Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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TRINITY C()LL1:GK SCHOOL RHCORL). 1 1 get there we see Masters Sloinaii aiul l.a ihoy come round the end of the gym at full speed, as if to make up by extra exertion for their slackness. IJut they can ' t do that, and they hotli ar- rive on the field pufi ' ed and with scarcely enough breath to say awfully sorry, old man, to the Captain, who savs nothing, hut if looks mean anything, he will have some- what to say to them alter the game is over. Sloman is one of the bowlers, and the Captain generally commen- ces with him : now he has to consider whether it would not be advisable, untier the circumstances, to begin with someone else. However, he decides to try Sloman, but, in consequence of his having run himself out of breath, that bowler is decidedly loose, and a good many runs are scored off his first few overs, and the Captain soon takes him off. The bowler at the other end however, is in good form, and gets two or three wickets, but then the Town ' s two best batsmen get in together and lioth become pretty well set. Laziboy is fielding at cover, the batsman plays a ball straight towards him, calls for the run, and they make it easily. The Cap- tain signals Lazilioy to come closer, he does so, but on crossing at the end of the •jver he goes as far from the wicket as before, anJ the first tiall of the new over is plaved slowly towards him and another run is stolen by the batsman in just the same way. Now, 1-aziboy did not fumble the ball, and he threw it in straight enough, but all the same he gave the other side a run through sheer s ackiiess ; he should have known enough to watch the batsman and come closer after the first run was stolen, without being told, but to be told by his Captain, and then to liisre- gard the order was unpardonable. The Captain will have an extra score to settle with Laziboy when he has it out with him after the m.itcli. But, alas, laziboy is not the only slack man on the team. We n tice that Short-leg mi-ssed a catch because he was talking to the umpire when all his attention should have been given to the task of getting the batsmen out. Long-off too, several times let the batsmen g .■l one more off each drive than they de.ser - ed, eith ' -r tlirough being too slow in getting after the ball, or in returning it to the wickets; and he once lost the ojiportunity of running a man out, by returning the ball to the nearest wicket just because it was the nearest, al- though a glance would have shown him that there was no chance of running out the bats- man who had to make that end, while there was every chance of a run out if the ball had been thrown to the other wicket. .• nd so in watching the fielding we see at various times during the innings either field- ing that is distinctly bad in itself, or ojipor- tunities of good play lost through want of at- tention, want of thought, want of effort, or whatever other want it may be, all of which come under the general heading of sAwA- nss, for it is a hydra-headed monster and assumes many shajies. But I have said that Slackness is not merely a fault in fielding, but we see it in bowling and batting as well. We have seen that Sloman ' s bowling was pretty well knocked about, and he was soon taken off, and several changes are tried before he is put on again. Now, Sloman has a fair command of the ball, usually bowls a good length, and can get some work on, and any one with these cpialifications should make a very useful bowler, if he only uses his head. Hut poor Sloman doesn ' t. When he is jjut on again he liowl.s just the same kind of stuff, ball after ball, as he tlid before. Of course, he knows (or he wouM know if he thought about it) that batsmen don ' t often make mistakes on a good wicket when they are well set, if they know exactly what sort of ball is coming, and yet he doesn ' t try any de- vices to tempt the batsman to make a false stroke, or lay any traps to catch him. Now, this is all slackness, which in this connection means want of head, want of care, and want of thoroughness generally. But the best of batsmen will make mis- takes, as these two eventually do, and pay the penalty, and after the two good batsmen are got rid of, the rest of the Town wickets fall verv cheaply ; and when he gels at the tail ' Sloman improves his analysis, for good length and good pitch will get batsmen any day who are not first class. But the test of the really good bowler is to get rid of the best batsman, and Sloman can ' t claim to 1.,- .1 really good bowler until he uses his head more. rhe Town innings closes for 150, of which

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lO TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL Rl-XORU. make an individual effort, not resting until we place the dear old School where it should be, head and shoulders above all others : This is the wonl that year by year Wliile in her place ttie School is set, Kveryone of her sons mii t hear, AntI none thai hears it dare forget. This ihey all with a joyful mind Bear through life like a torch in flame And falling lling to the hosts behind — ' [ ' lay up I riay up I and play the game ! ' A TALK ON CRICKET. Mv l)i; R Hoys, — I have been asked to write an article for the Record on Cricket, or something having to do with the game, in Canada. Now, there is s »tiet iin,i; which has altogether too much to do with Cricket in this country, and I would like to say a word or two about it, for it is a fault which is very common among cricketers in Canada, and if it is not checked, it will, I fear, have a very bad effect upon the game ; but to write an article ' about it sounds a very serious matter, and I thought that if I put what I had to say in the shape of a letter to you it would have a better chance of being read. Now this fault (it might fitly be called a disease) about which I am going to .say a few words, may be described in one word — SLACKNESS. ' You all know what is meant when you hear it said that the fielding of a team is very slack, but this s ackiiess which I have in mind is a fault which is not only seen in fielding but in bowling and bat- ting as well, indeed it often is apparent before play begins at all. If one watches any cricket match and ob- serves the players closely, one can soon tell which of them are victims of this wretched disease, and I think it will help me to make my meaning plain, and will help you to see what the symptoms of slackness are, if we imagine that w-e are looking on at a match and discussing the game and the ulayers. I t us sup|)ose then, that it is a line Sat- urday in the middle o.f ' Crinity ' { ' erin, and that the Town is to play the .School on the School ground. I fancy I hear S ' )me one re- minding me that the Town Club is no match for the .School, but