James Lilllywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1880

THE CRICKET SEASON OF 1879.1 4 1 C H A P T E R V . T H EC R I C K E TS E A S O NO F 1879. B YI N C O G. T H Eindividual w h ocan look back on the season of 1879 with the smallest degree of pleasure should be elevated far above the standard of ordinary mortals . There are , no doubt , beings impressed with the value of the Mark Tapleian creed , creatures of easy disposition , possessed of the requisite amount of patience to be jolly under any circumstances , who were , perhaps , able to bear calmly the cruel blows so unsparingly inflicted on cricketers , during what could only in irony be called the summer of 1879. It was much to the credit of a long -suffering race of sportsmen that they stuck to their posts so bravely , in defiance of the miseries of a season altogether without an equal in the memory of living man. Perhaps the only real plea that could be adduced in favour of the last cricket year , was its consistency , for it was certainly in- considerate enough to rain with relentless severity from the first of M a y until the thirty-first ofAugust. There was no mistaking its intention , and as it began, so it ended, in rain . To describe it merely as a year of misfortunes would be to do scant justice to the sufferings of all classes of cricketers . It was a season fortunately altogether without a parallel , teeming with disasters and ruinous -as, no doubt, another summerwill show-to no small numberof clubs . May, June , July , and August there was little to choose between the four months, and with the exception of a very brief spell of cricket weather towards the end of July there was nothing to relieve the cry of rain , of grounds so saturated with water as hardly to bear the pressure of a foot , of matches mostly uncompleted , some few never even begun , and of generally empty treasuries . The picture that we have drawn is , it will be admitted , not over coloured , and, indeed , a reference to the statistical portion of the Aunual is all that is needed to prove the injurious effects of the almost unintermittent rain in nearly every instance . During Mayand June, the ground of the Marylebone Clubnever hada chance of relieving itself of the copious wet, and although for a very short time , when the season was practically over , Lord's regained its normal condition , the records of 1879 show three months of cricket altogether ruined , with perhaps only one of the great contests played there decided under ordinary favourable auspices of weather . Rain , pitiless and persistent , made the four months of the cricket year cheerless for players , altogether uninviting and dismal for spectators , and no one of either class could possibly have been truly sorry when the last day of August brought the game to a standstill . With such an unexampled quantity of rain , and the grounds generally altogether against the batsmen, it was only to be expected that long scores should have been the exception rather than the rule . Some extraordinary run -getting in the return match between Middlesex and Gloucestershire relieved the general dulness to a slight extent , but taken altogether , first -class cricket in this one respect was tame , and as a natural consequence sides strong in bowling enjoyed a great advantage . In 1878, Middlesex, chiefly by reason of its strength of batting , showed prominently in the van of the counties ; but last season , although its records were hardly inferior , the leading positions were monopolised by the northern shires ; and Notts and Lancashire could fairly claim to a division of the honours . A comparison between the two counties showed each to have