by A. W. Pullin
Like other old cricketers, Pooley got little "fat" out of some of the cricket excursions at home. Just one instance in proof of the fact that the jolly life of a pro. in the old days was not always attended with financial success:—
"I remember we once played at Edinburgh with the old United. When Mortlock and I got back to the Elephant and Castle we had 1s. 4d. in our pockets between us. We said that if that was the result of going to play cricket in Scotland, we preferred to play at Kennington Oval."
In addition to the chief teams, the United and All England, there was a team run by Fred Caesar for a brief time, of which Pooley acted as secretary. That team once played Tom Sherman's team at the Oval for the championship and won it. The chief thing that Pooley remembers of these enterprises is that "the money was divided—and there was a rare bother over the division."
Humphrey, Jupp, and Pooley used to play single-wicket matches against elevens in various parts of the South, and Pooley says the trio were never beaten, though he admits they found it very hard work. Pooley is the only survivor of the triumvirate.
In addition to the journey to Australia already mentioned, Pooley was one of Willsher's team that went to America in 186S. George Freeman and he had bunks in the same cabin. The pair were very ill on the journey, but even Pooley had to laugh when George, in the throes of sea-sickness, moaned out, "Ted, what an ass I must be. As if I could not get plenty of cricket in -Yorkshire without coming out on a sea like this!"
The men who made this journey were Willsher, Shaw, Pooley, Jupp, Humphrey, Charlwood, Jim Lillywhite, Tarrant, Jack Smith of Cambridge, George Freeman, and Joe Rowbotham. Of these only Shaw, Pooley, and Lillywhite are now alive. Rowbotham was the last to join the majority, his death occurring in December last. Pooley speaks of Rowbotham with good-humoured familiarity as "Old Tarpot." Asked why such an eminently staid and respected cricketer should be so christened, he said that no matter how ill other people were on board, Joe Rowbotham never missed a meal. He stuck to everything he ate so well that they nicknamed him "Old Tarpot."
The Rev. Canon M'Cormick made 137 in North v. South at Canterbury on August 3, 1868, when Pooley was keeping wicket. When near the end of the innings, Pooley said to him, "Well, sir, this is the most extraordinary experience that I have ever had at cricket. All the time you have been in I have scarcely taken a single ball at the wicket. If the ball was straight you played it, and if it was crooked you hit it." "That," adds Pooley now, "was quite true."142
Pooley pays to George Pinder the compliment of saying he was the smartest man at taking a ball at the wicket he ever saw, though he adds that the famous Yorkshireman did not always watch the "psychological moment" when the batsman had his toe off the crease. His contemporaries say that Pooley himself was better at slow bowling than fast, but it is perhaps only human on Pooley's part to say that he doesn't hold the same opinion, and to remind those who do that he kept wicket to Freeman and Tarrant, "two of the fastest bowlers in England." His testimony to George Freeman coincides with that of many others who knew him, for he says, "I reckoned Freeman to be the best fast bowler I ever saw in my life." Pooley likes the older days, which is perhaps natural, and says :—
"Some time ago a few of us old cronies were at Lord's together, and we exchanged opinions as to the merits of past and present-day cricket. We were all of opinion that it is not as good as it used to be. Why, a man ought almost to keep wicket blindfolded now. The wickets are so good, and you get nearly every ball on the off-side barely stump high. Some of the wickets of my time were like turnpike roads, and you had to look after your eyes I can tell you."
It may be said from this that Pooley is a praiser of times past. So be it. When the present generation of cricketers become greybeards will they not think that the best days were those when they were young t
MR ARTHUR APPLEBY.
MR ARTHUR APPLEBY is one of those great but modest sportsmen who would rather talk about anybodyand anything than about himself and his cricket performances. This modesty is a virtue characteristic of most cricketers, and in the course of these Talks it has several times been a difficult obstacle for the writer to overcome. What Mr Appleby had done, if worth knowing, was well known; he had little to say, and not much inclination to say it; in fact, while appreciating the compliment, he really did not see why he should talk at all. But these Talks would not be considered representative if the reminiscences of an amateur of Mr Appleby's school passed unrecorded; hence the old Lancashire left-arm bowler, in deference to the writer's representations, overcame his reluctance to sit in the opposite chair and Talk.
