Cricket 1887

“ Together joined in cricket ’s m an ly toil.*-— B y ron . Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1887. P R IC E 2d. FRED LEE. A m ong the many remarkable instances of run- getting, in a season more than usually favour­ able for batsmen, none have been more con­ spicuous than the records of the Yorkshire eleven during the present month. Hall, Ulyett, and Lee have during the last few weeks, indeed, secured for York­ shire cricket the distinction of more than one performance unique of its kind. Of this triumvirate, too, Fred Lee, whose portrait we give this week, has certainly not been, on his recent form, the least useful member. Born at Baildon in 1856, Lee is a Yorkshireman by every possible tie. His early cricket was learned in the district which gave him birth, and, indeed, Baildon Green, near Bradford, was the scene of most of his best performances as a youngster on the cricket-field. The Baildon Green Club found him as he grew up one of its most useful players, and, though we are unable to give any of his scores the records we have prove that he had the best average during each of the last three summers (1879-80-81) of his connection with the Baildon Club. His local reputation must at the time have been above the average, for in 1882 he was engaged by Messrs. Hodgson and Simpson, the well-known soap manufacturers of Wakefield, to form one of the team using the firm’s name—a team com­ posed chiefly of professionals, most pf them well-known in Yorkshire cricket. In this new connection, too, he increased rather than dimin­ ished his reputation as a batsman, and it was his consistent scoring during the latter part of his three years’ engagement with the Wake­ field manufacturers that brought him prominently before the notice of the executive of the Yorkshire Club. A creditable show in the Colts match of 1884, too, increased his reputation, and gave him, in­ deed, an opportunity of proving his ability in County cricket. His first match for York­ shire was against Middlesex, at Lord’s, on June 5,1884, but none of the Yorkshire eleven had a chance of batting, owing to the heavy rain, which stopped the game when Middlesex had got 62 for two wickets, and prevented further play. Lee’s first score of any account for Yorkshire was his forty at Sheffield in the opening match of 1884 against Lancashire, but his best performance was against Surrey, at Dewsbury, and his two innings of 86 and 54, the latter his highest record of the year for the County, were both displays of more than ordinary merit. Altogether Lee figured in ten matches for Yorkshire, and for a first season his show was decidedly promising, his sixteen innings realising an aggregate of 334, or an average of nearly twenty-one runs. So far his batting had fully borne out his local repu­ tation, and his consistently good play during the following summer of 1885, not only brought him quite to the front of .Yorkshire players, but proved him on his form of that season to be one of the best batsmen among professional cricketers. His batting record of 1885 was in fact, the best of the year for Yorkshire—a position of which he had no email reason to be proud, considering that Ulyett and Bates were both in run-getting form. His first con­ tribution for Yorkshire in 1885 was one of 60 in the opening match of the season against Sussex, atBradford, and his partnershipon that occasion with Mr. W. H Woodhouse resulted in an addition of 122 runs to the Yorkshire total. In the first fixture of the season against Notts, at Sheffield, he was, too, seen to advantage with a well-got score of 66 not out, and in the return he was even more successful. His brilliant innings of 101 without a chance on that occasion, indeed, conduced in a great measure to the only reverse suffered by the Nottinghamshire eleven in 1885, and it may safely be said that no better display of bat­ ting was shown during the season. His scores, though, were not made against the bowlers of Notts alone, on the contrary, he fared well against most of the other county elevens. In three innings against Sussex he was credited with an aggregate of 172,inthe same number against Surrey of 135, and against Middlesex, at Sheffield, he got 72, helping Peel on the last occasion to put on 136runs. Ulyett’s figures in all matches played by Yorkshire in 1885 were the bett, but in inter­ county matches alone Lee had the better record, and his aggregate of 725 for twenty-one completed in­ nings showed an excellent average of over 31£ runs. Last year was an unlucky one for Lee, and he failed altogether to maintain his high re­ putation of 1885. In the first match with Sussex, played at Huddersfield at the end of May, he was credited with a useful innings of forty, but this proved to be his best score, and his batting was attended with such scant success that the executive deemed it advisable to leave him out of the County eleven after he had taken part in eleven matches for an average of under eleven and a half runs. The present season, too, had well advanced be­ fore Lee had another trial in the county, eleven. Not particularly successful at first, he, however, before long fully justified his re­ appearance in the team, and a month had not elapsed before he proved that he fully retained his powers of hitting with two successive