by A. W. Pullin
"Talking of the rapidity of Mr Forbes's bowling, I remember that in a match at Scarborough in which I had the honour of playing for Eleven Gentlemen of the North v.Eleven Gentlemen of the South, two long stops were requisitioned when he was bowling, one being Mr A. N. Hornby and the other myself. The byes in one innings were 44, the ball having got past both of us eleven times to the boundary.
"Talking about umpiring stories reminds me of an old gentleman who, when I was a boy, umpired for a famous cricketing village in the North Riding for which I played several years. His umpiring attire included blue stockings and fustian breeches. He had a son who used to bowl, and who is still living. Before the match commenced he would remark, 'Noo, lad, which end is thi going to bool fro' 1' 'I shall bowl from this end.' 'Then at this end I stands.' Byand-by the old gent would say, 'Oh dear, lad, thi's getting on badly.' That acted like a signal, for 'How's that 1' was soon heard, and out the batsman had to go.
"There was a little fellow named Scott, a mason, who was one of the mainstays at the wicket for a rival village. The old umpire used to say to his son, 'Noo, lad, here's little Scott coming in; we mun hev him oot somehoo, hooiver.' And they did.
"I once got 71 for Boroughbridge against Harewood, and a man came up to me at the close of my innings and said, 'Now, young man, you must come and sup—you've won me ever so many quarts: I've been backing you in tens for a quart.' I suppose he had backed me for a quart every ten runs. There were some thirsty souls at these old matches, but, withal, pleasant and good-tempered.
"I wasn't playing in the match in which the following incident occurred, but I have often played on the ground in a beautiful Yorkshire park in which it was reported to have happened. The owner, a noble lord, was a keen cricketer, and not backward in putting himself on to bowl. On the occasion he bowled several successive balls which would ordinarily have been called ' wide.' He at last bowled a ball even wider than the others, and the batsman appealed to the umpire, 'Wasn't that a wide?' 'Yes, for sure; ah never seed a widerer; but his lordship don't like 'em calling.'
"Yet another umpiring story. I was once due to play in a match on the York ground, but being on duty at the Minster, did not get to the ground until the match was well in progress. Our umpire when I arrived said, 'I am glad you've come, Mr Carter; we have had a bit of unpleasantness. The other umpire gave one of our men out leg before wicket, and I stepped forward and said, 'I object to that decision.' He was very nasty was the other umpire; in fact, he adhered to his opinion. I said, 'Very well, then, I shall just take the very first opportunity I get to give one of your men out.'
"I smoothed matters over, and the game went on. Unfortunately, our umpire got his opportunity when I was bowling underhand lob-twisters. The ball did not pitch straight, but it shot and hit the batsman on the foot, and would have taken his wicket. I half appealed, and then checked myself, but the umpire gave 'out' in an instant. 'No,' I said, 'I didn't appeal, and the ball didn't pitch straight.' He replied, 'I beg your pardon, Mr Carter, but umpire's decision is final; he'll have to go.' Then he shook his finger at the other umpire and said, 'Noo then, we're even wi' you.' This shows what curious notions used to prevail among umpires as to their duties. Fortunately, the batsman didn't resent the decision, for he remarked, 'I'm glad he's gien me oot; it gies me a bit more time to see t' Exhibition'!—which was then being held in the city.
"It was in the same match, I think, that I bowled one man with a twister, round his legs. 'By gow, how that ball did turn,' said he. 'We'll get them turning balls off before we come again.' Another batsman was struck on the pad, and the ball went to me at short-slip. There was an appeal for leg before wicket, and the batsman being deaf, innocently walked two or three yards away out of his ground to hear the umpire's decision. Then I popped the ball into the wicket at my end and said, 'How is it for this end 1' 'Out.' The discomfited batsman, as he walked away, remarked, 'I tell thee what, Mr Carter, there's a deal o' points to be watched in cricket.'
