CHAPTER XXXIX 



ARE CRICKETERS SHORT-LIVED? 



Are cricketers short-lived ? This question has exercised 

 my mind for a long while, and I have satisfied myself that 

 cricketers are short-lived. Let anyone make a list of the 

 well-known players of, say, thirty years ago, and he will be 

 astonished to find how few are living and how many died 

 in their prime. 



It is very rarely that a professional cricketer, or an 

 amateur who has played as regularly as a professional, 

 reaches the age of 60, and the majority die under 50. 

 From the long list of cricketers I have known during the 

 last five-and-thirty years I take a few names at random. 

 Hayward, Tarrant, Jupp, the two Humphreys, J. G. Shaw, 

 Morley, Wild, Pilling, Ullyet, C. J. Ottaway, G. F. Grace, 

 C. J. Prune, the Rev. C. G. Lane, I. D. Walker, Percy 

 M'Donnel, have all died comparatively young. I think 

 I. D. Walker was the only one who exceeded 50, and he 

 was but 53. George Ullyet, who looked strong and healthy 

 enough to last till fourscore, did not complete his forty- 

 ninth year. 



Of course, in some cases there has been hereditary or 

 inherent disease, and in others hard drinking has acceler- 

 ated death. But I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that 

 the average cricketer's life is not a long one. Cricketers 

 are peculiarly liable to pulmonary complaints. George 

 Lohmann and Arthur Shrewsbury suffered in this way, and 

 William Gunn has not been exempt from throat and chest 

 troubles. Our villainously treacherous climate has much 

 to answer for. 



The fielder must be a very Hercules, like " W. G.," if he 



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