SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Two more additions have been made lately 

 to the grounds. In 1899 a fresh strip of 

 ground 120 yards by 12 was laid along the 

 edge of the football field, on which every 

 house has a net ; and in 1900 a fresh ground, 

 some no by 100 yards was laid partly for the 

 use of the second XI, and partly for the use 

 of the people called Maniacs, of whom more 

 anon. There are therefore now four grounds, 

 which are named in the order of their birth — 

 Green, Under Green, Lessington and Wilder- 

 ness — pro-\dding altogether about 18 acres 

 of the very best cricket ground in the county. 

 Management of the school cricket up to the 

 year 1891 was entirely in the hands of the 

 captain of the XI and the four dub captains. 

 The captain of the XI made up his game out 

 of such members of three XI's as were left 

 from last season, supplemented by the most 

 promising cricketers he could get from the 

 clubs ; these represented the whole of the 

 rest of the school, which was divided into 

 four clubs, Swallows, Nomads, Cygnets and 

 Harpies, consisting of two or more houses 

 each, and managed by one of themselves. 

 Each dub was supposed to have four games, 

 thus providing cricket for eighty-eight boys, 

 who played three times a week ; but some- 

 how the system never worked properly. 

 Many of the games stopped in the middle of 

 the afternoon, and even where the sides were 

 fuU, and play continued until the ordinary 

 time for drawing stumps, nothing like eighty- 

 eight boys were requisitioned. Too much 

 was left to the individual energy of the 

 captain of the XI and of the club captains, 

 and, with one or two notable exceptions, 

 they were seldom equal to the task imposed 

 upon them. 



In 1891 one of the masters took the Under 

 School cricket in hand, drew up a code of 

 rales to prevent cutting or sending sub- 

 stitutes, insisted upon all the sides being full 

 and the games played out the full time, and 

 finally, to encourage the aspiring cricketer, 

 started an Under Green XI, under the title 

 of Maniacs (an old Charterhouse Club name), 

 for which none of the first three XI's were 

 eligible ; got up a programme of ten to twelve 

 foreign matches, and had the names of the 

 elevens recorded in the Under Green pavilion. 

 It was no doubt a great help to the captain 

 of the XI in discovering and fostering talent 

 for his use, and in only one year did the 

 Maniacs fail to provide at least one member 

 of the school eleven, while the large majority 

 of those who eventually attain to first eleven 

 honours have received their training on the 

 tricky wickets of the neighbouring village 

 grounds, where a score of 100 generally wins 



the match with a good margin, and mar- 

 vellous decisions by the umpires supply the 

 dement of luck and give zest to the en- 

 counter. The return matches on Under 

 Green and Wilderness are looked forward 

 to eagerly by the village teams, and have, 

 it is hoped, tended to encourage friendly 

 relations with the neighbours. They raise 

 the standard of cricket about the school, 

 and have led in many instances to improve- 

 ment in the village grounds. 



The Maniacs proved an undoubted 

 success, but there was still a twofold 

 want. First, the keenness observable in the 

 first and second games where there was a 

 chance of being favourably noticed for the 

 Maniacs, did not extend to the third and 

 fourth games where cricket was not played, 

 but played at ; and secondly, the Maniacs, 

 when promoted to Green, if not lucky enough 

 to be tried for the first XI, were strangely 

 neglected ; the games were arranged in the 

 interests of a few good bats, and the rest 

 seldom got an innings ; while on match days, 

 of which there were a great many, they had 

 nothing to do. This latter difficulty had 

 been partly met by a run-limit in ordinary 

 games, and wiU be further met by a series 

 of Second XI matches on the same lines as 

 the Maniacs, only against stronger teams. 

 The former difficulty has been met, it is 

 thought, successfully by the establishment of 

 the league system. A league is arranged for 

 ' yearlings,' i.e. boys who have joined the 

 school since the previous summer ; this con- 

 sists of twelve teams, and each team plays the 

 eleven others. A second league is formed, 

 for those members of the third and fourth 

 club games who are not yearlings, called 

 ' etceteras,' who also provide twelve teams, 

 and play in the same manner among them- 

 selves. The first and second club games 

 account for 176 boys more, and the nets on 

 Lessington are open aU the day for those who 

 cannot find a place among these forty elevens. 

 Each club has, moreover, three nets on 

 Under Green, which are always fuU between 

 12.30 and 1.30, and have two professionals 

 to help the bowling, one provided by the 

 masters, the other by the Old Carthusian 

 Club. 



The fortunes of the school cricket have 

 been entrusted successively to Julius Caesar, 

 J. Street, J. Russell and J. T. Mounsey ; the 

 first two are weU-known old Surrey players, 

 the third was rather a ground man and 

 bowler than a coach, and the grounds owed 

 much to his care. J. T. Mounsey was 

 appointed in 1900. 



The only two schools which Charterhouse 



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