SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



ward was born at Cambridge, but came of 

 a good old Surrey stock, his grandfather, who 

 lived at Mitcham, having played for Surrey 

 in the latter part of the forties. Mr. John 

 Shuter had given up the captaincy of the 

 eleven in the interim, to be succeeded by 

 Mr. K. J. Key, who in turn resigned, making 

 way for Mr. D. L. A. Jephson at the close of 

 the century. No one had arrived capable 

 of taking Lohmann's place, and the want of 

 a round-arm bowler of his pace and style had 

 been severely felt. When in their best form 

 the eleven continued as strong as ever, 

 batting from 1896 till 1901. While certain 

 of a big score on the fast and easy wicket at 

 the Oval, the team have shown themselves 

 wofuUy uncertain whenever the bowlers 

 have been able to make the ball do anything. 

 The batting, in fact, has been ultra careful, 

 too correct in method ; a batsman or two 

 who would force the game regardless of 

 average would have been invaluable. In 

 fielding, too, there has not only been a ten- 

 dency to drop catches, but what is worse, a 

 general slackness which is quite inexcusable. 

 The new century has certainly not opened 

 in a very promising fashion as far as actual 

 cricket is concerned. Otherwise the position 

 of the club leaves little cause for misgiving. 

 The renewal of the lease from the Duchy of 

 Cornwall in 1896 for a new term of 

 thirty-one years, though at a considerably 

 increased rent, enabled the club to arrange 

 for the additional accommodation for 

 members which had long been much needed. 

 Over ;£ 1 3,000 were spent in the erection of 

 a new tavern and pavilion, vnth all the latest 

 improvements. In respect of accommoda- 

 tion the pavilion at the Oval is certainly equal 

 to the best of its kind, in England at aU events. 

 The grovrth of the club itself in the last 

 thirty years is best shown by figures. With 

 600 members at most in 1872, the roll at 

 present shows over 4,000 names. In these 

 three decades, too, the revenue shows an 

 advance even greater, having increased from 

 £2,500 in 1872 to £20,^66 i^s-iid. in 1900. 

 At present the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Alver- 

 stone, is the President, Mr. William Cattley 

 the Treasurer, and Mr. C. W. Alcock the 

 Secretary. His Royal Highness the Prince of 

 Wales, who as Duke of Cornwall is the free- 

 holder of the Oval, is now patron in succes- 

 sion to his father, King Edward the Seventh. 



To what has been written above by that 

 greatest authority on Surrey cricket, Mr. 

 C. W. Alcock, little need be added ; but the 

 history of the county cricket would be very 

 incomplete without reference to the mag- 



nificent work done by Mr. Alcock. When 

 Lord Alverstone presented him with a large 

 silver bowl, for which many friends had 

 subscribed, even his warm praise fell short 

 of the dues of the most energetic secretary 

 that ever any county possessed. 



Adding a few data to his contribution, it 

 may be mentioned that in September 1736, 

 during the progress of the match between 

 Kent and Surrey, won by the latter by two 

 wickets on Kennington Common, three 

 soldiers apprehended a deserter, but the 

 populace rescued him ; and in the following 

 year so great was the crowd that a poor 

 woman had her leg broken, for which she 

 received ten guineas from the Prince of Wales 

 as a trifling consolation. The first game 

 between Kent and Surrey of which the score 

 is extant is one in 1773. Coming down to 

 1847, an interesting tie between these 

 counties must be noted, for Kent made the 

 scores equal when 7 wickets were down, but 

 Mr. Whittaker, E. Martin and W. Hillyer 

 all failed to make the required run. Surrey 

 first played Notts in 1851, winning by 75 

 runs. In the same year, when Surrey twice 

 beat Yorkshire, only five of the twenty-two 

 players participated in both matches. These 

 were the earliest encounters, and no more 

 took place until 1861. The famous cricket 

 strike of 1896, when Lohmann, Gunn, Abel, 

 Richardson and Hayward clamoured for 

 higher pay on the eve of a test match, found 

 an earlier precedent in 1855, when H. 

 Stephenson and Julius Caesar refused to play 

 without further increase, but came back 

 next year. In 1857 Surrey twice beat the 

 North at the Oval by 6 wickets, and at 

 Sheffield by 5 wickets. In 1857, when 

 Caffyn and Griffith dismissed Sussex for 35 

 and 31, Mr. F. P. Miller, by scoring 74, beat 

 the double effort of the visitors to the Oval 

 off his own bat. The year before, the 

 majority by which Surrey won, 240 runs, 

 was at that time considered enormous. 

 When Surrey met Oxfordshire in 1856, an 

 arrangement was made that only three pro- 

 fessionals should play on either side. Surrey 

 won by II runs. It was a curious feature 

 of the match between Single and Married, 

 played in 1844, 1849 and 1858, that Martin- 

 gell played in all three. Carpenter, who 

 batted in 1858, also played in the next 

 fixture, which was in 1 871. For the benefit 

 of Hillyer in 1858, England played eighteen 

 veterans, and beat them by 9 wickets. Seven- 

 teen years later only three of the older team 

 were dead. In 1862 at the Oval the New 

 All England Eleven played the New Eng- 

 land Eleven for the word All, and won by 



533 



