James Lilllywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1880

T H E CRICKET SEASONOF 1879 . 4 7 opportunity for practice until the summer term was over . Eton and Harrow were fairly matched , and though the former beat Winchester , it was not without a struggle . The Rugby eleven were , as usual , a much more powerful lot than their old rivals at Marlborough ; but there was very little , if anything , to choose between Westminster and Charterhouse . The most extraordinary School contest of the year was that between Cheltenham and Clifton , when A. J. Forrest , the Cheltenham captain , won the game by bowlingling the last wicket of Clifton with the very last ball of the match ; and but for a surprising collapse in their second innings against Marlborough , the Cheltonians would have won both matches of the year . Rotherham's bowling made Uppingham strong on paper ; and Wellington and Malvern both made a fair show among the minor Schools. 1 1 As a special chapter is devoted to curiosities in connection with cricket during the past season , a passing mention of a few of the most noteworthy in- cidents will be all that is required here . The largest innings that has come under our notice was 683 by Devonshire Park against Chiswick at Eastbourne on September 5 and 6 ; the smallest that made at Seaford on August 4 against the local club by Twelve Visitors , who scored 1 run, and that a bye. The long spell of frost last Christmastide afforded opportunity for the decision of several matches on the ice , and one of these , at Hull, between Ullathorne's and Wallgate's sides , on January 25, was noteworthy for a fine total of 294 by the latter . Onthis occasion D. Hearfield retired after scoring 105runs ; and, with all reserve , we venture to submit this contest as an instance of the highest total as well as the largest individual score of this peculiar style of cricket . The death -roll of the year is happily not very lengthy , although several prominently associated with the national game have gone over to the majority since the issue of the last annual . During a fit of temporary insanity , George Griffith , the cheery old Ben of the famous Surrey eleven of a bygone era , put an end to his life on May3 ; but otherwise the obituary of 1879 shows no name prominently identified with active cricket . Several well -known figures in connection with the game in London will be sadly missed next year . The Surrey and Marylebone Clubs lost two valued friends and liberal supporters in their respective Treasurers , Messrs . Henry Mortimer and Thomas Burgoyne ; and the absence of the familiar forms of Messrs . G. Kelly King and W. H. Knight , two of the oldest reporters as well as ablest statisticians , will be a cause of deep sorrow to the hundreds of cricketers by whomthey were held in affectionate regard . Since our last review two teams of English players have left for foreign shores . One contretemps , very much to be regretted , marred the general success of Lord Harris's party in Australia ; but in most districts the visitors had no reason to complain of colonial hospitality . As was predicted , with Emmett and Ulyett as the only professionals , and with only Mr. Lucas of any pretensions as a bowler among the rest , in this one department they were very weak, but the results were more favourable than was anticipated , and their strength of batting was fully demonstrated by a succession of long scores far beyond the average of previous visits . Daft's tour in Canada and the United States during September and October , with eleven other professionals of Not- tinghamshire and Yorkshire , will , if we mistake not , give a new impetus to cricket in manydistricts where baseball and La Crosse have hitherto reigned supreme . The Fifteens , Eighteens , and Twenty -twos were in no wayamatch for the exceptionally fine team Daft had collected , and the attempt of the Young America Club to play them on even terms received a fitting rebuke . Nine