James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1886

2 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. C H A P T E R 11. C R I C K E T I N 1 8 8 5. B YI N C O G. G O O Dwickets , favourable weather, and, on the whole, cricket decidedly above the average these were essentially the characteristic features of the season of 1885. Norwas there any lack of interest in the game; on the con- trary , the experience of those qualified to speak with authority was that the moreimportant matches never received better support or were more productive of excitement . The excitement , too, was genuine-not of the sensational character which has marked the cricket during the periodical visits of the Australian teams. O nthe whole, there was every possible reason for congratu- lation in a retrospect of last year's cricket . It was a season of purely English sport , and if for this reason only there was abundant cause for satisfaction in the unmistakeableevidence of the holdwhichthe better kindof cricket has on the public mind. Fromall sides comes the same testimony , and it is with no small degree of confidence that cricketers generally can look forward to the future of their sport-the national gameof the country par excellence . As long as it is conducted in the sportsmanlike and liberal spirit which was such a conspicuous feature of last season , there will indeed be no reason to doubt its steady development. It could hardly have been expected that the uninterrupted success which attended the Notts CountyEleven in 1884 would be continued another summer. Their record of that season was one of such exceptional brilliance that there washardly a chance of maintaining a standard of such super -excellence . A sa consequence , the cricket shown by the Nottinghamshire players suffered con- siderably in comparison . It was merely a comparative deterioration , though , and, as a matter of fact , the all -round play of the team was certainly of a moreeven pitch of excellence than that shownby any other county of the year. A tone time it looked as if there was going to be a hard struggle for the best record of the season . Yorkshire , Lancashire , and Surrey were all for atime well up in the running , and there was an outside chance, until quite the last , that Notts might, by one defeat , be brought to the same level in the matter of actual victories as its great neighbour and old rival of York. Takenaltogether , though, a comparison between the all -round cricket of the Notts and Yorkshire Elevens in 1885 was all in favour of the former, and a fair analysis of the performances of the different county teams only serves to emphasise the contention that Notts , on public form , was certainly the best county of last year . The bowling was not, perhaps , on the whole , of the same uniformity of effect ; but it must be remembered that the grounds generally were more in favour of the bat than the ball , and a comparison with the figures of others will show that there was quite as muchbowling in the Not- tinghamshire Eleven as could be shownby the most successful of the other competitors for county honours . In batting , though, Notts was quite as strong , if not stronger , than it has ever been. Barnes was hardly as useful for the county as in some previous years , and Scotton somewhat less successful than in 1884. On the other hand, Gunnhas never before shown such con- sistently good batting , and Shrewsbury was seen at his very best-high praise