Cricket 1883

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— B y r o n . No. 4 6 . VOL.2. Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY , SEPTEMBER 20, 1883. PRICE 2d LOUIS HALL . A m ono tho professional players of the present day none can more fully claim to have won a place in the foremost rank by sheer force of merit than the Yorkshireman, whose portrait we are able to give this week. Since he made his debut for the county, just ten years ago, Hall’s position in Yorkshire cricket has not been altogether a happy one. His place in the County Eleven has been at times by no means of the Bafest, and it is the more creditable to him that in the f' ce of a certain hostility or disbelief in his powers he has not only proved himself to be the most successful batsman of the year in the Yorkshire Eleven, but one of the most reliable scorers of the day. Louis Hall was born at Batley, in Yorkshire, on Nov. 1, 1852, and a few weeks, con­ sequently, will witness his completion of his thirty-first year. He was not yet twenty-one when he made his first ap­ pearance in the Yorkshire Eleven, and, unless our researches are faulty, the fix­ ture between Yorkshire and Middlesex, at Prince’s, on May 22, 1873, was his initial match for his County. His play on that occasion was promising enough, and, altogether, he was at the wickets an hour and forty minutes for his score of thirty-seven. The excellence of his defence on his first trial led to tbe belief that he would be of great service to the Yorkshire Eleven, but during the rest of the season his play was disappointing, and his fourteen innings only realised an aggregate of 118 runs. His average for 1873 was less than 8 J runs, and for the four succeeding seasons his name does not figure in the annual records of Yorkshire cricket. During the early part otl 878 he was also an absentee,but the later con­ tests of that season saw him again in posses­ sion of a place in the County team, and the issue of the statistical tables at the close of the campaign found him second to Ulyett in the batting figures of Yorkshire with an ex­ cellent average of 27’ His best performance of. that year was against Gloucestershire at Chel­ tenham,and going in first wicket down hecarried out his bat for 82 out of a total of 212. His success iu 1878 led to his attainment of a retainer by the Yorkshire Committee for the Season of 1879, but his batting did not prove to be anything like so effective, and the highest of his twenty-seven innings for the County was his fifty-six not out in the concluding fixture against the Marylebone Club and Ground at Scarborough. Though better luck attended his efforts in the following season of 1880, his name does not figure in all the fixtures arranged for the Yorkshire eleven, and he only participated in fourteen of the eighteen matches decided, iHis best show for the County during that sum­ mer was in the first match against Middlesex at |Lord’s, and his second score of sixty-six not out |on that occasion was a very fine display of idefensive cricket. Though considerably his highest innings of the season this was by no means his only good performance with the bat during 1880, and if anything it was inferior in quality to his second score of thirty-one not out against Notts, at Sheffield, a sound display oi steady cricket which very materially helped to secure a creditable victory for Yorkshire. The season of 1881 showed Hall to be no higher than seventh in the batting averages of his County, and for twenty-four innings he had only an aggrtgate of 353, and average of less than 15J runs. His best score for the County during the whole successful cam­ paign for the elevenwas one of 47 against Surrey, but in other fixtures he was more successful. In first - class cricket his highest innings was »ne of 77 for Yorkshire v. Cambridge and in all his record of 1881 showed him to have played twenty-eight completed innings for a total of 487 runs and an average of 17J. The visit of the Aus­ tralian cricketers in 1882 caused the programme of the Yorkshire County Club to be unusually heavy, and Hall figured in everymatch during the season. In all, last year, he played forty-four in­ nings for Yorkshire, but his best contri­ bution was not avery high one, to wit his 37 against Gloucestershire in the return at Cheltenham, and his average was only 14J runs. At the commencement of the season just over it was rumoured that the Yorkshire Committee had only engaged him for a few of the opening matches, but he soon showed that he was inbetter batting form than in any previous year, and his consistently effective play fully entitled him to the highest honouis available for a professional—a place in the eleven chosen to represent ihj Players against the Gentlemen._ Con­ sidering the batsmen to be found in the Yorkshire eleven it is an achievement of which he may well be proud to be at the head of the batting averages of the year, and in what may be termed strictly first-class matches he not only had the highest aggregate but by far the best average—a very creditable one of over forty runs per innings. In these contests he totalled 769 runs (37 more than Next Number of CRICKET, Thursday, October 25-