Though of Lancashire birth, Mr Appleby comes of Yorkshire stock. His father was a corn-miller at Farnley, near Leeds, and the family forebears lived and milled there so far back as the earliest years of the eighteenth century. In 1841 Mr Appleby's father removed to Enfield, near Accrington. There the present Enfield Mills were erected, there Mr Arthur Appleby was born—the date of his birth being July 22, 1843 —there and elsewhere along with his brother he still carries on the business of corn-miller, and there the future generation of Applebys is growing up. As if to show attachment for the county from whence the family sprang, young Arthur Appleby was educated at Thorparch, and it was thus on Yorkshire soil that he learnt the rudiments of cricket.
"In those early days," says Mr Appleby, "I had no idea of taking any great part in cricket. As a matter of fact, when I came home to Enfield and joined our club here, on being selected to play I told them I thought my proper position in the field was long-stop. I was told, however, that I should have to bowl, and I did bowl—under-hand. Then the remark was made to me that that kind of bowling was no good. I must bowl round-arm (left). I tried in a local match, and bowled three wides for a start. I finished the over under-hand, did not take another, and came to the conclusion at the moment that bowling was not my forte.
"But what was the sequel 1 I thought that perhaps, after all, I might do something for my club in bowling, so I practised and practised, and gradually found that round-arm bowling was not impossible. I acquired a fair pace; it was never considered fast, but you would call it distinctly above medium. On August 23, 1862, I played for Whalley at Great Harwood, and the papers were kind enough to make reference to my 'excellent' bowling and 'easy delivery,' as they described it. I went on practising until I found I really could do something. If we had had, say, a couple of professionals in the club here, and the district had not been one in which cricket practice at night was really the only amusement, I should probably never have been known in first-class cricket as a bowler.
"What may be called my first match outside one-day events was North Lancashire v. Manchester at Preston, on July 3, 1863, when Luke Greenwood, who was on our side (North Lancashire), made 73 and 22. My share was 4 wickets. Afterwards, I was several times asked to play against the All-England Eleven, who at the time were infusing life into cricket throughout the country. A place in a team against them was then considered an honour, and so I regarded it. George Parr, who managed the All-England Eleven at the time, asked me to play for him at Kendal, but I could not accept the invitation, much to my regret
"On August 10 and n, 1866,1 played for the Gentlemen v. Players of Lancashire at Cheetham Hill, and that match may be considered to be the commencement of my career as a firstclass cricketer. Mr Alec B. Rowley, the Lancashire captain, asked me to play for Lancashire against Surrey at Liverpool. I questioned the propriety of this, for the reason that Mr Teddie Rowley, who had had all the expense and trouble of playing in the Oval match—we paid our own expenses in those days, remember—was entitled to play in the home engagement. Mr Alec, however, said he would make it all right with his brother, and on hearing this I said I should be very glad to play for my county. Accordingly I did so, and on August 23, 24, 25, 1866, I made my debut as a Lancashire cricketer on the Wavertree Ground, Liverpool, scoring 20 and 10 with the bat, and taking 6 wickets in the first innings, the wickets including those of Humphrey, Jupp, H. H. Stephenson, and
Mortlock. We might have won the match but for the fact that T. 0. Potter missed Griffith out in the long-field off Roger Iddison. Griffith then made 41 not out, and we lost by 3 wickets. After the match Mr Burrup, the Surrey secretary, who was on the ground, asked me if I would play for the Gentlemen at the Oval the next year if the Surrey Committee invited me; and while I deprecatingly said I was not good enough, I consented to play if asked.
"As a matter of fact, my first invitation to play in Gentlemen v. Players came from Lord's. That was in 1867. I accepted, and played pretty regularly up to 1878. In the 1867 match I bowled through both innings—a feat which was not often done then, and is much rarer now, no doubt owing to the improved wickets. Then I did not appear in the Gentlemen's side until 1887. It was a very dry summer,—it was the Jubilee year. I got into the Veterans' match, and took a few wickets, and they asked me to play for the Gentlemen at Lord's, which I did. I really consider my first-class cricket career closed in 1881.
