The First Fifty Years of Shanghai Cricket (Part #3)

3rd part of the 1914 article below. Yet more Scots. We also find out that the Leisure were not the first team to be bowled out easily by school kids, so Dags and Latex can rest easy… and judging by the scores the Leisure were not the first team to play under the heavy influence of alcohol. Also things get going with Japan.

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A G Harrison and Others

It was Carruthers who proved so deadly as a bowler to the visiting Hong Kong team on this occasion (note: the Bokhara year), taking in the innings no fewer than 13 wickets for 70 runs. With his name we may add a few others who in the late eighties and early nineties were well known figures in the green award- P Anderson, A Stewart, P McGregor, Grant, Tottie, Leach, Bruce Roberston, Wickham, J Mann, H H Reed, S.M. Wallace, H. T Wade, Sr William Johnston, J T Scott, Sawyer, Abbot, R McGregor etc. Many might follow were space of no importance for though Shanghai cricket has never been up to first-rate county from it has on many occasions risen to that of the very best private clubs.

Public School Triumphs

Unquestionably the most interesting event of the cricket world in the nineties was the advent of the Shanghai Public School boys. It was in 1894 that their Headmaster got permission for them to use a pitch on the Race Course, on a spot where as a rule, naval matches are now played. The ground was of the roughest. Ponies scampered at will across it and a hit of fifty yards usually resulted in the cry of “lost ball”. The School’s first public essay was against the SCC, 16 boys to the 11 of the Club, and the result was promising, for the youngsters won by 111 to 51! There were bowlers at the School in those days, Stewart and Goodfellow being particular good. Playing an “eleven” of the SCC on even terms the next year the boys again won easily. In 1896, on a sticky wicket, they compiled a score of 91 with such bowlers as Mann against them and then dismissed the SCC eleven including six Interport batsmen for 14 runs made in 14 overs! G.F Lanning 7 wickets for 9 runs and N.E. Moller 2 for 0 were the bowlers. The SCC followed on and in the second innings made 59 runs, the boys winning by an innings and 19 runs. In ’98 they repeated the performance, an equally strong team being sent back for 33 by the same two bowlers, G.F. Lanning 6 wickets for 8 and N.E Moller 3 for 24.

Needless to say there were other occasions when the feats were not so propitious. The youths that gave the early promise of cricket skills were those already mentioned, A.E Stewart, H.S. Goodfellow, N.E. Moller, the four Lannings and others. Some have turned to other lines of sport and but all have held their own with bat, ball, racquet or gun.

The First Team to Japan

It was in ’95 that our first team went to Japan, where at Yokohama, A.E. Lanning was the top scorer, the result owing to rain being a draw. On the way back stopping at Kobe, our men got a hammering making 65 and 89 against Kobe’s 207.

It was thus that Kobe avenged her own innings defeat in ’94, when, thanks to a contribution of 111 by Mr Farbridge, she lost by the tune of 309 to 100 and 60. Such see-saw play is common in Interport Cricket. The most successful team ever sent from Shanghai was in 1901, to Hong Kong. It swept the board: cricket, tennis, swimming, everything. The cricket was triangular with Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore all playing. The end of the Shanghai vs Singapore match was by far the most sensational ever known in Interport series. Shanghai’s last pair, Weippert and V H Lanning were in. Neither had made a run and yet one run was needed to win. Not a few spectators had actually to leave the ground, unable to stand the strain of the excitement! Eventually after the wiles and fire of the Singapore attack had failed the match was won by a leg bye.