Cricket 1907

J une 27, 1907 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 239 BENETF1NK ■ & CO., Ltd. — ...... ENGLAND ELEVENS. It would be interesting to hear the opinions of W. G. Grace, A. G. Steel, Lord Harris, and others who have gone through the stress of teist matches as to the comparative merits of the various elevens that have represented England since the Australians forced us to put into the field the best sides we could find. A very great team was the one that beat the Australians in one innings both at Lord’s and the Oval in 1886. It con­ sisted. of W. G. Grace, A. G. Steel, W . W. Read, E. F. S. Tylecote, Shrewsbury, Scotton, Barnes, Ulyett, Barlow, Briggs, and George Lohmann. Ulyett was the only bowler of any great pace, but very fast bowling was not in much vogue at that time. Tylecote was played in order to strengthen the batting, but, excellent cricketer as he was, he ought not to have been picked as wicket-keeper in preference to Pilling or Sherwin. It is a painful reflection that of that splendid eleven Grace, Steel, Barlow, and Tylecote are the only survivors. Coming down to later years, we have never had a finer side against the Australians than in the drawn matches at Birmingham and Lord’s in 1902—MacLaren, Fry, Itanjitsinhji, Jack­ son, Tyldesley, Lilley, Hirst, Jessop, Braund, Lockwood, and Khodes. The failure in bat­ ting of Fry and Ranj itsinhji caused changes to be made—somewhat unwisely as events proved—in the subsequent Test matches that season, but the combination was, on form, tremendously strong. Before the Australians came here and upset the complaisant belief in England’s supremacy at cricket there was no necessity to concen­ trate our forces and get together the best possible eleven. The nearest approach to any such state of things was in the old days at the Oval, when for a few years the Surrey and England match ranked with the All England and United Elevens’ match at Lord’n, as the event of the season. Surrey held their own, but, man for man, they were not equal to their opponents. In an England side, if it had been necessary to choose one, they would scarcely have had more than two re­ presentatives, Caffyn and Lockyer. Methods of play change, and comparison between great cricketers of one period and another can be little more than a matter of opinion. In his book “ Seventy-one Not Out,” Caffyn expresses his firm conviction that the best England team in the early sixties would have equalled any eleven of the present generation. He quotes a list of names submitted to him by a friend, but, curiously enough, he forgets to mention E. M. Grace, who played his first match at Lord’s in 1861, and in the following year jumped to the top of the tree. This ideal side of forty-five years ago consisted, it may be interesting to mention, of Caffyn himself, C. G. Lyttelton (now Lori Cobham), R. A. H. Mitchell, V. E. Walker, Hayward, Carpenter, Daft, George Parr, Willsher, Lockyer, and Jackson. As showing how the opinions of experts may differ, Mr. V. E. Walker thought to the day of his death that the old Surrey team that used to play England was stronger than any county eleven of modern days, but we once heard the late Mr. Frederick Burbidge, who himself had had no small share in Surrey’ s ancient tri­ umphs, give the preference to the side which, with John Shuter as captain, brought success back to the Oval. Giving a personal opinion for what it is worth, we should be inclined to think that in the days before the Australians began to visit us we were seldom stronger than in 1871. From the teams that took part in the Gentlemen and Players’ match at Lord’s that year a magnificent England eleven could have been picked. W . G. Grace was at the very top of his form in batting, and to support him there would have been Yardley, G. F. Grace, Daft, Jupp, and Ephraim Lock­ wood, with Pooley to keep wicket, and George Freeman, J. C. 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