CRICKET MAGAZINE

THE 1882 SEASON

Volume I, Number 7: Thursday, June 22, 1882

MR H H MASSIE

Though by the accident of birth a Victorian, Massie soon became associated with the rival colony of New South Wales. When he was only three years old his parents moved there, and New South Wales can fairly claim the honour of teaching and training one of the very best cricketers the Australian Colonies have ever produced.

Massie was educated in the school of Mr Belcher, at Goulburn, N.S.W. Mr Belcher had come to Australia with the advantage of an English cricket reputation, and, if we mistake not, he himself took part in the Inter-Colonial match of 1866. His establishment, as was only to be expected, has turned out many excellent cricketers, and there Massie received the education which has subsequently served him on the cricket fields of the new as well as now of the old country.

After the completion of his scholastic career, Massie joined the East Sydney Club, and his style soon attracted favourable notice. It was not long before his scores began to command public attention, and even at this early period many good judges ventured to predict that he would become one of the best batsmen in the Colonies.

After playing for two seasons with East Sydney, Massie left its ranks to join the Albert Club in the same city, and ever since he has been one of the most active members of that society. His first appearance in an Inter-Colonial match was at Sydney in February, 1878, and on that occasion, when New South Wales managed to pull through after a most exciting finish by one wicket, he scored 17 and 1, being the second highest scorer in the first innings.

He was not selected as one of the first combined team to oppose Lord Harris's English eleven at the commencement of 1879, but the fine scores he made against the English bowling for New South Wales (30 and 78 not out, 38 and 8), thoroughly established his reputation, and placed him in the very front rank of Australian batsmen.

In consequence he was one of the first invited to join Murdoch when the preliminaries were in progress for the collection of a second Australian eleven for England. To the general disappointment of those who had heard glowing reports of his batting from the various members of Lord Harris's Eleven, business engagements prevented him taking the trip.

What a loss he was then may be judged from the fact that in the two matches played between a combined team and the Australian Eleven for England, just before the departure of the latter, in four innings he scored 150 runs, making in the second two big scores of 80 and 50, besides one of 70 in the Inter-Colonial match about the same time.

In the Inter-Colonial at Melbourne in 1881, he failed to score in either innings, but more than once he punished Peate, Bates and the other bowlers of Shaw's Eleven severely, and among his performances were 56 and 76 for New South Wales, and 49 and 22 for the Australian Eleven, both at Sydney. For the Albert Club in 1880-81 Massie's average was over 50 runs, and up to his leaving Australia his club average for the season just finished was 64.

In addition to his abilities as a batsman, he is one of the very best fields, even in such a good fielding side as that now visiting England, and he has won several trophies in Australia for efficiency in this department. He holds a good position in the Bank of New South Wales, in Sydney, and before leaving that city for England was entertained at a banquet by his colleagues in that establishment.

His popularity as a cricketer in Australia is very great, particularly I Sydney, where it is said that the grounds thin as if by magic when his innings is over. The dry hard wickets out there are calculated to show his dashing play to greater advantage than the slow English grounds, but considering the differences of climate and the exceeding difficulties there must be timing the ball here to a batsman of his style, and entirely strange to the pace of our wickets, some of his performances in England have been most extraordinary.

Some critics have tried to depreciate his first score of 206 against Oxford on the plea of the weak University bowling, but no English batsman has, so far as we know, ever scored 100 in 59 minutes in an important match, and lucky or not, it is an unparalleled performance. Against Derbyshire last week, on a slow wicket, too, he made 66 out of 85 runs in five wickets under the hour, and this of itself would stamp him as a batsman much above the ordinary run.

His hitting is almost all on the off side, and when he does get set his stroke on this side is extremely clean. His reach is very great, and his hits, be it said, are never high; on the contrary they are mostly, to use the slang of the cricket field, 'on the carpet'. Without any pretence, and unassuming in demeanour, Massie is likely to be as popular in the old as he is in the new country.

THE SCORE BOOK

SURREY v CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

Jones had not yet got over his recent strain, so that Surrey had again to play without their best bowler, and this made their performance the more creditable. They were fortunate in getting rid of the three Studds, who between them had fairly won the Australian match for their University, for 25 runs, but the only piece of luck in their dismissal was the piece of fielding, brilliant as it was, by Mr Cattley which ran G B out in the second innings.

Surrey showed up well all round, and their victory by seven wickets was a very satisfactory achievement. Mr Roller's bowling and batting were both of great service to the county. This is, we believe, the first time Surrey has beaten Cambridge for thirteen years.

