James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1886

4 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 . practice , a really fine bat. Of the new blood Wimbushwas the most successful ; while Bather, this year's captain , gave promise of great im- provement, and ought to become a really good bat. A glance at the statistics of RugbyCricket in 1885 would lead us to conclude that the dearth of bowlers alluded to above had affected Rugby, even more severely than other schools . Of batsmenthere were plenty -in addition to the captain there wereeight membersof the team w h oaverageddouble figures . Theywere, of course , quite thrown into the shade by E. H. Bradby, whose marvellous average of 69 forms one of the " curiosities " ofthe year. W eare told by those who ought to knowthat he was as fine a bat as anyschool has turned out for years . W eshall watch his future career with the greatest interest , for since Leslie's time, no O. R. has had such a reputa- tion as he takes with h i mto Oxford. Of the other batsmenw e are inclined toplace Gaddumand the younger Bradbynext in order of merit . Theyare rather wanting in " hit," but they play straight , and another season's coaching at school will be sure to benefit t h e mboth. W ehavereferred to the wantof bowling, and well we might. Bengough, a slow-bowler with a good high delivery andplenty of " work," was as far in advance of the others in bowling as the captain was with the bat ; and it was poor luck for the team, that their "only bowler " was too ill to play at Lord's . W emight add that the bowlers werenot always supported by the field as well as they might have been. In the Marlborough match, at all events , victory was thrown away by bad catching . This m a yhave been due to nervousness , but one thing is certain , matches cannot be wonif catches are dropped, and good catching , like other good things , can only be learnt by constant steady practice -verb . sap . Bengoughand four or five others are left to form a nucleus for this season's team. W ewish them good luck. Sherborne was very unfortunate in havingto find nine n e whandsto fill u p vacancies in their team, and we regret to say that the season did not bring tolight m u c htalent. I ntwo or three matchesthe eleven m a d ea very fair show, but they " cut up" badly against Clifton , and were far below the standard of what Sherborne elevens used to be. In Broadbent they possessed avery useful all -round player, and we are told that during the holidays he kept wicket very well . He, and the majority of the team, are staying on, and w ehopefor better things this year. It is quite time that somemorefirst -class bats appeared at Sherborne , to take the places which Price , Game, Wallington , Lacey, and others so ably filled in the past, though let us add that we are of opinion that Nepeanwill yet redeem his school promise , and makea namefor himself at Oxford. The Shrewsbury eleven managedto win a fair proportion of their matches , but they were not a strong team, and madea poor show against Rossall . Ash, this year's captain , is more than likely to be heard of in the future , his average , though not out of the wayin a season of heavy scoring , is yet decidedly good, a n dh ew a swellin frontof his c o m r a d e s. 6 6 The Tonbridge eleven did not meet with the success which we predicted for t h e min our last review of public school cricket . Their well-tried and successful bowlers of the past year seemed to have lost all their " sting ," and i n t h et w oschool m a t c h e sdefeatw a st h elot thatbefell the t e a m. T h e honours of the year rest almost entirely with Rashleigh , and his record was perfectly wonderful . H ehad no huge scores to help him, and yet he averaged 63runs per innings . His defence was as good as ever , and in power of hitting he certainly made an advance, while the fact that he came off " for Kent, proves him to be a sound bat. M a n ygood judges expect him to be of great service to Oxford , and declare that he will grow into a first -rate cricketer . Thebowling, as we have said , did not prove nearly so deadly as hadbeen hoped, and the two "cracks " were far more expensive than in the previous year. The bowling averages went up, and the batting averages wentdown, so we cannot wonder that the results were somewhat unsatisfactory . W ehope the decadence is only temporary, but we fear that the exceptionally high