Cricket 1894

431 CQBICKB®' s A WEEKLY KEOOBD 0 1 THS SAME, NOV 29, 1894 places seemed hard to fill. Mr. A. P. Lucas could only play now and then. Mr. Slmter had been in 1881 far below his best form. Nei:her Mr. W. E. Holier nor Maurice Read had as yet done any­ thing out of the ordinary way. Abef, who had been given a trial in 1881, had scored but 17 runs in five innings; and few could then have guessed how brilliant an exponent of the game the persevering and plucky little professional would one day prove. Pooley was getting no younger. The bowling was chiefly in the hands of Jones and Barratt—hard­ working trundlers both, but hardiy class enough to wm many victories for their side. The first two matches were lost, but not badly. The Australians won by six wickets, and Notts (at Trent Bridge) by four, Barnes scoring 100 in his two inn­ ings. Then Middlesex was beaten by 25 runs, although Mr. Stanley Scott scored 35 and 12G, and Mr. A. J. Webbe31 and OS, the last four wickets going down for five runs, greatly to th? jubilation o f the Oval crowd. Then came a drawn game with Glouces­ tershire, whose chief feature was the stand of llOrunsmadebyMr. Lucas and Maurice Read ; and the two Universitiessuccumbed in turn to Surrey, the Cantabs (who were exceptionally strong that year, and had just beaten the Australians) by seven wickets, and the Oxonians by the narrower margin of 13 runs. Cambridge had beaten Surrey easily for eight years in succession before this. Sussex was beaten by nine wickets at Brighton, Mr. Shuter scoring 117 for once ou t; and drawn games, in both of which Surrey had the worst at the finish, were played up North with York­ shire and Lancashire, Ulyett scoring 145 for once out for the broadacred county. The next two matches were lost—the return with Sussex by fiva wickets, and that with Middlesex by eight. Mr. Shuter made 93 in two innings in the former match, Mr. Read 90 in the latter. Kent was beaten at Maidstone by 54 runs, Jones’s quite unexpected 03 being a feature of the match. Yorkshire won easily at the Oval, though Mr, Shuter played a second innings of 93. Then came their return with Kent, an innings of 359, and a victory by an innings and 71 runs. Mr. Read scored 117 ; and he and his namesake, Maurice, put on 148 while together. Messrs. E. F. S. Tylecote and W. II. Patterson added 100 while together in Kent’s second innings. Surrey had the tables turned in the next match, which Notts won by an inn­ ings and 180 runs, Shrewsbury (207) and Barnes (130) adding 289 runs for the second wicket. In the Lancashire match, which was also lost in an innings, a storm of disapproval was excited by Crossland's doubtful action and phe­ nomenal success. The fast bowler took eleven wickets for 79 runs. Then the last match of the season, the return with Gloucestershire at Clifton, was lost by six wickets, W.G. scoring 139 in the match, and W.W. 100 for once out. Thus a strangely unequal season, which was nevertheless the best Surrey had had for some years, and which gave augury of brighter things in store, ended disappointingly, the last three matches all being lost. No very great results had been achieved; but the record of the last year had been very materially improved upon. Mr. W. W. Read, who scored 822 runs with an average of 27, and Mr. Shuter, who made 797 with an average of 25, had been the mainstays of the batting; Barratt, Jones, and a useful new man in the person of Mr. C. E. Horner, had done nearly all the bowling, and that with very good results, the worst average of the three being under 10. A somewhat disastrous beginning was made in 1883. The first three matches were all lost. At Trent Bridge Notts won by an innings and 58, Surrey falling for 43 in the second innings. Then Parn- haui and Rylott bowled so well at Leices­ ter that the home county snatched a victory by seven runs; and Derbyshire won at Derby by 51 runs. Then came a turn in the tide. A drawn game with Hampshire, against whose weak bowling the Surrey batsmen ran up 050 (W.W. 108, Maurice 91, Abel 83), 329 being added between the fall of the third wicket and that of the fifth by the agency of the three batsmen men­ tioned, was followed by a victory over Gloucestershire. The two Reads were again to the fore in this match, which was very evenly contested until they came together with 141 runs wanted to win, and knocked them off in sixty-five minutes, Maurice making his first