The celebrated William Lambert alone beat two accomplished cricketers,
Lord F. Beauclerk and Howard, by 15 runs. The Squire was too ill to
play, so Lambert played them both, and drew the stakes, 100_l._ Up to
1827, wides counted for nothing, and Lambert bowled wides on purpose to
Lord F. Beauclerk to put him out of temper. They were a choleric race
in those days. The fame of Lambert is tarnished for selling a match at
Nottingham, and he was warned off the ground at Lord’s for ever.
Mr. Budd in 1820 played a fast bowler called Brand, the match ending
most disastrously for the latter. Mr. Budd went in first, got 70 runs,
knocked his wicket down on purpose, and bowled his opponent out for 0.
Budd then got 31, again knocked his wicket down, and again bowled his
rival out for nothing. Mr. Brand ended his days in a lunatic asylum; we
hope the malady was not brought on by this match, which was got up by
Mr. Ward, who backed Mr. Brand.
The two brothers Broadbridge, one of whom was called ‘our Jem,’ beat
George Brown and Tom Marsden of Sheffield in 1827, but were beaten
in the return match. In 1832 Alfred Mynn played his first important
single-wicket match against Thomas Hills, Mynn winning with his wicket
standing. Hills said that Mynn bowled at least 50 wides, which seems
to prove that the chief bowlers of that day must have been slightly
deficient in accuracy. Why in this match the wides were not reckoned is
not clear, the rule scoring against the bowler having been put in force
some few years before. A return match was played, and Mynn again won,
this time in one innings, and Hills retired, satisfied, we suppose,
that in Mynn he had found his master.
In 1833 Mynn and Pilch were perhaps the two greatest all-round players,
and Marsden of Sheffield in this year challenged the immortal Pilch,
who won in one innings and 70 runs. Pilch was not a great bowler,
neither was he fast, but Marsden’s style was fast underhand, and
Pilch’s bat was too straight for such bowling. In the return Pilch got
78 runs in the first innings and 100 in the second, and won the match
by 127 runs. The supremacy of Pilch over Marsden was fully asserted by
these two matches, and Marsden must have returned to Sheffield somewhat
crestfallen.
Next Marsden may come, though it here must be stated
That his skill down at Sheffield is oft overrated.
But the Yorkshiremen, we know, are always proud of their countrymen.
Pilch was a great batsman, and we do not feel surprised that he scored
so largely against fast underhand bowling.
The ground ought to have been now cleared for a match between Mynn and
Pilch, and great would have been the interest if such a game had been
played--Voltigeur and The Flying Dutchman would have been nothing to
it. The two men belonged to the same county, so probably there was
wanting a sufficient motive; but together they would probably have
beaten any three other cricketers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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