LANCASHIRE v KENT

Chiefly through the effective bowling of Wootton, who took twelve wickets for 91 runs, Kent did well to get Lancashire out twice for an aggregate of 236. Mr E F S Tylecote made 94 out of 132 runs while he was in the second time, and he has never played a better innings in a good match. When the fifth Kentish wicket fell, everything seemed to be in their favour, with only 28 left to win, and Mr Tylecote well in. The last five wickets, though, only added one run, and Lancashire thus pulled an exciting match out of the fire by 26 runs.

YORKSHIRE v SUSSEX

But for the excellent batting of Mr Greenfield, whose first score of 55 was the result of some good batting, and James Phillips, the southerners would have made a sorry show, and even as it was they were only able to reach an aggregate of 204 in their two innings. Ulyett, Bates and Emmett contributed 124 out of a total of 179 from the bat for Yorkshire, who won by ten wickets.

In the first innings of Sussex the last eight batsmen only added 16 runs. Sussex played for the first time under the residential qualification a fast bowler, Seneschal. He took three wickets at a cost of 75 runs.

THE DECADENCE OF CRICKET

At present, perhaps, there is no direct evidence of any serious decline in the popularity of our most national game; but it is much to be feared that there are some influences which must, slowly but surely sap the foundations upon which, for more than a century, that popularity has been based.

Cricket is today, it must be admitted, threatened by enemies within as well as from without. The advent of the first Australian team in 1878 did, without doubt, lend a very important stimulus to the interest generally taken in the game. Crowds who before had not affected cricket were in that year drawn to the playing fields, attracted by the unwonted spectacle of an eleven from over the seas more than able to hold its own with the picked champions of the mother country, in the sport which had been hitherto deemed the peculiar birthright of an Englishman.

In many ways the visit of the first Australian team gave a fillip to English cricket. Unfortunately, however, the extraordinary success of this tour taught another lesson, that cricket might be made a profitable commercial speculation; and, for the first time in the history of the game, the question of 'gate-money' was made a matter of primary importance.

As a natural consequence it was not long before ugly rumours were whispered abroad that matches, which might easily have been concluded on the second day, were purposely prolonged and local celebrities suffered to score easily that the large takings of the Saturday afternoon might not be sacrificed. The scene at Sydney, too, on the occasion of the visit of Lord Harris's team to Australia and the more recent Australian scandal, which has even yet not been thoroughly explained, are but the natural consequences of the introduction of the greed of gain into the cricket field.

Into these questions, however, involving, as they do, controversial points of extreme delicacy, we do not at present propose to enter. It is against a dangerous enemy from without, whose influence is, year by year, becoming more generally and more seriously felt, that we would caution cricketers. The universal effeminacy which has attacked every kind of sport has not spared cricket.

Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, talks of 'city captains and carpet knights whose valour is as much to be found in feasting as in fighting.'

It does not require much evidence to prove that the game is in some cases not pursued with that strict attention to details which is necessary to its wellbeing. The carpet knights who now do battle for fashionable clubs are indeed well contented if 'play' is called at half-past twelve instead of eleven o'clock. Instead of a plain and substantial luncheon of half-an-hour, an interval of twice that time is by no means infrequent for the sumptuous repast which has now to be prepared, and instead of getting at once to work another delay has to be made to allow the player the luxury of a pipe or a cigar.

But the most serious danger which threatens cricket today comes from its latest rival, Lawn Tennis. Honorary secretaries, from one end of the kingdom to the other, can testify but too well to the demoralizing effect which this pastime . a sport it is not . has exercised upon the game.

Week after week the difficulty of collecting teams is increasing, as the ranks of the players upon whom a local club was once accustomed to rely are thinned by the ravages of Society's latest mania. Nay more, matches even have, not infrequently, had to be abandoned when a lawn tennis party is to be held in the neighbourhood. We may, as loyal cricketers, deplore this state of things; but we can do little more than offer forcible protest against the sacrifice of a noble and manly game to the enervating influence of an effeminate amusement.

We do not dispute that lawn tennis possesses many claims to consideration. The secret of its popularity lies in the ease with which it can be pursued. The one or the three players required to complete the set are easily collected. The courts may be marked out in so small a space that no toilsome journey to the ground is involved, there is no risk of an afternoon's outfielding, nor the ignominy of a maiden innings. Then again a game lasts so short a time that there are frequent intervals for rest, as well as for the interchange of those pleasing little social amenities sure to occur when the players happen to be of opposite sexes.

