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78 CRICKET [CHAP. T
motley team, ardent with parochial patriotism. and keenly
co-operative and democratic. The wicket was always a
little difficult ; and now and again it must be admitted
there was danger to life or limb, the ball would hum just
past the tip of the nose, reminding the batsman of large
possibilities. Anyhow, tjle ordinary length of a side's
innings was about 60 runs, and when one was dismissed
for 10 or 20--quite a good contribution-there would be
just time for some expression of feeling, and then came the
fielding. Four innings in one day ; something happening
every five mi.Iiutes I That is cricket as our forebears
evolved the game ; a game, I repeat, and deserving of the
.title : not a bondage nor an infatuation, nor a waste of
time, but a noble recreation steeped in some of the healthiest
of our English traditions. For those who require a still
more personal stimulus, it should be mentioned how a
struggling young barrister, in a mateh with some twenty.
five runs to his credit and fifty more to get to win,
made friends with the last wicket in a trulY sporting
happy partnership as they knocked off the runs together.
But who was this last man to go in Y A little local
soliCitor, who, captivated by his companion in arms, sent
him brief after brief and helped him effectively up the
first steps of the ladder to fame I Such things are lost to
English life, all because of new seed and heavy rollers,
blindness of mind, and" the desire for'more."
Now and again, of course, the clouds intervene and restore
with interest the old-fashioned wicket. All Lord's,
if the pitch is sticky, the modern bowling is difficult enough·
to please anybody. Some 1,5,000 people who, o'n that
Saturday in 1910, behaved in their excitement like o.ne
big lunatic, will never forget the amazingly draniatic
fourth innings when t powerful Harrow side, who had·
scored 282 in their first attempt, were helpless before
Fowler's superb bowling and dismissed for 45--9 short
of the Eton total. I must refer my readers to the EWn
Chronicle for the facts. No ordinary penman could picture
that scene-a Cabinet llfinister weeping, laughing, and