"Umpires are, as a rule, anxious to give fair and unbiassed decisions. There have been instances in which they could not resist the temptation to give 'the benefit of the doubt' to 'their own side.' On one occasion, in my own experience, an expected umpire did not turn up, and a man on the ground was engaged to take his place. Just as the play was going to begin, he said, 'Just let me understand, which side am I umpiring for 1'
"On another occasion, I took a parish team to play in a match on the Castle Howard Park ground. We were leading by about 50 runs when the last man of the opposing side came in. I had taken 2 wickets with ' lobs' in my previous over, and it was about three minutes from time to draw stumps when I was preparing to deliver the last over, confident that I could get the last wicket. Suddenly the umpire—not ours—pulled his watch out and said, 'There's not time for this over to be concluded. I shan't allow it to be commenced.' And with that he took the bails and left the ground, leaving us not victors, but only with the match 'drawn in our favour.'
"The Oxford University Eleven were playing M.C.C. at Lord's in 1867. Jimmy Grundy was umpiring in a black suit of clothes: white coats for umpires had not then been instituted. E. M. Kenny, the famous left-hand bowler, was in with me. Grundy was standing face towards the batsman, Kenny, who said, 'Jimmy, will you please stand sideway 1 You are right behind the bowler's arm.' Jimmy stood 'side on,' but, knowing that his figure warranted the statement, said, 'I'm broader this way than t'other.'
"The members of the Yorkshire teams in my time were, I think, unusually fond of small, harmless, practical jokes. On one occasion we were going to enjoy Lord Londesborough's princely hospitality at Lyndhurst in the New Forest, and play two or three matches v. Hampshire, &c. The train from London was inconveniently crowded, and in order that the carriage conveying some of the players might not be unduly invaded, George Atkinson, who was always a bit of a wag, feigned madness, and at each station was seen by the people on the platform to be violently struggling to escape from the carriage, being only restrained by his supposed keepers. Needless to say, between the stations the occupants *jf that carriage travelled in comparative comfort.
"In Lyndhurst the players were billeted in cottages; and again it was George Atkinson who could not resist the temptation to play a practical joke—this time on his hostess. He said he was rather short of collars, and would be much obliged if she would kindly wash him one or two. She put them in water overnight, and next morning she came to their owner in great distress and perplexity, holding a few threads —-all that was left of the collars—in her hand, with many expressions of regret for what had happened to them, and begging for forgiveness, as she could not afford to replace them with new ones. The joke was cruelly carried on till the end of the week, when George told her that they were paper collars, and not intended to be washed.
"Why is a yorker so called?" asks Mr Carter. "I have in my time heard much curiosity expressed as to the origin of the word yorker as applied to a ball between a half-volley and a full-pitch. Hitherto I am satisfied with my own view, pending further light. But the following piece of history will amuse, if it does not satisfy, the curious on this question. 'Some years ago a match was being played between two public schools. Tom Barker of Nottingham was umpiring. On the fall of a certain wicket a shout rang out from the boys on the bowler's side, 'Oh! Good yorker 1' During the luncheon interval the head-master of one of the schools put to Barker the question, 'Barker, why is a certain ball called a yorker?' 'A yorker, sir — a yorker? Why, a yorker's a ball that pitches inside the batsman's crease.' 'Yes, Barker, I know what a yorker is, but I want to know why that particular ball is called a yorker.' After a pause, and a thoughtful scratch of the head, Barker replied, 'Why, sir, I don't see very well what else you could call it.' The question is still unsettled.
"The Yorkshire Gentlemen were playing the Royal Engineers at Chatham. Some of them had rooms in barracks; the others were put up outside. One of the latter (who has played for the county sometimes; he repudiates the story, therefore I
won't give his name) was going out of barracks to his room after a merry evening, and was challenged by the sentry with the regulation, 'Who goes there?' C. W. L., thus suddenly arrested, gasped out, 'For God's sake, don't shoot! I'll tell you my name, if you'll give me time. I'm one of the Yorkshire Gentlemen.'