Great, however, as is the injury which lawn tennis has already inflicted on cricket, a still greater danger from this source threatens the game in the future. It is not only that lawn tennis withdraws from the field cricketers already trained, but it has an increasing tendency to seduce from the practising nets the boys and youths who ought, in years to come, to recruit the ranks of the batsmen and bowlers at our public and other schools.

At Harrow, where a long and noble tradition has made cricket the one serious business of life, this danger has been recognized and lawn tennis is strictly forbidden. At Eton, on the other hand, courts abound, and though it may be perhaps rather an unfair inference, there is last year's defeat at Lord's apparently as the inevitable result. The example at Harrow points, we think, to the true and only remedy for the evils to which we have drawn attention.

The authorities at The Oval, where cricket has always been the first and only thought, have with prudence refused to encourage its rival in any way, and it has been a great surprise to many that the Marylebone Club, the head and front of our national game, has gone so far out of its own sphere as not only to allow but really to encourage lawn tennis on a ground that has always been considered sacred to cricket.

If cricket is to maintain its present position, it behoves all those who have the interests of the game at heart to withdraw from boys at school the temptation to desert their practising nets. There the remedy is easy, and lawn tennis should be forbidden under any circumstances whatever.

With local cricket clubs the case is perhaps more difficult. The revenue derived from the subscriptions of the lawn tennis members is often too considerable to be lightly surrendered. At the same time we would point out that these societies owe a duty to cricket generally which must not be overlooked.

If lawn tennis must be endured, there should at least be a stipulation that it should not be allowed during the progress of a cricket match. Tournaments and sweepstakes at any period of the year should be beyond the province as well as beneath the dignity of a cricket club of any position. We think, too, that the time has now come when the M.C.C. as the responsible patron of cricket throughout the world should entirely abolish the winter and summer courts at Lord's, and forbid the practice of lawn tennis at all on their grounds.

When it is seriously proposed that so popular a cricket ground as that at the Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, should be diverted from its original use and given up entirely to lawn tennis, surely it is time that this evil should be deliberately faced, and adequate steps taken to counteract its pernicious effects.

We have no right to argue against lawn tennis in the abstract, but we do protest that it has no interest in common with cricket, and we call upon secretaries of cricket clubs to discontinue its practice on their grounds. It is better to meet the difficulty while there is a chance of overcoming it, than to rest supine until it has secured a permanent hold. Otherwise irreparable damage will be done to a game which has for generations held its own as the best and most manly of our outdoor sports.

PAVILION GOSSIP

***"CRICKET" was the first to publish the names of the original choices for today's match, and those whose names I gave a fortnight ago all accepted. The eleventh place has been filled by Mr W H Patterson, whose plucky innings in the Inter-University match of 1881 will still be vividly remembered. His batting at Lord's on Whit Monday was certainly the best in that holiday match, and he will undoubtedly strengthen the side materially in this department.

Differences of opinion will be sure to exist with regard to the qualifications of some of the players selected, but it will undoubtedly be a very strong side. In batting there will certainly be no tail. Mr Ramsay, who plays instead of Mr Evans, suffering from a sore throat, will presumably go in the ninth wicket, and before him there will be Messrs W G Grace, A N Hornby, A P Lucas, W W Read, A G Steel, C F Leslie, C T Studd, G B Studd, W H Patterson and E F S Tylecote.

In the more recent matches some of the University players have been a little out of run-getting form, but against this it must be stated that the grounds have been in anything but the best condition for batsmen, and if the wickets are hard today there will certainly be some long scoring. It is refreshing to notice that Mr W G Grace has been piling on runs during the week, making 177 not out and 130 in local matches, and Mr Hornby's latest performance at Lord's shows that he is in the vein for big hitting. In batting and fielding the Gentlemen will be very strong, and in the latter they are undeniably a splendid side.

The only doubts that can exist are on the subject of their bowling. Mr Evans, I believe, had been practising steadily, but Mr Ramsay will probably be quite as useful. Besides him there are Messrs Grace, Steel, C T Studd and Lucas, all of much the same pace, and it is quite a matter for consideration whether another bowler would not have been more beneficial to the side than an additional bat.

The Australian managers have no reason to choose their players until the morning of the match, and it will be rather a difficult task for them to know the two to leave out. A hot return by, if I remember rightly, Mr Docker in the Derbyshire match, injured Boyle's bowling hand, but it ought to be recovered by this time with a week's rest. According to appearances, the Australians will want all the bowling they have, and it may be that Bonnor and Jones will have to stand down.

