1854.13
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English Visitor Sees Wicket at Harvard
Salience | Noteworthy |
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Tags | College, Harvard CollegeCollege, Harvard College |
Location | |
City/State/Country: | Cambridge, MA, United States |
Modern Address | |
Game | Wicket, American CricketWicket, American Cricket |
Immediacy of Report | Retrospective |
Age of Players | YouthYouth |
Holiday | |
Notables | |
Text | "It was in the spring of 1854 . . . that I stepped into the Harvard College yard close to the park. There I saw several stalwart looking fellows playing with a ball about the size of a small bowling ball, which they aimed at a couple of low sticks surmounted by a long stick. They called it wicket. It was the ancient game of cricket and they were playing it as it was played in the reign of Charles the First [1625-1649 - LMc]. The bat was a heavy oak thing and they trundled the ball along the ground, the ball being so large it could not get under the sticks. "They politely invited me to take the bat. Any cricketer could have stayed there all day and not been bowled out. After I had played awhile I said, "You must play the modern game cricket." I had a ball and they made six stumps. Then we went to Delta, the field where the Harvard Memorial Hall now stands. We played and they took to cricket like a duck to water. . . .I think that was the first game of cricket at Harvard." |
Sources | "The Boyhood of Rev. Samuel Robert Calthrop." Compiled by His daughter, Edith Calthrop Bump. No date given. Accessed 10/31/2008 at http://www-distance.syr.edu/SamCalthropBoyhoodStory.html. |
Warning | |
Comment | Actually, Mr. Calthrop may have come along about 95 years too late to make that claim: see #1760s.1 above. Edit with form to add a comment |
Query | Edit with form to add a query |
Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
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