All I can do is write poetry. But Gunn, Maurice Read, Tyldesley, Wainwright, Hirst, Braund, and several others were and are fully equal in fielding to any that the amateurs can bring to compare with them. Now let us consider for a moment the position of affairs, as far as this question of amateurs and professionals is concerned, in the case of Australia. They seem to prefer the ambiguous position of a socalled amateur to the straightforward, far more honourable one of a professional. Mr. Jackson is still in the middle of his career, and next to Mr. Appleby, bowls more nearly approaching to the professional standpoint; but, good bowler as he is, he does not strike one as quite like a professional bowler. An Authors’ Club, where none but authors are admitted, is a good thing. We’ll keep it up, once the precedent is established, until finally it will become a class club entirely-a Plumbers’ Club, for instance-and how absurd that would be in Hades! I fancy we have a legal right to take the matter up," said Blackstone, What is a billiards club wearily; "though I don’t know of any precedent for such action.

It represents the actual cost to a player of living, travelling, and playing, from the moment he leaves this country to the moment he sets foot in it again; but it is perfectly certain that, if left to the amateur to make a sort of private bargain, other and improper developments will take place, and it is notorious that they do. From what has been said in this chapter, the reader will be able to learn that, as far as England is concerned, the relations between amateurs and professionals stand on an altogether different footing in cricket from what they do in other games. It is an old proverb that you cannot eat your cake and have it, and if the modern amateur does not care, on social grounds, to become a professional, then let him honestly refuse to play cricket if he cannot afford to play on receipt of his bare expenses only. Mr. Grace and Mr. Buchanan were two amateur slow bowlers who really studied the art of bowling, and both of them, Mr. Grace in particular, studied the play of their batting opponents; but when you have mentioned Messrs. It is strange that this is so, for grace and ease are qualities that must be born, not made, but it is true, nevertheless, speaking of the older cricketers.

We are always glad to give them every welcome and show them every hospitality; nevertheless, they should have the same treatment and stand on the same footing that our professionals do when they visit Australia. The illustrations show that each of the walls has its own peculiarities. The floor and walls are made cf cement and should be smooth but not polished. The game continues until all fifteen red balls have been potted and only the six colours and the cue ball are left on the table. The table has six pockets: one at each corner and one at the centre of each of the two longer side cushions. The colours must next be potted in the ascending order of their values, from lowest to highest, i.e. yellow first (worth two points), then green (three points), brown (four points), blue (five points), pink (six points), and finally black (seven points); at this stage of the game, each colour remains in the pocket after being potted. Perhaps some day, when the public get tired of seeing match after match unfinished, and refuse to pay their entrance money, and the cricket world find out that some reform is necessary, and the duration of a match is two days and not three, county clubs will find out that they cannot pay these wages for amateurs, and a remedy will be found from an unlooked-for cause.

In what turned out to be a poor-quality match, Williams won the title. Some of the players, like Ulyett and Bates, could and did hit as hard and as often as the amateur, but in the professional there was little real grace of style. Mr. W. G. Grace and the late Mr. David Buchanan were worthy of being classed with Alfred Shaw, Peate, and Rhodes. George Parr, Daft, Emmett, Alfred Shaw, and Abel have at different times acted as captains, but none are to be compared to Messrs. BBC. Retrieved 24 March 2024. Men are strictly not allowed at anytime except for Thursday nights, when - in a reversal of the age-old tradition - they are permitted to enter the club for dinner. He habitually placed a deep square leg in the right place, and tempted men like Oscroft, Charlwood, and many more to send chances there, and many a time and oft has the trick come off. But in many counties are to be found gentlemen who like to have first-class cricket in their county, and a county cricket club is founded. This hangs like a blight over everything.