James Lillywhte's Cricketers' Annual 1884

2 4 LILLYWHITE'S CRICKETERS' ANNUAL. perhaps , be considered a bold assertion that the game at the present time is in abetter condition than it ever has been. Mere assertion , it m a ybe argued, proves nothing ; but it is a fact that the experience of all the chief clubs last year was a markedincrease in the numberof visitors at the various grounds . Thegrowing popularity in the better class of cricket , of which , during the last few years, there has been such abundantevidence, is one of the most healthy signs in the outlook at the present time, and it is a very pleasant as well as consoling reflection that the whole of the success which attended the season of 1883, though it must be admitted that there were a few small disagreeables , of which more anon, was the result of sport of homeproduction . Themost gratifying feature in the retrospect of 1883 was the interest taken inthe development of County cricket . It would be ungrateful to deny the services rendered to the game in the past by the professional elevens who visited different parts of the Kingdom, leaving behind them an example of good cricket where good cricket was practically unknown. TheAll-England elevens , of which William Clarke was the original founder , have donemuch and real good in the dissemination of cricket ; but their dayhas passed, and the disuse into which merely speculative fixtures have fallen is one of the best signs of the cricket of to-day. Fortunately for the future of the game County cricket was never in a more flourishing state . The whirligig of time brought its revenges in a change of fortune to some of the more important clubs , but the majority of the older shires display an increase rather than any diminution of energy ; andthe past season has shown, not only animportant addition to the numberof County Clubs, but a noticeable stir among the minor shires , and a marked determination for the consolidation of their available forces with a view to qualification for a place among first -class Counties , which can not but be conducive to the best interests of the game. Theseason of 1883 presented few more hopeful signs than in the general improvementof the cricket of the Southern Counties . True that Gloucester- shire was only a shadow of its former strength , and that the Kentish eleven , owingto causes which have materially affected their advancement of late years , had little reason for congratulation . Still , on the whole, there was an un- mistakeable evidence of life certainly lacking in southern cricket for many years past, the maintenance of which is most earnestly to be desired . Surrey wasable, although crippled by the absence of its best bowler, G. Jones, to showa bold front even to the northern shires ; and Sussex was not only equal to the task of beating Yorkshire at Sheffield by sheer good cricket , but in all probability would havebeen victorious over Notts, in the return match, had time only admitted the completion of the game. Middlesex was strong enough in batting alone , with ordinarily good luck , to render an excellent account of itself against any County eleven of the year ; and Hampshiremade adecided advance towards its replacement in the list of first -class Counties by the promising form it showed more than once. All along the line there were signs of animprovement in southern cricket , andthough no one would go so far as to assert that the supremacy so long enjoyed by the north is in danger for the moment, there is every hope that the balance of power will , before long, bemoreevenly poised. Thecompetition for the first place in Countycricket is always very keen, andlast year the interest was fully sustained by the evident equality of the t w ogreat northern shires -Notts and Yorkshire. A tthe commencementof the season the outlook seemed to be all in favour of Yorkshire and Lancashire , and the break-down of Morley, coupled with the loss of Oscroft from serious illness , and an injury which prevented Selby's presence in several of the earlier matches, certainly did not suggest the idea that Notts would be the successful competitor in the race for honours . As a matter of fact , though , by a curious stroke of what m a yjustly , I think, be called good fortune , the Nottinghamshire eleven were, under the recognised system of awarding the premiership , justly entitled to the championship of the year. Custom hasalways ruled that the Countyable to showthe smallest numberof defeats