James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1879

PART I. . CHAPTER I. THE ELEVEN FROhI AUSTRALIA. (By Me Eff/7072) IF FOR nothing else, the English season of 1878 will he memorable for the establishment of another prominent landmark in the history of our national game. The idea ofa visit from an Australian team, it may be safely stated. was at first treated as something ofa joke by our Euglisli cricketers. It is true that Southerton, in his graphic descriptions of the tour of James Lilly- white's Eleven in the Colonies, during the winter of 1875 and spring of 1876 had prepared us for the possibility of such a trip It is true, too, that there was really no reason to doubt the enterprise of Australian sportsmen with the triumph ofTrickett on the Thames, and his return to Sydney with the aquatic championship of the world in his possession, so freslt in the memories of Eng- lishmen. There was no tangible groultd for refusing to believe in air incursion of Australian players, but still with, perhaps, a justifiable amount of self— sutficiency, we were slow to accredit the Colonials with the extraordinary advance they had in reality made in the development of the sport which they had learned from English professors. To those who COlIl(l appreciate the im measurable obstacles that would have to be surmounted before even the- preliminaries of an undertaking involving such momentous issues, and necessi- tating such a heavy pecuniary risk as would have to be met by the carriage of twelve men over so many thonsanrls of miles, and the hundred other expenses to be defrayed during an absence ofso many months, could be arranged, there was much to create a doubt in the fulfilment of the undertakiiig. Anthony Trollope had proved that the verb to “ blow ” was one of universal applictl- tiori in all parts of Australia, and the proportion of Englishmen who were sanguine enougli to believe that we should ever be bearded in our own den by Colonial cricketers, would certainly have reached a very small per centage. It was not long, though, before the rumours of this Australian mission began to assume a definite shape. It began to he mooted abroad that James Lillywhite, junr., had alreadyv opened communications with some of the chief county clubs for engagements mi behalf of Mr. John Conway, of Melbourne, and this gave to what had been previously airy nothingness a local habitation and a name. The arrangemeiit of a. farewell tour in the Colonies by the team selected to cross the silvery streak to measure blades with the champions of- . Englaiid, and the reports that reached us by melt mail of their progress left no B