by A. W. Pullin
A word as to the famous defeat by 7 runs of England by the Australians at the Oval on August 29, 1882, when the "ashes" of English cricket were taken to Australia. George thought England "ought to have won that match as easily as anything." Asked the reason why England did not win, George replied, "I am afraid one or two of our batsmen were a bit nervous. It looked 10 to 1 on England when *W. G.' and I were together, for we only wanted 85 to win, and we made 43 between us. They let Boyle bowl maiden after maiden, when a hit or two would have made all the difference. Personally, I was never nervous when I had to go in."
Another exciting match, which cricket readers will readily recall, was that at Manchester in August 1893, when Lancashire defeated Yorkshire by 5 runs. "I thought we were sure to win that match. I went in to join Moorhouse, and there were Hirst and Hunter to follow. Moorhouse goes out, and then in comes and out goes Hirst. That left only Hunter, and 6 runs were wanted. I thought to myself, I must try and force the fight somehow. If David Hunter had not been the last man I should have waited, but I thought it was better to make the runs if I could while I was facing Johnny Briggs. So I went for the boundary, but Albert Ward was on the edge of it and we lost. I still think I adopted the right course . I thought it was 100 to 1 on us winning the game at one time. The sequel shows how little you can be certain of in cricket."
Ulyett was perhaps the "coolest customer" that ever Yorkshire cricket has produced. Edmund Peate narrated how George invited himself into a Ministerial reception in Downing Street. Another colleague, Charlie Ullathorne, tells the following:—
"We were playing Surrey in London. 'Happy Jack ' and I stayed at the Crown Court Hotel. We and another of our men after the match ordered steak for three. In due course it came — a big porterhouse steak in a disk The waiter placed it opposite Ulyett, who promptly helped himself to the lot. We sat expectant for a few minutes, and then called the waiter and asked when our share was likely to make its appearance. 'Beg pardon, gentlemen, but you ordered steak for three and I brought it.' 'What ?' said Ulyett, 'this for three! Nonsense; bring the gentlemen one apiece. We always grow them this size in our country."
"Happy Jack," near the close of his career, was playing on the Leeds ground. A journalist from a neighbouring town wished to interview him. Calling at the dressing-room, in Ulyett's absence, he announced his desire, which was duly communicated to George. A little later Ulyett stalked into the room in a state of great excitement, and said, "It's too bad, lads. There will have to be a change somewhere." "What's the matter, Jack 1" "Why, read this telegram. The wife has had twins." The interviewer forbore to intrude upon "Happy Jack's" excitement, but the next day a paragraph congratulating him upon the increase in the family duly appeared. It is to be feared these twins were born on a good many occasions. The mirth they caused in the Players' dressing-room is not easily described.
Ulyett had his benefit in 1887. The match was over in two days, and the gate money was a disappointment. "Happy Jack's" great popularity was shown, however, in the subscription list, which yielded the handsome sum of ^700. "I was very pleased," said George, "to find myself so respected." The benefit totalled to just four figures. On the whole, Ulyett fared well out of cricket, but he admitted he was "lucky in getting so many times across the water."
312
THE LATE E. PEATE.
DEATH has sadly thinned the ranks of the old Yorkshire brigade in the closing year of the nineteenth century. Rowbotham, Thewlis, Bates, and Peate all went to their rest within the space of three months. "Ted" Peate died on Sunday, March 11, 1900. The previous Tuesday he called upon me to present me with the photograph reproduced beside these sentences. The following Tuesday it was my melancholy duty to witness his interment. Chill, pneumonia, death! As with Ulyett and Bates, so it was with Peate. R.I.P.
Of the three great cricketing nurseries of Lascelles Hall, Sutton-in-Ashfield, and Yeadon, the last claims to be the training - ground of the greatest number of professional cricketers. Lascelles Hall beats it in its number of county men, but Yeadonites say they hold the palm for the largest number of men who have gone out into the world as professional cricketers in one season. It was in the Yeadon nursery that Edmund Peate had his training. Born at Holbeck on March 2, 1856, his parents took him with them to Yeadon when he was six years of age.
