James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1878

at the Oval, secured 206 runs before a wicket fell. It would be an unpardon* able omission too, not to place on record the wonderful success of Mr. G. Grace’s bowling (eighty-one wickets for 981 runs), and in particular his best feat in this respect, his remarkable analysis in the return match with Notts at Cheltenham, wherein at one time he delivered twenty-five balls for no runs and seven wickets. The first year of Mr. H. Perkins, as the Secretary of the Marylebone Club, was thoroughly successful, and invaluable as his predecessor, Mr. R . A . Fitz­ gerald was in the position, there is fortunately every reason for the belief that the reputation of the premier club will in no way suffer in the hands of its present chief officer. Throughout the last season as a genoral rule, the M.C.C. was better represented than was the case in previous years, and the summary at the close of the year was a decided improvement on some of its immediate pre­ decessors, as of the large number of sixty-five matches that were played, twenty-eight were won and only eleven lost. The colts match at the commence­ ment of the year was entitled Colts of Yorkshire and Notts, against Colts of England and proved an utter failure as in the selection of the latter team, the county secretaries, who ought to be the best judges of their own most likely youngsters, were never consulted at all, and in consequence several players took part in the match who apparently had never seen a cricket ball, and as was proved certainly never handled one. Owing to the absence of Lilly- white’s Australian twelve, several of the early contests at Lord’s were com­ pletely spoiled, and with the exception of the glorious finish in the match between Gentlemen and Players, there was little in the shape of sensation. A new fixture, M.C.C. and Ground, against England was altogether spoiled by the heavy state of the ground, and another novelty, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire, against England, was a comparative failure, as neither side was very strongly represented, and here again the weather altogether marred the play. Cricket at Lords benefitted greatly by the appearance there of the Middlesex County Club, which had migrated from its former head-quarters, at Prince’s, and the addition of a few county matches to the Marylebone pro­ gramme, will certainly strengthen it in a point where it has been undeniably weak of late years. The space required for a detailed record of the doings of Lillywhite’s Australian Twelve in the Colonies has reluctantly caused the Editor to aban­ don for this Annual the interesting article on Public School Cricket, kindly contributed by Mr. F. R . Price, and therefore a few brief notes here must suffice for present needs. The University match was a complete upset of the. calculations formed at the beginning of the season. Cambridge had a strong batting eleven and had consistently^ made long scores, while Oxford on their own ground had only shown moderate form. A comparison of the cricket shown by the two Universities, in London, prior to the great encounter caused a certain change in the minds of good judges. Mr. F. M. Buckland had not played at all at Oxford, and his excellent performance both with bat and ball against both Middlesex and M.C.C. at Lord’s, proved that he was an important factor in any calculations respecting the Inter-University Match. The game itself proved the fallacy of counting on an eleven proved to be only above the average in one department. The Cambridge batsmen, were gene­ rally rather of the hitting order, and fell to pieces before the medium faced bowling of Messrs. Tylecote, Jellicoe, and Buckland, which had the advantage of being very straight as well as supported by a hard working and brilliant field. Cambridge did well to get a few of the best Oxford wickets down in the first innings for a moderate number of runs, but directly the bowling was collared all hope was lost, and I shall not be accused of injustice if I assert that the Cambridge bowling was the worst that has been shown in an Inter­ s'*