Cricket 1883

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. Regista^f'o?Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1883. PRICE 2d. W IL L IAM BATES. C o ssid ek in o its very limited area and conse­ quent scanty number of its population, the little village of Lascelles Hall, near Huddersfield, stands almost alone as a nursery for professional cricketers. It has been in truth quite a happy hunting ground for those on whom has rested the formation of the Yorkshire County Eleven. Thewlis, the Greenwoods, the Lockwoods, Eastwood, and Allen Hill have all been identified with its cricket. Bates, too, one of the best all-round players of the present day, is another whom Lascelles Hall can claim as quite of its own production. The career of the young professional whose portait we give this week has only been a short one. He was born at Lascelles Hall on.Nov. 19th, 1855, but it was not until 1877 that he made his debut in a] match of importance on the County ground. His first' appearance at Bramall Lane was for the Colts of York­ shire against the Colts of Notts, on May 21st and 22nd, 1877. Young Henry Lockwood also figured in the samematch, and the pair bowled so welJ in the first innings of the Nottingham Colts that they were all dismissed for a total of 34. Be­ sides making a very useful score of 22 in Yorkshire’s opening “ hands ” Bates took in all 10 Nottingham wickets at a cost of only 21 runs. This was a perfor­ mance of sufficient promise to warrant him a trial in the County Eleven, and he was one of the Yorkshire team which beat Derbyshire at Sheffield in July, 1877. On this occasion he only got one wicket, and, indeed, his first season for Yorkshire found him more prominent as a batsman than a bowler. A second score of thirty-six against Gloucestershire at Sheffield was his best performance in his first year, but .by the end of the season he had quite established his right to a place in the team, and all round he was regarded as the most promising young player in the county. In 1877 Bates was only credited with eight wickets, but the next season saw an extraordi­ nary development of his cricket, and at its close he was not only at the head of tho bowling bowling had much to do with the defeat of the Australians in the next Yorkshire fixture at Sheffield. In the match against Gloucestershire, for Emmett’s benefit in addition to a second score of thirty-eight not out, he took eleven Gloucestershire wickets, and a little later in the season at Brighton was credited with seven Sussex wickets in the first innings at a cost of only nineteen runs. He finished up the season by taking seven Marylebone wickets at Scarborough for forty-seven runs, and in all that year he was able to point to ninety-four wickets at an expense of 1,047 runs. He helped the North against the South in the match played at the Oval on behalf of the “ Princess Alice” Fund, and in the following year (1879) in a match on the Surrey ground be- between the same sides his bowling, which showed ten wickets for forty-thrse runs, was one of the main features in the success of the North. His best perform­ ance that season with the bat was an innings of 118 against Lancashire without a chance, and he was again at the top of the bowling averages with sixty-five wickets, though Peate, who came out for Yorkshire in 1879, had the slightest fraction of an advantage over him with the same number of wickets. Bates was one of the team which visited America and Canada in the autumn of 1879 under the command of R. Daft, and he proved to be one of the most successful members of that party. In 1880 he was not so fortu­ nate with either bat or ball for the county, though he did some notable feats of bowling, notably those against Derby­ shire at Derby when he took five wickets for fifteen runs, and against Notts at Sheffield when he was credited with six batsmen at a coBt of only twenty-nine runs. He represented the Players in both matches of 1880, and though un­ successful at the Oval, at Lord’s he made the highest score on the side—a freely-hit second innings of eighty-seven. In 1881 Peate and Bates had to bear the brunt of the Yorkshir« bowling, and their performance against Notts at Nottingham was very exceptional, as they were never changed during the match. Bates’ best score for the county was 108 against Kent, but in the Yorkshire total of 419, but his bowling was even more effective, and it was mainly due to his skill with the ball that the Nottingham eleven, though they opened with-a score of 248, were beaten by an innings and ninety-seven runs. His analysis in the second innings of -Notts showed five -wickets for seventeen runs, and though his figures were not so -good his averages but fourth in the batting tables as well. He did not play in the first match in which Yorkshire figured against an Australian eleven at Huddersfield, but his absence was much felt, and only a month later he proved how useful his services would have been on that occasion by the splendid cricket he showed against Notts at Nottingham. His score of 102 was the highest