Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-12
IN The WORLD OF SPOR rs
Harry Lswrie Gives His Observations Across
the Pond.
CRICKET is BECOMING A BACK NUMBER
Golf Gains Favor with Sportsmcn-
Reasons for Its Popularity and
why ~ should Thrive Here
-Omnhn's Golf Club.

During a recent visit to the British isle!
had the good fortune to renew my ac'
quaintance with some Of the prominent mer
in amateur sports in Scotland said Harry
Lawrie. IL was also introduced to one ol
two OF the rising generation in the same
line and was much impressed with the al
most universal change of sentiment whicf
at present prevails in relation to what Il
was fifteen or twenty years ago.
"ln years gone by the time honored game
Il cricket held sway over the multitude
when to be a non-crlcketer meant 'sportic
ostracsm II one might use coined phrase
This applied to the young and middle-aged
as well as those n the prime of life Every
village had tie ricket club, every county
its grounds, an, in the larger towns SUBJ
ordinate clubs we're as thick as bugs In
June. The clubs had large membership,
the players took an active interest IN at
fairs, and competition was keen. Today
the status OF cricket has materially altered,
and only in a few favored spots does one
see any cricket enthusiasm The public
schools still maintain their elevens and
compete with each other. A few counties
have managed to hold together their dis
integratng forces. The local clubs IN
many districts are things of the past, and
as a result, III BeueTdl tue Oiu Salhe 10
fast becoming a back number. Why
asked, all this change in few short years?'
The answer came back, la Cleveland: We
had condition to meet, not theory
Hence the change.
Summed up, the people who love sport
for the exercise and good fellowship that
there Is In it. have gradually awakened to
the fact that under the tlme-honored, al
though antiquated rules OF today, cricket is
too slow a game for the players and alto
gether uninteresting to the spectators This
may seem an upheavai of d-time tradi-
tions, so dear to the heart of the average
Briton, but 1t is none the less true, and
based not upon any assumption of my own,
but upon the testimony Of many old-tlme
prominent cricketers, and also young men
who today are taking an active part in
amateur sports in Scotland. In England
the same feeling exists, but to lesser de-
gree"
Let us for a moment examine few OF
the general and more important points of
cricket and see If the worthy Scot is justified
in relegating the game to the back
ground and of a necessity substituting some
thing in it's place, for the average man over
there must belong to some athletic sphere
as being part OF his very existence A
cricket game takes from half day to three
days to accomplish a finish, and often, even
after three days play results in the most
unsatisfactory of all finshes-a draw. The
game in the main is confined to a few Of the
players, notably the batters, the bowlers and
some of the fielders. The majority of the
felders stand sometimes for hours and do
little or no work. The batter is privileged to
stay In as long as he can, and is at liberty to
play ball after ball for an indefinite period
without as much as scoring a run. In the
history of this years games with the visiting
Australian team the public had sample of
the foregoing style of play, when on several
occasions the gentlemen from the Antipodes
were playing to cave defeat Hour after
hour did the batsmen block and kill ball
after ball without the least intention of
scoring, but merely intent upon playing
against time and saving their bacon. They
succeeded only too well, but retired amid
the well earned Kisses of the spectators.
That any athletic game should take three
days to play seems absurd, but when such
game ends in a draw it would appear the
height of folly, and suggests ample room for
amended rules. There many other in
stances, too numerous almost to mention,
which prove cricket a slow game.
81 have been for years a strong advocate
for a complete revision of the rules, and
am so still, and in conversation with an
old-time prominent cricketer in Edinburgh
raised this point and suggested that radical
changes be made, to make cricket
much faster and more interesting. His
reply was 'oh, we'll, you know the people
here have been so long accustomed to the
rules that it would be next to impossible
to change them, but If the rules are to be
changed, we look to the United States for
a new code There you have it in a nut
shell. Traditions rules that are out of
date and never meant for this generation
cannot be changed out of hand, and rather
than change them the powers that be would
let the game die of ennu and gradually be-
come extinct.
Can 1t be wondered at then that II the
game OF cricket is hard to keep alive in
Scotland that in Omaha the game Is not
full OF life and energy. l read with mixed
feelings 'Cricketer's' letter in last Sundays
Bee and his cure for the growing lasstude
II 'Cricketer' knows anything about the his
tory OF cricket in Omaha during the last
eight or ten years he must know that com
petent and energetic men have been at the