by A. W. Pullin
"I have told you about being once introduced into a dragoons' team for the special benefit of Macclesfield cricketers. Well, there is another incident of a more recent date that will be found worth the mentioning, I hope. In 1897 I was up at Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, playing with Mr E. T. Heaven's Eleven. Mr F. S. Jackson was there. It was agreed that my identity should not be disclosed. I dyed my moustachios, and altered my appearance as best I could. My name for the time being was again M'Pherson. Well, Mr Jackson came in unsuspectingly. 'Guard, sir?' asks the umpire. 'Oh, anything will do,' nonchalantly replied the Leeds gentleman. So the game proceeded. When I had bowled an over or two Mr Jackson asked Mr Heaven who I was, and remarked I was quite good enough for Scotland. When Mr Jackson had made 5 I managed to send in what he afterwards called a 'clinker,' and down went the old Cambridge captain's leg-stump. Mr Heaven's team won easily. My identity was kept secret until just about the time when the teams were leaving. Then Mr Heaven forgot himself and called me by my name. Mr Jackson heard the name, and at once saw through the joke. 'Oh! this is M'Pherson, is it 1 Well, I don't mind having been bowled by him now.' The incident caused much amusement, and Mr Jackson has never seen me since without asking how his friend M'Pherson was getting on.
"You ask me why I have not had a benefit from the Gloucestershire Club. Frankly, I don't know. I should like to know. I assisted them for eleven years, and a benefit was promised to me by Mr W. G. Grace. It has been stated that I absolutely refused to play with the county team, but that is simply not true. Last year they had me down twice as reserve, but I was not called upon to play. When on the Bristol ground ready to play, a gentleman told me that he was glad I had reconsidered my resolution not to play again for Gloucestershire; but I told him I had never refused to play, and the idea that I had refused at any time to play when asked was entirely wrong. I cannot understand how it originated.
"I know that Mr W. G. Grace was greatly offended at my acceptance of the chief berth at Cheltenham College, which prevented me playing with the county team before the vacation. The County Committee once wanted me to sign
san agreement to leave my situation here and play regularly with the team. I asked them if they would give me a term of years as an engagement, but Mr Beloe, who was in the chair, stated that they could not do it. I then told the Committee that they could not expect me to leave a certainty for an uncertainty. They therefore left me out of the team, though I was at the top of my form. Perhaps it is only natural that I should consider myself rather badly used in the matter. I have received numerous letters asking me why I was not playing for my county. The reason is now given. I would have played had I been asked.
"I should add that the late Mr I. D. Walker got me on to the staff at Lord's at the end of season 1880. I bowled him twice in practice before he engaged me. It was Mr Walker's idea to get me qualified for Middlesex, and he made me an offer of £'j a-match, but I did not accept the opening. Mr Hornby, whom I once bowled seven times in one season, had before this asked me to qualify for Lancashire. I think I should have got a benefit from either county. I also had an offer in more recent years to qualify for Warwickshire.
"But we will pass these matters, if you please. Dr E. M. Grace was always good to the professionals, and was much liked by them. It is due to him to say that it was he who got the payment of talent-money to bowlers established. He used to argue that a man who obtained six wickets had done at least as much to entitle him to talent-money as the batsman who had scored 50 runs. Gloucestershire paid the fee, and other counties followed suit. The Coroner also got an extra £1 for the umpires. Mr G. F. Grace was also very popular among the professionals, and personally I lost a very good friend when he died. He used to say to me, 'Now, young 'un, pop them up and I'll catch them for you.' And he invariably did. He was a brilliant out-field, and a splendid fellow all ways.
"Mr G. F. Grace's work in the out-field recalls a circumstance connected with the last important match in which he played, but a fortnight before his death. It was the match at the Oval in September 1880, in which Australia for the first time encountered the full strength of the old country, and in which, by the way, 'W. G.' scored one of his great innings—152—which Mr Murdoch beat with 153 not out on the other side. In the Australians' first innings G. J. Bonnor was caught off a terrific hit in the long-field off Alf. Shaw's bowling. The hit was said at the time to be the biggest and highest ever seen at the Oval, though there may be some who will question it At anyrate, the catch that Mr G. F. Grace brought off caused a lot of talk, so finely was it accomplished. A few days afterwards he was at Stroud, taking part in what was destined to be his last match. We were talking about the catch, and Mr G. F. remarked to me that though it was perhaps the best catch he had ever made, it was the only one he had ever felt funky over when he was called upon to make it.
