The Cricket Field/Chapter 3

by James Pycroft

CHAP. III.

THE HAMBLEDON CLUB AND THE OLD PLAYERS.

What have become of the old scores and the earliest records of the game of cricket? Bentley's Book of Matches gives the principal games from the year 1786; but where are the earlier records of matches made by Dehaney, Paulet, and Sir Horace Mann? All burnt!

What the destruction of Rome and its records by the Gauls was to Niebuhr,—what the fire of London was to the antiquary in his walk from Pudding Lane to Pie Corner, such was the burning of the Pavilion at Lord's, and all the old score books—it is a mercy that the old painting of the M. C. C. was saved—to the annalist of cricket. "When we were built out by Dorset Square," says Mr. E. H. Budd, "we played for three years where the Regent's Canal has since been cut, and still called our ground 'Lord's,' and our dining-room 'the Pavilion.' Here many a time have I looked over the old papers of Dehaney and Sir H. Mann; but the room was burnt, and the old scores perished in the flames.

The following are curious as the two oldest scores preserved,—one of the North, the other of the South:—

NAMES OF THE PERSONS WHO PLAYED AGAINST SHEFFIELD.
In 1771 at Nottingham, and 1772 at Sheffield.
Nottingham, Aug. 26, 1771.				Sheffield, June 1, 1772.
Huthwayte				Coleman
Turner				Turner
Loughman				Loughman
Coleman				Roe
Roe				Spurs
Spurr				Stocks
Stocks				Collishaw
Collishaw				Troop
Troop				Mew
Mew				Bamford
Rawson.				Gladwin.
Sheffield.		Nottingham.		Nottingham.		Sheffield.
1st inn.	81	1st inn.	76	1st inn.	14	Near	70
2nd	62	2nd	112
3rd	105
	—— 248		—— 188
Tuesday, 9 o'clock, a. m. commenced, 8th man 0, 9th 5, 1 to come in, and only 60 ahead, when the Sheffield left the field.				Nottingham gave in.

 

KENT AGAINST ALL ENGLAND.

Played in the Artillery-Ground, London, 1746.

ENGLAND.
		1st Innings.			2nd Innings.
	RUNS.			RUNS.
Harris	0	b by	Hadswell	4	b by	Mills.
Dingate	3	b	Ditto	11	b	Hadswell.
Newland	0	b	Mills	3	b	Ditto.
Cuddy	0	b	Hadswell	2	b	Danes.
Green	0	b	Mills	5	b	Mills.
Waymark	7	b	Ditto	9	b	Hadswell.
Bryan	12	s	Kips	7	c	Kips.
Newland	18	—	not out	15	c	Ld. J.Sackville.
Harris	0	b	Hadswell	1	b	Hadswell.
Smith	0	c	Bartrum	8	b	Mills.
Newland	0	b	Mills	5	—	not out.
Byes	0		Byes	0
	—— 40			—— 70
KENT.
		1st Innings.			2nd Innings.
	RUNS.			RUNS.
Lord Sackville	5	c by	Waymark	3	b by	Harris
Long Robin	7	b	Newland	9	b	Newland.
Mills	0	b	Harris	6	c	Ditto.
Hadswell	0	b	Ditto	5	—	not out.
Cutbush	3	c	Green	7	—	not out.
Bartrum	2	b	Newland	0	b	Newland.
Danes	6	b	Ditto	0	c	Smith.
Sawyer	0	c	Waymark	5	b	Newland.
Kips	12	b	Harris	10	b	Harris.
Mills	7	—	not out	2	b	Newland.
Romney	11	b	Harris	8	c	Harris.
Byes	0		Byes	0
	—— 53			—— 58

 

Cricket was introduced into Eton early in the last century. Horace Walpole was sent to Eton in the year 1726. Playing cricket, as well as thrashing bargemen, was common at that time. For in Walpole's Letters, vol. i. p. 4., he says,—

"I can't say I am sorry I was never quite a school-boy; an expedition against bargemen, or a match at cricket, may be very pretty things to recollect; but, thank my stars, I can remember things that are very near as pretty."

The fourth Earl of Carlisle learnt cricket at Eton at the same time. The Earl writes to George Selwyn, even from Manheim, that he was up, playing at cricket, before Selwyn was out of his bed.

