TheCompleteMemoirsOfGeorgeSherston

shouldn't have to go in for a long while yet, there was
no neccl to feel nervous. The batsmen, too, were
shaping confidently, and there was a shout of "Good
ole Bill! That's the way to keep 'em on the carpet!"
when Dodd brought off one of his celebrated square-
cuts to the hedge off Bishop's easy-actioned fast
bowling. Picksett followed this up with an audacious
pull which sent a straight one from Crump skimming
first bounce into the Tea Tent, where it missed the
short-sighted doctor's new straw hat by half an inch
and caused quite a flutter among the tea-sipping ladies.
"Twenty up," announced the scorer, and the
attendant hobbledehoy nearly fell over himself in his
eagerness to get the numbers up on the board. A
stupendous appeal for a catch at the wicket by the
Reverend Yalden was countered by Sutler with his
surliest shake of the head, and the peg-supported
umpire was the most popular man on the field as he
ferried himself to his square-leg location at the end
of the over. Forty went up; then Dodd was clean
bowled by Crump.

" 'Ow\s t/utt?" bawled a ribald Rotherden partisan
from a cart in the road, as the rotund batsman
retreated; warm but majestic, he acknowledged the
applause of the onlookers by a slight lifting of his
close-fitting little cap. Everybody was delighted that
he had done so well, and it was agreed that he was
(in the Beer Tent) "a regular chronic old sport" and
(in the Tea Tent) "a wonderful man for his age".
Modest Jack Barchard then made his appearance
and received a Boer War ovation.

Leaving the game in this prosperous condition, I
plunged into the odoriferous twilight of the Horti-
cultural Tent, I Ixad no intention of staying there
long, but I felt that I owed it to Aunt Evelyn to have

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