James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annnual 1881

CRICKET IN 1880 . 1 1 andthere is no morepleasing evidence to be found of the fascination offered by really goodcricket than that of the immense crowd present each day on the occasion of the match at the Oval between the Australian Eleven and a chosen team of England. Andyet onlookers had not on the whole a particularly enjoyable time of it in watching the game during the past season . The weather , it is true , was not so persistently disagreeable as duringthe memorablecampaignof 1879 , but after all this is a poor compliment, and savours of the policy of damning with faint praise . The three great contests of the year at Lord's were, with the exception of occasional showers during the course of the Public School match between Eton and Harrow, which fortunately did not prevent the game being played out , all decided under favourable auspices , but elsewhere the same good fortune was certainly not enjoyed, and not only were the two chief fixtures at the Oval utterly ruined by the rain, but until August the Surrey authorities had not knownthe luxury of really dry cricket . Under such circumstances , though it will be seen on reference to the statistical portion of the A N N U A L, that some large scores were recorded, it cannot be a surprise that the rate of run-getting was not quite so high as it has been in drier seasons , and that in some cases the cricket presented a singular in- consistency . County cricket offered at least one noteworthy feature in the reappear- ance of Hampshire, after an absence of someyears from the field . There was fortunately no difficulty in the task of awarding the championship of the ten leading shires in 1880, as in 1879, when Notts and Lancashire madea hard struggle for the first place. Until August the Nottingham Elevenhad carried everything before them, and the chances of defeat with a team that had hardly shown one weak point , seemed very remote. Yorkshire had given themthe most trouble whenthe two counties met on the Trent Bridge Ground, but the Yorkshiremenhad certainly been show ing anything but reliable form in their early matches, and their defeat of Notts at Sheffield , though not a surprise , was a little unexpected . With this one exception , the summaryof Nottingham cricket in 1880 was a brilliant one, and it will be seen that Gloucestershire , who had undeniably the worst of the drawn game in the return at Cheltenham , was the only shire undefeated by. Notts last season . The batting of Barnes, to w h o mbelongs the distinction of being the only cricketer to exceed a thousand runs in first -class engagements, was one of the most interesting features in connection with the play of the Nottingham Eleven, and his average in county matches is only second to that of Mr. W. G. Grace. Special mention may be made of his faultless innings of 143 against Gloucestershire , at Cheltenham, but throughout he got runs against every class of bowling, and taken as an all -round player, he had, perhaps , only one superior in 1880. Oscroft's batting showed a decided falling off in comparison with the previous year. Shrewsbury and Selby too, did little until the end of the season , and the latter was mainly indebted for his prominent position in the batting averages to his score of 123 against a weak Eleven of M.C.C. and Ground at the end of August. Scotton beganthe season very successfully , but did little towards the close , and Flowers was far behind his performances of the previous year . The sub- stitution of Sherwin , though a very poor bat, for Wild at the wicket was a step which might have been taken with advantage before , and the former proved himself thoroughly reliable . Shaw and Morley bowled with remarkable success , the former taking 83, the latter 97 wickets , but