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Fowler's match is the name given to the two-day Eton v Harrow cricket match held at Lord's on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 July 1910. The match is named after the captain of Eton College, Robert St Leger Fowler, whose outstanding all round batting and bowling performance allowed Eton to win the match by 9 runs after Harrow School asked Eton to follow on 165 runs in arrears after the teams' first innings. When the ninth Eton wicket fell in their second innings, they led by only four runs, and Harrow's eventual target was just 55. ''Wisden'' stated that: "In the whole history of cricket, there has been nothing more sensational" and ''The Times'' said that "A more exciting match can hardly ever have been played", continuing effusively, with a reference to the inaugural Ashes Test at The Oval in 1882, "to boys the bowling of Fowler was probably more formidable than Spofforth's to England".〔〔 In an article in ''The Spectator'' marking the match's centenary, J. R. H. McEwen described it as "what might just be the greatest cricket match of all time". ==Background== An inter-school cricket match has been held between Eton College and Harrow School since 1805, and annually since 1822. In its heyday, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, "the Schools' day" was one of the highlights of the London "season", alongside Henley Royal Regatta and Royal Ascot. The game made national newspaper headlines, and was attended by schoolboys large and small, their elder brothers and fathers, accompanied by their ladies and other members of London society. The match in 1914 was attended by over 38,000 people during its two days. Fowler was 19 years old, and in his last year at Eton. His family came from Enfield, County Meath. His great-great grandfather, also Robert, was Bishop of Ossory and then Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin from 1817 until his death in 1841, and his great-great-great grandfather, Robert Fowler was a Protestant clergyman who settled in Ireland in the 1760s and was Archbishop of Dublin from 1779 until his death in 1801. His father, Robert Henry Fowler, had served as an officer in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and played cricket for Cambridge University against the MCC in 1876.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scorecard for Cambridge University v Marylebone Cricket Club, 1876 )〕 Fowler attended Mr Hawtrey's prep school in Westgate-on-Sea, and was influenced at Eton by his housemaster, Cyril Wells, a gentleman cricketer who played for Middlesex. Fowler played for Eton against Harrow in the 1908 and 1909 fixtures. Harrow won easily in 1908,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scorecard for Eton College v Harrow School, 1908 )〕 and the 1909 fixture was drawn, although Fowler's eleven wickets for 79 runs had given Eton a fighting chance.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scorecard for Eton College v Harrow School, 1909 )〕 In 1910, Fowler was one of only three survivors from Eton's 1909 team, the others being Birchenough and the wicket-keeper Lubbock. Harrow had seven veterans from the 1909 match. Harrow came to the match unbeaten in 1910, having beaten the Free Foresters, Harlequins, Quidnuncs and the Household Brigade earlier in the season. Eton had lost to Free Foresters, Authentics and Butterflies. Two Old Harrovians, Stanley Jackson and Archie MacLaren, had been England captains in the preceding five years. In the run-up to the match, ''The Times'' noted on 4 July that Harrow and Marlborough were the strongest public schools; that Harrow's captain Earle "bowls extraordinarily fast for a boy" but the Eton captain Fowler "is not deadly on a good wicket, but can make every use of a difficult one".〔''The Times'', 4 July 2010, p.17.〕 ''The Times'' also noted that an outbreak of measles threatened the Harrow team, but only Wilson succumbed, and he recovered before the match. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fowler's match」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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