Cricket 1887

“ Toge ther joined in cricket’s m an ly toil.”— Byron. HegiBte^^o^TransSnYbroaa. THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1887. PRICE 2d, MR. EDWARD SA INSBURY . S om ersetshire cricket has been much in­ debted to the family of which the Captain of the County Eleven is a member. The old Lansdown Club, which, as many cricketers know, is flourishing bravely at the present time, one of, if not the oldest club in the West of England, was founded early in the present century in a great measure through the efforts of Mr. John Popham Sainsbury, the father of the excellent cricketer whose portrait we give this week, and his uncle, Mr. Charles Sainsbury, who is still alive and resident in Bath. These two keen sportsmen, with Mr. Keating and a few othefs, used to play on the Lansdown Hill, close to the race­ course from which we infer the Club took its name. Mr. Edward Sains­ bury himself was born in Bath, on July 5,1851. Educated at Sherborne School, he was in the eleven there when he was fifteen years of age. His stay at Sherborne, though, was not a long one, for he left in 1867 to go into business, and little or no time was at his disposal for recreation. Still he found opportunity to improve his cricket, and much of the success which has attended him on the cricket-field is due".to. the; lessons,he received on the old Sydenham field of the Lansdown Club, where,' by the way, the Graces first came out. In 1870, business brought him to London, and for some years the principal part of his cricket was in connection with the Woodford Club, which subse­ quently changed its title to that of the Wanstead Club, as it is now Itnown. About this time he was best known as a lob bowler, and indeed, in country matches, and not infrequently even in better company, he was generally very successful. His most noticeable performances with the bat before he became identified with county cricket were both in 1876. On August the 9th of that year he scored 201 (not out) of a total of 301 for Corsham v. Lansdown, besides bowling ten wickets in the ooooneK nnings of the latter. It was only a one day’s match, but still the game was played out, and Lansdown were decisively beaten by an innings and 220 runs. On the following Monday (15th August), Lans­ down in its turn profited by Mr. Sainsbury’s valuable help against the Civil Service, and was very successful. For Old Sherburnians against Sherborne School, he made 109 (not out), and this was his highest innings of the year. A much better performance, though, was that recorded to him in the match between Somersetshire and Herefordshire,thatsummer. Old John Hughes was bowling in his best form, and in the first innings of Somerset seven of the best wickets were down for 87 runs. Messrs. Sainsbury and Reed, however, altered the state of the game altogether, and chiefly through the stand of these two batsmen the total was raised to 250, or only 18 short of the Hertfordshire score. The match, which at one time seemed to be al­ together against Somerset, was ulti­ mately drawn in favour of that county, in no small measure owing to the fine all-round cricket of Mr. Sainsbury, who made 105 and took five Hertfordshire wickets at a cost of only 34 runs. The season of 1879was not a fortunate one for him. On the occasion of his first appearance at Lord’s he was unlucky enough to meet Alfred Shaw and Morley, then at their best, and his best scores of the year were his 16 and 39 against Gloucestershire. The foliowing sum- mer, though, found him proportion­ ately successful, and in particular in the later fixtures of Somersetshire his batting was of a high order. Against Bedfordshire he was credited with scores of 91 and 16, but even this was not his best aggregate. In the first fixture with Sussex the Somersetshire eleven were beaten bjr a wicket, and very singularly this resiilt was exactly reversed in the return. The Somersetshire team had reason, too, to be pleased with their erformance on this occasion, for they ad to go in to get 247 to win, a number which they were able to attain mainly through the brilliant batting, of Mr. Sainsbury, who went in first and was not out with 101 at the finish. His highest innings in 1881 were both for the Lansdown Club, and these were got within eight days of each other, 156 not out of 334 for two wickets on August 2, and 171 of 348 for four wickets on August 10. Though not quite so fortunate for the county in 1881 and 1882 he was by no means out of form. His first introduction to the Australian cricketers was in the latter year atJTaunton. Spofforth and Boyle bowled throughout the match for the Australians, and Mr? Sainsbury in the again he carried out his bat, scoring this time 116. The summer of 1877 saw Mr. Sainsbury for the first time actively associated with the Somersetshire County Club, and in this con­ nection as well as others his all-round cricket was of great value. Though his best innings was one of 96 against the CliftonClub, including Mr. F. Townsend, Midwinter, and several of the Gloucestershire Eleven, he was mostly of use with ball as well as bat, and in addition to a batting average of 46 for six innings was credited with 17 wickets at an average cost of 7.41. For the Lansdown Club, too, against the Marylebone Club and Ground he showed capital cricket, taking, in addition to a good score of 67, all the Marylebone wickets in the first innings with one exception. In 1878 he