idge a few
days earlier, had not foreshadowed any startling results. The truth of
the matter is that Stott had been kept, deliberately, in the background;
and as matters turned out his services were only required to finish off
Notts' second innings. Stott was even then a marked man, and the
Hampdenshire captain did not wish to advertise his methods too freely
before the Surrey match. Neither Archie Findlater, who was captaining
the team that year, nor any other person, had the least conception of
how unnecessary such a reservation was to prove. In his third year, when
Stott had been studied by every English, Australian, and South African
batsman of any note, he was still as unplayable as when he made his
debut in first-class cricket.

I was reporting the Surrey match for two papers, and in company with
poor Wallis interviewed Stott before the first innings.

His appearance made a great impression on me. I have, of course, met
him, and talked with him many times since then, but my most vivid
memory of him is the picture recorded in the inadequate professional
dressing-room of the old Ailesworth pavilion.

I have turned up the account of my interview in an old press-cutting
book, and I do not know that I can do better than quote that part of it
which describes Stott's personal appearance. I wrote the account on the
off chance of being able to get it taken. It was one of my lucky hits.
After that match, finished in a single day, my interview afforded copy
that any paper would have paid heavily for, and gladly.

Here is the description:

"Stott--he is known to every one in Ailesworth as 'Ginger' Stott--is
a short, thick-set young man, with abnormally long arms that are
tanned a rich red up to the elbow. The tan does not, however,
obliterate the golden freckles with which arm and face are richly
speckled. There is no need to speculate as to the _raison d'etre_ of
his nickname. The hair of his head, a close, short crop, is a pale
russet, and the hair on his hands and arms is a yellower shade of
the same colour. 'Ginger' is, indeed, a perfectly apt description.
He has a square chin and a thin-lipped, determined mouth. His eyes
are a clear, but rather light blue, his forehead is good, broad,
and high, and he has a well-proportioned head. One might have put
him down as an engineer, essentially intelligent, purposeful, and
reserved."

The description is journalistic, but