"The great Australian hitter just referred to was once out in a very different way at Clifton. It was the match Murdoch's Third Team v. Gloucestershire, in August 1884. Bonnor was batting, when Mr E. M. Grace went up to 'W. G.' and said, 'I can get him out any time I like.' 'What, Ted?' replied the champion. 'I can get him out quicker than anybody on our side can do.' Then 'W. G.' turned to me and remarked, 'What do you think E. M. says, Woof? That he can get Bonnor out any time he likes.' I laughingly replied, 'Well, if you put him on, sir, please don't put me in the long-field.' 'Give me the ball,' says E. M. 'W. G.' did so, with the remark, 'Only two overs.' Then Bonnor chimes in with the question, 'Are you going on, Doctor 1' 'Yes,' retorted E. M., and I am going to get you out. The Coroner thereupon bowled about a dozen trial balls to Mr Bush, who was keeping wicket, some round-arm and others under-hand deliveries. Then Bonnor took his guard, and said to E. M., 'What sort are you going to bowl, Doctor?' 'You'll see soon enough,' was the reply. Well, the first ball was an under-hander, and Bonnor popped it up in the most simple fashion to 'W. G.' at point. 'I told you so,' drily remarked E. M., as Bonnor walked crestfallen to the pavilion. E. M. had fairly bustled Bonnor out of his wicket. But he was only allowed 2 overs.
"It may seem strange, but it is the fact, that though I have often got 'W. G.'s' wicket in practice—I may say I got it in almost every practice—I never had the chance of bowling to him in a serious match. I did once think I should have the chance when I had a wire at Lord's from Mr I. D. Walker to the effect, 'Self and G. G. Hearne selected Players v. Gentlemen.' G. G. Hearne duly received official notification, but I did not, and I subsequently learned that E. Peate had through a certain party's intervention been called upon in my stead. I was bowling very well at that time, and shortly before this incident, playing for M.C.C. v. Notts at Lord's (June 4, 5, 1883), I had taken 6 wickets for 15 runs. As it happened, great a player though Ted Peate was, this was not one of his successful days, for his 1 wicket cost about 90 runs.
"It will be news to many cricket-followers to know that Gloucester county might have had Arthur Mold's services. I was playing with M.C.C. v. Northamptonshire when Mold bowled the M.C.C. out like a lot of schoolboys. I told 'W. G.' about Mold's performance, and said that he wished to qualify for Gloucestershire. Subsequently Mold played against the Harrow Wanderers, and the result was the acceptance of an engagement on the ground staff at Manchester and the obtaining of a qualification for Lancashire. Some time afterwards, when at Old Trafford, I pointed Mold out to our captain, and said that was the Northampton bowler that I had told him about. 'W. G.' then said he would like to have a few balls from him. Mold gave him a few, and bowled him three times in the practice. That was during the time that Mold was qualifying for the Lancashire County team, of which he has since been such a distinguished ornament."
In his capacity as coach at Cheltenham College several eminent players of the new generation have passed under Woof's tutorship. Among them were the five brothers Champain, four of whom have played for Gloucestershire. These talented brothers, and Messrs E. T. Heaven, E. M. Barrett, and Du Boulay, Woof considers to have been his best pupils, and he awards to Mr Hugh Champain and
Mr F. H. B. Champain the credit of being the best captains he has been associated with at Cheltenham College. Woof adds that he always looks out for a good lob-bowler in the school team. He thinks that a boy—or a man, for that matter—who is half a lob-bowler is worth his place in a team. On the principle that a run saved is a run gained, Woof would also give preference to a good fielder over a player who is merely a batsman or a bowler.
In recent seasons Woof has been engaged on umpiring duty when his college claims permitted. He was umpiring at Southampton in August of last year (1899) when Hants were playing Worcestershire, and he says that in that contest he saw the finest hitting he ever saw in his career. The performer was Captain Wynyard. The gallant Captain went in seventh when it looked 10 to 1 on Worcester, but in an hour and twenty minutes, on a crumbling wicket, he scored 108 runs, and thus enabled his side to win. His hitting was terrific all round the wicket.
"I was umpiring in the second match that Mr W. M. Bradley played in for Kent. It was against Lancashire—at Canterbury in August 1895. Mr Patterson, the captain of the Kent team, said, 'I've a new bowler here, Woof. He has been doing tremendous things in rustic cricket.' 'Do you mind me talking to him a bit?' 'Certainly not,' said Mr Patterson. When Bradley came in I asked him if he was accustomed to such surroundings. It was Canterbury week, and there was a distinguished company present. 'No,' was the reply. 'Well, never mind the lookers-on. You keep your eye on the off-stump.' Mr Bradley did keep his eye on the off-stump, with the result that he took 9 wickets for 86 runs. At the close he was heard to remark to a friend, 'I like that umpire. He talks to you.' Mr Bradley was a bit raw at that time. He bowled in sand-boots."
It may be added that in addition to his duties at Cheltenbam College, Woof carries on an athletic outfitter's business in Suffolk Road in the town. He is also a well-known breeder of fox-terriers, and has carried off numerous prizes in the Midlands and West of England, among his winning terriers being Cotswold Brittle, Cheltenham Beauty, Arden, Challice, Cotswold Rusty, Cotswold Vanity, Cotswold Molly, and Bimy Bustle. Sport on the Cotswolds finds in him a devotee. A year ago he had a hand in the bagging of seven badgers on the Hills, including the largest dog-badger (38 lb.) bagged in the district for years. He evidently brings some ingenuity to bear upon his athletic business, seeing that he is patentee of a wooden handle dumb-bell, an adjustable Indian club, and a spiral spring-handle bat.