And now, the oldest chronicler is Old Nyren, who wrote an account of the cricketers of his time. The said Old Nyren borrowed the pen of our kind friend Charles Cowden Clarke, to whom John Keats dedicated an epistle, and who rejoiced in the friendship of Charles Lamb; and none but a spirit akin to Elia could have written like "Old Nyren." Nyren was a fine old English yeomen, whose chivalry was cricket; and Mr. Clarke has faithfully recorded his vivid descriptions and animated recollections. And, with this charming little volume in hand, and inkhorn at my button, in 1837 I made a tour among the cottages of William Beldham, and the few surviving worthies of the same generation; and, having also the advantage of a MS. by the Rev. John Mitford, taken from many a winter's evening with Old Fennex, I am happy to attempt the best account that the lapse of time admits, of cricket in the olden time.

From a MS. my friend received from the late Mr. William Ward, it appears that the wickets were placed twenty-two yards apart as long since as the year 1700; that stumps were then only one foot high, but two feet wide. The width some persons have doubted; but it is rendered credible by the auxiliary evidence that there was, in those days, width enough between the two stumps for cutting the wide blockhole already mentioned, and also because—whereas now we hear of stumps and bails—we read formerly of "two stumps with one stump laid across."

We are informed, also, that putting down the wickets to make a man out in running, instead of the old custom of popping the ball into the hole, was adopted on account of severe injuries to the hands, and that the wicket was changed at the same time—1779-1780—to the dimensions of twenty-two inches by six, with a third stump added.

Before this alteration the art of defence was almost unknown: balls often passed over the wicket, and often passed through. At the time of the alteration Old Nyren truly predicted that the innings would not be shortened but better played. The long pod and curved form of the bat, as seen in the old paintings, was made only for hitting, and for ground balls too. Length balls were then by no means common; neither would low stumps encourage them: and even upright play was then practised by very few. Old Nyren relates that one Harry Hall, a gingerbread baker of Farnham, gave peripatetic lectures to young players, and always insisted on keeping the left elbow well up; in other words, on straight play. "Now-a-days," said Beldbam, "all the world knows that; but when I began there was very little length bowling, very little straight play, and little defence either." Fennex, said he, was the first who played out at balls; before his day, batting was too much about the crease. Beldham said that his own supposed tempting of Providence consisted in running in to hit. "You do frighten me there jumping out of your ground, said our Squire Paulet:" and Fennex used also to relate how, when he played forward to the pitch of the ball, his father "had never seen the like in all his days;" the said days extending a long way back towards the beginning of the century. While speaking of going in to hit, Beldham said, "My opinion has always been that too little is attempted in that direction. Judge your ball, and, when the least overpitched, go in and hit her away." In this opinion Mr. C. Taylor's practice would have borne Beldham out: and a fine dashing game this makes; only, it is a game for none but practised players. When you are perfect in playing in your ground, then, and then only, try how you can play out of it, as the best means to scatter the enemy and open the field.

"As to bowling," continued Beldham, "when I was a boy (about 1780), nearly all bowling was fast, and all along the ground. In those days the Hambledon Club could beat all England; but our three parishes around Farnham at last beat Hambledon."

It is quite evident that Farnham was the cradle of cricketers. "Surrey," in the old scores, means nothing more than the Farnham parishes. This corner of Surrey, jn every match against All England, was reckoned as part of Hampshire; and, Beldham truly said "you find us regularly on the Hampshire side in Bentley's Book."

"I told you, sir," said Beldham, "that in my early days all bowling was what we called fast, or at least a moderate pace. The first lobbing slow bowler I ever saw was Tom Walker. When, in 1792, England played Kent, I did feel so ashamed of such baby bowling; but, after all, he did more than even David Harris himself. Two years after, in 1794, at Dartford Brent, Tom Walker, with his slow bowlings headed a side against David Harris, and beat him easily."

"Kent, in early times, was not equal to our counties. Their great man was Crawte, and he was taken away from our parish of Alresford by Mr. Amherst, the gentleman who made the Kent matches. In those days, except around our parts, Farnham and the Surrey side of Hampshire, a little play went a long way. Why, no man used to be more talked of than Yalden; and, when he came among us, we soon made up our minds what the rest of them must be. If you want to know, sir, the time the Hambledon Club was formed, I can tell you by this;—when we beat them in 1780, I heard Mr. Paulet say, "Here have I been thirty years raising our club, and are we to be beaten by a mere parish?' so, there must have been a cricket club, that played every week regularly, as long ago as 1750. We used to go as eagerly to a match as if it were two armies fighting; we stood at nothing if we were allowed the time. From our parish to Hambledon is twenty-seven miles, and we used to ride both ways the same day, early and late. At last, I and John Wells were about building a cart: you have heard of tax carts, sir; well, the tax was put on then, and that stopped us. The members of the Hambledon Club had a caravan to take their eleven about; they used once to play always in velvet caps. Lord Winchelsea's eleven used to play in silver laced hats; and always the dress was knee-breeches and stockings. We never thought of knocks; and, remember, I played against Browne of Brighton too. Certainly, you would see a bump heave under the stocking, and even the blood come through; but I never knew a man killed, now you ask the question, and I never saw any accident of much consequence, though many an all but, in my long experience. Fancy the old fashion before cricket shoes, when I saw John Wells tear a finger nail off against his shoe-buckle in picking up a ball!"

