James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1882

T H E L A N C A S H I R E L E V E NOF 1881. 3 Crossland in Augustproved that he could hit with vigour andeffect . There wasindeed very little tail to the team, andwhenit is considered that in addition to its regular forces there were such reserves as Messrs. Appleby, Taylor, D. Q. Steel , R. Wood, an old Carthusian , useful both as a bat and bowler , and H. Miller , an old Uppinghamboy, whose fast round arm bowl- ing wouldhave been invaluable to some Counties less favoured in this par- ticular respect , it will hardly be a surprise that Lancashire should have had such a brilliant career last year. The instances of a Countycarrying out a season's programmewithout one reverse are of the rarest , and the Lan- cashire record is the more unique in that , while nine of its ten wins were most decisive , its three drawngames were each of themleft very muchin its favour . The claims of Lancashire to be considered the best County of the year were, it is satisfactory to think , without the semblance of a flaw . C H A P T E R II. A Good- natured Growl. B YJ A M E SL I L L Y W H I T E . IT is the privilege of an old manto grumble . And, at the worst , this will only be a good-natured growl. Lord Charles Russell , in the interesting little address he delivered on the occasion of the present- ation to Mr. W. G. Grace, was particular to lay stress on the fact that cricket should be played strictly according to rule. " Cricket ," to use his words , " is a game of laws and regulations ." A s every- one knows, or ought to know, the proper conduct of what is our national gameis subservient to a code of rules of which the M.C.C. has vir- tually the administration . Of the forty -seven rules which constitute this code, m a n yremainmuchthe sameas whenthey first saw the light . Others havebeen patched and mendeduntil little , if any, of the original stuff remains . In a spirit of veneration , praiseworthy no doubt, each succeeding race of lawmakershas s h o w na disinclination to interfere m o r ethanit could possibly help with the work initiated by its predecessors , and sanctioned , if not approved, by the cricketers of more than one genera- tion . This objection m a ybe capable of satisfactory explanation to the few whodisbelieve in change of anykind , but its effects have not been altogether beneficial . On the contrary , for the want of occasional revision in the ar- rangement or wording , the rules are generally ill -expressed , and in some cases even contradictory . It m a yno doubt appear strange to those who have not the laws of the M.C.C. by heart , but as a fact , there are certain recognised points , some of them integral portions of the game, of which there is absolutely not a single mentionin the entire code. To makecon- fusion worse confounded, in somecases the same words are used to apply to things bearing quite a different significance ! It would be equally easy too to point out cases where the letter of the law is contrary to the general