Cricket 1883

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— B y r o n . THURSDAY , AUGUST 23, 1883. ARTHUR SHREWSBURY . A mong the whole order of professional cricketers there is no more sterling batsman than the young player whose portrait we give this week. His reputation is now so world-wide that it is a little difficult to realise that he is not yet twenty- eight years of age. Yet such is the fact, as he was born at New Lenton, near Nottingham, on April 11,1856, and is consequently only a few months past his twenty-seventh birthday. Nottinghamshire has of late years produced some of the finest models of correct batting for the young beginner, and Shrewsbury soon showed that he had shaped his play in imita­ tion of one of the best of them. He was only sixteen when lie was chosen to play for the Nottingham Colts in the Eastertide Colts’ match, and he was just three days over his seventeenth birthday when he figured at Trent Bridge against the County Eleven. On that occasion he had to oppose four of the most dangerous bowlers in Eng­ land, in Alfred and J. C. Shaw, Martin McIntyre and Morley, but he came out very creditably with an excellent score of thirty-five, and this proved to be the highest on the side. His play in this match justified his selection as one of the Fifteen Colts to oppose the Maryle­ bone Club and Ground, at Lord’s, in the annual trial match a month later, and here, too, he showed good form, carry­ ing out his bat in the second innings for sixteen. Though he was on the side of the Eleven in the Colts’ Match of 1874 he did not appear as one of the County Team till May 17, 1875, when he made a very favourable debut against Derbyshireon the Trent BridgeGround. His batting and fielding on this occasion were alike so good that he fairly established his posi­ tion in the Notts’ County Eleven, and for a first season he had a highly creditable average of 17.5 for nineteen innings. Bis play, indeed, even in this early stage of his career, was so correct as to justify the brightest hopes for the future, and the following year, 1876, found him, then just twenty years of age, ranking as one of the best professional batsmen of the day. This season was one of considerable importance to Shrewsbury, and it was memorable to him from the fact that he for the first time repre­ sented the Players against tbe Gentlemen. He figured, indeed, in two of the three matches under this title at Lord’s and Prince’s, but with only slight success, and his best achievements were for the County. His finest score of this, his second year, was his 118 against Yorkshire, at Nottingham, but he was generally successful against every kind of bowling, and in first-class matches, for twenty-eight innings, he had an aggregate of 601 runs, representing a very satis­ factory average of 25 runs. His best innings, in 1877, for his County, was 62 against Yorkshire, but in the highest class of cricket he was more fortunate, and in addition to a very useful score of 48, for the North against the South, he made a highly satisfactory debut for the Players, at the Oval, obtaining 78 by finished batting, and without the shadow of a chance. The following summer saw Shrewsbury again singularly suc­ cessful in the same match on the Surrey Ground, and on this occasion he was the highest scorer of his side in each innings, with 34 and 27. In the previous month of June he had sustained his reputation thoroughly with a fine score of sixty-two, not out, for the North against the South, at Prince’s, and. although on the whole he was not so fortunate in County matches in 1878 he played some fine innings, notably his 74 not out against Middlesex and 60 against Yorkshire. A dispute with Captain Holden, the then Hon. Sec. of the County Club, kept him out of two fixtures that season, but in 1879 hewas again well to the fore anc', though his average showed a slight falling off on the previous season, he displayed some brilliant batting at times, particularly at Cheltenham, when Barnes and he scored 140 while they were together in the second innings of Notts, and greatly contributed to the rather unexpected defeat of Mr. Grace’s eleven. He did not represent the Players against the Gentlemen eitherin 1879 or 1880,and iu the latter year from ill health he was hardly seen at his best in county cricket, though in first class contests he secured 357 runs in twenty-four innings. His finest performance of the season was against the Australians, and hepracticallywonthematchforNotts by a wicket, with his brilliant second score of 66 not out. The unfortunate rupture in 1881, between a section of tho pro­ fessionals of Notts and the management of the County Club will still be vividly re­ membered, and as Shrewsbury threw iu his lot with the disaffected party his appearances in the County eleven were few. Indeed, altogether he had only five innings in first-class matches, and for a moderate aggregate of sixty-seven runs. The differences between the governing body and the professionals on strike were happily adjusted at the commencement of last summer, and