Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/58

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50
CRICKET.

were to be accused of appropriating the property of older and established ones:

The Knickerbockers, Accidentals, Inexpressibles, Dingle Wanderers, Anomalies, Gnats, Perfect Cures, Active Fleas, Perambulators, Et Ceteras, Limits, X.Y.Z., Owls, Rouge et Noir, Jolly Dogs, Odds and Ends, Caterpillars, I.O.U., Waifs and Strays, Butterflies, Desperadoes, Eccentrics, Hic et Ubique, Gryphons, Nonentities, Grasshoppers, Casuals, Harum Scarum, I Vagabondi, Idle Boys, Variegated Annuals, Rose of Denmark, Unmitigated Duffers, Fossils, Cock-a-doodle-doo, Pelicans, Don Quixotes, Cochin Chinas, Bohemians, The Fly by Nights, The Calves, Will-o'-the-Wisps, Lavender Kids, Spiders, Anythingarians, The Witches, The Wretches, Omnium Gatherums, Incapables, Rovers, and The Other Johnnies.

There can be very little doubt that for some years the All-England and United Elevens spread a knowledge of cricket, and in that way did good to the game; but by-and-by, when county and other important matches began to suffer, opinions rapidly changed, and travelling professional elevens, in the minds of the cricketing authorities, came in for a certain amount of condemnation. The jealousies of the two elevens had little sympathy at head-quarters or anywhere else when important matches were spoiled by them. Occasionally when a player was asked to play for his county he demurred, on the ground that he would be playing for one or other of the elevens on that day. It was not a very pleasant state of affairs, and rather a difficult one to solve. County cricket between 1846 and 1860 was not of sufficient interest to draw large crowds. A professional had to consider the gate: it was his means of living; and when that is remembered, it can be easily understood he would go where the greatest remuneration was to be had. It certainly was to be