James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1887

THE CRICKET SEASON OF 1886. 3 Of the three matches against England, two resulted in crushing defeats ; in the other , namely , the one at Manchester , they made a good show, and at one time looked like winning . If they had won that match, if Palmer had not missed L o h m a n nbefore hehadscored in the first innings-andw h owouldexpect to see Palmer miss a catch ?--the result of the tour might have been very different , for it wasnot until the second match with England at Lord's that they seemed to fall to pieces . Notice must not be omitted of their wonderful performance against the Gentlemen at the Oval in June, when, going in against the enormous total of 471, they succeeded in scoring no less than 488, through the fine per- formance of Jones and the rest : still , the bowling against them was very weak indeedo nthatoccasion. Theonly real success in the team was Giffen-65 innings with an average of 25 , anda bowling average of 162 wickets for 16 runs , is a marvellous display ; in fact it is easy to see what would have become of the Australian Eleven of 1886 if he hadbyanychance been left behind . Jones's total of runs is high , but his average poor. The Captain was a great disappointment . Of the bowlers , Spofforth seemed to have lost most of his cunning , and Palmer was pulled to leg most unmercifully off the middle stump. He, however, has greatly improved as abat. Garrett did a lot of heavy work, and has a very good analysis , but the public has been accustomed to expect something out of the commonwhenthe Colonists pay us a visit . In one point of the game alone they stand unequalled , andthat owing to one man. A sa wicket -keeper Blackhamis , nowas ever, the finest performer of any whohave ever stood behind the sticks . Jarvis also was at times very brilliant . The averages of English cricketers against the Australians prove more conclusively than anything else could do the superiority of our menduring the past summer, andhere drawngameshave been no help to our visitors . TheLeviathan , or to call him by his most popular name, W .G. , heads the list with the striking average of 42 ; Mr. Read is only a little distance behind with 39; Abel , 39 ; Maurice Read, 38 ; Flowers , 36 ; Bates and Shrewsbury , 35; Mr. F. M. Lucas, 33. These figures speak for themselves , and it will clearly be seen that our crack batsmen have now, after some years ' practice , taken the exact measure of the Australian bowling. Barnes was the most successful of the bowlers against them, followed byPeate, Briggs , and Lohmann. Notts played fourteen matches , winning seven , drawing seven, and losing none, against one loss in 1885, with the same numberof wins as in this year. Of her victories , that over Lancashire in June at Nottingham , and over Surrey at theOval, were the most decisive ; that over Yorkshire the most exciting , when the last -namedcounty was beaten by eight runs only, a magnificent running catch byWalter Wright on the boundary giving the victory to Notts . Of the drawnmatches, the first match with Surrey was in favour of the southern shire , the two Gloucestershire matches being very muchin favour of Notts . The return with Lancashire wasalso decidedly in their favour, while Yorkshirewould probably have suffered a severe defeat in their return . The second fixture with Middlesex , and also with Kent, furnished very even draws. Theresult , therefore , of the seven draws is four for, one against , and two even . These figures , with no defeats , show another brilliant season for the championcounty. Notts played two matches with the Australians early in their tour when theywere at their best , but could not succeed in bringing either to a definite conclusion . The first was quite an open draw, but the second was decidedly in favourof theAustralians. Amongst the averages , Shrewsbury , with the magnificent figures of twenty- oneinnings for forty -six runs per innings , is easily first . This is the highest county average of the season , and only comes second to his ownperformance in 1885 , whenhis average was even higher still -fifty -four . Such an average is marvellous . Gunnagain takes the second place with thirty -three , and Scotton has considerably improved the position he held last year . Barnes has not been so successful for his county as one would have expected ; he appears to lack patience.