Page:The Hambledon Men (1907).djvu/27

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TAKING OUT THE STING
xxi

much to write as of the Hambledon men, with better chance of getting first-hand recollections too.

The Memoirs of the Old Cricketers which come next are brought together here from the first volume of Lillywhite's Cricket Scores and Biographies, to which they were contributed by the late Mr. Arthur Haygarth, after years of patient toil. It would be impossible to praise too highly his efforts towards commemorating the early players of the great game It was his life-work in the fullest sense of that term. Mr. Haygarth was born at Hastings on August 4th, 1825, and was educated at Harrow. From the account of him, probably by Fred Lillywhite, in Vol. iii of the Scores and Biographies, against a match in 1842 between Harrow and Harrow Town, I take this passage:—

'As a batsman he has proved himself to be one of the steadiest there ever has been, forward in style, and has made many a long innings as to time, especially in the Gentlemen v. Players matches in 1846, 1855, and 1857, having been chosen to play in this, the match of the season, no less than sixteen times before he had completed his thirty-fourth year. Has, however, very little hit except the drive, but his patience and perseverance when at the wicket (like the late Tom Walker, of Surrey) have proved very tiring to his adversaries. He generally went in early (first wicket down), and often took the "sting" out of the bowling, by getting his runs remarkably slow—on an average, perhaps, not more than ten or twelve in an hour. Lillywhite's Guide of 1856 has the following of him:—"Is a terror to the bowlers opposed to him.