Cricket 1888

“ Together joined in cricket’s man ly toil.”— Byron. Regi 9 tM?aforTranB^kioIIIbrofta. THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1888. P R IC E 2d. W A L T E R W R IG H T . N otts can fairly claim to be regarded as in reality the universal provider of county cricket. Hardly a southern shire of any importance but has at some time or another of late years found a place in its ranks for one or more pro­ fessionals claiming Nottinghamshire as their birthplace. Since George Howitt graduated for Middlesex some two decades ago, the county out of its apparently illimitable resources has been able to spare many of its rising cricketers to gain distinction south of the Trent. Surrey has just recently had occasion to be grateful for the valuable assistance it has received from Bowley’s bowling. Bean has proved a most valuable all-round cricketer for Sussex. Gregg was for a time of some small use to Gloucestershire. This summer, too, Kent cricketers have been naturally proud of the excellent record of the County eleven, a record which their latest professional recruit has in no small degree helped to establish. Born at Hucknall Torkard on Feb. 29,1856, Walter Wright was strictly and wholly identified with Notts and its cricket until the last few summers. As far as we can learn his all-ronnd play must have been very much above the average of boy cricketers, and he was, indeed, only seventeen when he accepted his first engagement with the Notts Bank Club. Of his early promise there is abundant evidence. Cir­ cumstances, though, caused a break of several years in his career as a cricketer. For five summers he turned his attention chieflyto pedes- trianism, and his exceptional ability as a sprint runner was proved by his attainment of a double first on the cinder track, to wit, the rare distinction of winning two of the great Sheffield Handicaps. Return­ ing to his old love, Wright re­ appeared on the cricket-field in 1878, and with good results. After bowling in the early summer at Oxford he spent the rest of the two seasons of 1878 and ’79as professioaal at Mote Park, Maid­ stone. Though his chief successes were with the bat the excellence of his all-round cricket was generally admitted, and in one match for the United All England Eleven against Twenty-two of St. Ives, he made his mark effectually, taking eight wickets in addition to scoring 89 in capital style. The spring of 1879 gave him his first opportunity of proving his ability in a wider and more important sphere. In the Notts Colts match of that year he not only bowled but batted well, and his form was good enough to secure him a place in the first engagement of the Notts eleven. His intro­ duction to county cricket was not of an auspicious kind, as he failed to score against the Lancashire bowlers and did not have him­ self a chance of delivering a ball. Altogether his first season did not produce any great successes, and it was not until 18bl that he re-appeared in the County team. That summer was memorable in the history of Notts cricket for tho notorious strike, and Wright profited as did some other likely youngsters by the absence of several of the leading players from the County eleven. He did not take part in the earlier fixtures, but in the later matches was at times of use with both bat and ball. In the second innings of the return with Middlesex he was chief scorer with forty-three, but his best record was with the ball in the Yorkshire matoh at Notting­ ham, where he took six wickets, and at a cost of only ten runs. Only moderately successful in 1882, he showed a marked improvement in the following year, a year he is not likely to forget, if only for one re­ markableperformance. Throughout the season he was Alfred Shaw’s chief support in the bowling, al­ though, on the whole, his forty-one wickets were expensive. The home fixture of the year with Gloucester­ shire, though, furnished him with what cricket reporters would call his most sensational feat. Put in first, by the mere accident of time, to preventthe regularbatsmen going in for ten minutes on the first night, he surprised everybody by a really remarkable display of batting. Rain stopped play for an hour on the second afternoon, but the Glouces­ tershire bowlers could not get him out during four-and-a-half hours of actual play that day, and, indeed, he was still in when the innings closed after two hours’ play on the third morning. He was in exactly six hours and three-quarters for his score of 127, and so pleasedwere the spectators with his play and that of Barnes, who had helped him to add 188 runs, that a collection of some sixteen pounds was made to be divided between them. His best record in 1884 was in the return against Surrey at the Oval, and on that occasion he carried out his bat each time for 50 and 28 respectively, the first an invaluable inningswhen runs were really much wanted. During the three seasons commen­ cingwith 1883, his bowling for Notts had been marked by great steadi­ ness, and on the whole with grati­ fyingsuccess. He began the summer of 1886, too, in promising style, and as far as could be seen with every chance of a successful year. An unwise colli­ sion with the executive of the Notts County Club, though, just at this time changed the whole tenour of his cricket life. A refusal to play against the Australians on July 8 , except at his own price, naturally resulted in his exclusion from the team in this match, and as itproved,the entire severanceof hisconnection with Notts oricket, which since the early part