James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annnual 1881

2 L I L L Y W H I T E ' SC R I C K E T E R S' A N N U A L. wicket was quite hopeless. Lillywhite was physically exceptional . His throwing andhis bowling were so ludicrously alike that some of the Mary- lebone Club for fun would ask him to stand long-field to see him ' bowl u p' the ball . It was evident that such a style of bowling must generally beabusiness-it could rarely be a pleasure . The old score books showthat , with all but professional bowlers , ' wides ' used to makea serious addition t o t h escore. N o wthe Australians began to play at the time whenhand-over-shoulder was allowed. Fromthat time bowling was easy, because natural , and to bowlwasalmost as easy as to throw. A d dto this , the Australians did not readily develop a race of professionals to do the hard work for them. Caffyn and Wells both found in Australia that ' to play and pay' was a point in civilisation to which the colonials had not attained , and there was little encouragementfor professionals to attempt a livelihood amongthem. Circumstances , therefore , tended fortunately to throw the colonials on their ownresources as to bowling; and as bowling is worth little without headwork , there is a decided advantage in this being undertaken by men o fm i n da n deducation. Thefirst peculiarity wediscerned in colonial bowling was the frequent introduction of Yorkers,' or ' Tices,' in the old term. This, as the first ball he receives , especially takes manyby surprise , witness even Daft's suddenretreat at Nottingham. Inthe sameway, andwith similar tact , Wisden adopted the plan of pitching well up, and also to the leg , as the weaker stump; at first amancame in and Lockyer used to study character , take stock of his m a n, and, descrying the least nervousness , he wouldwavehis handunseento the enemy, and motionto the bowler to take advantage of t h ew e a k n e s s. A n dhere w em a ydigress for a momentto observe the secret of these panics , or that of establishing a funk,' and the rapid fall of wickets , which every cricketer has witnessed nothing succeeding like success .' Atimid , scared , and nervous manunconsciously alters his play , and alters it very muchfor the worse, because his nervousness operates in this w a y - he is afraid to play out . In playing timidly , he plays back, making most difficult , with shortest sight , balls the most easy to play forward; ner- vousness thus not only gives a shaky hand, but all the disadvantages of an incorrect judgment , so no wonder the nervous player comes to grief , and soon enacts the returned convict ' to the pavilion . The Australians are too good judges not to take advantage of this particular error (we speak not n o wof the nervousness which produces it). W enever sawa better instance than with Barnes's innings at the Crystal Palace match. Barnes was cramped by over -pitched balls all through his long innings ; we never saw a manwho more completely threw away the great advantage of a long reach forward . W e remarked this to the Australian bowler , who replied , Anddid you not see how we took advantage of this all through Barnes's innings ? ' The Australian Eleven had an unusual numberof bowlers, and, as on the occasion of their first visit , they had another first -rate wicket-keeper besides Blackham; and, as to batsmen, they again had an advantage in that. There was no ' tail ' : witness the excellent innings of the eleventh m a n, w h osupported Murdoch's great achievement at the Oval. Indeed, the large additions made by their last wickets is quite a feature in the Australianmatches. As to the Australian batting , men, critical as to the style , are apt to