Empire Cricket Booklet

JONTY WINCH

old boy of Marlborough College, he played full back for England and, not long after arriving at the Cape in 1878, persuaded players to take up the Rugby game instead of the relatively popular Winchester/ Bradfield codes. It was cricket, however, which occupied the greater part of his time and he declared once that, next to his home and his work, cricket was the only thing for which he cared. 2 When he arrived in Cape Town, there was just one club in the suburbs but, ten years later, he recalled counting 'the names of 420 players announced in the 'papers to play cricket'. 3 The official history of the Western Province Cricket Club points out that 'in every little dorp where [the game] was played, the name of Milton [became] familiar'. 4 He was also a hard-hitting batsman - 'no pattering about with a pretence of getting set about him' - and was regarded as a certainty for the South African XI to play against Warton's team. 5 Milton would therefore have been interested in the pressure exerted on Warton to recruit a strong touring side that comprised both amateurs and professionals. The Diamond Fields Advertiser stated: 'It is imperative that if we are to have an eleven to visit South Africa at all, to take such a proportion of gate money away, it must be a really first-class team well capable of showing what really good cricket is.' 6 This view was echoed by the Cape Argus: 'Oh, if we are to be demoralised at all, let us be bowled out by a really first-rater.' 7 They were rewarded by the selection of a side that fielded five players - Bobby Abel, Maurice Read, Johnny Briggs, Harry Wood and George Ulyett - who had appeared for England in various Tests against Australia during 1888. 8 George Lohmann was a late withdrawal, but there were two other leading cricketers in Aubrey Smith and Monty Bowden, who had represented Gentlemen against the Players and Australians during the recently completed English season. The organisation of the tour was scrutinised by cricket writers over a period of several months. Some were critical of the manner in which territories were left out of the decision-making. Charles Finlason, who had arrived in the Cape Colony in the early 1880s, was outspoken on behalf of the Kimberley committee. His point of view carried weight because

he was not only a leading local player but had developed a reputation as an erudite commentator on the game. Writing in the Daily Independent, he failed to see the justice in Cape Town having more matches than Kimberley, and he deplored Warton's 'impertinence in calmly arranging a series of fixtures without consulting [Kimberley]', pointing out 'it is not for him to assume the office of dictator'. He warned the Major that if Kimberley, the champion side of the Colony, should choose to withdraw - and he unilaterally threatened to do just that - the entire exercise would become a farce. 9 The attack on Warton served a dual purpose. It was a warning that Kimberley was the stronghold of South African cricket, a claim based on a series of successes,

Charles Finlason, South African cricketer and controversial journalist, became editor of several South African newspapers including the Star, Johannesburg

most notably the Champion Bat tournament in 1887/88. It also enabled Finlason to respond to comments made by Warton in an interview that was published in the Diamond Fields Advertiser. The English manager had claimed somewhat arrogantly that he wanted his side to play against odds because their professionals 'did not anticipate hard work on the tour ... as had been the case in Australia'. 10 Warton later admitted that he 'judged Kimberley cricket a good deal on the form shown at the Port Elizabeth tournament in 1884 and at Cape Town by the first Stray Klips' team'. 11