Peate's first venture into public cricket was as a clown cricketer. "Treloar's Clown Cricketers," he said, "were engaged in the South of England about 1875. They advertised for professional cricketers, and I applied and was accepted. Shortly before then some eight or nine professionals had been engaged by Casey & Robson as clown cricketers, so I suppose I was fired with the same ambition, and joined the rival troupe. We finished our tour at Sheffield by getting well mobbed and sodded. The 'grinders' saw no fun in booby cricket; they preferred the genuine article, and gave us an emphatic reminder of the fact.
"The company consisted of eight acrobats, eight talking clowns, and eight cricketers. Of course I could do a bit of talking when I thought necessary, and I made one attempt to figure as an acrobat. It was at Newport Pagnell. One of our professional acrobats was exhibiting his dexterity in hanging downwards by the toes. I thought I would show how easy it was, and attempted the same feat. Somehow the toes wouldn't stick, and I fell to the ground on my head. I at once came to the conclusion that I was not a born acrobat."
Though Peate's fame was made as a slow bowler, it was as a fast bowler that he came first into prominence in local cricket. He had a short engagement with Batley on retiring from the clown cricketing tour. The next year he took a professional engagement at Carlisle as a fast bowler, and, he said, was "fairly successful." Then he went to Manningham, being recommended there, still as a fast bowler, by his old friend and tutor, the late Amos Marshall of Yeadon. How Peate came to take up slow bowling can be best told in his own words :—
"Before going to Manningham I was engaged as a warptwister with Messrs Myers & Co. at Yeadon, and having time during the working hours of the winter to practise, I made the most of it. I used to bowl in a shed, with the bales of 'Red Dicks' around. 'Red Dicks,' I should explain, were bales of mungo intended for the making of red shawls for the China market. I made a copy of Amos Marshall's style. The result was that I found I could keep a good length and get some twist on the ball, and in the spring I had put the winter's practice to such good use that I came out as a slow bowler. My first match with Manningham was against Yeadon. As I had been engaged as a fast bowler, the Manningham Club were rather surprised to find on taking up my engagement with them that I was bowling slow. In the match with Yeadon, however, I bowled fast, and took 7 wickets for 28 runs. That was the last time I bowled fast. I knew that slow bowling, with an occasional fast delivery, was my forte, and I stuck to it."
Peate disturbed some conventional ideas about bowling "on a spot," "pitching on a sixpence," and other phenomenal feats of accurate length-bowling attributed to himself and other great bowlers.
"People used to say that I 'broke' this and 'broke' that, but as a matter of fact I never broke the ball much at alL I used to beat the batsman by length bowling, by studying his weak points, deceiving him with the pace and flight of the ball, and so on. But the talk about 'finding a spot' is all 'Tommy rot.' You must forgive the expression, for I really cannot call it anything else. I remember once on a soft wicket it was mentioned that I had bowled one over in which each ball dropped exactly on the same spot. Nothing of the sort: there would be a difference in the pitch of all the deliveries, though each might be a good length.
"It was the elevation that deceived. The balls might seem to drop all on the same spot, but they certainly did not; and I could not have bowled to one spot, no matter how I tried. Alf. Shaw and I have laughed many a time at the nonsense which has been spoken and written about pitching on a spot. Why, it will take a clever man to pitch to a square foot, not to mention a sixpence. There is a length which no batsman can play, and I used to study to find it, and also to go for the batsman's weak points.
I could break the ball both ways, but very little, and I never tried to break it much For practice purposes we were favourably situated at Yeadon, as we were often able to commence practising out of doors in February."
It was while fulfilling his engagement at Manningham in 1879 (his second year there) that Peate was engaged with Yorkshire county. The previous season, when playing against Scarborough, the Rev. E. S. Carter took a fancy to his bowling and recommended him to the Yorkshire authorities. When Peate played with the Colts he said he took 10 wickets for
11 runs in the first innings, and scored 25 not out. In the second innings he took 7 wickets for 23 runs, and a County Committee man went up to him, patted him on the back, and said, "Ah, Peate, I saw you were not trying in the second innings. You only wanted to give them encouragement 1" After that trial Peate went straight into the county team.
