50 years of Shanghai Cricket (Part 1) – from an article published in 1914

The following is the first part of an article that appeared in the North China Herald on Nov 7th 1914 to record the first 50 years of Shanghai Cricket. I am sure the guys from that era would have put on a big party for their Jubilee so I think something should be done for the 150th year. Anyway if you are Scottish you will enjoy this first part and if you are a either Irish or a Yank you may be surprised….

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It would not be precisely exact if we were to say that this year marks the Jubilee of Shanghai Cricket, for the first match played here found a pitch somewhere in Hongkew in 1858, when HMS Highflyer, forerunner of her namesake which played another sort of ball game recently was mercilessly beaten by the landsmen.

But it is correct to say that as far as the play on the present SCC ground is concerned, 1914 is the Jubilee Year, for the first recorded match there was fought out in 1864 between Shanghai and its Brokers, while the second had the Garrison v the Community as sides being the days of the Taiping. Underhand and round arm bowling were then in fashion, the first International game producing 22 of them.

In ’66 occurred the first Interport game, and Hong Kong beat us to the tune of an innings and runs only to have the tables turned on them in like fashion in Shanghai the following year. The first England vs Scotland match in ’68 was won by the Scots. A few of the names of the players before the seventies will be well remembered by some present residents. Manson, Jock of that ilk, in ’69 took all ten wickets in one match; Margary, whose memorial now graces our Public Garden, was a good bat and R.H. Percival of Reiss’s once captured four wickets in one over.

The First Century

It was necessary at times to widen the field of selection in order to avoid monotony, and thus it came to pass that Ireland beat America on one occasion; that a good team using broomsticks took on another with bats, and won. But it is evident that the pitch is not what it is now, or else shooters born of underhand and round arm were too deadly, for it was not until 1879 that the first century was recorded. That was a not out innings by a Mr R.C. Hodder. In the early eighties Mr Lester gave a bat to every batsman who scored a fifty or over, and in ’83 a dozen of them had already been won. About that time names familiar in our mouths as household words began to appear. Arthur Anderson makes a century, W Dunman makes another and in the celebrated ’86 England vs Scotland match won by Scotland, Bell-Irving piled up 110 and A Ross his playing partner, 93. Arthur Moule appears in ’87. He was the first man in our record to hit a ball out of the ground over the old Pavilion, W.J Tyack was the other, but that was later and to our knowledge the feat has never been repeated.