"Your book, sir, says much about old Nyren. This Nyren was fifty years old when I began to play; he was our general in the Hambledon matches; but not half a player, as we reckon now. He had a small farm and inn near Hambledon, and took care of the ground."

"I remember when many things first came into the game which are common now. The law for Leg-before-wicket was not passed, nor much wanted, till King, one of our best hitters, was shabby enough to get his leg in the way, and take advantage of the bowlers; and, when Tom Taylor, another of our best hitters, did the same, the bowlers found themselves beaten, and the law was passed to make leg-before-wicket Out. The law against jerking was owing to the frightful pace Tom Walker put on, and I believe that he afterwards tried something more like the modern throwing-bowling, and so caused the words against throwing also. Willes was not the inventor of that kind of round bowling; he only revived what was forgotten or new to the young folk."

"The umpires did not formerly pitch the wickets. David Harris used to think a great deal of pitching himself a good-wicket, and took much pains in suiting himself every match day."

"Lord Stowell was fond of cricket. He employed me to make a ground for him at Holt Pound."

In the last century, when the waggon and the packhorse supplied the place of the penny train, there was little opportunity for those frequent meetings of men from distant counties that now puzzle us to remember who is North and who is South, who is Surrey or who is Kent. The matches then were truly county matches, and had more of the spirit of hostile tribes and rival clans. "There was no mistaking the Kent boys," said Beldham, "when they came staring in to the Green Man. A few of us had grown used to London, but Kent and Hampshire men had but to speak, or even show themselves, and you need not ask them which side they were on." So the match seemed like Sir Horace Mann and Lord Winchelsea and their respective tenantry—for when will the feudal system be quite extinct? and there was no little pride and honour in the parishes that sent them up, and many a flagon of ale depending in the farms or the hop grounds they severally represented, as to whether they should, as the spirit-stirring saying was, "prove themselves the better men." "I remember in one match," said Beldham, "in Kent, Ring was playing against David Harris. The game was much against him. Sir Horace Mann was cutting about with his stick among the daisies, and cheering every run,—you would have thought his whole fortune (and he would often bet some hundreds) was staked upon the game; and, as a new man was going in, he went across to Ring, and said, "Ring, carry your bat through and make up all the runs, and I'll give you 10l. a-year for life.' Well, Ring was out for sixty runs, and only three to tie, and four to beat, and the last man made them. It was Sir Horace who took Aylward away with him out of Hampshire, but the best bat made but a poor bailiff, we heard.

"Cricket was played in Sussex very early, before my day at least; but, that there was no good play I know by this, that Richard Newland, of Slinden in Sussex, as you say, sir, taught old Richard Nyren, and that no Sussex man could be found to play him. Now, a second-rate player of our parish beat Newland easily; so you may judge what the rest of Sussex then were. But before 1780 there were some good players about Hambledon and the Surrey side of Hampshire. Crawte, the best of the Kent men, was stolen away from us; so you will not be wrong, sir, in writing down that Farnham, and thirty miles round, reared all the best players up to my day, about 1780."

"There were some who were then called 'the old players,'"—and here Fennex's account quite agreed with Beldham's,—"including Frame and old Small. And as to old Small, it is worthy of observation, that Bennett declared it was part of the creed of the last century, that Small was the man who 'found out cricket,' or brought play to any degree of perfection. Of the same school was Sueter, the wicket-keeper, who in those days had very little stumping to do, and Minshull and Colshom, all mentioned in Nyren." "These men played puddling about their crease and had no freedom. I like to see a player upright and well forward, to face the ball like a man. The Duke of Dorset made a match at Dartford Brent between 'the Old Players and the New.'—You laugh, sir," said this tottering silver-haired old man, "but we all were New once;—well, I played with the Walkers, John Wells, and the rest of our men, and beat the Old ones very easily."

