122 By the Dart • Dartmouth History
he could not give half of his best when inexperienced opponents were struggling and were obviously on to a hiding. He was a man of few words but, like the quotable
George Hirst of Yorkshire and england fame, he came out with the odd saying that made him a character. He gave a fellow player a dark look after he had dropped a ‘dolly’ in the slips but with the next ball underwood bowled the batsman neck and crop. ‘Glad you got him so quickly,’ said the offending fielder as they waited for a new batsman to come in. But underwood grunted, ‘If you had taken the catch the last ball might have dismissed the batsman who is coming in now.’ That was underwood - forever a cricketer, never a man who would accept defeat or second best. lt was this unrelenting attitude to the game which caused him to have doubts about turning out for a minnow of a club like Kingswear. nevertheless he was persuaded to become a full-time professional with them in 1901. success was immediate. Large numbers of people followed underwood everywhere he played and on a saturday afternoon it was nothing for hundreds to make the trip from Dartmouth to Kingswear to watch the spin of his bowling and the power of his batting. In his first season, which was not a particularly good one for the club, he finished top of the bowling with an average of 5.19 and headed the batting with 5l. He found a perfect foil in oliver Hobbs, an open-
ing batsman and no relation to the famous Jack, of england and surrey. Partnered by underwood the pair became local heroes for big hitting. Their trium- phant day of 1901 was when for the first time the club achieved an innings of more than 200, with Hobbs and underwood putting on 106 in an opening stand. The following year was one of the happiest for
underwood. His tactical knowledge of cricket alone was enough to beat most opponents but he did not monopolise the limelight. often he would demote himself to the middle batting, other times he went in last. sometimes he would not bowl until Kingwear were in a parlous position. The season of 1902 began tremendously for him, with his first ball he took a wicket against Brixham, whom he seemed to take a sadistic delight in pun- ishing. In the second match he achieved a 100 stand with Hobbs and snapped up five wickets for 11 runs. In the third game against Paignton, who had bolstered their batting and bowling by acquiring a professional, he ‘carried his bat’ through the innings as Kingswear defeated their more fashionable rivals for the first time in history. Against Weston came victory by 106... and so it
went on. But the most remarkable feature of the season was a stand which astounded Devonian cricket buffs. Kingswear were given the honour of marking
the return of Teignmouth to the game and put on a superlative show for that town. underwood and Hobbs slammed 138 in well under an hour, with the first 100 being put on in 25 minutes. unfortunately underwood failed by nine runs in a bid to become the first Kingswear batsman to hit a century. one of his sixes, which cleared a coppice of high elms, was the longest seen in the county. As underwood walked back to the pavilion one of
It was nothing for hundreds to make the trip from Dartmouth to Kingswear to watch the spin of his bowling and the power of his batting.
his team-mates commiserated: ‘Pity you didn’t get your century, Billy.’ underwood quipped back: ‘Pity be blowed. I`m just sorry I could not hit one ball over the railway.’ The local paper commented dryly, yet humor- ously, on the fact that there were 44 extras: ‘Quite a remarkable feature of the game was the unique display of the wicketkeeper and his longstop, who time after time eluded the ball in marvellous fashion’. The unbroken run of victories after this determined the south Devon clubs not to bow so humbly and lowly to Kingswear the next season. Weston, for example, imported guest players and stole victory by 11 runs. underwood was the target and often he came off the field covered with bruises. Babbacombe nobbled him by hitting him on the knee but he
plugged on to help achieve the first three figure score ever set up against them. Teignmouth were set on re- venge - and get it they did. They packed their side with all-rounders and skittled Kingswear for 18 on a sticky wicket, with underwood and Hobbs only managing 13 runs between them. By 1903 underwood, then 49, was slowing down ap-
preciably. His batting became suspect and he was not so nippy at running short singles, which boosted his partners’ scores. His bowling, too, was not as pacey and he switched to leg-breaks to bamboozle team after team. He refused to play against Brittannia Royal naval College - possibly because of his old allegiance - yet without him in the first fixture of the season Kingswear were easy winners. In his first outing of 1903, bowling only off-breaks,
underwood skittled Kingskerswell for seven runs. Against the old foe, Brixham, the following week, he returned five for 16 and another five for 19 in the defeat of Paignton. Against the strong Torquay side, Kingswear’s batting power rattled up 175 for nine. At the declaration spectators thought that underwood had not allowed himself enough time to bowl out Torquay but in under an hour he had brushed them aside for 23 . The pinnacle of his stay with Kingswear came on July 11: again Brixham were the opposition. Perhaps their opening batsman Bill smardon should have known better than cart underwood for two threes in his first over and then a six off Hobbs. In his second over underwood began a phenomenal spell, which is hardly likely to be equalled in top local cricket. His simple-
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