Every school eleven should possess a lob-bowler; if he be a good one so much the better, but one of some sort there must be. Lobs have always been most destructive to boys, and even very indifferent lobs are occasionally very fatal to schools. A little practice will teach any boy to bowl them fairly; he must take a long and rather a quick run, and bowl just fast enough to prevent the batsman hitting the good-length balls before they pitch. The high slow lob is generally worthless.
The wicket-keeper must also be trained and coached. He should be taught the right and the wrong way to stand, and should practise keeping for a short time every day. And, above all things, the school wicket-keeper should know that for anything over slow and slow medium bowling he is to have a long-stop. The number of good wicket-keepers who have been spoilt by having to perform the office of long-stop as well as their own is legion. There are no first-class keepers nowadays who put out their hands on the leg side and draw the ball to the stumps; they all jump to the leg side in front of the ball to prevent it resulting in a four-bye, and consequently, even if lucky enough to take the ball with their hands, they are so far from the stumps as to make it exceedingly difficult to knock the bails off.
A captain of a University team has not so much to do with training and coaching his team as a school captain. By the time men have reached their University eleven they have generally mastered the elementary principles of the game, and require more practice and experience, keeping up to the mark rather than coaching. A captain’s duty is consequently to see that his men engage in constant practice at all parts of the game, and by showing an example of keenness and energy to inspire his team with the same qualities. Some men at the University, and especially those fresh from the restraint of a public school, occasionally require a few words of advice about the mode of life which is necessary for undergoing with success the wear and tear of a University cricket season. A ’Varsity team has about six weeks’ hard work, and no man can bear the strain of this if, at the same time, he is keeping late hours and distributing his attentions impartially amongst all the numerous delicacies that adorn the University dinner-tables during the May term. No strict training is required, thank goodness! Cricket does not demand of her votaries the hollow face and attenuated frame, and too often the undermined constitution, that a long term of arduous training occasionally results in, especially to a youth of unmatured strength; but a cricketer should live a regular life and abstain at table from all things likely to interfere with his digestion and wind. Above all else, smoky rooms should be avoided. A small room, filled with ten or a dozen men smoking as if their very existence depended on the amount of tobacco consumed, soon gets a trifle foggy, and the man who remains there for long will find next morning on waking that his head feels much heavier than usual, and his eyes are reddish and sore. A University captain should never hesitate to speak to any of his team on these matters, should he think warning or rebuke necessary.
The necessity of moderation in drink is happily a thing which few University cricketers require to be reminded of. There are many opinions as to what is the best drink for men when actually playing. By best we mean that which does least harm to the eye. In hot weather something must be drunk, and the question is, What? Our experience is that beer and stout are both too heady and heavy, gin and ginger beer is too sticky, sweet, &c., to the palate. In our opinion, shandy-gaff, sherry, or claret, and soda are the most thirst-quenching, the lightest, and the cleanest to the palate. The latter consideration is a great one on a hot day at cricket. In a long innings the heat and the dust are apt to make the mouth very dry and parched, and a clean drink is especially desirable.
As a rule a ’Varsity captain has not much difficulty in selecting the first eight or nine of his team—there are usually that number that stand out as far and away better than all the others—but the last two or three places often cause him the greatest difficulty. There may be two or three men of the same merit fighting for the last place, inflicting sleepless nights and anxious thoughts on the captain. He cannot make up his mind, and possibly remains undecided till the very week before the big match. A ’Varsity team owes half its strength to playing so much together. Every man knows and has confidence in the others, and every man’s full merits and the use he may be to the side are understood by the captain; consequently, the sooner the whole team is chosen the better.
A. E. STODDART
Now let us briefly discuss the considerations that should guide the captain in the choice of his team. And perhaps the simplest and best way will be to assume that a captain has to choose the best team in England (our fictitious captain making the twelfth man on the side). The first thing he must do is to choose his bowlers, and, as we have said above, these must be the best four he can get, each one different from the others in style. He wants a fast bowler to begin with (and if the match is to be played on a hard wicket he will probably want two). He has Mold and Lockwood to choose from, undoubtedly the two best. If he wants one only, he must be guided by present form; whichever is bowling the best must be selected. Let us say he has selected Mold. This is No. 1. No. 2 must be a good left-hand bowler. Peel and Briggs are perhaps the only two at the present time who have good qualifications, and we think our captain would probably fix on Peel as being the best bowler of the two. No. 3—a medium-pace to fast round-arm bowler—is next wanted. Lohmann would be the very man, but since ill-health at the present date prevents his appearance on the field, let our captain bring into his team as No. 3 Lockwood. Surely he or Mold, if not both, will prove destructive. No. 4.