Cricket 1883

“ Together joined in cricket’s man ly toil.”— Byron. No. 43 . VOL. 2 . Registered for Transmission Abroad. COUNTY CRICKET IN 1883. A few days more, and County Cricket will cease to perplex at lenst for this year. Already Middlesex, Notts, Yorkshire, Kent, Glou­ cestershire and Lancashire have decided lli<irlast engagemtn', and Surrey, Derbyshire and Sussex arcthe only shireswhoseprogrammes' are still uncompleted. The matches now re­ maining for decision can, though, hardly have any great effect on ihe relative positions of the principal counties, and to all intents and pur­ poses the order of merit has been practically determined before this. At the commencement of the season there seemed to be substantial {•rounds for the prediction that Yorkshire would be again quite at the top of the tree in County cricket. Such expectations were justified by Ihe excellent show of the Yorkshire eleven in their two lirst matches of the year, and their fine all-round play against M.C.C. and G. at Lords, and Cambridge University at Cambridge gave every promise of a brilliant season. If not altogether, tho hopes excited by the County’s early successes have been in a great measuie realif ed. The unexpected victory of Sussex at Sheffield by three runs—even admitting in every way the excellent cricket and the plucky uphill game played by the winners— was much to be regretted, as otherwise, with the exception of their reverse at the hands of Nottinghamshire on the Trent Bridge Ground, they knew no other defeat during the season. Tho Yorkshiremen on public form were little inferior to their great rivals of Notts, but the latterwe arc inclined to regard as all-round the best County eleven of 1883. They were beaten it is true, in their first matchof the season, with Lancashire, andon their ownground, but this was in agreat measuredue to a number of mistakes in the field very unusual with them, and their sub­ sequentperformances showedthemtohave an ex­ ceptionally good working eleven, as we have al­ readyremarked really without asuperiorfor all­ round excellence At the early part of the season itseemedas ifLancashirewould again make avery bold bid with Yorkshire and Notts for the first place in the County cricket of the year. For the first two months of the season they did not lose a County match, but their double defeat byYorkshire was followed by other disasters, and THURSDAY , AUGUST 30, their successive reverses at the hands of Kent, SurreyandGloucestersbirehaveconsiderablydim­ medthe brightness of theiryear’srecord. In more than one respect, beyond a doubt, the County was unlucky. Mr. Hornby was not in the same vein for run-getting as in previous years, and his ill success had no doubt ft very prejudicial effect on the eleven generally. Mr. A. G. Steel, the best all-round player in the County, too, did not help it as much as he might have done, and his elder brother, Mr. D. Q. Steel, whose brilliant innings against Notts, at Old Trafford, proved how valuable he would have been, could he have played regularly, was evenmore sparing in his help. Then again, Pilling, owing to a slight sunstrolie, was for a great part of the summer inanythingbut thebest health, andRob­ inson, too, had injured his hand so severely as to spoil his hitting materially at the end of the season. With its fall strength in the field Lancashire would have a good chance still in the contest for the first place in County cricket, but all round the elevenwerehardlysogoodas in 1881 and ’82, and their batting at times was very un­ sound. Among the SouthernCounties, themost noticeable features of the year have been the decline of Gloucestershire and the steady im­ provement shown by the Surrey eleven through­ out the season. Successive defeats by Notts, Leicestershire and Derbyshire in the three first engagements were in no way suggestive of a prosperous season for Surrey, but since the end of May they have only been thrice defeated, by Middlesex, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, and their records show that they have not been beaten by a County at the Oval during the present summer. Some of the most exciting cricket witnessed this year has been played by the Surrey men on their own ground, and the eleven which represented the County in the later matches was, in batting, at least, not inferior to that of the best of the Northern shires. On more than one memorable oc- ca ion the Surrey team showed well that they were able to play an uphill game as their predecessors in the palmy days of the County, and the unanimity with which they haveworked this summer, leads to the belief,’that when their still weak point, their bowling, is strengthened by the return of Jones, who has been altogether incapacitated this year, they ,will be not very far from the front of Cpunty cricket. Middle­ PRICE 2 d. sex is fairly entitled to be considered the best of the Southern shires. The elevenwere beaten in June by both Surrey and Yorkshire, but on neither occasion was their team a represent­ ative one, and as they showed in their concluding matches, their exceptional strength of batting more than compensated for their still evident weakness in bowling. Their plucky and creditable victory over Yorkshire at Sheffield raised great hopes of an immediate revival of Sussex, but despite that they got a useful addi­ tion to their strength in the return of Jesse tlide from Australia, their cricket, though on the whole showing a conspicuous improvement, did not by any means realise the expectations created at one period of the season. Kent fared very badly in its earlier matches, but its easy victory over Sussex at Maidstone broke the spellofill-luck,and itsrecenthighlycreditablewin over Lancashire was the result of reallygoodout- cricket. Unfortunately, Mr.A.Penn, whose bowl­ ingwouldhavebeenofgreatuse,wasunabletoplay in some of the later matches, and indeed of late years Kent has been singularly unlucky inlosing many of its best players from ill-health and other reasons. When all told, Kent can put a strongbatting eleven inthe field, but its bowling is still very weak, weaker indeed thanmost of the Southern shires. The return of Midwinter to Australia last autumn, aswas only to be ex­ pected, has had a prejudicial effect on Glouces­ tershire, and the repeatedreverses ofthat County have furnished a constant theme for conversation in cricket circles. Mr. W.. G. Grace, though hardly so consistent as of old in his batting, has played some very fine innings, but his bowling has lost much of its old cunning, and like all the oiher Southern Counties it is in its bowling that Gloucestershire most wants a supply of new material. Derbyshire has on the whole shown little improvement onrecent years, but the same can not , 1)0 said of Hampshire, which has played better cricket than for some time past. Amongst the other shires desiring to be regarded as first- class Somersetshire and Leicestershire are the most conspicuous, but neither has a brilliant record, and we believe- that either Norfolk or Essex would each make a goodmatch witheither of these Counties. Several of the younger shires are indeed steadily working their way up, ar.d we shall not be surprised to see more than one of them aspiring to higher honours.