"In a match in which I played for the Y.G.C.C. at Darlington, among our opponents was one George Newby, whom I had known at Durham as one of the best with his fists, as well as one of the best in a sculling-boat, when I was at school there. I was bowling lobs when Newby came in. The batsman at the other end was a gentleman whom Newby familiarly addressed as 'Dick' (I think his surname was Thompson). Every ball I bowled to the latter Newby called out, 'Pawp'er, Dick.' He said to me, 'I'll pawp you when I get to the other end.' When the batsmen changed ends, just as I was preparing to deliver to Newby, he called out in his delightful Durham brogue, 'Coom on, Artful; I'll pawp you.' Meanwhile I had put an extra man in the long-field. As luck would have it, 'Geordie' 'pawped' my first ball right into his hands, and he held it. On retiring Geordie fired his parting shot with these friendly words, 'If you'd done that when you were at school, I'd have given you a ——- good thrashin'.' And I believe he would."
In the talk with E. Peate the share Mr Carter had in bringing him into notice is referred to. "The circumstances under which Peate came out," adds Mr Carter, "are certainly interesting. We found we were a man short for Yorkshire Gentlemen v. Scarborough at the close of the Carnival of 1878. In the pavilion I asked if there was any one at liberty who would like to play. A young fellow said he was at liberty. 'Could he bowl?' 'Yes, he could bowl a little bit,' he thought. So I told him to change and come out. I was keeping wicket, and I put him on to bowl first. I never had occasion to take him off. He had a marvellously easy action and good length, with a break from leg. I asked him where he had played. 'With Manningham,' was the reply. I told him he must send me his records, as he would have to play for Yorkshire. He played with the Colts next year, and went straight into first-class cricket. And this is how Ted Peate was introduced into the Yorkshire team.
"I daresay it will be known that for several years I got up the Yorkshire Eleven for the Scarborough Carnival, but it may not be so well known that it was I who first invited Lord Hawke to play for Yorkshire. I got Lord Hawke (then the Hon. M. B.) to play with Yorkshire at Scarborough, and the year afterwards he took his place in the County team. He said to me the other day that it was the best day's work I ever did for him when I asked him to play for Yorkshire in that Scarborough week."
An amusing incident occurred on the Yorkshire Gentlemen's ground a few years ago, on the occasion of a match between 14 Yorkshire Gentlemen and the County Eleven, in which Mr Carter got 39 runs out of a total of 70 or thereabouts. When in the field Mr Carter stood at point, and Tom Emmett cut a ball very hard which Mr Carter fielded, and returned smartly to G. A B. Leatham, the stumper; upon which a man standing close to the narrator of the story shouted out, "By go, if that there Teddy Carter mak's as good a parson as he mak's a cricketer, they owt to mak an archbishop of him." This story appropriately leads up to another one of Mr Carter's best:—
"When I came to York Minster as vicar-choral nearly a quarter of a century ago, I was given to understand that the Dean, Dr Duncombe, didn't like my playing cricket. But one Sunday morning an accident happened which rather reconciled him to my playing. The collections in those days were made with bags which had three wooden handles, convenient for passing from hand to hand, but very inconvenient for arranging on the alms-dish, especially when it came to the last three or four. On this occasion the choir-boys, who did
p
the collecting, had placed the bags on the plate more carelessly than usual, with the result that as I was handing it up to the Dean the top bag fell off. Instinctively I made a grab at it, holding the dish, which was very heavy, in my left hand, and I caught it before it reached the ground, and replaced it safely on the plate, and gave it to the Dean. Some members of the congregation, who saw the incident, audibly tittered; but I know that I broke out into a cold sweat at the thought of what would have happened if, while catching the falling bag, I had sloped the dish holding all the rest. After the service the Dean said with a smile, 'Well, Mr Carter, I see there are some advantages in being able to play cricket.'
"There used to be in the Malton Club a most steady, useful bat and deadly lob-bowler, 'Toby Field'—a gentleman still living and respected in Malton. He had a dear old mother, whose admiration for my father as vicar of the parish was almost exceeded by her pride in her son. One day—it was after I had left the University and recently been ordained—I paid her a visit and had a pleasant talk over old times, at the close of which she said, 'Eh! Master Teddy, when you can preach like your pa and play cricket like my son Tobias!' What would have been the consequences of such double excellence was left for the imagination to conclude. I know that I never could 'preach like my pa'; and I will leave it to Mr Field to decide whether or no I ever succeeded in playing cricket like 'my son Tobias.'"