***Opinions with regard to the Inter-university match since the commencement of the season, when the chances of Cambridge were considered to be hopeless, have altered very materially, and if anything Cambridge is now the favourite. It is not in my province to enter into an analysis of the play on each side, but from the form I saw at The Oval there is very little bowling in either eleven. Mr Ramsay may have his day, and if so he is sure to be effective, but there is hardly a bowler in the two teams that one would call strictly first-class.

Still, on the form they have shown recently, Cambridge are certainly the better eleven. Oxford, I believe, will be precisely the same as played at The Oval, but up to yesterday I hear that only ten of the Cambridge team had been fixed. The elevens, I expect, will be very like the following:.

Oxford.. N McLachlan (capt), C F Leslie, W A Thornton, M C Kemp, G Harrison, G E Robinson, A O Whiting, E Peake, J G Walker, E D Shaw and W D Hamilton.

Cambridge.. G B Studd (capt), C T Studd, J E Studd, Hon M Hawke, C W Wright, F E Lacey, P J de Paravicini, R C Ramsay, F D Gaddum, C A Smith and another.

***Only a short time ago I had occasion to describe the Echo as a funny paper. Those who read its report of the match between Surrey and Australia at the end of last month will agree that the description was justified. For originality of terms it was positively amusing, and it is evident that the same 'chiel's amang ye takin' notes.'

It will no doubt surprise Mr G B Studd to learn that he made a clean drive to square leg at Lord's on Monday. We should hardly have believed it, but there is the assurance of the Echo reporter to that effect. Not content with describing the match between Surrey and Oxford University as an annual one, when it has not been played for twelve years, he vouchsafes the startling information that today Surrey meets the Australians at Lord's.

But why he should choose the two Reads as subjects for his playful fancy I am at a loss to conceive. It is a little hard on the professional to be charged with 'making four for a cut to leg', but this is mild with his subsequent information, 'W W Read succeeded his brother." It has been left for this ingenious writer to discover that there is any other relationship between the two Reads but that of the cricket field.

***That reminds me. Why do the cricket reporters, with one accord, speak of Surrey's promising young professional as 'Morris' Read? It is as well to be correct, if possible, and they may like to know that his name is John Maurice Read.

***What wags they are at the Universities, to be sure! This is what the playful young Cantabs call two of their best bowlers, 'Twisting Tommy' and 'Round the Corner Smith'.

THE SCORE BOOK (continued)

SURREY v OXFORD UNIVERSITY

The wicket of the first day was slow from Sunday's heavy rain, but it was playing very well towards the close, and Oxford had all the advantage when they went in for the runs. The University batting was disappointing. The three most likely batsmen, Messrs Leslie, Shaw and Walker, did comparatively little, and the best form was shown in the second innings by Messrs Whiting, Kemp and Hamilton.

Surrey fielded up exceedingly well throughout, and won a good match by 16 runs. Barratt has never bowled better, and the victory of the County was in a great measure due to him. In all he took 13 wickets for 73 runs . exceptionally good figures for a bowler of his style. Mr Horner, an Old Cheltonian and Oxonian, made his debut for the county. He is pretty fast, very straight, and is likely to be of use to Surrey.

M.C.C. AND GROUND v NOTTS

Until almost the close there was nothing worthy of particular note in the batting on either side. With 164 to win, Notts lost its seven best wickets for 54, and the match seemed over. Mills and Barnes, however, hit away so freely that 99 were added before they were separated, and Notts won a most exciting match by one wicket, play having been extended until ten mx to eight o'clock. Alfred Shaw in the first innings of M.C.C. was credited with 35 maidens out of 40 overs.

M.C.C. AND GROUND v CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

On going in, the two brothers, G B and J E K Studd, who won the Australian match, did another fine performance, scoring 163 before the first wicket fell. Marylebone had an almost hopeless task when they went in, with 358 to win, and the only feature of their batting was the brilliant hitting of Mr Hornby. He went in first and carried out his bat for 121, out of a total of 194. He was only two hours and twenty minutes at the wickets, and his hitting was the more remarkable, as his arm has not quite recovered from the effect of the accident he met with in the winter. Cambridge won by 163 runs.

YORKSHIRE v AUSTRALIANS

The scoring on both sides was below the average and in all 34 wickets only produced an aggregate of 492 runs, or a little over 15 runs apiece. The tail of the Yorkshire eleven again showed very poor form with the bat, and in the two innings the last five batsmen only added 37 runs. Peate took nine of the fourteen Australian wickets, and for the visitors Garrett was the most successful bowler, his eight wickets costing 64 runs. Murdoch and Bannerman scored 142 out of a total of 234 got from the bat by the Australians. Yorkshire were beaten by six wickets.