I purposed to have written quite a valuable treatise on clubs, but
when I dipped into the books, I either found that the serious matters
would be dry-as-dust at this stage of my article, or else that it
was difficult to collect information. So I shall merely emphasise
the cordiality of the sides which do battle each summer. I Zingari
come first to my thoughts, for not only have I the honour to wear
the red, yellow, and black, but my uncle, Mr. Chandos Leigh, is one
of the presiding potentates—more power to him. No longer do these
wanderers figure on the card of the Canterbury Week, but it is still
their festival. Theirs is the big tent, theirs the admirable theatrical
performances, and theirs the true traditions of the historic Week.
It is the most delightful function in county cricket to-day, just as
it was formerly the greatest boon in old-time cricket. I feel that
some of the graceful irresponsible matches which were contested at
Prince’s in the ‘seventies still cast a pleasant reflection on the Week
at the old minster town. Also, I heartily wish I Zingari could revive
that one-time match _v._ Gentlemen of England at Scarborough, but the
difficulty of collecting competent sides seems insurmountable. But
let no one think I Zingari do not keep up their pristine value. Have
they ever had a finer record than in 1902? It reads: matches played,
29; matches lost, 1, Silwood Park winning a one-day game by 46 runs.
So I think the spirit of I Zingari can look very beaming when she is
pleasantly embodied for the epilogue of the Kent festival.
It is impossible to run over the list of clubs. Free Foresters, of
course, recurs to memory—cheery, bright, with a military leaven, under
the admirable guardianship of Mr. E. Rutter. Their annual volume yields
an admirable statement of bustling, hard-fought cricket on many welcome
swards where reporters do not scribble nor the public give heed.
Amateur cricket owes a great debt to them, and also to the Incogniti,
in which the present governor of Jamaica has taken such keen interest.
With varying sides, but unvarying good-fellowship, these pilgrims of
cricket show how many withstand the attractions of golf, and prefer to
drive the leather rather than the Haskell.
Each University has one club noteworthy to the community at large.
Cambridge boasts the Quidnuncs, the cap of which is so familiar in
county matches, because hardly any old blue seems to wear his ‘Varsity
colours. Against Yorkshire at Lord’s in August 1902, four of the
Middlesex side wore those colours of dark blue with the narrow blue
stripe, these being Messrs. Cyril Foley, C. M. Wells, R. N. and J.
Douglas. Though it is limited to fifteen members in residence at
Cambridge, practically everybody who is tried for the eleven appears to
outsiders to be entitled to wear the caps, though no undergraduate in
his first year is eligible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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