227
ALEC WATSON.
IT has been said by an irreverent humorist that the first Scotsman who found salvation in England immediately fetched his brother in order that he, too, might find something to his material advantage. If this version of Scottish acquisitiveness be true, Alec Watson has failed to act up to the national tradition. Alec is the one great Scotsman who has
y J found a name for himself as a
professional cricketer in England. He has fetched no brither Scot down to share it with him. He stands alone as the professional representative of Scotland in the ranks of English high cricket, and he seems rather proud of the isolation.
Though his speech is not exactly that of a Drumtochty man, there is sufficient of it to know that Alexander Watson displays the national modesty when he says, "I am supposed to be a Scotsman." As a matter of fact he was born at Coatbridge on November 4, 1844, and his initiation into serious cricket took place under the auspices of the Drumpellier Club. When twenty years of age he played on the Clydesdale ground against the All-England team, with whom were George Parr, Edgar Willsher, Tarrant, and other Pilgrim Fathers of English cricket. "I was played for my batting then," he says. "A bat was given for the highest score on either side, and I won it with innings of 21 and 13."
About the year 1867 or '68 Watson went as a professional to the Edinburgh Caledonian Club. He recalls now the fact that "they broke up when I left. They said they would have carried on if I had remained with them another year, but I wanted to come to England to have more cricket, so I came." Alec thus followed his compatriots in their successful search for the things of this life worth having.
"In 1868," he explains, "I came to play in two matches with Blythswood, a Glasgow team, against Bowden and Knutsford. That visit led to my being engaged with Rusholme in 1869. Two years later I played my first match for Lancashire. It was against Cheshire. My connection with the County Palatine continued until the year 1893, so that I had a fairly long spell as an English county cricketer."
Watson recalls with pride the fact that "I was never left out of the Lancashire team until I was left out altogether. I only missed two matches in the whole period, and that was when I was suffering from some internal injury. My last match was against Sussex at Old Trafford on June 1, 2, 3, 1893. I scored 13 and 7 not out, and had 37 runs hit off me in 12 overs (4 maidens) for no wicket. I suppose this was not considered good enough, so I got my conge. Perhaps I had no right to question the official judgment. I had had a good innings, and it was time to make way for younger men.
"Yet it will surprise many to know that after a retirement of five years I was again asked to assist Lancashire. So recently as the back-end of season 1898 I was asked to play against Surrey. I thought, however, it was no good my starting again, so I did not accept the invitation they were kind enough to give me. I ought to say that I am so much engaged coaching at Rugby, Marlborough, Haileybury, Worcester, and elsewhere that I have kep
t in form; in fact, I play nearly as much cricket as I ever did."
The fruits of Watson's twenty-three years' connection with Lancashire cricket may be given in the following succinct form:—
These figures the inimitable Johnny Briggs alone excels among Lancashire players. Yet comparison would be misleading, for the simple fact that in Watson's earlier days opportunities were so much fewer than they are now. "When I joined Lancashire," he says, "they only played four matches a-year—two against Derbyshire and two against Yorkshire. When I retired there was nothing like the comprehensive programme that the county now tackles each year. In my early times a man had no chance of taking 100 wickets and scoring 100o runs. Later in my career, however, I took over 100 wickets for the county in a season six times—namely, in 1884-85-86-87-89 and 1890.
"What do I consider absolutely my best performance with the ball? It was for the North of England v. the Australians, at Manchester, on May 31, 1886. On a sticky wicket Peate and I got Scott and his men out twice for scores of 45 and 43. My analysis in the second innings was 27 overs, 18 maidens, 12 runs, 6 wickets. Not a single bowling change was made in the match—which was drawn owing to wet weather—on either side. Mr Hornby presented me with the ball on that occasion. It was the only ball I ever received."