Cricket
In Dorset, Druitt played for the Kingston Park Cricket Club, and the Dorset County Cricket Club. He was particularly noted for his skill as a bowler. In 1882 and 1883, he toured the West Country with a gentleman's touring team called the Incogniti. One of Druitt's fellow local players was Francis Lacey, the first man knighted for services to cricket. Druitt played for another wandering team, the Butterflies, on 14 June 1883, when they drew against his alma mater Winchester College. The team included first-class cricketers A. J. Webbe, J. G. Crowdy, John Frederick and Charles Seymour.
While working at Blackheath, Druitt joined the local cricket club, Blackheath Morden, and became the club's treasurer. It was a well-connected club: the President was politician Sir Charles Mills and one of its players was Stanley Christopherson. After the merger of the club with other local sports associations to form the Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company, Druitt took on the additional roles of company secretary and director. The inaugural game of the new club was played against George Gibbons Hearne's Eleven, which included many members of the famous cricketing Hearne family. Hearne's team won by 21 runs. On 5 June 1886, in a match between Blackheath and a gentleman's touring team called the Band of Brothers, led by Lord Harris, Druitt bowled Harris for 14 and took three other wickets. Blackheath won by 178 runs. Two weeks later, he dismissed England batsman John Shuter, who was playing for Bexley Cricket Club, for a duck, and Blackheath won the game by 114 runs. The following year, Shuter returned to Blackheath with a Surrey County side that included Walter Read, William Lockwood, and Bobby Abel, whom Druitt bowled out for 56. Surrey won by 147 runs.
On 26 May 1884, Druitt was elected to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) on the recommendation of his fellow Butterflies player Charles Seymour, who proposed him, and noted fielder Vernon Royle, who seconded his nomination. One of the minor matches he played for MCC was with England bowler William Attewell against Harrow School on 10 June 1886. MCC won by 57 runs. He also played against MCC for Blackheath: on 23 July 1887, he bowled out Dick Pougher for 28 runs, but Druitt only made 5 runs before he was bowled out by Arnold Fothergill with a ball caught by Pougher. MCC won by 52 runs.
In June 1888, Lord Harris played twice for Blackheath with Druitt and Stanley Christopherson; Blackheath won both matches easily, but Druitt was off form and contributed neither runs nor wickets in either match. In August 1888, Druitt played for the Gentlemen of Bournemouth against the Parsees cricket team during their tour of England, and took five wickets in the visitors' first innings. Nevertheless, the Parsees won. On 8 September 1888, the Blackheath Club played against the Christopherson brothers. Druitt was bowled out by Stanley Christopherson, who was playing with his brothers instead of for Blackheath, and in reply Druitt bowled out Christopherson. Blackheath won by 22 runs.
In addition to cricket, Druitt also participated in field hockey.
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“All cries are thin and terse;
The field has droned the summer’s final mass;
A cricket like a dwindled hearse
Crawls from the dry grass.”
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