The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-23
A Plea for Cricket.

We have frequently taken occasion in
these columns to notice with satisfaction the
great impulse that within the last few years
has been given to the practice Of athletic
sports in this country we have now base
ball clubs, cricket, tennis, rowing, athletic,
coaching and other clubs of kindred
character, and one of the oldest of them all
is the ST. Georges Cricket Club.
From this parent stock have sprung
practice of this manly sport, each possessing
its tavorite hard hitters and pretty fielders,
and all of them real lovers Of the game and
interested in its development in this
country.
It seems rather hard to believe that while
in England every village has its green and
every public school its cricket ground, pro-
ducing hundreds of young men who play as
good cricket as large number of those who
adorn the county elevens, in this city several
cricket clubs are about to abandon their
organization from the hard necessity of
seeking in New Jersey and other places far
distant from the city grounds upon which to
practise their game or to play their capital
and we'll contested matches.
This is nevertheless true, and it seems
besides great pity and wrong that these
cricketers should be obliged to forego their
favorite exercise while the broad and unused
sward Of the Central Park lies invitingly
open before them, and would be SO gladly
resorted to were permission granted for its
use
It cannot be urged by those who have the
misfortune to be unacquainted with cricket
that the Park would be defaced or injury
come to tho turf through its practice; for
the fact is that one of the first necessities of
the game is a perfect condition of tho
ground, and its preservation the first care of
the player SO far from being an injury q
we'll appointed cricket ground of four or
five acres would be an ornament and the
matches played there a great attrac-
ton and source of pleasure. The roads are
open to the riding and driving public !;
the walks are beautiful and we'll used the
waters round the city are open to the lovers
of yachting and boating; but to those who
-
not afford horses or yachts, the privilege Of
following their own course of physical cul-
ture or that best suited to their own means
or personal requirements seems to be denied,
at any rate within reasonable distance from
the city limits.
Tho Commissioners of Prospect Park, in
Brooklyn, have wisely set apart portion of
their grounds for the use of cricket club,
and no spot on its beautiful meadow is more
carefully guarded from injury, no keeper in
the place is more jealously watchful of its
condition than the cricketers who play
there. Philadelphia, too, offers every en-
couragement to her clubs, and, as conse-
quence, the game is in high favor there and
the play the best in the country. The
authorities arc very CAREFUL to keep the clubs
within their own domain, and do not compel
them to seek other States and counties for
the opportunity of cultivating their strength
ana manhood.
It really seems almost ignobl6 That in
great metropolis like New York, with the
means at its command and the ground al
ready made, this splendid sport should be
allowed to languish and die out without
offering helping hand to rescue it, and
the more especially because it can be done
without the expense of one farthing to the
city.
| We advise the clubs that are contemplate
ing dissolution to make one more appeal to
| the Commissioners of the Central Park, and
there must be reason to hope that those in
telligent gentlemen will receive their petit
ton with the encouragement it deserves.
| THIRD TERM BuNcoMBE. Page, OF
California, who introduced buncombe reso-
luton into the House of Representatives,
covcrtly favoring third term, had his