Cricket 1887

Together joined in cricket ’s m an ly toil.”— Byron. Registered^O^Tre^smission Abroad. THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1887. PRICE 3d. JOHN EDWARD SHILTON. C r ic k e t in the populous district which sur­ rounds Birmingham has made great strides during the last few years. The formation of the 'Warwickshire County Club has tended in no small measure to such advancement by concentration of the talent to be found within its area, and developing promise of which there was not a scant supply. Perhaps no one enjoys a better reputation as an all-round player at the present time in that particular section of Mid­ land cricket than Shilton, the slow bowler who has done such good service during the last two sum­ mers to Warwickshire, one of the most rising of the shires of more recent growth. Though the earlier part of his life was spent in York­ shire, and, consequently,many have associated him altogether with that county, he was born in Warwick­ shire—at Coventry, on Sept.17,1857. When he was only a few months old his parents removed to Yorkshire, and in that cricket-loving county he received his fiist lessons in the game. At a very early age he found a place in the first team of the Mirfield Club, and, indeed, it was from the professional attached to that ground that he learned as a youngster to bowl a good length. Joining the Army as a drummer and bugler at the age of fourteen, he was sent to the Depot at Carlisle, but was soon drafted into the 55th Regiment, stationed at Gosport. Removing with the 55th—which had as its Captain, Captain Webber- Smith, and was at the time, per­ haps, the best Regimental team— to Portsmouth in 1877, Shilton played for the Southern Division with no small success, as well as at Shorncliffe Camp, where he was subsequently located. It was at Shorncliffe that he came under the watchful eye of the veteran umpire Robert Thoms, standing for the Incogniti, and it was in some measure to his excellent advice on slow bowling that Shilton attributes his success of late. In the summer of 1881 Shilton retired from the Army to pursue the calling of a professional cricketer, and the Mirfield Club found him of great use as a bowler, as he secured 51 wickets for them at a eost of only three runs a piece. Hfs first Colts of the South. The Southern youngsters made a very poor show with the bat, and none of them could do much against Harrison, who subsequently proved so successful for a time in the Yorkshire eleven as a fast bowler, and Shilton, whose six wickets only cost 20 runs. In batting as well as bowling he showed to great advantage that summer, although he proved most effective with the ball, and, in­ deed, his ninety-nine wickets were got at an aggregate cost of 359, an average of 3.62. Against the Gen­ tlemen at Newcastle, too, that sea­ son he did well, making 28, and taking six wickets at a charge of only 15 runs. A good show, too, in the Yorkshire Colts match of 1883, in which lie dismissed both Hall and Ulyett, induced the York­ shire Committee to give him a trial for the County against Leices­ tershire, though he only succeeded in getting two wickets. Allen Hill and Shilton were the professionals attached to the Bradford Club in 1884, and the latter’s best perform­ ances for the year for Bradford were against the UppinghamRovers and Dewsbury Moor, taking in the second match six wickets for only four runs. In the Yorkshire Colts match of 1884, Shilton had again the besfe average in bowling, and his skill as a bowler had by this time become so established that he was chosen to play for the North against the South in the Whitsun­ tide mate! , in addition to assisting Nortliumlerland in several county engagements. Shilton’s connection with the Liverpool Club during the seasons of 1885 and 1886 brought him still more prominently to the front as a bowler. In 1885, in the match against Wigan, he had a hand in the dismissal of all the ten Wigan wickets—bowling seven and catching three— and against the Drumpellier Club, at Aigburth Road, he was credited with no less than sixteen of the twenty wickets. His bowling was of the greatest value to the Liverpool Club during those two seasons, and it is worthy of remark that in all matches he was credited with 642 wickets—341 in 1885, and 301 in 1886. Mainly through the influence of Lord Willoughby de Broke and Mr. Hugh Rotherham, Shilton’s services were secured for Warwickshire, and during the last th) ee years he has assisted the countywithgreatnuocess, Inhis firstmatch actual engagement as a professional was in 1882 with the Sunderland Club, and here, though he had a formidable rival in the other pro., the late Martin McIntyre, of Notts fame, he was most successful with bat as well as ball. His highest score was 51 against Eighteen of the District, but he also showed to great advantage for Durham against Northumberland at Tynemouth, and still later in the season for an Eleven of the North against Roxburgh County at Hawick, where he took ten wickets for twenty runs, and enabled his side to win just as time was up. Engaged at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1883, he bowled for the first three weeks of the season at Cambridge before going up to Lord’s to represent the Colts of the North against the