Cricket 1898

A p r il 28, 1898. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME, 83 BUSSEY’S hJ i f e CRICKET BATS A R E TH E GRANDEST MADE. BUSSEY’S <CCB« CRICKET BALLS RETAIN THEIR SHAPE, AND LAST LONGER THAN ANY OTHER. BUSSEY’S X- LEG GUARDS ARE EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD, AND THE LIGHTEST MADE. BUSSEY’S BATTING GLOVES ARE FAR SUPERIOR TO THE USUAL CLASS. BUSSEY’S CRICKET BAGS A R E OP TH E H IGH E ST GRADE. BUSSEY’S < - & m « SCORE BOOKS A R E TH E MOST APPROVED. BUSSEY’S DIARY AND COMPANION IS A GEM FOR SIXPENC E. CATALOGUE ON APPLICATION TO 36 & 38, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON; OR DEALERS ALL OVER THE WORLD. MANUFACTORY— PECKHAM, LONDON. TIMBER MILLS— E L M S W E L L , SUFFOLK . BETWEEN THE INNINGS. A Q U A R T E R OF A C E N T U R Y ’S U N I V E R S I T Y C R IC K E T . (Continuedfrom page 70) CHAPTER IV. 1878. If there was a good deal of doubt as to which was the better of the two ’Varsity sides in 1877, there was “ no possible, probable shadow of doubt, no possible doubt whatever” in the season which followed. Cambridge played eight matches and won every one of them, averaging as nearly as possible twenty runs per wicket, and dismissing their opponents at less than half that co s t; Oxford had but half as many games, lost three of them and drew one, while the average per wicket was more than four runs smaller than that against. The Cambridge team as finally made up differed in no fewer than six instances from that of 1877; but the difference was all in the way of strengthening. A fine all-round player had been lost to them in the person of W . S. Patterson ; but there was a young Freshman in the 1878 team who more than made up for this loss—Allan Gibson Steel, perhaps the greatest of the great all-round players who have done such fine things for Cambridge cricket—and it is no small praise to Eay of a cricketer that he is equal to such as C.T. Studd, F. S. Jackson, S. M. J. Woods, and W . S. Patterson, let alone to admit his possible superiority to them. Bury and Herbert P igg, who were still in residence, did not get their blues a second time, two other seniors in the person of P. H . Morton and F. W. Kingston (an old schoolfellow of P ig g’s, by the way) replacing them ; the other three new men were the Hon. Ivo Bligh, H . Whitfeld, and A. F. J. Ford, three players of undeniably high class. Cambridge led off, as usual, with a match against an Eleven of England, which included W . G. and G. F. Grace, W . R . Gilbert (who played such a great innings in a similar game two years earlier), Midwinter, C. I. Thornton, and William Mycroft. The Eleven bad all the best of the innings, scoring 193 (of which the Grace Brothers made 106 between them) to th e ’Varsity’s 103. Two of the L ight Blue cracks, Lucas and Douglas Steel, were stumped off successive balls from W .G . b y F. W . Kingston, who was playing for the scratch team against his University. Follow ing on, 80 in arrear, Cambridge ran up 226, the captain, Edward Lyttel­ ton (who in this season played such fine cricket as never before or after, and was certainly one of the finest batsmen in the country on his 1878 form), heading the list with 66, A. G. Steel being a good second with 46, and five others making double figures. Then, with C. I. Thorn­ ton and James Robertson absent, the scratch team went out for 57, Gilbert making 25 of these. A. G. Steel worthily began his ’Varsity career with eight wickets for 95 in the ipatch; but this, compared with what was to come from him, was but mediocre. A small-scoring match against the M .C.C., at Cambridge, the next fixture on the list, saw him quite at his best. The batsmen were helpless against the well-contrasted deliveries, slow and fast, of him and P. H . Morton (their figures for the match were 10 for 44 and seven for 42 respectively); and, though the Cantabs only made 154 (A. G. Steel, 52 not o u t; Lucas, 49), they won by an innings and 23 runs. Then Y ork ­ shire was beaten b y 10 wickets—beaten practically b y the two Steels and the two Lytteltons—for A. G. Steel scored 41 and took 13 wickets for 85; D. Q. Steel scored 38; E. Lyttelton scored 74 (highest of match) ; aud A. Lyttelton scored 15 and seven not out, and caught three, stumped three. A fairly good team of the Gentle­ men of Eogland went under by an innings and 96, the Cantabs’ total of 256 being made b y very consistent batting, for A. G. Steel scored 74, Alfred Lyttelton, 47; the Hon. Ivo Bligh, 37; Whitfeld, 36; and Edward Lyttelton, 26. Steel did little bow ling in this match, A. P. Lucas (seven for 43) and H . Wood (eight for 52) being the agents of des­ truction. Exactly the same score (256) was made in the first out-inatch, v. Surrey at the Oval, though twelve a side were playing instead of eleven. Herbert Whitfeld was top scorer; he went in, second wicket down, at 38, and carried out his bat for 81 ; he and the last batsman on the side, P. H . Morton (39) adding no fewer than 80 for the eleventh wicket. Edward Lyttelton, with 39, was the other principal scorer. The Surrey men could do nothing with Steel and Lucas, the latter of whom, after doing very little bowling during three seasons in the Cambridge team, seemed to have de­ veloped suddenly most deadly form. Steel took 10 for 58, Lucas 6 for 32, and P. H . Morton, in the first innings, had 4 for 22. Poor old Ted Barratt, with 32 and 10 not out, was actually highest scorer for the county— a rare distinction for him. Then came the M.C.C. match at Lord’s, played on wickSts drenched by heavy rain, then baked by a broiling sun, and won by the L ight Blues by 106 runs. George Hearne bowled splendidly for M.C.C. (12 for 123 his figures); but A. G. Steel was irresistible for the ’Varsity, and had 14 for 80. The brothers Lyttelton made nearly half the runs for their side, playing splendid cricket on the difficult pitch. The skipper scored 28 and 46; his brother, the stumper (who in the match caught three and stumped two M.C.C. batsmen), made 45 and 21. W . H . Hadow, in first wicket down, carried his bat for 26 in the club’s first, and A. H . Stratford slogged up 44 in the second, while Lucas and Douglas Steel each ran up 34 in the ’Varsity’s second. Thus it was an unbeaten team which faced the Dark Blues four days later—a team, moreover, which had won easily every match it had played. Meanwhile Oxford, with A. J. Webbe a second time in command, had been