Bournemouth Cricket Week, 1888

[Gary Barnett]

Judging by reports in the Bournemouth Guardian, these 5 matches played at the Dean Park ground constituted the first Bournemouth Cricket Week in 1888:

1. Bournemouth vs The Parsees: 3rd/4th Aug
2. Bournemouth vs the M. C. C.: 6th Aug
3. Bournemouth vs The Hampshire Hogs: 8th Aug
4. Bournemouth vs Mr Wanklyn’s XI: 9th Aug
5. Bournemouth vs Gents of Dorset: 10th/11th Aug

The match against the M. C. C. had been scheduled for the 6th and 7th but was completed on the 6th, so no cricket seems to have been played at the ground on the 7th, the day on which Martha Tabram was murdered.

We know that Montague J. Druitt played for Bournemouth in the match against the Parsees. Did he also play in the M. C. C. match?

I’m having trouble loading pages from the Bournemouth Guardian through FindMyPast. When I click on some of the thumbnail images offered, I’m taken to a different page altogether. This one for instance:

[Gary Barnett]

There is a copy of this available on AbeBooks, but the total cost including postage from the U. S. is about £75.

[Gary Barnett]

This seems to be silent on the Bournemouth/MCC match - unless I’ve missed it.

https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1888/352/

[Gary Barnett]

And yet the game was played.

From the Christchurch Times, Saturday August 11th, 1888:

[Chris Phillips]

Judging by reports in the Bournemouth Guardian, these 5 matches played at the Dean Park ground constituted the first Bournemouth Cricket Week in 1888:

1. Bournemouth vs The Parsees: 3rd/4th Aug
2. Bournemouth vs the M. C. C.: 6th Aug
3. Bournemouth vs The Hampshire Hogs: 8th Aug
4. Bournemouth vs Mr Wanklyn’s XI: 9th Aug
5. Bournemouth vs Gents of Dorset: 10th/11th Aug

The match against the M. C. C. had been scheduled for the 6th and 7th but was completed on the 6th, so no cricket seems to have been played at the ground on the 7th, the day on which Martha Tabram was murdered.

We know that Montague J. Druitt played for Bournemouth in the match against the Parsees. Did he also play in the M. C. C. match?

No, he didn't. Here's the report from the Bournemouth Guardian, 11 August 1888, p. 2:

[Gary Barnett]

No, he didn't. Here's the report from the Bournemouth Guardian, 11 August 1888, p. 2:

Thanks Chris. I believe the Luff on the Bournemouth team was a Blandford man.

[Gary Barnett]

From the Blandford Weekly News of 11th August, 1888:

[Chris Phillips]

This from the same page, after a long report of the Parsees game, does appear to demonstrate that Leighton's claim that they played the Gentlemen of Dorset a couple of days after Saturday 4 August was mistaken:

[R. J. Palmer]

Thanks Chris. I believe the Luff on the Bournemouth team was a Blandford man.

He was the mayor.

[Chris Phillips]

This from the same page, after a long report of the Parsees game, does appear to demonstrate that Leighton's claim that they played the Gentlemen of Dorset a couple of days after Saturday 4 August was mistaken:

Actually, according to RJ's post about Leighton, having spoken about Druitt playing for Bournemouth against the Parsees on 3 and 4 August, he says "A couple of days later he played for the Gentlemen of Dorset against the same opposition." In fact a week later he played for the Gentlemen of Dorset against the team he had played for previously.

https://www.jtrforums.com/forum/persons-of-interest-or-actual-suspects/m-j-druitt/588052-proof-of-innocence?p=588953#post588953

[Gary Barnett]

This from the same page, after a long report of the Parsees game, does appear to demonstrate that Leighton's claim that they played the Gentlemen of Dorset a couple of days after Saturday 4 August was mistaken:

Funnily enough, there was a time when I spent much of my life travelling between Dorset, Norfolk and London. I suspected the Parsees would have had to travel into London from Dorset and then out again to Norfolk. Perhaps the train services were different then, bunowadays to get from Bournemouth to Norwich your’e journey would be Bournemouth/Waterloo/Liverpool Street/Norwich.

Liverpool Street, a few steps away from Spitalfields.

[Gary Barnett]

I think the Tabram alibi is dead in the water.

[Gary Barnett]

I wonder why Bournemouth had to augment their number with a Blandford man. You’d imagine their members would be gagging to play the MCC. Where was Mont/ie/y/e?

[R. J. Palmer]

Let me move this over here and repeat it, because it is relevant, and is the main reason I brought up this week of cricket. I'm going to be a little hard on Mr. Leighton.

From Montague Druitt: Portrait of a Contender, by D, J. Leighton, p, 110.

"On 3 and 4 August he played for the Gentleman of Bournemouth against the Parsees, a visiting Indian touring side. A couple of days later he played for the Gentleman of Dorset against the same opposition [ie., the Parsees]. The following weekend on 10 and 11 August he turned out for the Gentlemen of Dorset against Bournemouth at the end of the latter's cricket week."

The cricket matches on 3/4 August and 10/11 August have been documented and MJ Druitt played in those matches. This much is true.

By contrast, the August 6th match has never been located.

In order to maintain objectivity, we need to hold the skeptics to the same standards as those 'prosecuting' a suspect. If someone claimed Druitt had been in Mile-End on August 6th, we would demand to see the evidence. In the current case, Leighton has Druitt down in Dorset on August 6th, but gives no source, other than a reference to a game that doesn't appear to have been either scheduled, or played.

In reality, the Parsees can be seen to be playing in Norfolk on August 7th and in Cambridge on the 8th and 9th. This strongly suggests they had left the area. In another passage, Leighton appears to place MJD in Bournemouth during Cricket Week, but there doesn't appear to be any evidence for this, either.

One thing I noticed long ago when studying all of this is that the Blackheath Club played on August 6th. If Druitt had been in London, one would expect to have seen him playing in that game. He is not listed on the scorecard.

Currently, we have no idea where he was on August 6th/7th, the date of the Tabram murder.

For the record, here is the Blackheath v. Charlton Park game on August 6th. No Druitt.

[Gary Barnett]

Although Druitt played a lot of cricket in Dorset/Hants in August, 1888, the two WM that occurred during that period did so when it appears he wasn’t playing.