James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annnual 1881

1 6 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. of the batting tables , with 951 runs for 24 completed innings , and the highly respectable average of over 394 runs . Barnes, the only cricketer credited with an aggregate of over a thousand runs , was far and awaythe best professional batsman of 1880, and Lockwood, whoseplay at times wasas good as it ever has been, is only 48 short of four figures . TheH o n. Ivo Bligh had even a better showthan the Yorkshireman, with 957 runs for six innings less ; and amongthe other successful batsmenmaybe mentioned Mr. R. T. Ellis , the Sussex Captain , Lord Harris , Messrs. R. S. Jones, H o n. A. Lyttelton , Moberly, F. Penn, I. D. Walker, andA. J. Webbe. From these remarks, itwill be seen that the Amateurswere again in advance of the Professionals , and indeed, the batting of the Players in several conspicuous instancesw a sm u c hb e l o wt h eusuals t a n d a r d. In bowling, only three cricketers were able to boast that they hadtaken over a hundred wickets , and it is needless to add that these three were all professionals and northerners . Alfred Shawand Morley were both over thirty ahead of their next rival Peate of Yorkshire , and the pair ran a great race for the majority of wickets . Alfred Shawbowled nearly 300 balls in excess of Morley, for over 500 runs less , and three more wickets , andhis feat in taking 177 wickets for an average of under eight -and-a-half runs ,must be accounted as a wonderful performance. Peate, for a slow bowler, had reason to be pleased with his summaryof 138 wickets , for 1,668 runs, and Barlow, Mr. A. H. Evans of Oxford, Mr. Morton, W. Mycroft, Hill , Mid- winter , Hay, Nash, M r A.G. Steel , and Watson, all had very creditable figures . Amongpromising youngsters whomadetheir first appearance , Gunn of Notts , Readof Surrey , Grimshawof Yorkshire , as batsmen, and Woofof Gloucestershire , and Woottonof Kent, deserve favourable mention. During the season , Englandwas visited by two teams of cricketers from other countries . It wouldhardly be the truth to say that either visit was a w e l c o m eone for our cricketers , as in each case there werecircumstances whichmadethe trip inadvisable from an English point of view. So little notice was given of the approach of a second Australian team, that they were already on their waybefore any real preparations were begun , and long before then all the programmesof the principal clubs had been com- pleted. The rumour that a party of Canadian cricketers were going to venture over here and contend with English players , was at first , it must be admitted, regarded as something of a joke. The Canadian newspapers ridiculed the project , and even disputed the claims of the travellers to be considered a fit representation of the cricket of the Dominion. Critics on this side argued very fairly that as Daft's Eleven had failed to discover any real talent during their American trip , this incursion of a second-rate Canadian Eleven would be a burlesque , and so unfortunately it proved. Everyonemusthave felt sympathywith the sufferers ,if the teamthemselves were sufferers , but the very idea even of such a trip never could have emanated from the brain of a practical m a n, and had the managementof affairs been as shrewd as it wasinjudicious , there could have been no other result than a decided failure . It is true that luck wasagainst the Kanucks in theweather. In their early fixtures , too, fortune dealt thema severe blow w h e ntheir best and only good all-round player, T. Jordan, whilomknown as Trooper Dale of the Household Brigade, was removed into the safe keeping of the military authorities here , as a deserter , but after he was gone there was only one bowler left of any pretensions in Gillean , and he was not always on the spot . Their batting was certainly below the s standard of a good country club , their fielding decidedly bad, and it was