James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1876

20 in the case o f Kent, and hence much o f its ill success is to be accounted for. The disorganised levies placed under the command of Lord Harris needed some manipulation, and, considering the difficulties against which he has had to contend, the new captain of Kent has done wonders in securing something like a settled eleven. The summary of the season was generally not encouraging, as Sussex, Derbyshire, and Lancashire were each victorious in both engagements, and the two matches won were over a not very redoubtable foeman, Hants. How Kent will fare in 1876 remains to be seen, but even the disastrous results of 1875 show some faint sign of advance, and every cricketer w ill congratulate Lord Harris on the energy he has already shown. It may be fortunate to have such amateurs as Kent produced during the season, but the stability of county cricket depends more on the professional order, and no incentive should be wanting to encourage young players likely to be of permanent use in the eleven. It wou ld , indeed, be well perhaps, if there were at times more of a desire to promote contests between district and district, than to extend the cricket out o f the County. Let it be understood that the remark is in no way meant to apply specially to Kent. A leaf out of the book might tend to enlighten the executives of the other Southern shires. Many o f the principal divisional or sectional matches of the year were marred, if not altogether, at least in some degree, by the rain. Of the annual encounters between the Gentlemen and Players only one, that at L ord ’s, had the advantage o f fine weather. In this the Gentlemen won with a handsome majority of 252 runs, but the achievement lost much of its brilliance from the fact that owing to an accident Alfred Shaw was unable to bowl for the Players after the first day. Rain prevented any play in the match at the Oval until almost the close of the first day, and rain finally put an end to the game when victory was well within reach o f the Players. Of the third match at Prince ’ s it will suffice to say that the Gentlemen were a ludicrous representation o f the strength of amateur cricket, and that the meeting was in every sense a misnomer. The policy of giving high sounding titles has spread even now to specu­ lative matches, and during the season there were as many as seven fixtures bearing the natne of North v. South. The only three entitled to receive the appellation o f legitimate contests were those at Prince’s for the Cricketers’ Fund, at L ord ’s for the M.C.C. Professional Fund, and at Not­ tingham for T inley ’ s benefit. In not one o f these three were the elevens thoroughly representative, and the four remaining, at Huddersfield, Lough­ borough, Hull, and Tunbridge Wells were solely gate-money meetings that might more aptly have been described as Rowbotham ’ s Eleven v. Lilly- wh ite ’ s Team with the two Graces. Under such circumstances any com ­ parisons or statistics would he out of place, and I trust to see the number o f these engagements considerably reduced next season. The match between the Gentlemen of the South and the Players of the South was not an exciting nor an interesting event owing to the great pre­ ponderance o f late on the side of the Amateurs. The Players were beaten by an innings and 129 runs, and it was only noticeable for the good batting shown by Messrs. G. F. Grace and A. P. Lucas, who were the two highest scorers out of nine double figures in the innings of the Gentlemen, and for the good bowling o f Mr. W . G. Grace. A very strong eleven of Players of North beat a ridiculously weak team called Gentlemen o f the South at Prince’s in weather and on a ground altogether inimical to cricket. Not