"Did I not play regularly at the Oval function, too 1 No. The Oval people asked me first in 1870, when I played. I received several invitations from them afterwards, but owing to my cricket and other engagements I often regretted I was unable to accept them.
"By the way, in the match in 1867 which I have referred to, Jim Grundy and Wootton were appearing for the Players. Wootton has stated that Grundy used to say, 'I'll stick them up, and you bowl them.' That is perfectly true; it was so in this match in 1867. However, Jim evidently did not stick them up enough, for though Wootton took 8 wickets, the Gentlemen won the match with only 2 wickets down in their second innings."
Mr Appleby in 1872 formed one of the team taken out by the late Mr R. A. Fitzgerald to Canada and the States. That tour was described by the captain of the team in his diverting book, published on the return of the team, entitled 'Wickets in the West,' which doubtless many old cricket enthusiasts still have in their library. Mr Appleby thinks to this day that a more enjoyable trip was never undertaken by any team of cricketers. Four of the party are now dead—Fitzgerald, Pickering (of a Yorkshire family), Ottaway, and Hadow. Mr Appleby had a narrow escape of being prematurely cut off from the world almost before the tour commenced. In describing the incident Mr Fitzgerald wrote:—
In the bay of Sillery Mr Dobell showed the Twelve his private collection of "lumber." The enormous logs lie in the water for several hundred yards. Here we nearly lost our bowler. Appleby slipped off a log into deep water. He, luckily, recovered his grasp of the treacherous tree, but lie had seen quite enough of " lumber," and so said all of us.
Mr Appleby agrees that it must have been in acknowledgment of this escapade that, at a banquet subsequently held, he was called upon to reply for the Navy. It was the only nautical experience that could possibly have qualified him to reply to such a toast.
Among the cricketers of the New World Mr Appleby's bowling had dire results, and he soon became known as "The Tormentor." This sobriquet caused the author of 'Wickets in the West' to break into song, from which the following is an extract:—
"Tormentor they call me, I know not why.
From my deadly length or my wicked eye]
Take me off, let another try;
Jealousy passes an Apple-by.
Field, brothers, field, my rapids are near,
To the sticks and the shooters a way will clear."
On another occasion, at New York, the local press gave rein to their imagination, one of them saying that "Appleby and Grace were the executioners in the second innings of the New Yorkers. The Tormentor bowled with terrific speed. He tore Hatfield's wicket down with a shooter, and a groan of distress went up as one of the brightest lights of the Mutuals was drenched in a duck's egg." "Drenched in a duck's egg" suggests a Congressional election, with which our American cousins were then perhaps more familiar than with cricket.
In another match at Ottawa it is recorded that the Tormentor perpetrated a perfect slaughter of the Innocents. The butcher's bill read thus: Rose, 8 wickets for 35 runs; Appleby, 12 wickets for 3 runs. The latter performance, even against a moderate team, is marvellous. Appleby was not permitted, from motives of humanity, to bowl throughout the second innings. After capturing 8 wickets he was taken off, and his analysis for both innings read thus :—
180 balls; 20 runs; 17 wickets.
It is doubtful if any bowler (round-arm) ever bowled through an innings against twenty-two for 3 runs only. It moved a Canadian rhymester to the following outburst, a verse of a song to "The Gentlemen Cricketers' Team:"—
"Here's the left-handed bowler—that Lancashire swell,
Whom Ottawa batsmen remember so well:
He bowled a whole innings (and bowled like great guns),
In Apple-pie order for—only three runs."
The performance was repeated in the second innings of the match played against twenty-two of Boston, when the analysis read as follows:—
This trip to Canada and the States was the only visit abroad for cricketing purposes which Mr Appleby could undertake. In 1878 he was asked to repeat the trip, but was unable to do so owing to the claims of business, and, as a matter of fact, the tour never came off. In 1873 W. G. Grace asked him to go to Australia, but for business and domestic reasons that invitation also had to be declined, while a pressing invitation to form one of Lord Harris's team for Australia in 1878 could not be accepted for the same reasons.
