Surrey vs Hampshire

VERY excellent play took place on Wednesday; one of the Hampshire lasses made forty-one innings* before she was thrown out;* at the conclusion of the day’s sport the Hampshire lasses were eighty-one ahead — the unfavourableness of the weather prevented any more sport that day, though the ground was filled with spectators. On the following day the Surrey lasses kept the field with great success, and on Monday, the 7th, being the last day to decide the contest, an unusual assemblage of vehicles of all descriptions surrounded the ground by eleven o’clock: tandems, dog-carts, hackney-coaches, &c. formed a complete ring; several handsome females, dressed in azure blue mantles, graced those vehicles.

At three o’clock, the match was won by the Hampshire lasses, who, not being willing to leave the field at so early an hour, and having only won by two innings* they played a single game,* in which they were also successful. Afterwards they marched in triumph to the Angel, at Islington, and took some refreshment.

abridged

Abridged from ‘Sporting Magazine’ Vol. XXXIX No. CCXXIX (October 1811).

* Later editors who used this account generally have corrected the author, and substituted ‘notches’ or ‘runs’, or else omitted the word altogether.

* That is, run out — not ejected from the field of play!

* As before, this should probably be ‘two runs’.

* Charles Box altered this to ‘a single wicket game’, i.e. a match between two individuals rather than two teams of eleven.

Précis
Day one was marred by bad weather, but day two saw some lively play. Rest days over Friday and the weekend did nothing to dampen enthusiasm, and the following Monday a large crowd saw Hampshire win, and then crown their victory by winning a single-wicket competition too — after which everyone went off in high spirits to the pub.
Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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