The Washington times., 1901-10-20
BETTING ON CRICKET.
s250.00o Wasered on n Single Game
in England.


| For the cricket enthusiast there is a
treasury of interesting material in the
| columns of the old newspapers. which
show how the national game was played
in days when our great-grandfathers were
learning to WELD the bat
| In the advertisement columns of the
"Kentish Gazette" for April %, 1874, may
| be seen this singular notice:
"Cricketing on Horseback-A very sin
gular game of cricket will be played on
the 9Th of May in Linstead Park between
the Gentlemen of the Hin and the Gentle
men of the Dale for one guinea a man.
The whole to be performed on horseback
To begin at a. nj. A good ordinary on
the ground by John Haglen."
In later issue of the same paper ap-
pears this strange advertisement, proving
that, barely a century ago. cricket was
on the same financial footing as cock
fighting.
"An lovers of cricket should assemble
in their thousands tomorrow, for the
greatest players of the day will meet in
fair and honorable conflict to contend for
the possession of a purse Of LOCO guineas,
which has been subscribed by some true
sportsmen and lovers of this noble game"
To such an extend was cricket made
a medium for gambling in the days of
George III that it is on record that as
much as e5O.OOO depended on the issue of
a single match.
In a Yorkshire paper a match is adver-
tised to take place between the married
and single ladies of the district, the stakes
consisting of a dress, to cost not less than
60. for each of the winning team.
Matches between cripples were of con-
stant occurrence, and excited consider
able interest and sptculatiou. One such
contest was advertised as Cricket on
Stumps," which WAS a match between
teams who had lost at least one leg each;
and. singularly enough, the highest score
fell to the lot of 4 batsman called Sharp.
who had left both his legs, if not lin
Badajoz's breaches" at any rate in the
Peninsula.
match which attracted large crowd
of spectators and on the result of which
many thousands of pounds were wagered
was between teams OF Greenwich pen
sioners, one consisting Of men who had
lost cne arm each and the rival eleven
men who boasted only one leg.
Teams were regularly made up of men
who had 4 common name or common
initial, the most famous OF them oeing
the victorious 'B' eleven. which included
and Bull Bclham, BeaZley and Beau
clerk. Another highly successful team
consisted of members of the Pagden
family and 4 third of eleven brothers
who were called Colman. When 1t was
impossible to make up an eleven of one
name or initials matches were arranged
between rival teams distinguished as a
to l. VS. M to Il, or any other alphabetical
that was found practicable.
II was no uncommon thing for SIng4e
player of repute to play single-handed
match against number. often against u
fun eleven. Such match was one played
more than n century ago by Tom Walker.
professional of the old I1ambledon Club.
against half a dozen young members of
the club, which he won by the large mar
gin of an innings and 10 runs.
a well-known player. called Redgate,
the wv. G. of his day, successfully
tackled eleven players and beat them by
IA runs in two innings.
An equally remarkable match was wit
messed ffty-five years ago in Shiilinglee
Park Sussex. between an eleven cap
tained by the then Earl of Winterton and
ffty-siX rustic players from his estate.
The match, however, came to an ignomin-
ious termination, for the fiftysix tielders |
got into each others way so persistently
that a free fight ensued and the match |
had to be abandoned in favor of surgical |
and bandages.-Tit-Bits