His first county game was against Notts in 1879 at Trent Bridge, when the field was at times nearly under water. Yorkshire got Notts out once and were then dismissed for 46, and scored 2 for no wicket in the second innings, the match being drawn. A day later they went on to Hull to play Surrey. They could not start on the first day at all, and when they did commence planks and blocks of wood had to be laid down to enable the spectators to get over the pools of water.
"From this match," said Peate, "we went on to Sheffield to play Kent, and there I really clenched my position in the Yorkshire team, for I took 6 wickets in one innings for 39 runs, and 6 in the next for 38 runs—in all 12 for 77. Three years later in a match with Kent on the same ground—June
12 and 13, 1882—I did something out of the common. I upset the House of Lords and knocked out Home Rule in three balls. In other words, I got rid of two live lords and an Irishman with the hat trick. The former were Lords Harris and Throwley; the Irishman K O'Shaughnessy. Bates in the same match took 6 wickets for 12 runs.
"For this hat trick I was presented with a silver mount for a walking-stick. Here it is. You will see it is in the form of a fist clasping a revolver. I now tell my friends it is a facsimile of a mailed fist, presented to me by the German Emperor.
"I also got talent-money for the bowling feat, which reminds me that bowlers sometimes used to get small thanks for their best performances. Many people will remember the match at Holbeck between Yorkshire and Surrey in July 1883. Surrey in their first innings scored 31, and I took 8 wickets for 5 runs. Well, some one suggested to a Holbeck man that a collection should be made in recognition of my
bowling. What do you think was the reply 1—' Oh, be ,
he has ruined our gate; I shall object to the hat going round.' And that was my only reward!
"What was my best year with the ball? Oh, 1882, undoubtedly. In that season I took 165 wickets, which, I may say, is the greatest number ever taken in one season by a Yorkshire bowler, though more matches are played now than then. At Manchester against the Australians on June 19 and 20, 1884, I bowled through both innings, and had the following analysis:—
First innings . .
Second innings . .
It was a good hard wicket, and I consider this the biggest thing in bowling I accomplished in all my career. Mr Hornby, who made 94 in the same match, presented me with the balI, which I have now."
Tumbling several plate-inscribed balls out of his pocket, Peate produced this one bearing the above analysis. Another ball bears the inscription. "From Moreton-in-the-Marsh to E. Peate, for his splendid bowling, York v. Gloucester, on 8th, 9th, 10th May 1884."
Concerning the Moreton-in-the-Marsh incident, Peate recalled the following interesting anecdote affecting "W. G.," and showing the danger of cock-suredness in any game of cricket: "We were being entertained to a banquet by a certain nobleman on the Friday night, and, judging by the score, it looked as if we had lost the match, for we were 51 runs behind on the first innings and had done badly in the second, so far as it had gone. In the course of the speech-making 'W. G.' was inclined to speak of Gloucester's prospective victory. But Tom Emmett retorted, 'No, Doctor; we are Yorkshiremen, and we have never lost until the last run is got or wicket taken.' Well, the next day Tom, Pinder, Hill, and I scored nicely, and we sent them in to get 85 runs. It was 42 too many. They scored 43, and we won by 41 runs. My bowling on that occasion was represented by 6 wickets for 13 runs. I got the wickets of Mr E. M Grace, Mr Townsend, and Painter in successive deliveries, and this is the ball with which the performance was done."
Peate, of course, played repeatedly against the Australians. Mention of the fact recalled reminiscences of some of their famous players. George Giffen tells a story about an Australian batsman and his dislike of Peate's bowling. The Yorkshireman beat him with "a clipping leg break" in one innings. The batsman, determined that it should not happen again, got hold of a bat in his room at the hotel and began to make strokes at imaginary balls. At one he would play back and mutter, "That's the way to play you, Peate." Then he would play forward, remarking, "Not this time, Peate, my boy." At last he ventured on a big hit at a leg ball, and, swinging round with a "How do you like that, Peate?" sent the toilet set, which he had forgotten all about, in fragments to the floor. Later on in the day, confident that he would make a score, he faced the real Peate, and was clean bowled the first ball.
