered for. There are clubs innumerable, outside the college and 'Varsity clubs, with magnificent colours, and no subscriptions. Indeed Cambridge cricket is a remarkably cheap sport; and as the grounds are all within a short distance, or at least a reasonable walking distance, from the colleges, even the expense of a cab does not occur. And then the festive lunches, and yet more festive suppers which follow a match! The thought of them makes the writer sigh for perpetual youth and a reintroduction to their pleasures, even though the "blue," actual or possible, was generally hustled good-humouredly away by eleven o'clock, that his eye might not be dim or uncertain when he stood up at the wicket on "Fenner's" next morning.
Fenner's was, is, and probably ever will be, a prince among cricket-grounds. Still, though five Inter-University matches were played in early years on different Oxford grounds, no such match is recorded to have taken place at Cambridge; yet Fenner had opened his ground in 1846, while in that year, in 1848, and in 1850 the Light Blues paid a visit to Oxford. Since the ground
