In Canada cricket was unusual in that it developed first in cities and towns instead of at universities. When cricket did arrive at Mount Allison in the late 1860s, villages and towns like Amherst, Dorchester, and Sackville already had their own teams which became Mount Allison's main competitors.
Cricket was one of the most organized team sports in Canada before Confederation. [1] It was brought to Canada by British officers stationed at garrisons across Canada but mostly in Montreal which had served as the headquarters of the British imperial forces since 1814. [2] In 1843 the elite and exclusive Montreal Cricket Club was formed. [3] Like other sports such as rugby football brought from Britain, cricket was played under a "gentlemanly" code of conduct and was thought to instill patriotism, self-control, and manliness among its participants. [4] When reporting on a game between the Sackville and Moncton cricket clubs in September 1869, The Borderer and the Westmorland and Cumberland Advertiser newspaper (2 September 1869) said, "The Moncton Club bore their defeat like genuine cricketers -- gallantly, manfully." [5]
In some parts of Canada, especially in larger urban centres, the elite nature of cricket led lower and working class citizens to more locally grown sports like baseball and lacrosse in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ironically, in Atlantic Canada, it was the working class citizens in smaller communities such as Stellarton, Springhill, and Amherst, Nova Scotia, that continued to support cricket well into the new century. [6] In August 1869 a local newspaper proclaimed that cricket was "all the rage" [7] across the Maritimes.
In the 1860s cricket joined handball and hurley as the third team sport played on campus. More importantly cricket became Mount Allison's first sport to be played against an outside team. The Male Academy began playing cricket by 1869 [8] and the University by 1870. [9] Matches against Sackville, Dorchester, [10] and Amherst [11] town teams occurred regularly between 1869 and 1885 and generated excitement among spectators. An unidentified Ladies' College student from the early 1870s recalled in The Allisonia (January 1910) that she had "the highly prized privilege of attending a cricket match once or twice during the season." [12]
There was little formal organization in cricket at Mount Allison or in Sackville. Teachers played with the students [13] and students sometimes played on town teams. [14] There was pressure among students to join in the sport. William Seaman, a first-year student at the University, wrote a letter to his father on 17 September 1884 stating: "A fellow has to go with the majority of the boys in anything they set up like Cricket, Baseball, etc. if he wants to get along well." [15]
Cricket attained its highest level of popularity at Mount Allison in 1885 when the eleven players on the University team [16] defeated two town teams, the Mechanics and Tantramar [17], in games that attracted large crowds. [18] The Argosy (November 1885) noted that the Mechanics' team members had challenged Mount Allison to the match, had been practicing hard, and did not expect to lose. [19] That same year the Mount Allison Ladies' Academy Club organized a cricket team [20] but there is no known record of matches played.
Following the successes of 1885 cricket faded quickly on campus in favour of baseball and rugby football. There are no indications that cricket was played by members of the Mount Allison community in the 1890s, although it did resurface briefly in 1903 [21] when baseball was dropped during that season due to lack of practice time. Ten years later cricket had vanished entirely from Mount Allison and from Sackville as a whole. [22]
Several factors contributed to cricket's demise at Mount Allison. Although cricket was played on campus whenever the weather permitted in the spring or autumn, it was traditionally a summer sport. Mount Allison had no organized sports associations to provide governance before the Athletic Club formed in 1884. [23] [24] Sports like baseball and rugby football were becoming more popular and soon replaced cricket at Mount Allison, especially after intercollegiate competition began in 1887. [25]
One person identified, top right: Thompson T. Davis (headmaster).
Mount Allison University Archives, W. Alan Wright fonds, accession 8411. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives
[1] Sport in Canada : A History, by Don Morrow and Kevin B. Wamsley, 2005, p. 48
[2] A Concise History of Sport in Canada, by Don Morrow and May Keyes, 1989, p. 4
[3] Sport in Canada : A History, by Don Morrow and Kevin B. Wamsley, 2005, p. 61
[4] Sport in Canada : A History, by Don Morrow and Kevin B. Wamsley, 2005, p. 53
[5] Borderer and the Westmorland and Cumberland Advertiser, Sep. 2, 1869, "Cricket," p. 2
[6] Northern Sandlots : A Social History of Maritime Baseball, by Colin D. Howell, Toronto, 1995, p. 33
[7] Borderer and the Westmorland and Cumberland Advertiser, Aug. 13, 1869, p. 2
[8] Borderer and the Westmorland and Cumberland Advertiser, Oct. 21, 1869, "Cricket," p. 2
[9] Chignecto Post, Sep. 15, 1870, "Cricket," p. 2
[10] Mount Allison University, A History, to 1963, vol. I: 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, p. 123; Argosy, vol. IV, no. 2, Nov. 1877, "Sackvilliana," p. 21
[11] Mount Allison University, A History, to 1963, vol. I: 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, p. 123
[12] Allisonia, vol. VIII, no. 2, Jan. 1910, "Reminiscences," by "One of the Seven," p. 36
[13] Argosy, vol. V, no. 1, Oct. 1878, "Sackvilliana," p. 10; Argosy, vol. XI, no. 2, Nov. 1884, [untitled] p. 18
[14] Argosy, vol. XII, no. 8, May 1885, "Sackvilliana," p. 95
[15] Mount Allison University Archives, William Seaman fonds, accession 9114/2/2
[16] Argosy, vol. XIII, no. 2, Nov. 1885, [untitled], p. 21
[17] Argosy, vol. XIII, no. 2, Nov. 1885, [untitled] p. 21; Mount Allison University, A History, to 1963, vol. I: 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, pp. 123-4
[18] Mount Allison University, A History, to 1963, vol. I: 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, p. 124
[19] Argosy, vol. XIII, no. 2, Nov. 1885, [untitled], p. 21
[20] Argosy, vol. XIII, no. 2, Nov. 1885, [untitled], p. 21
[21] Argosy, vol. XXIX, no. 8, May 1903, "Athletics," pp. 258-60; Mount Allison : The Central Educational Institutions of the Maritime Provinces. Eurhetorian Society of Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB [1903?], "Cricket," p. 47
[22] [Saint John] Globe, May 17, 1913, located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/2/1/3, p. 164 (quote from article is, "cricket has entirely vanished")
[23] Argosy, vol. XI, no. 1, Oct. 1884, "Sackvilliana," p. 10
[24] Argosy, vol. XIII, no. 2, Nov. 1885, [untitled], p. 21
[25] Argosy, vol. XVII, no. 2, Nov. 1887, [untitled], p. 18