THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE CRICKET MATCH.
THE Cricket Match on Monday was not a very interesting one in itself, though half the Upper Ten Thousand went to see it. Oxford was expected to win, and did win, and the result was from the first so certain, that spectators with a turn for excite- ment were reduced to the comparatively melancholy task of comparing individual players, and speculating on the possibility of Cambridge gaining a chance should Oxford be in worse form on the second day. The dictionary of admiration was exhausted on Mr. Mitchell, but there must be an end to hyperbole, even when uttered by pretty women who do not understand the subject, and when it was all done outsiders experienced a certain sense of flatness. A race should not be too hollow, and the admiration of Englishmen for the steady, persistent pluck which fights an uphill 'game is cut to express itself in a flattering but not very ex- ' hilarating silence. The match, however, brought out into strong relief one or two changes which have been noticed for some time, and on which amateur cricketers ought to take effective action. The first is the increase of professional betting. As a rule Cricket should be as exempt from this artificial and unnecessary ex- citement as chess and fox-hunting always have been, should be treated as a sport, and not as a means of obtaining excitement or of pocketing money. We are not of course prudish enough to care if a man, keenly interested in the game, backs his opinion as to the merit of a bowler by a moderate bet, but regular book- making is abhorrent to the whole theory of the game. Now regular book-makers, sallow, low-browed, cunning-eyed rascals, were exceedingly obvious on Monday, shouting the odds in the most approved Epsom style, and exciting in the minds of decent men a strong wish that they could be set up as stumps or placed in the exact position for a full leg hit. They introduce the tone of the Turf, and if they are encouraged will soon introduce turf practices, and we shall hear of bowlers drugged, batsmen with needles run into their arms, and captains "made square " by savage assaults, ending in inquiry before the magistrate. "Handi- capping," too, is a possible expedient, and there are little games to be played with bats, and balls, and bails, and ground, which would be conducive to anything but fair play, and would soon reduce a game which, if it does not deserve all we English say of it, is still one of the finest played among men, into a skilful attempt to defeat organized fraud. Already at Brighton, in a Veiy recent match, the ground was tampered with by outsiders, little holes being excavated and filled with loose grass, in a style very analogous to drugging at Epsom, and the practice may spread on grounds not so honestly kept as Lord's, the bookmakers knowing as little of conscience as of honour when sixpence is to be made. The evil can be easily stopped now, for book- makers rarely bet with each other, and the gentlemen have only to refrain froth the luxury of being done ; but there are fools even on the cricket-ground, and men everywhere who cannot resist a bet, and a good sharp rule declaring all such engagements contrary to the law of the ground would even now do good. Cricketers do not want to have their sport degraded by the morals of the turf, or to hear their arms, thighs, and atti- tudes criticize] for betting purposes like the points of Gladiatem. or General Peel. Tha club should look to this, and so should the proprietors of Lord's before it is too late.
'Vie second point is the gradual bat visible decline of bowling as" all art. The bowling on Monday was very often positively bad, and it never rose anywhere near the artistic level of the batting. There was not a bowler who as a bowler came up to the grade occupied by Mr. Mitchell as a batter. It has been the singular good fortune of this gentleman to appear at Lord's for three successive years as leader of the winning side, and on each occasion he contributed greatly to his party's success, in one instance redeeming with his single arm a day apparently lost. There was not one of his hind among the bowlers, and the cause is, we believe, generally acknowledged. Men practise batting, and do not practise bowling. It is pretty good fun to hit a ball and see somebody else run for it, even when you are not playing and there is nobody looking on, but bowling under those circumstances is justly pronounced a bore. It is very fatiguing, very monotonous, and does not excite that physical instinct for strife which is probably at the bottom of the English appreciation of cricket. Consequently cricketers pay professional bowlers to do the work they ought to do themselves, avoid practice as much as they can, and become splendidly expert in one only of their three divisions of duty. Even at the public schools the pro- fessional bowlers ruin the amateur play, and Eton is just now playing Winchester with magnificent batsmen who cannot bowl one bit. Half of the best amateurs cannot, to begin with, deliver a ball straight, and as the first object of bowling, as of shooting, is to hit, that alone is a serious deficiency. But half the remainder do not remember that a ball which is not straight may be so delivered that a hit will be very dangerous, and that their business is to play to the field, and not only for their own reputations. It is very pleasant indeed to bowl down the wickets yourself and be cheered, but it is just as useful to compel the batter to send the ball into "point's" hands. If one or two of the schools would prohibit pro- fessional aid except to teach, and one of the Universities lay itself out for practice, we should see some very different bowling, and probably read very much lighter scores. The high figures of to- day are no doubt due in part to very good batting, but also in part to what is comparatively very bad bowling, the result of indolent inexperience.
The last point is the habit of underrating the advantage of generalship, which no amount of practice except with full elevens can ever properly teach. Mr. Mitchell saved scores of runs simply by drawing in and extending his field according to the play of the bowler and the calibre of his opponent, but some men who can bat, and bowl too, field to every kind of player as if their places had been fixed by some cardinal law of the game. The eye must be educated to set a field, just as it must be educated to judge distance, and even when practice is constant there are men who will never learn, just as there are men whom Hythe could not turn into marksmen if they worked conscientiously through the term of their natural lives. The quality is to a great extent as incom- municable as the power of writing poetry, and does not neces- sarily belong either to the best bowler, or best batter, or hardest- handed, or most commanding man in an eleven. It belongs to the man who has it, and the business of a club which means work is to find out the man who possesses it, and unless otherwise dis- qualified consider him the man,. to obey. Less betting, more bowling, and stricter care in the choice of captains, are the present needs of the cricket field.
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