CRICKET PAST AND PRESENT 293 



Canterbury Week, in 1841, Lillywhite was an hour and a 

 half scoring seven runs, and the total score for that time was 

 only 15 ; but 30 runs an hour was then, and for long after- 

 wards, considered fast scoring. One hundred balls were 

 bowled on that occasion at Canterbury before a run was 

 scored. That eclipses old William Clarke's famous feat, 

 when he bowled sixty balls to Fuller Pilch without a run, 

 and took his wicket with the sixty-first. 



Clarke, like George Giffen, had an unconquerable 

 aversion to taking himself off. Once he kept himself on 

 against a famous amateur, though he was knocked all over 

 the field. At last he got the batsman caught off his bowl- 

 ing, and said in great triumph, " There ! I knew I should get 

 'un ; I knew I should get 'un." To which the retiring 

 batsman retorted, " Yes, Mr Clarke, you have got me, but 

 I've made eighty rims'^ 



I think the slowest scoring I ever saw was in one of the 

 England v. Australia matches at the Oval. W. G. and 

 Scotton went in first, and at the end of an hour only 20 

 runs were up, of which Scotton had made 3. He did not 

 add to his score, though he was in another half-hour or 

 more. After lunch W. G. let out gaily and knocked up a 

 big three-figure score. Without doubt such slow and 

 cautious play has not increased the popularity of cricket. 

 The general public gets wearied of such dull methods. 

 And, personally, I must say it has often made me mad to 

 see a man with such magnificent hitting powers as William 

 Gunn poking and pottering away as if he didn't know how 

 to open those broad shoulders of his. 



Some players think that cricket would be rendered less 

 tedious by shortening the boundaries. But as a rule, I 

 think, the boundaries are short enough — too short in the 

 opinion of many good cricketers, who grumble because the 

 batsmen have not to run out every hit as they used to do 

 in those " good old days " so dear to the memory of your 

 laudator temporis acti. 



If grounds were big enough to allow of this, the spectators 

 would hardly be within sight of the wickets ; and how many 

 men could stand the wear and tear of running out every 

 hit in a long innings? When I was up at Cambridge, 



