James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annnual 1881

CRICKET IN 1 8 8 0 7 A F I K 1 7 8 hardly a surprise that their programme had to be cut short prematurely , w h e nonly a dozen matches on the list had been played. Thevisit of the Australians nearly produced a permanentrupture between R the cricketers of the old and the newworld , which might even probably have in some small measure affected the political relations of the two countries . Forourselves , we claim to have been ardent admirers of the cricket shown b ythese Antipodeanplayers , but at the sametime we mustadmit that their visit for manyreasons was ill -advised . The recollections of the commercial spirit which had inspired the first team, were still disagreeably fresh in themindsof Englishmen, and this sudden appearance of a second party, was suggestive of a trading concern , whereby Colonial players might systematically make these trips a matter of personal speculation . It was urged too very properly , that to recognise the Australian team as amateurs , whenthey notoriously mademoneyout of these tours , wastacitly to violate the recent enactment of the Marylebone Club defining an amateur , and this anomalous position of the Colonials was the real stumbling block, a point that will have to be settled before another eleven leaves the Colonies . Whether it would have been wise to have allowed this matter to have gone so far as to alienate the cricketers of the two countriesas it wouldhave undoubtedly done, had not the matchat the Oval proved the meansof reconciliation , is a matter , which to us, would seem capable of only one answer ; but none the less , the grievance has existed and still exists . It is easy to comprehend that the distinction between amateurs and professionals m a ybe a little strange in a country of such recent growth as Australia ,but it is well knownto the Colonial players whohave been over here that there is this distinction , and it will be best for Australians to understand that this is one of our English notions , naymore,that it is one of our English laws, that anyone who takes more than his expenses , is in reality a professional . It is currently reported , that in all likelihood we may expect another Australiant e a min 1881, and w e k n o wthat the r u m o u ris foundedon official information . If such be the case, it would be well that the affair should be placed in the hands of some responsible body, such as th Mel- bourne Club , and not be the speculation of any private person or persons Bythat time, in all probability , the fertile Australian brain would have devised somemeansof deciding the status of the various membersof their team, and there will be no such difficulty as arose last summer. W eshould recommendthe Colonial managers, too, to maketheir programmesure by sending over their own agent in time for the annual meeting of the English county secretaries , and this will remove another of the obstacles which stood in the wayof the teamwhich visited Englandin 1880. There was very little of the sensational to mark the records of public school cricket during the season of 1880. The great match of the year at Lord's proved the Etonians , who were surprisingly weak in bowling , to be on this occasion at least inferior to their ancient foemenfrom Harrow; and taken all round , the latter were a very even lot , who would have given trouble to any other public school team of last summer. A closely con- tested finish between Eton and Winchester ended in favour of the former, though there was very little to choose between the pair , and they might have been safely bracketed as equal . With so fine an all -round player as C. F. H. Leslie , who ought to be useful this year for Oxford, Rugby wereable to makea good show, though, owing to the exceeding weakness of Marlborough , their easy victory over the Marlburians could hardly be classed as a very high -class performance . Cheltenham , Clifton ,andMarl- C 1