Old John Small died, the last, if not the first of the Hambledonians, in 1826. Isaac Walton, the father of Anglers, lived to the age of ninety-three. This father of Cricketers was in his ninetieth year. John Small played in all the great matches till he was turned of seventy. A fine skater and a good musician. But, how the Duke of Dorset took great interest in John Small, and how his Grace gave him a fiddle, and how John, like a modern Orpheus, beguiled a wild bull of its fury in the middle of a paddock, is it not written in the book of the chronicles of the playmates of Old Nyren?—In a match of Hambledon against All England, Small kept up his wicket for three days, and was not out after all. A pity his score is unknown. We should like to compare it with Mr. Ward's.

"Tom Walker was the most tedious fellow to bowl to, and the slowest runner between wickets I ever saw. Harry was the hitter,—Harry's half-hour was as good as Tom's afternoon. I have seen Noah Mann, who was as fast as Tom was slow, in running a four, overtake him, pat him on the back, and say, 'Good name for you is Walker, for you never was a runner.' It used to be said that David Harris had once bowled him 170 balls for one run! David was a potter by trade, and in a kind of skittle alley made between hurdles, he used to practise bowling four different balls from one end, and then picking them up he would bowl them back again. His bowling cost him a great deal of practice; but it proved well worth his while, for no man ever bowled like him, and he was always first chosen of all the men in England."—Nil sine labore, remember, young cricketers all.—"'Lambert' (not the great player of that name), said Nyren, 'had a most deceitful and teasing way of delivering the ball; he tumbled out the Kent and Surrey men, one after another, as if picked off by a rifle corps. His perfection is accounted for by the circumstance that when he was tending his father's sheep, he would set up a hurdle or two, and bowl away for hours together.'

"There was some good hitting in those days, though too little defence. Tom Taylor would cut away in fine style, almost after the manner of Mr. Budd. Old Small was among the first members of the Hambledon Club. He began to play about 1750, and Lumpy Stevens at the same time. I can give you some notion, sir, of what cricket was in those days, for Lumpy, a very bad bat, as he was well aware, once said to me, 'Beldham, what do you think cricket must have been in those days when I was thought a good batsman?' But fielding was very good as far back as I can remember."—Now, what Beldham called good fielding must have been good enough. He was himself one of the safest hands at a catch. Mr. Budd, when past forty, was still one of the quickest men I ever played with, taking always middle wicket, and often, by swift running, doing part of long field's work. Sparks, Fennex, Bennett, and young Small, and Mr. Parry, were first rate, not to mention Beagley, whose style of long stopping in the North and South Match of 1836, made Lord Frederick and Mr. Ward justly proud of so good a representative of the game in their younger days. Albeit, an old player of seventy, describing the merits of all these men, said, "put Mr. King at point, Mr. C. Ridding long-stop, and Mr. W. Pickering cover, and I never saw the man that could beat either of them."

"John Wells was a most dangerous man in a single wicket match, being so dead a shot at a wicket. In one celebrated match. Lord Frederick warned the Honourable H. Tufton to beware of John; but John Wells found an opportunity of maintaining his character by shying down, from the side, little more than the single stump. Tom Sheridan joined some of our matches, but he was no good but to make people laugh. In our days there were no padded gloves. I have seen Tom Walker rub his bleeding fingers in the dust! David used to say he liked to rind him."

"The matches against twenty-two were not uncommon in the last century. In 1788 the Hambledon Club played two-and-twenty at Cold Ash Hill. 'Drawing' between leg and wicket is not a new invention. Old Small, (b. 1737, d. 1826,) was famous for the draw, and, to increase his facility he changed the crooked bat of his day for a straight bat. There was some fine cutting before Saunders' day. Harry Walker was the first, I believe, who brought cutting to perfection. The next genuine cutter—for they were very scarce (I never called mine cutting, not like that of Saunders at least)—was Robinson. Walker and Robinson would wait for the ball till all but past the wicket, and then cut with great force. Others made good Off-hits, but did not hit late enough for a good Cut. I would never cut with slow bowling. I believe that Walker, Fennex, and myself, first opened the old players' eyes to what could be done with the bat; Walker by cutting, and Fennex and I by forward play: but all improvement was owing to David Harris's bowling. His bowling rose almost perpendicular: it was once pronounced a jerk; it was altogether most extraordinary.—For thirteen years I averaged forty-three a match, though frequently I had only one innings; but I never could half play unless runs were really wanted."