no matter, in my day the Town had soine very good players, and beat the School, I fancy, as often as we beat them. So, now that we have arranged the match and settled the weather, let us choose a com- fortablespot from which tosee the game. Here is the place, in the long grass and clover on the slope down from the football field and almost in a line behind the wickets so that we can not only watch the bowling well, but between the overs can look beyond the play- ing fields to the smiling farms and pretty woodland country, the iiills in the distance forming a beautiful background to the scene. This view from the playground comes back to me again and again as one of the most pleasant of my life; but I am quite sure I did not appreciate the scene when I was at School, and in the habit of seeing it every day, so that I can ' t expect you boys that are going to be spectators of this game with me to share in my enjoyment of it, but you can at least appreciate the comfortable spot I have chosen. So let us sit down and wait for the game to begin. The Town men are punctual for a wonder; the School captain has a few minutes ' chat with the captain of the Town eleven, and then we see them toss for the choice of innings. Ve are too far away to hear what is said, but we know, from our captain ' s dis- appointed face, that the Town has won, and presently we hear him call out, Come on, boys ; we take the field, but, he first num- bers off his men, to see if they are all there. There is evidently something wrong, and, on counting heads, we see that only eight of the School team are with him. Vhere are the two ? . youngster in our party says Slo- man and Lazihoy, late as usual ! ' I ' hat ' js usuaF s[)eaks whole libraries, and when one .says, What is the matter with those two fellows ? although he did not expect an answer to his question, I take the opportunity of answering ' ■ slackness and call attention to the fact that although not a ball has been bowled, and the players are nor yet in their places, we have discovered two boys on the School team against whose name we can write Slack — with a capital S.. for unpunctual- itv in cricket is only another word for ' ■ slackness in one of its many forms. The Ca|)tain is annoyed, and he has a right to be ; he sends two small boys after the delinquents, but as it is time for the g.ime to begin, he c.rn ' t wait any longer for them, and leads his other eight men to the field. The two first batsmen for the Town walk toscthcr towards lie wicket, and ju t as they

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rkiNlTV COLLHGli SCHOOL KKCORU. 30 at least were not deserved, and If the- niateh were to be faithfully reported, some- thing akin to the following would appear in the daily papers : — 30 runs were contributed by ' Slackness, ' a plaver kindly furnished to the Town by the Schobl. Now, let us watch the School s innings. It is not long before we see a striking fault, which most of the eleven have, and which in- dicates very careless captaincy. The batsman makes a stroke, say to the off, between cover and mid-off, and calls, and they run. Now the batsman at the other wicket should take a glance at the ball and the man who is fielding it, and if he sees there is a chance for a second run he should run the first as fast as he knows how, and turn, so as to be ready to call, or answer his partner ' s call, for another ; but instead of do- ing this, we see that he runs down the wicket more or less slowly, (chiefly more), and stops; and all chance of a second run is lost. This happens not once or twice, but over and over again. Now, this is a most aggravating exhibition of slackness ; a lot of runs are wanted to win the match, there is barely time to make them, and yet we see two able-bodied boys jog up and down between the wickets as if they were hired to do it by th;; day. One would neve r suppose from watching them that it mattered in the least whether the game was won, or lost, or drawn. Anrl many a match is drawn for that very reason, and occasion is given to the enemy to decry the game as not suited to this coun- try, or slow to w.itch, where is it is not the fault of the game, but the stupid slack- ness of some of those who play it. One seldom sees that kind of thing in a really good match, but it is a fault to which school boys are specially prone, and one which the captain must be ever on the watch to correct. . ' nother kind of slackness we noticed, which the captain should look out for, and that is the neglect of the non-striking bats- man to follow up, but this is so well recog- nized as an elementary duty that we need say nothing to emphasize it. And in the School batting in this match there were some evidences that there had been slackness in the practise of the boys at the nets ; in some cases a desire to hit everything, in others a fearfulness of hitting anything. There was a great uncertainty, too, at times as to which batsman had the calling of the run. And so in watching the match, and in cri- ticizing all the bad play and applauding the good, the long summer day h.is worn away. Of course, the gaine was won by the School or I should not have enjoyed it nearly so much. It should hardly be necessary to say that the only reason for im.iginiiig all this slack- m ' ss which we are supposed t6 have noticed on the School ' s part in this match, was in order to point the moral of what I have had to say ; of course I don ' t consider T. C. S. worse than other schools in this respect, but quite the contrary, and the fact that the School has generally the strongest eleven proves that the game is better taught there, and better played there, as I hope it always will be. Cricket, you know, is called the noble game, and it is the very best game for a school, because not only does it help to de- velope a boy physically, but, if played in the light of its honourable traditions, and in the sportsman-like spirit which has always accom- panied it in the past, it will help very greatly in turning out a gentleman in the best sense of the term. Cricket is something more th.in a game, it is in a measure a part of your education, for your bodies require training as well as your brains, but looked at as a mere game it is well worth the playing, and it is worth playing well. I,et us all then, present boys and old boys, always remember that souiid advice which breathes the very spirit of cricket, i lay up, and play the game ; it is the nntto of true, clean, manly sport ; if we bear it in mind and live up to it we can never be accused of ' s tu {»ess. [• aithfully yours, DvcK V. Saunders. C. St. G. Baldwin ( ' 91 - ' 98) left suddenly last month to enter the Dominion Bank. We had counted on his being here as a cer- tainly for the cricket season, and his loss will be much felt. However, we wish him evi ry success in his new career.