James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1887

6 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. sidered very creditable achievements , and had they possessed any bowling , they mighteasily have broken the uninterrupted succession of Nottinghamshire vic- tories . In the first match, at Lord's , it was the fine batting of GunnandSelby that dissipated what must have been the very unpleasant fears of the Notts captain , whenhe saw four of his best wickets down, and 100 runs still required tow i n. Thebatting averages are , as is usual with this county, remarkably good. Mr. Stanley Scott heads the list , as he did in 1885. It is pleasant to have to record the fine average obtained by Mr. Webbe, the hard-working captain of the team. Mr. Stoddart proved that he can play cricket as well in good com- pany as at Hampstead, and Mr. J. G. Walker has proved of eminent service . A tone time in the season it looked as if Spillman was going to have a fine position , but he fell awayin the later matches. O fthe Middlesex bowling, now, as in former years , the less said , the better . Burtonbore the burden of the attack , but his figures will not bear examination . Ihavenever considered Burton as any other than a very ordinary bowler since a certain afternoon , some years ago, when Bonnor nearly knocked m yhead off , from a ball of his , on the top of the Pavilion at Lord's . (There is a celebrated bowler, born in Middlesex -whyis he not playing for his county ? I will not mention names , but let Mr. Webbe look to it , and another year he maybeat Nottingham.) Yorkshire scored fewer victories than losses , and hadthe same large number of drawnmatches as Nottinghamshire . Altogether the eleven showed a decided deterioration from their form of the preceding season . Theywere very unfor- tunate in losing their matchwith Notts, just whenvictory seemed within their grasp . With the exception of their victory over Derbyin June, they did not winamatchuntil the middle of August, whenthey woke up in earnest , and gave Middlesex a taste of their quality . During the short time remaining they scored two more decisive wins , and had a drawvery muchin their favour with Sussex. Thecharacteristic point of Yorkshirecricket is the uncertainty of the batting. T w omatches were played with the Australians . In the first the latter w o n easily ; the second resulted in a draw, slightly in favour of the county . Thebatting averages will not bear comparison with those of 1885 , Hall being theonly one to reach thirty . The Hon. M. B. Hawke, however, shows a decided improvement in batting , and stands second with twenty-five . Bates , one of the most unequal of batsmen, has a muchpoorer result to showthan in the pre- ceding season , and Ulyett has also done muchworse. It is refreshing to turn from the batting to the bowling averages , and to chronicle the success of the evergreen veteranw h oheadsthe list with only four wickets short of the century for a little over eleven runs per wicket , the first bowling average of the season . Longmayhe flourish ! Peate , to every one's surprise and disappointment , shows a marked deterioration in his bowling, although his figures are still very good. The county has reason to congratulate itself on the very fine performance of W a d e, and Bates has also bowled very well. I f the Yorkshire and the Middlesex teams could but amalgamate, what a combination they wouldmake! Sussex did not muchimprove the position she held in the previous season .. F o u rwinsout of twelve matchescannotbe considered any other than a poor result . The most notable performances were the fine victory over Surrey at the Oval, and over Lancashire at Brighton , although in the latter matchthe wicket w a sall against Lancashire. Gloucestershire andKenteach scored one winand suffered one defeat . Surrey very nearly lost her first match with Sussex , as well as the second , and the finish proved very close and exciting . Inasmuch , though, as Surrey was without the services of Mr. Read and Lohmann, the match can hardly be regarded as a criterion , and this maybe taken as an in- stance of the extent to which the Australian visit interfered with county cricket . Sussex played one drawn match with the Australians , in which Mr. Brann and Mr. F. M. Lucas performed in a wonderful manner.