Cricket 1888

G E O R G E B U R T O N , I f the season just ending has not been instru­ mental in the establishment of many new reputations, it has, at least, been of use in bringing more prominently into notice more than one cricketer who had not before reached to a position of eminence in the estimation of the public. It is an ill will that turns none to good, the proverb runs, and dismal and cheerless as the cricket year has been to the main body of cricketers, passive as well as active, wet wickets have not been without their advantage to a certain and important section of the cricket community. The batsman’s loss has been, in fact, the bowler’s opportunity, and if the run-getters have not had the best of grounds for satisfaction with the general condition of affairs during the past few months, those whose object is to keep the runs down have, on the other hand, had much cause for congratulation. Slow bowlers, most of all, have profited by the continu­ ance of heavy grounds, and among them “ Farmer” Burton, of whose successes metropolitan C r ic k e t - readers in particular will have read with unmixed gratification. London cricketers can claim George Burton as one of themselves by every tie. Born at Hampstead on May 1, 1851, he not only learned his cricket within the limits of the Great City, but has spent the whole of his life within its boundaries. His club career dates as far back as 1865, when he played with the Islington Youths’ Insititute C. C., having its headquarters at the Old Sluice Ground, Highbury, for a few seasons, and afterwards at Tufnell Park. Joining subsequently the Bedford Amateurs, another strong club also using Tufnell Park, he had among his mates two old Surrey players—the late John Constable and J. Freeman. The Bedford Amateurs, too, found him one of their best all - round cricketers, as he generally got wickets as a change, besides making some good scores, the best of which was one of 92 against Hatfield. The season of 1875 found Burton a member of the Upper Holloway Club, and early that summer he had two opportunities of prov­ ing his ability with the Middlesex Colts. In his first trial, against the Middlesex eleven J-t Prince’s, he did fairly well with both bat and ball, but against the Surrey Colts at the Alexandra Palace was more successful as a bowler, in which department he did well, taking six wickets in the first innings of the Surrey team for 19 runs. It was not, though, till six years later that he was drafted into the County eleven, having meanwhile done good service for the Junior Middlesex, Holborn and North Middlesex 0 ubs. On two occasions (in 1878 and 1880) for the last-named he made his mark against the Marylebone Club and Ground, and each time the latter were de­ feated in an innings, in a great measure owing to the good all-round cricket of Burton, who, in the second match, scored 71 and took ten wickets at a very small cost. His first intro­ duction into the Middlesex County eleven was in 1881, against Surrey a.t Lord’s, and he had no reason to complain of his performance, as he made 16 in the one innings he had, besides taking seven wickets for 47 runs. Middlesex, in a great measure through his bowling, beat Surrey twice that year—a year memorable in particular to Burton, if only for one feat, his getting Mr. W . G. Grace out twice in the Gloucestershire match at Lord’s, the first time clean bowled, the second time caught and bowled. Since 1881 he has played regularly for Middlesex, and with the most satisfactory results. His best performance in 1882 was against Yorkshire at Lord’s, and his effective bowling in the second innings of the Yorkshiremen, seven of whose wickets he took at an ex­ pense of but 20 runs, reallv played a very important part in the victory which fell to his side. An offer of an engagement at Lord’s in 1883 was readily accepted, and Burton signalised his first appearance with the Marylebone team by taking eleven wickets of tho Horsham Club, for whom Mr. A. G. Steel was playing, besides adding two creditable scores of 49 and 24. During the last five years the Middlesex and Marylebone Clubs have both profited materially by his all-round cricket. In 1885, in the Nottingham match at Lord’s, he bowled during the long innings of Notts, when Arthur Shrewsbury carried his bat through for 224 out of 415, with excellent results, as his analysis of 112 overs (68 maidens) for 96 runs and seven wickets showed. Bis bowling, too, in the return match of 1886 with Gloucestershire', at Gloucester, where he took twelve wickets for 115 runs, influenced the result greatly in favour of Middle­ sex an l very nearly won another match, that against the Australians. The finish of the latter game will still be well remembered, as, though 100 of the 123 wanted by the Aus­ tralians to win had been got ^ith only three wickets down, Burton bowled with such success that the last two men of the team, J. M’C. Blackham and R. J. Pope, were in when the winning hit was made. It was his bowling, indeed, that made a victory for Middlesex possible, and his record for the match of fourteen out of nineteen wickets was one of which he had good reason to be proud. The hard wickets of 1887 did not favour tho bowlers, and Burton, like many of his fellows, found the pitches too true to keep the runs **Together jo ined in cricket’s m a n ly to il.”— Byron. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 , 1888. p r i c e 2d .