James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1887

6 6 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. (7) Surrey v. Middlesex. Lord's , June 21, 22, and 23 . Thewicket wasin the best condition for batting , and as both sides were strong in this respect some high scoring ensued . Messrs . Stoddart and Webbescored 77 runs in the first forty -five minutes for Middlesex , and it looked as if they were going to make a very large score . Mr. J. G. Walker's 69, though , proved tobe the highest contribution , and the total after all only reached 246. Loh- mann,whohadnot been successful in the first innings of Middlesex , proved very effective in the second , and the hometeam failed to reach their first score . Mr. Webbe, who only gave one chance , when he had made 71 , played a particularly goodinnings of 84. Surrey had not a very easy task whenthey wentin to make 221 to win. Diver, however, wasseen at his very best in the attainment of his 91 , and Mr. Roller , who proved to be the highest scorer of the match, with an aggregate of 102 for once out, helped themto gain a creditable victory by four wickets . Surrey , 261 and 221 (six wickets ) ; total , 482. Middlesex , 246 and 238; total , 481 . (8) Australiansv. Middlesex. Lord's , June 24, 25, and 26. Oneof the most extraordinarily exciting matches of the London season . Mr. Spofforth was still unable to play, and the Australians , of course , missed his bowling considerably . Middlesex , who went in first , did well, thanks to Mr. J. G. Walker and Spillman , whowere responsible for 154 out of 248 from the bat. The Australians made a very brilliant commencement , Messrs . Jones and Scott scoring 155 before the first wicket fell . Mr. Giffen , too, helped his captain to raise the total to 272 before the latter wasgiven outlbw. His 123 , the highest score he has madein England, was a very fine display of batting . After the captain's dismissal , though , came a collapse , andthe last seven wickets only in- creased the score by 82 runs . Messrs . Scott and Webbeput on 107 while they were together in the second innings of Middlesex ; but none of the others did much, and the last eight wickets only realised 88. The Australians had, ap- parently , not a difficult task in going in to make128 runs to win. The score , too, was 100 , with only three wickets down, and the victory of the Australians seemed likely to be an easy one. Thenext six wickets , however, fell for 15 runs , andit wasleft to Messrs . Blackhamand Pope(the last batsmen) to makethe win- ninghit , the Australians thus winning avery exciting matchby only one wicket to spare . Burton's bowling for Middlesex was very effective : he took in all four- teen wickets for 192 runs . Australians , 354 and 123 (nine wickets ) ; total , 477. Middlesex , 259 and 217 ; total , 476 . (9) Oxfordv. Cambridge. July 5, 6, and 7. Public opinion had predicted a victory for Cambridge, though it was ad- mitted that on public form neither eleven was up to the best University standard . The play, though, showed there was little to choose between the two teams, and w e are inclined to think that they were really very well balanced . Mr. K e m p, of w h o mgreat things were expected with the bat on the Cambridge side , wasnot in his best form ; but on the other hand, Mr. Brain and the Oxford cap- tain , were also a disappointment . The turning -point of the match was the com- mencementof Oxford's second innings . To Messrs . Keyand Rashleigh belongs the credit of aperformance unique in inter -University matches . In two hours and fifty -five minutes they scored 243 runs , 71 more than were made by Messrs . Bainbridge andWright in 1885 for Cambridge-hitherto the best record for the first wicket . Mr. Key's 143 is the highest innings so far in an inter -University match. H e was batting for three hours , and gave no actual chance . Mr.