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VIII

UNIVERSITY CRICKET MATCHES

There is a sense of continuity and of permanence about the University match that is soothing in these days of change. Head-masters have power to knock a public school match on the head; the borderland between Gentlemen and Players is becoming very narrow; counties may come and go, but the University match, it is safe to predict, will go on, humanly speaking, for ever. Bishops, both Anglican and Roman, judges—unfortunately for them, no Prime Ministers—scholars, and clergy without number have played in these matches. Though in these days the bowling is often weak, still somehow the game is never drawn, and more than in any other match does the nervousness of the combatants upset the calculations of judges

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