Peate himself said that the hero of the crockery performance was always said to be W. L. Murdoch; in fact he was told so by C. T. B. Turner. "Certainly," he added, "I used to get his wicket very often. When he was over with the 1882 team I got his wicket oftener than any other bowler. There was one extraordinary innings which he played, too, at Huddersfield, on July 22, 1880, when he was over with his First team. It was the return match with Yorkshire. I opened at the top end to Murdoch. George Freeman missed him off the first ball at short-slip; Lockwood missed him off the second ball at point; off the third ball he was missed at the wicket by Pinder; while off the fourth Lockwood caught him at point. He was thus missed three times in four balls and caught off the fourth. Rather a glorious innings, wasn't it 1
"Then at Bradford once I nearly bowled his leg-stump. Mr Murdoch put his bat down in position and stepped out to see how he could have missed playing the ball. He inspected the position with great care, and prepared to receive the next ball. But the next ball bowled him! How the crowd did laugh.
"One of the most dangerous men I ever crossed was Bonnor, but he would persist in trying to play the fancy game. At Bradford, in June 1882, he was kind enough to hit me three times out of the ground for 6's. I had my revenge in another match, when he came in about ten minutes from drawing-time. He went on playing over after over as nice as possible, until it got to the very last ball of the last over of the day. I sent him down what he evidently thought was a regular ' sloppy' one, and of course he must let fly, with the result that he was caught at cover-point. He went out looking as if he would like to kick himself."
There is an incident told at the expense of Peate which should not be omitted. It occurred in the match between Murdoch's Second team and an Eleven of England at Harrogate, on September 25, 1882, and is told by an Australian who was present. Alec Bannerman was famous as a cover-point—was probably the best man in that position ever seen from Australia. Perhaps the smartest and cleanest bit of work he ever did in that position was in this match at Harrogate. Peate kept on dodging a yard or so out of his crease and back again—" playing the Angora," as George Bonnor in his refined way termed it. Alec noticed this, but did not pretend to throw at the wickets, until presently Peate advanced about an extra foot. Then, with surprising dash and rapidity of action, Alec picked up and threw the ball in to Blackham, who had the bails off in an instant before the astonished Peate could get back. Never before or since has a batsman seemed more utterly crestfallen than Peate appeared as he walked to the pavilion amidst the laughter of the crowd. The only persons who did not laugh were Peate himself and little Alec, whose "dander" was up to such an extent that his moustache fairly bristled as he said, "Play the Angora with me, will you?"
"In the
memorable match at the Oval on August 29, 1892, when Australia defeated England by 7 runs, Peate's was the last wicket that fell. Giffen writes about him being caught out, but as a matter of fact Peate was bowled by Boyle for 2. He always declared that he was not nervous, and said that if three or four other batsmen had made even as many runs as he did, England would not have lost.
"A few days after this remarkable match," added Peate, "we were talking about it in the pavilion during a shower of rain at Scarborough. The late Mr I. D. Walker said to me, 'Peate, why didn't you try to keep your end up until Charlie [Mr C. T. Studd] could get the runs?' I replied quite gravely that I thought I was the better bat! Mr C. I. Thornton then chimed in, 'Yes, you're quite right, Ted. Before they went in Charlie was walking round the pavilion with a blanket around him; Steel's teeth were all in a chatter; and Barnes's teeth would have been chattering if he had not left them at home.'"
There was a scene at the Oval on August 1, 1884, during which Peate was asked to harangue the multitude. The match was Players of England v. Murdoch's team, and at lunch-time on the last day the Australians only wanted 11 runs to win, and had 9 wickets to fall. The adjournment was taken, a fact which caused the crowd to break over the ground, pull up the stumps, and make a noisy demonstration in front of the pavilion. Afterwards they would not disperse when the players were ready to continue the game, and Peate was asked by Mr Alcock if he would speak to the crowd and pacify them. "That was nothing in my line," said Peate, so I told him, 'No, thank you; I came here to play cricket, not to quell a riot.'"
Peate paid but one visit to the land of the Golden Fleece. He was a member of the sixth English team which invaded the Antipodes, under the guidance of Shaw, Shrewsbury, and Lilly white, in 1881-82. The trip was made vid San Francisco. A good sailor, Peate said that on the voyage he could never manage more than five meals a-day.