“And the tennis scoop towards third man?”
“Certainly.”
“And a pull?”
“Three in each over.”
“Right.”
He went to the wicket and made ninety without a chance that was accepted.
A COUNTRY HOUSE CRICKET MATCH.
Any one who has much to do with getting up matches can tell eloquent tales about being chucked. Perhaps nobody quite appreciates the force of the parable in which they all with one accord began to make excuse, until he is running a cricket week. This telegram was positively sent by the man on whom everything depended, “Can’t come; am summoned on a jury.” The wretched captain retorted, “Rot, you are not a householder,” but he had to fill the vacancy. Not long ago Mr. A. D. Whatman, wrote begging forgiveness, but the fact was, he was off fishing. As for the accident which keeps a man who is passing through town “laid up and unable to come on,” it is nearly as ancient and as annoying to the manager as that hoary chestnut, “prevented by an illness in my family.” However, these things will occur in the best-arranged teams.