Wednesday 11 February 2015

Alphabet Cricket

I was recently given a copy of 'In Darkest England and The Way Out' by General Booth. Though I have skip read a few pages to sense the tone of Booth's concerns, my main interest has been in the missing title page and annotated fly leaf and front board. On these pages are inscribed a code and game scores as follows:

A = 2 E = 1 I = 0 O = 3 U = 2
B = Bowled C = Caught D = 4 F = 2 G = 3 H = L B W
J = 5 K = Caught L = 6 M = Stumped N = Run Out
O = 0 P = 4 Q = 6 R = 2 S = 1
T = 3 U = 6 V = Caught W = L B W X = 5
Y = 0 Z = 6

This game of cricket from text has repeated (different) entries for the vowels, O and U, and thus appears to have been improvised. Remnants of games are also evident:
*1 3 1 out 4
*2 out 0
*3 0 1 6 2 out 9
*4 1 3 2 3 out 9
*5 3 3 1 0 2 out 9
*6 3 0 out 3
*7 0 3 out 3
*8 1 0 out 1
*9 0 6 1 4 6 out 17
*10 0 0 1 out 1
11 0 2 4 not out 6


*1 0 1 out 1
*2 0 2 0 out 2
*3 1 out 1
*4 0 1 4 2 2 out 11
*5 1 0 1 0 2 out 4
*6 0 0 out 0
*7 1 0 out 1
*8 3 2 0 6 2 2 2 1 2 out 20
*9 2 0 1 1 1 3 6 1 0 3 2 0 1 0 out 21
*10 1 4 2 2 3 0 1 13
*11 0 out 0


*1 3 1 1 2 6 2 18
*2 0 0
*3 1 2 0 3
*4 2 4 0 6
*5 0 2 4 out 6
*6 3 1 2 3 3 out 12
*7 1 0 0 6 1 out 8
*8 2 3 2 3 out 10
*9 2 out 2
*10 3 3 2 out 8
*11 2 3 3 8


What these annotations represent is a form of alphabet cricket as popularised in the Eagle Annual number 5

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