THE PAST CRICKET SEASON.
THE visit of the team of Irish amateur cricketers to the United States this past season resulted in affording further proof of the fact that Philadelphia is the home of cricket on this side of the Atlantic. While the Irish gentlemen had almost a walk-over in competing with the resident English cricketers of Canada, and were successful without difficulty against the selected teams of Boston and New York—though Boston gave them quite a close push—in Philadelphia alone were they opposed by elevens of native American cricketers only, whom they found their match. The success of the Philadelphia gentlemen in winning both of their games with the Irish visitors should encourage them to get up another team of American amateurs to cross the Atlantic again in 1889.
A NOTEWORTHY fact in local cricket this past season was that the old St. George cricket field was once more the scene of a match between elevens of the St. George and Manhattan clubs. The members of the St. George Cricket Club have of late years become so absorbed in lawn tennis that they have sadly neglected the old, manly English game of cricket, which was the basis of their organization over thirty odd years ago.
HENRY CHADWICK.
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IN THE FOOTBALL FIELD.
FOR years before the adoption of the game of football in America our autumn season had no sport distinctively its own. Baseball dragged out a lingering existence as the hands grew numb in the frosty air. Boating shivered along into November in sweaters, but its life was frozen. Until the advent of football many of our best athletes, finding nothing to train for, strayed away from the strict regimen and early hours to the seductive tobacco and beer and all-night cards. Nor did they always return, for many refused to tear themselves away when the spring came, while still others, after the first few days of effort in the warm May weather, were so overcome with the longing for the flesh-pots that they would fall out of the ranks, never again to reappear. The athletes of to-day have an autumn sport the equal of any in enjoyment and the superior in helping symmetrical development. Nor is this the sole attraction. There is the generalship of a sport with room for all the planning of a real campaign. Its tactics are but half developed, and every year adds some new strategies.
The season of 1888 brought in a change of rules whereby there is a marked increase in the liberty allowed to comrades assisting a runner. Formerly the amount of aid they might render to one of their own men when he had the ball was so small that it was seldom attempted except in a crowd. The practice was to have all this done under the cover of the rushing and surging line of forwards, and at the time of the snap-back only. This led to many complications as the amount of interference grew gradually greater, owing to the leniency of umpires, until last season, when the play of all the teams in the field was characterized by the most marked and deliberate holding in the rush-line, oftentimes a runner was given an absolutely clean path through the forwards by having these opponents dragged out of the way by the men in front of him. Such was the state of affairs that the question of the day bade fair to become whether or not all the rushers could not be held so that the backs and halves would be the only ones left to tackle. This line of development was manifestly a bad one. Every move in that direction increased the personal contact of players who did not have the ball in their possession. It is and has been a noticeable fact in the history of the game in this country that whenever a rule has been passed which admitted of an increase in the liberty of laying hands upon a man who had not the ball, we have had a greater amount of “squabbling and slugging.” It seemed best, therefore to the Graduate Committee, who last year made the rules, to put forward changes which should effectually end this hand-slapping, pushing, and holding in the rush-line. In doing this, however, they wished to put no check upon what seemed by no means an objectionable feature, namely, assisting a runner by going alongside him and acting as an obstacle in the path of those advancing to tackle him.
The rules were altered accordingly, and the alteration has marked a decided advance in the sport. It has made the game more open by increasing the chances of a successful run. Nothing so delights the spectators as a long run. So keen is the excitement that it cannot be pent up, but must out, and while the partisans of the side against whom the run is being made stand holding their breath in fear lest the runner reach the goal, his sympathizers are crying out encouragement to him from all sides, and when at last he is brought to earth by some determined tackler, the sympathizing shouts are in their turn fairly drowned by the yell of exultation which goes up from the throats of the other party. While the kicking game is always a beautiful one to watch, it can never equal in excitement a game where long runs are made. The tedious game is the one which was played when the rules admitted of what was known as the “block game”—that is, where the ball was never advanced more than a yard without a “down,” and all the playing was in the centre. This style has fortunately been completely eliminated by the rules. The change of rules this year has again demonstrated the fact that the game is steadily advancing, and that every year brings it nearer and nearer that point of perfection so earnestly sought after by all its steadfast disciples, for no sport has more hearty, whole-souled followers, nor is there any so richly deserving them.
WALTER C. CAMP.