James Lillywhte's Cricketers' Annual 1884

3 4 L I L L Y W H I T E ' SC R I C K E T E R S ' A N N U A L . has had two of her old boys in each of the last two Oxford elevens , and one in each of the elevens of '79 '80 and '81 . This is a high average for a school of one hundred and twenty boys, which has never had more than a dozen old boys at Oxford at one time, and w e believe that next year there is every chance of this average being kept up, if not increased . Loretto has on several occasions measured her strength with English schools of considerable cricket reputation . A n annual match is played with Rossall , and here the Scottish school easily holds her own. In 1883, too , the Loretto eleven went to Uppingham, andbeat this crack English school on its ownground by nearly o n eh u n d r e druns. Fettes College comes next in Scottish school cricket , but her old boys do not showso well in the cricket field , at the Universities , as those of Loretto . In 1883, we had little opportunity of seeing the Fettes eleven , as the school migrated to Windermere, owing to an epidemic which broke out in the school inEdinburgh. Merchiston turns out some good cricketers , and, in 1883 , was the champion school of Scotland . They gained this honour by beating Loretto in a one-day matchby a single run in the first innings . This was, no doubt, a cricket fluke , as Loretto wereb yfar the better eleven. TheEdinburgh Academyis not nearly so good as it used to be in cricket , or it m a ybe that the other schools are muchbetter , and this mayaccount for the lowposition the Academyboys nowtake in Scottish school cricket . Being a dayschool , the boys mostly leave school at the early age of sixteen , and thus they donot give their cricket a chance . M a n yvery fine cricketers have been reared at this school , perhaps because they have the best ground in Scotland . Craigmount , like the Academy, have declined in cricket in the last ten years . Their former success was, perhaps , more due to the fact that they had a succession of high class bowlers , than to real cricket excellence all through the school. Blair Lodge School is improving in cricket every year, but at present the boys are not quite strong enough to play the better Scottish clubs unaided. Consequently , they enlist the services of two or three cricketing masters and a professional , and with these additions they have a strong team. W ebelieve that in a few years they will be able to play the other Scottish schools on equal t e r m s. Trinity College Glenalmond was, fifteen years ago, one of the best cricketing schools in Scotland , but now their cricket is at a very low ebb indeed . Rifle shooting , to which they have for the last few years devoted a great deal of their time-and to some purpose too, as is shewn by their success at Wimbledon -seemsto have a good deal to do with this decline in their cricket , as the school has not numbers enough to allow of its excelling both at the range and in thecricketfield. W ehave tried to give a short account of the various Scottish cricket clubs , and schools of importance , and w e should now like to say a few words on Scottish cricket-generally . Thecricket grounds of Scotland are , as a class , very slow ; and the effect of this is that the batting is somewhat cramped and stiff , andthe scores are , as a rute , small . Of course there are exceptions , but we refer to the general featuresof Scottishcricket. This slowness of the cricket grounds of Scotland has a great deal to do with the miserable exhibitions that have been madeby certain Scotch teams that have played at Lord's . Those who have been accustomed to slow wickets during their whole cricket experience cannot be expected to show up to advantage when brought to play on a fast wicket for the first time ; and this is very muchthe case of the Scot- tish elevens that havefrom time to time come South to play the M.C.C. and G r o u n d. In Scotland all the clubs wehave mentioned employ professionals , most of whomcome from England . Very few professionals engaged in Scotland are