James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1876

CHAPTER VI. C R I C K E T I N 1 8 7 5 . B y I ncog . • That the season of 1875 was in the main a failure in every sense may be accepted as a statement which the large majority of those interested in the success of the game will readily vorify. Financially it suffered heavily, and the same influences that interfere with the exchequer, unfortunately militate against the well-being of the sport itself. Generally the impressions left of 1875 will he those of a season in every way disappointing. The weather in May and August was genial, and in every sense conducive to good cricket; but in June and July, when county cricket is at the full and matches are at the thickest, clouds teeming with rain darkened the land, and for two months, with very little intermission, the game had to bo pursued under a combination of influences happily not usually associated with it. Bowlers had for once in a way everything in their favour, hut after all, whatever may he argued in respect of the superiority of the bat over the hall, small scores are not the most likely to increase the popularity of the game. Good fielding, in conjunction with ordinarily accurate bowling, will do much to keep the scores of the best batting elevens within respectable limits ; but it is necessary for the correct solution of the diflicult cricket problems that the hat and the ball should meet on some­ thing like equal terms. It may safely be reasoned, too, that the rain during tiie two most busy months of the cricket season entirely altered the complexion of the game, and that much of the success that attended certain of the Counties was due to atmospherical circumstances over vliich the belligerent elevens themselves had nc control. Bowlers, who would have been useless on a dry ground, had fame thrust upon them by the chance of a heavy wicket, and the cry everywhere was for slow bowlers, or, at most, those of medium pace. In spite of all deterrent influences, however, County cricket never showed a bolder front. Matches as a general rule were stoutly contested, and on all sides there was abundance of evidence in the thousands who flocked to witness the chief encounters of the year, to prove that the numerous engagements in which county v’as pitted against county were in a marked degree the most popular fixtures to the lover of genuine cricket. Nottinghamshire was beyond all doubt the champion of the year, and that it fairly won the position was due as much to the judicious selection of the players as to the prowess of those wrho were selected in the field. In 1874 Notts could only show six victories and four defeats, but in 1875 matters assumed a much more favourable aspect, the ten matches of the year only including one reverse. Indeed, it was only in the closing contest of the year, when Armitage’s " lobs ” came so effectually to the relief of the Yorkshiremen that the eleven suffered their one defeat. Notts played ten matches, win-