Madras Miscellany: Madras's first ‘Big Match'

March 25, 2012 06:41 pm | Updated 07:42 pm IST

Lt. Col. Pennycuick

Lt. Col. Pennycuick

Madras's first ‘Big Match', its first cricket ‘Test' of sorts, if you will, was played 150 years ago this year. This match, played in 1862 in Guindy, became an annual home-and-away fixture that was played till at least 1895. There are no details of that first match except that it resulted in a win for Madras.

The earliest records of cricket being played in Madras date to 1792. Those early matches were played on The Island ground. Later, there were matches played on the Esplanade. And then there came a third ground, ‘Guindy'. This was probably the area opposite the Assembly Rooms , adjoining the Racecourse. Chepauk came into the picture only in 1865 when the ground was granted to the Madras Cricket Club that had been founded in 1846.

The first detailed report of a match that I've come across was the Madras-Bangalore match of 1875 that was played at Chepauk. In the two-day, two-innings match, Bangalore triumphed by eight wickets after, in the first innings, its “last wicket fell one run only ahead of Madras”. There was one noteworthy name on each side and they both played notable roles in the match — and elsewhere. George Gough Arbuthnot top-scored with 29 not out in Madras's first innings' total of 96. Arbuthnot, by then knighted, was responsible for the Arbuthnot Crash of 1906 and went to jail for a year, probably the only knight to spend time in an Indian prison.

An even better performance in the match was by Captain John Pennycuick of the Royal Engineers, who had moved on to Bangalore after he was instrumental in ensuring that the Madras Cricket Club had taken the Chepauk ground into its custody. Pennycuick opened both Bangalore innings, scoring 19 and 18, and was responsible for bowling out Madras for low scores in both innings, taking four wickets in the first innings and five in the second to be, by far, the most successful bowler in the match.

Pennycuick's is a name very much in the news these days for his engineering accomplishments, but he seems to have made as much of a name for himself in South India away from work. Exploring the Kodaikanal Club recently, as it gets ready to celebrate its 125th birthday, I found that Pennycuick, a Lt. Colonel by then, was one of the seven founder Members of the Club. He was in charge of the P.W.D. office in Madura at the time.

Going through that first score sheet a curious fact stuck out. All the players had a military rank or a Mr. preceding their names. Except an E. Spencer who did not bat in the Madras first innings and an E.J. Firth who batted for him in the second innings, a common enough practice in more gentlemanly times. Once upon a time, there was a practice, following The Times , London's lead, for amateurs (the Gentlemen) to have their names prefixed with Mr. with the Players (the professionals) not enjoying the same privilege. But this 1875 match was long before the age of the professional in India. So under the British caste system of the times, what were Spencer and Firth? Chepauk ground staff? I make life interesting for myself with such speculation.

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What makes a heritage building?

The other day I was asked what constitutes a heritage building. I am afraid there's no clear cut answer. It could be one or several factors.

Historicity is without doubt the chief factor. The building could be part of the commercial history of a place, a part of it political or military history, or a part of history because someone of historical, literary, artistic or sporting significance had lived in it. That's a factor that could be detailed even further in any legal definition.

Architectural significance could be another factor. If a building has certain special features to it or reflects the style of a famous architect or school of architecture or of particular building techniques, these are reasons which could be considered in determining whether the building should be listed as a heritage building.

The age of a building of architectural significance would be another reason. But it must be remembered that comparatively new buildings could be listed as heritage buildings if they have historical significance, like Bharati's, MGR's or Kamaraj's home.

Any of these factors or a combination of them would determine whether a building is a heritage building or not. But for these to have legal validity, they would need to be spelt out in detail in a Heritage Act. Which would also classify them into A, B, and C categories, a categorisation which would spell out what changes, if any, could be made in them. Such an Act would also need to look at natural and cultural heritage. Sadly, no State in India has a comprehensive such Act; there are bits and pieces mentioned in various town planning or urban development rules, but these are without the force of an Act. The result is that our more recent heritage is vanishing even faster than our ancient heritage did. The sad thing is that no one in authority is even willing to discuss these matters with those concerned about heritage.

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When the postman knocked…

*Mambalam continues to intrigue readers. S. Chandrasekar says that Mambalam was till comparatively recently populated more with Vilva trees ( Aegle mermelos ) than with people and, so, was called Maha-v/bilvam which became Mav/bilam and finally Mambalam. I have toured the whole area, he says, and found numerous Vilva trees still surviving in house compounds for religious reasons. He adds, “Usually the appearance of Vilva trees in a city is a rare occurrence and to have so many in one area would have been reason enough for the area's name to evolve from it.” Chandrasekar goes on to add that in the Thevaram there's mention of Mylapore and ‘Theyn-amar-solai' (a garden with nectar-filled flowers). The latter is likely to have got transformed as Teynampet, just as ‘Nandavanam' became Nandanam, he posits. No doubt there could be many similar explanations for different localities in Madras, but this column generally prefers more solid evidence before accepting such theories.

* S.V. Sundar wants to know whether the name Mickey Smith means anything to me. The only Mickey Smith I have heard of is C. Michie Smith, usually called ‘Mickey' by his friends, the Astronomer in charge of the Madras Observatory. In 1892 he made the final longitudinal determination of Madras there. Then, seven years later, he was in charge of moving the Observatory to Kodaikanal where in 1910 he recorded the passage of Halley's Comet. He was quite a personality in Kodaikanal, managing with a martinet's fist the Kodaikanal (English) Club and the Kodaikanal Boat Club in his spare time. I would be glad to hear from readers if they know more about him.

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