Mr Appleby cannot be said to have put his heart into batting to the same extent as bowling, but he once made 99 against Yorkshire, with Iddison, West, Emmett, Luke Greenwood, and Clayton on the bowling side. That match was on July 17, 1871, on the Bramall Lane ground. He was eighth on the batting list, and Barlow, who had gone in the wicket before him, greatly assisted him by stonewalling for a 28 not out. "When I was bowled by Clayton," says Mr Appleby, "I had no idea I was so near the 100. On my retirement I found Mr Hornby on the steps of the pavilion ready with a new bat to present to me. My highest score outside county cricket was 136 not out for Manchester at Birkenhead Park, August 27, 28, 1875."
An incident that has been told more than once at the expense of Richard Daft occurred in the Gentlemen v. Players' match at Lord's in 1872. Daft—who had been bowled by Mr Appleby for o in the first innings—had scored 102 in the second, when the Lancashire amateur bowled him with a ball which pitched so wide of the wicket that the famous Notts batsman did not attempt to play it. Of this incident Mr Appleby says that Lord's ground was not then what it is now, and that the slope of the wicket materially helped a left-arm bowler, with a break like his, when attacking from the pavilion end. The ball in question was pitched perhaps seven inches wide of the wicket, and "whipped in" from the off, much to Daft's chagrin and astonishment.
No man has surely come nearer to making a tie in his team's two innings of a match than Mr Appleby did when playing for James Lillywhite's benefit in Gentlemen v. Players at Brighton in August 1881. "I had," he says, "to go in last in both innings of the Gentlemen. In the first I scored 8, and made the score tie. In the second, after scoring 3, I was splendidly caught by Alf. Shaw off his own bowling. We were then 1 run behind, and the Players won by 1. It was said that a mistake had been made by the scorers, and that we really tied on both innings."
Ten years earlier, on August 14, 15, 16, 1871, Mr Appleby played for the Gentlemen v. Players at Brighton, for the benefit of John Lillywhite. On that occasion he had an adventure that was more exciting—that was, in fact, nearly a tragedy:—
"I was proceeding to Brills' baths before breakfast on the second morning of the match when I met Mr M. Turner, the Middlesex wicket-keeper, who was playing in the match, and a friend, who were going to bathe in the sea, and, though I explained I was no swimmer, they persuaded me to accompany them. As every one knows who has once bathed at Brighton, the beach runs quickly down, and having proceeded cautiously to the limit of my height, I was disporting myself, no doubt to my satisfaction and enjoyment, when a wave came and landed me a yard or two farther from shore, and completely out
of my depth. The one horrid suspicion that seized me was that they might think I was only joking. However, Mr Bull (Turner's friend) came to my rescue, but was powerless, and Turner had to get us both out, though not before I was both alarmed and exhausted. As soon as I could touch the bottom with my feet I did not require telling to get out. I then and there made up my mind to learn to swim, which I did. I recovered sufficiently from the upset to bowl fairly well in the next innings of the Players, securing 3 wickets—Jupp, Jno. Smith of Cambridge, and Daft—out of the 6 taken before the match was drawn."
Much could be written of Mr Appleby's performances with the ball for Lancashire, but it must be sufficient to say that his full record works out to 237 wickets at a cost of 14-10 runs per wicket. His best performance in a match for the county was against Derbyshire at Derby in 1871, when he took 13 wickets for 59 runs. In the 'Sixties and 'Seventies, and down to his retirement, matches, of course, were much fewer than they are now. His last county match was on July 7, 8, 9, 1887, against Derbyshire, at Long Eaton, but Mr Appleby had really given up first-class cricket six years before, and did not on that occasion make a serious re-entry into the game. In less serious cricket he has played a great deal, and still continues to do so. With the Free Foresters and Northern Nomads he has had enjoyable outings of which the public hear little; and that he has preserved his form to recent times may be judged by a remarkable performance for the Nomads against Pocklington in 1896, when in 12-2 overs (7 maidens) he took 9 wickets for 8 runs and caught the tenth.