century for Surrey, 113 not out. Another victory —over Middlesex, by ten wickets—was followed by a defeat to the tune of 200 runs from the Cantabs, for whom that great player, Mr. C. T. Studd, played a graid 175 not out. Hertfordshire went down by an innings and 13 runs, and Hampshire at Southamp­ ton by 50 runs, W.W. scoring 70 and SO in the latter match. These two victories were hardly of much importance, how­ ever. Then both games with Sussex were won, the first bv an innings and 119 runs (Mr. Shuter scoring 103 not out), the second by two wickets only. Then came a time of disaster worse than that which the season began. Lan­ cashire won by three wickets at Manches­ ter, although W.W. and young Henderson made a splendid stand, putting on 174 while together. Barlow made 110 for once out. At Lord’s Mr. A. W. Ridley scored 130, and Middlesex won by ten wickets. The Kent match at Maidstone was drawn ; W.W. made 133 for once out in it. Yorkshire won by an innings and three runs at Leeds, where Peate took eight wickets for five runs, and Surrey collapsed for 31 in the first innings. Young Henderson (41) made just half the runs in the second—a good performance for a boy of eighteen. The return with the broadacred county, after looking like another certain beating, was drawn, owing to the plucky play of , Abel and Maurice Read. For the rest of the season Surrey hardly looked once backward, for not one of the remaining games was lost. Somer­ set was beaten at the Oval by an innings and 213 ; a draw was played with Notts ; Leicestershire was beaten by ten wickets, Mr. E. J. Diver, a new acquisition, who had made 98 in the Somerset match, scoring 116 for once out; and the return with Somerset was won by 75 runs, W.W. placing not out innings of 93 and 80. Then came two victories of more im­ portance. Gloucestershire was beaten by nine wickets, and Lancashire by three, the plucky battir.g of Messrs. Roller and Key, who added 112 while together, and were both not out when the game ended, mainly bringing about the latter victory. Crossland’s doubtful style again provoked considerable resentment. Mr. Roller (142) and Abel (G3) added 182 while together in the return with Kent, which was drawn ; and then the season ended with a victory over Derby­ shire by six wickets. Despite a bad start, and a run of defeats during part of July, Surrey had a good season in 1883. No team succeeded in defeating her twice. Three recruits cf exceptional promise in the persons of Messrs. E. J. Diver and M. P. Bowden and young Henderson found places in the team. Abel at last justified his retention in the team; Mr. W. E. Roller and Maurice Read batted far better than ever before; Messrs. Shuter and Diver were in good form, and made a lot of runs ; but the feature of the batting averages was Mr. W. W. Read’s fine record of 1,637 runs, with an avorage of over 46. The bowling was not so good as the batting ; but Barratt worked very hard, and took the large number of 176 wickets. Pooley dropped out of the team; and Mr. A. P. Lucas seceded to Middlesex, the county of his birth. In 1884 the practic9 of starting the season with matches against second-class counties was initiated. Essex, Hamp­ shire, and Leicestershire were all beaten in turn. Against Essex Abel made 93, W.W. 148 for once out, and Jones 85. Mr. Bowden made 131 against, and Mr. E. O. Powell 125 for Hampshire in their two innings, each being but once out. The Leicestershire match was remarkable for W.W.’s 162 not out, and as I eing the first appearance of the greatest all-round player Surrey has ever had—George Lohmann. The Peak County was beaten by five wickets at Derby ; and then came a defeat by eight wickets from Middlesex at the Oval, Messrs. Webbe and O’Brien batting well, and another from Notts at Trent Bridge by seven wickets, Scotton and Barnes putting on 119 while together, while W.W. made 70 and 48 for the losers. Three victories followed these two defeats, one over Leicestershire—a battle of bowlers; another ever the county of the Graces (Maurice Read, 99, and Mr. Diver, 65, putting on 102 fur Surrey's first wicket) by an innings and 33 ; and the third over Cambridge University by 148 ruos, two new men, Lobmann and Wood, a worthy succtssor at the wicket to Pooley, batting capitally. A defeat from Oxford by 90 runs, in spite of Mr. Shuter’s scoring 46 and 76, was followed by four victories. Sussex went N EX T ISSUE DECEMBER 28