Cricket 1883

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. No. 28. VOL. 2. Registered for Transmission Abroad. G EORGE U L Y E T T . A Y o rk sh irem a n born andbred, and one of the very best of the many excellent all-ronnd players the County has ever produced. A Sheffielder, too, and a cricketer whom the sport-loving folk of that sporting-loving town are entitled to claim as one of themselves, not only by birth but by education. George Ulyett was born at Pitsmoor, near Sheffield, on Oetober 21, 1851, and with Sheffield cricket even until the present day he has been actively identified. His earliest engagements were in his native place, but in 1872 he stepped outside the magic circle of Sheffield, and that season found him installed at Bradford. Up to this time he had not figured prominently except in local matches, but in 1873 he made his debut in the County eleven. If weare not mistaken his first appearance for Yorkshire was on July 14,1873, at Bra- mall Lane, against Sussex, whose eleven . had not been seen at Sheffield for several years previously. The Southern team, who lost the toss, had the misfortune to bat on wickets much affected by the rain, a»d Ulyett’s high delivery was so materi­ ally helped by the ground that he took in the first innings of Sussex three wickets for twenty-one runs. On this occasion he was only moderately successful with tho bat, but in the return at Brighton a week later he proved useful both in the held and at the wicket, and these two early trials fully warranted his attain­ ment of a position in the County team. Iu the next match, for Rowbotham’s benefit, the big colt—as he was described ln “ Wisden’s Almanac”—played two excellent innings of 24 (not out) and 14 against Gloucestershire bowling, and a htlle later he helped in a great measure to secure the very decisive victory of Yorkshire over Notts at Huddersfield, obtaining five wickets in Notts’ first innings at a cost of only seventeen runs. In 1874 he was more effective as a bowler than as a batsman, and with Emmett and Hill be bore the brunt of the Yorkshire bowling, contributing to the downfall of 33 out of 1G6 wickets at an average of about 15 THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1883. runs. The season of 1875 did not improve his reputation as a bowler, but his batting showed a decided improvement, and his brilliant field­ ing, without other claims, would alone have been a sufficient credential for his retention in the Yorkshire eleven. By this time at least his abilities as an all-round cricketer had come to be fully recognised, even in the South, and the Surrey authorities, who have always been the ULYET'1’ first to find a place for young players in the great match of the year, in 187G deemed him worthy of a trial in the eleven which repre­ sented the Players against the Gentlemen at the Oval. This confidence he amply justified by two sound scores of forty-eight and fourteen, and though by no means as successful in the same match at Prince’s, his bowling was fairly effective. He was third in the batting averages PRICE 2d. | for Yorkshire of this season (1876), and his position then was so generally recognised that he was invited to form one of the team which visited Australia under the charge of James Lillywhite. He opened that tour on Nov. 17, 1876, at Adelaide, with a score of 28, against Twenty-two of South Australia, and finished up the Australian part of the trip with quite a flourish of trumpets, scoring in his last four innings 52 and 63 against Eleven of Australia, 17 and 58 in the return with Twenty-two of South Australia. The following year saw him in all three matches between the Gentlemen and the Players, and his performance at Prince’s has rarely been, surpassed by a pro­ fessional. It was the same encounter in which Mr. W. W. Bead made his debut for the Gentlemen, and the Yorkshire- man’s brilliant innings of 53 and 118 (out of 228 from the bat) were the more remarkable that the second was played on a ground almost unfit for cricket. His best innings for Yorkshire in 1877 was his 76 against Middlesex, at Sheffield, and his average at the close of the cam­ paign for the County was a very creditable one of twenty and a half runs. The succeeding season of 1878 found him at the very top of the tree as a batsman, and his achievements were quite exceptional. Mr. W. G. Grace was not that summer in quite his best form with the bat, and Ulyett, though he had to a fraction the same average as the Gloucestershire captain in first-class matches, gained the distinction of the highest aggregate of the year, 1,347 for 46 completed innings. How the Yorkshire eleven would hava fared in 1878 but for his aid figures alone can show. Ulyett was indeed the main­ stay of the team, and in addition to being instrumental in the downfall of forty-four wickets he scored 1,074 runs, including innings of 109 v. Gloucestershire, 107 against Gentle­ men of Scotland, 94, 91, not out 72, 67, <&c. Ulyett and Emmett were the only professionals chosen by Lord Harris to accompany his team to Australia during the winter of 1878,and the former proved to be the best all-round cricketer of the party, having a batting average of 25.4, and in