James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1879

CHAPTER IV. THE CRICKET SEASON OF 1878. BY INCOG. It was fortunate in many ways that something out ot the common occurred to relieve the monotony of English cricket during the past season. If the charge of dulness could be brouglit against its predecessor of 1877 there would have beeninfinitelystronger reasons for designatiiig the past cricket year of 1878 as singularly tame and uninteresting had not the visit of the Australian team introduced a new sensation which fairly cast all the doings of our own Englisll players into the shade. It is not my purpose to analyse the performances of Gregory and his men, nor to speculate on the effect of their trip on the game here. Their merits and demerits have been carefully' weighed in a previous chapter. but I should be wanting in justice, were I not, while deprecating most strongly' their unsportsmanlilte conduct more than once here— more especially their chronic objection to recognise the accepted cricket axiom. that the umpire’s decision is final, and their general resentment at every verdict unfavourable to them; which subsequent]rculminated in a grass breach of the ordinary regulations of the game at Phi adelphia— to offer- my tribute of admiration for the really brilliant cricket they displayed under most trying circumstances while in England. There may still be some illiberal enough, or sulfa ently blinded b)' partiality to depreciate them, but it would be better for us generally were we to takealcsson from the best features of their cricket. It would be better topockct our insular pride, to admit the method that characterised them in the field, their undoubted strength of bowling, the skill in placing the Eleveii for‘ the different kinds ofattack, the excellent discipline displayed by the whole team, the Judgment which marked Grego v’s management of the bowling' at his command, and the resolution with which they one and all played up to thewery lasti Theil‘ success over here might well serve as a peg to hang a treatise on the obviotis distaste of most of our Englislr players, more particularly the amateurs, to devote a cer. tain portion of the time they expend an the cultivation of batting to prae. ticc in bowling antl fielding; but it is not my mission to act as a moralist, and I shall have to proceed with my task of recording the chief features of the season last departed. I do not know that any class of cricketers has special cause to be grateful tor the arrangement ofthe weathcrduring the past summer. There was certainly one very brief spell of sunshine in July, but it did not altogetlier‘ eXLentl to more than three weeks, and generally the weather was simpl\' disgusting. The seasori opened inauspiciously enougli in rain, and rain it did with very slight cessation from the rst of May to the 31st of- Augtrst. In September, when cricket was practically over, it certainly had the bad taste to change its aspect and smile where it had been one long frown, but throughout the spminer was wet and disagreeable as it has not been for- many years. Generally cricket-grounds werc more or less moist throughout the months of May, June, july, and August, and as a natural consequence bowlers were placed on far better terms than usual with the batsmen. Some long innings cf course were made but taken collectively the scores were not so large as in seine previous seasons, and there was very little in all truth of purely Englislt cncltet to make the year memorablet