—Our captain now wants a right-arm slow bowler accurate enough to keep down the runs (if it is necessary) on a hard true wicket, and powerful enough with the ball to take advantage of crumbled or sticky wickets. Who is he to take? C. M. Wells of Surrey and Cambridge, Flowers of Notts, Attewell of ditto, Wainwright of Yorkshire, A. Hearne of Kent, are all good names. The man for this place a few years ago would have been Alfred Shaw. What a fine bowler he was! Perhaps his best performance was in 1875, when for Notts v. the M.C.C. at Lord’s he bowled 162 balls for 7 runs and 7 wickets (bother the maidens: we don’t care how many of them he bowled!), and amongst these seven wickets were W. G. Grace, A. W. Ridley, C. F. Buller, and Lord Harris. In the same match, for the M.C.C., A. W. Ridley with his lobs had a good analysis for the two innings—208 balls, 46 runs, and 10 wickets. Our captain thinks for No. 4 he cannot do better than Wainwright, and we agree with him. No. 5—the wicket-keeper—must be G. McGregor of Cambridge and Middlesex. Alas! when this chapter was written for the first edition of this book Pilling was the wicket-keeper selected, and we then expressed a hope that his health would allow him to remain behind the stumps for many years to come. Pilling died a few years ago, but those who ever played with him will never forget the excellence of his calm and quiet wicket-keeping, nor the gentleness and courtesy which graced his whole character. No. 6.—Now our captain has got to fill up six places; he has up to the present provided for getting rid of the opposite side: he now turns his attention to the selection of his batsmen. W. G. Grace first, no one disputes. Does someone suggest Shrewsbury? Well, certainly, during the last seven or eight seasons he has batted most wonderfully well; but for winning a match give us W. G. as our first choice. Shrewsbury may be the best to prevent his side being beaten; but we want to win, and if one man stays in the best part of a couple of days for 150 runs there is a great chance of the game being drawn. We like the man who makes 150 in three to four hours, and then gets out and helps to get the other side out afterwards. So our captain annexes W. G. as No. 6. No. 7, Shrewsbury. No. 8, A. E. Stoddart, that sound and resolute batsman, who perhaps gives more pleasure to the spectators than any other living cricketer. No. 9, Gunn. No. 10.—And now, having selected nine of his team, our captain must consider what he has and what he has not got. His team at present consists of W. G. Grace, Shrewsbury, A. E. Stoddart, Gunn, G. McGregor, Mold, Lockwood, Peel, and Wainwright. He has therefore the four best batsmen in England—Grace, Shrewsbury, Stoddart, and Gunn—three sound first-class batsmen in Lockwood, Peel, and Wainwright, a very likely run-getting bat in McGregor, and an indifferent performer in Mold. He has six bowlers, the four chosen and Grace and Stoddart. Now what has he in the field? Shrewsbury will have to go point, that is evident, as he is a fairly good point and useless elsewhere owing to his inability to throw. Grace, Mold, and Lockwood must all be in places somewhere near the wicket, Grace because of advancing years and stiffened muscles, the other two because much throwing would damage their bowling. We have Stoddart and Gunn, both excellent fielders and throwers, and these two must be kept for fielding in the country. Peel and Wainwright are also two good fielders, but they being bowlers will not probably be wanted for country fielding except in an emergency. Taken as a whole, the nine we have already got are good fieldsmen. What does our captain then want for the tenth place? As he has already got a strong batting, bowling, and fielding side, he must look out for a good all-round cricketer who will strengthen his team at all points. He must take care not to give either of his last two places to men who will weaken the side in fielding; above all, they must be good in the field. Would W. W. Read do for the tenth place? Unquestionably he is a magnificent batsman, but where is he to go in the field? Shrewsbury is at point; W. W. Read would have to field elsewhere then, and, for the same reason as already given for W. G. Grace, he would seriously cripple the side if required to go into the country, as undoubtedly he would have to. No. Our captain rejects W. W. Read, and selects F. S. Jackson of Cambridge University and Yorkshire as his tenth man. And as he is one of our most accomplished and resolute batsmen, a fine field and thrower, and a most useful fast change bowler, surely his inclusion in the team will add strength to every department of it. No. 11.—The last place in the team is a difficult task to select. The same considerations must guide the choice here as for the tenth place. If another bowler were required we would suggest Briggs or A. Hearne as being good bowlers and all-round good cricketers, but our captain is already playing four men to bowl, and has in addition the various changes already mentioned. Is there any really first-class batsman who, if included in the team, would not injuriously affect the fielding of the side? W. W. Read we have already said has to be rejected. A. Ward of Lancashire is the man, a really sound batsman and a good field and thrower. Our captain has completed his task, and a very powerful team he has selected, strong in batting, bowling, fielding, and throwing, and indeed a difficult nut for any Australian side to crack.
Such was the selection of the first English eleven about ten years ago, but a great deal has happened since that date. At the present moment Stoddart’s team in Australia have been so unsuccessful that though when they started they were reckoned to be about our best eleven, for the honour of England it must be hoped that a better is to be found. There can be no doubt that our bowling is terribly weak, weaker on good wickets than at any previous time in cricket history, and it seems that we must go out of the beaten track of bowlers and try a change. Our representative eleven to-day is chosen with no great confidence, and many will unfavourably criticise the selection. There is no difficulty about the batsmen, who shall be MacLaren, Ranjitsinhji, Gunn, Abel, Jackson and Hayward, and the wicket-keeper Storer; but what about the bowlers? Hirst is not good enough, Peel and Briggs are past their prime, and Wainwright on good wickets is harmless. Richardson and Hearne we still must select, but for the last two we shall select a veteran and a youngster. Attewell shall be one and the young Essex amateur Bull shall be the other. During the last season Bull on hard wickets showed himself to be a slow bowler with more spin than any other bowler in England, moreover he is not so well known; while Attewell bowls still the best length, and can always keep runs down.
One thing will be noticed here, and that is, that for the first time since 1867 W. G. Grace is left out of a representative English team, and the elements of a tragedy can be found here. For twenty-nine years he would have been chosen, but the time has come at last; but to show his wonderful powers, if he had been chosen now—and some people would still choose him—it would largely be for his bowling, which is unlike other bowling, and would still get wickets.