SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



met a Hastings and District team, E. Mills 

 scor'ng 165 for the visitors, and James Phillips 

 Hi for the home team ; and in the month of 

 Sep ;ember the Australians met a South of 

 Ei gland Eleven in the Central Ground. 



On 28-29 J u ' v J 887 Yorkshire played eigh- 

 t< en of Hastings and District, when Mr. Her- 

 tert Pigg for the latter played a grand innings 

 of 1 80, without giving a chance. 



August 1888 was notable for a fine bowling 

 performance by Messrs. A. Clark and R. Baker, 

 who, playing for the Alexandra Club against 

 Lydd, dismissed their opponents for 7 runs 

 (6 from the bat) Clark obtaining 5 wickets for 

 2 runs, and Baker 4 wickets for 4 runs. This 

 year the South Saxons at St. Leonards were able 

 to put very strong teams into the field, and won 

 nearly every match, the two old Cambridge 

 ' blues,' A. M. Sutthery and Herbert Pigg, scor- 

 ing consistently well throughout the season. A 

 total of 414 was piled up by the club against 

 Edmonton, A. M. Sutthery scoring 206, and 

 A. H. Trevor 132, and a short time afterwards 

 another score of over 400 was made, this time 

 against Brighton College, when for the South 

 Saxons H. Pigg made 159 and A. M. Sutthery 

 105. 



About this time the Hastings Alexandra Club 

 formed out of the Caxton Club, with Mr. C. 

 Eaton as president was doing most excellent 

 service in bringing out young players. H. R. 

 Butt, the present Sussex county wicket-keeper, 

 who succeeded H. Phillips in that position, first 

 played for the Alexandra C.C. in 1889. His 

 career has been one of great success. In 1890, 

 his first year of county cricket, he only gave one 

 ' bye ' in an innings of 703 runs hit against 

 Sussex. In 1895 he did a remarkable feat when 

 keeping wicket for the county against Middlesex, 

 Gloucestershire, and Somerset ; in these three 

 matches as many as 1,445 runs were scored 

 against Sussex, and of this large total Butt, be- 

 hind the 'sticks,' allowed only 2 ' byes.' He 

 has also acted as 'stumper' to totals of 505 and 

 503 runs without allowing a single 'bye.' Butt 

 is a good bat as well, often getting runs at a 

 critical period of the game. He has been on 

 the ground-staff at Lord's since 1894, and in the 

 winter of 18945 he made one of Lord Hawke's 

 team which visited South Africa. The Alex- 

 andra Club has been the means of bringing out 

 such players as A. Clark, H. Love, T. C. Brown, 

 H. Mawle, and H. Owen, all of whom have 

 represented Sussex in a county match ; while 

 W. J. Ransom, R. Baker, and C. Lavender 

 have played in the Colts' matches at Brighton. 



There was also a Silverhill Club playing 

 many matches annually on its ground, and en- 

 gaging many of the best players of the town 

 and neighbourhood. The first president was 

 Captain G. H. Moore, R.N., and among the 

 vice-presidents were found the names of Mr. C. 



J. M. Godfrey and Mr. C. J. Oakeley. Mr. Ber- 

 nard Ellis acted as honorary secretary, Mr. G. 

 Roberts being the treasurer ; and Mr. H. G. 

 Phillips, Mr. R. H. Nuttall, Mr. A. E. Young, 

 Mr. H. F. Lott, Mr. A. E. Knight, and Mr. J. 

 W. Rome were the greatest supporters of the 

 club through a long series of years. There was 

 also at this time at Hastings a Rovers' Club, 

 which annually played many matches. 



With all these clubs in Hastings and St. Leon- 

 ards it was found impossible for the premier club 

 to put anything like representative teams into 

 the field; and in 1894 (after a run of twenty 

 years) it was determined to dissolve the town club 

 and form a new club by an amalgamation of the 

 old members with those of the Alexandra and 

 Rovers' Clubs, under the name of the Hastings 

 and St. Leonards Club and Ground, engaging 

 two professional bowlers, and playing both first 

 and second eleven matches. 



In 1896 Sussex played Kent in the Central 

 Ground, and a little later in the year a South 

 of England Eleven competed against a Hastings 

 team ; this was a local benefit match for the 

 old Sussex wicket-keeper, H. Phillips. In Sep- 

 tember of that year during the annual cricket 

 festival a testimonial was presented to Mr. 

 William Carless. No one more deserved the 

 honour, for Mr. Carless was the originator of 

 the Hastings Cricket Festival, and through his 

 instrumentality the town has the advantage of 

 having a county match played annually in the 

 Central Ground. 



In 1897 the county match set aside for 

 Hastings was that between Sussex and Notts. 

 In the following year on their own ground 

 against the South Saxons, the Silverhill 

 Club made the large score of 496 runs for 

 4 wickets, Mr. J. W. Ashby scoring 195, and 

 Mr. H. S. Johnstone no, both of them being 

 ' not out.' 



The year 1900 saw Sussex contending against 

 Lancashire on the Central Ground. In the same 

 year Mr. H. S. Johnstone made 227 not out, the 

 record highest individual score ever played at 

 Hastings ; and in the next year Mr. Johnstone 

 established a second record by being the first 

 cricketer at Hastings to score a century in each 

 innings of a match. This feat he performed for 

 the Hastings Club and Ground against Old Car- 

 thusians, scoring 131 in the first innings, and 

 103 not out in the second. The Sussex county 

 match at Hastings next year was between that 

 county and Leicestershire. On 12 September 

 a match, 'Over 35' against 'Under 35,' was 

 played for the benefit of G. McCormick, who 

 had been for close on a quarter of a century the 

 gate-keeper at the Central Ground. The veterans' 

 team had in its ranks Messrs. G. Roberts (aged 64), 

 Albert Phillips (61), Henry Phillips (56), Alder- 

 man Weston (58), Mr. T. Parkin (56), Mr. 

 W. Carless (50), and Mr. F. Freeman Thomas, 



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