James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1888

4 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. out a doubt the best all -round player in the eleven . Mr. Keymade a surprising advance as a batsman last year, and though he did not play in nearly so many matchesas Mr. WalterR e a d, his record for the later matcheswasbetter than that of his senior . On all kinds of wickets , too, he proved himself to be equally at home, and under all circumstances he showed himself to be so reliable a bats- m a n, that a representative eleven could hardly have been chosen in 1887 without h i m. Though, at the commencementof the summer, it hardly looked as if the Lancashire eleven would make a very bold bid for the first place , they played upduring the latter part of the season so pluckily , that they nearly finished on an even footing with Surrey . It was only, indeed , in their last important engagement , against Yorkshire , who administered a decisive defeat , that they fell behind their Southern rivals , and this reverse just at the finish was doubly disappointing . Still the Lancashire eleven showed throughout all -round cricket verymuchabove the average , and their victory over Surrey at the Oval was a capital performance . Of the fourteen matches played , ten were won, three lost , and one drawn. Thedrawwas certainly not in their favour, but most of their successes were unmistakable , and their defeats were at the hands of three of the most for- midable combinations of the year-t o wit, Surrey , Notts , and Yorkshire . Mr. A. G. Steel was only able to play once , and that occasion , it is worthy of remark, wasat Manchester against Surrey, early in the year, whenSurrey were able to claim a very easy victory . His absence , though, was very muchto be regretted , andhad the eleven had the advantage of his excellent all-round cricket regu- larly there would not have been a stronger side . As it was, the county hadevery reason to be satisfied with the results of the season . Barlowwas hardly as re- liable as of old, either with bat or ball , but most of the other old members of thet e a mlent useful assistance. Mr. Hornby's batting was consistently good, Watsonbowled with unvary- ing success , Pilling wasPilling at his very best-the highest possible praise-at thewicket, andRobinson'sbatting wasso useful on all occasions as to place h i m in the proud position of head of the batting averages . Briggs proved himself tobe the best all -round cricketer in the eleven , and whether he was batting , bowling, or fielding , nothing came amiss to him; he was always the same keen, hard-working, busy little sportsman . The county, too, received two valuable acquisitions to its batting last summerin the persons of Mr. J. Eccles and F. H. Sugg, who, having qualified by residence for Lancashire , weakened already weakDerbyshire by depriving it of another of its best players . Lan- cashire all the samefoundh i ma very desirable addition to its ranks, and Mr. Eccles , whobids fair to develop into a still better bat, and he fully established their rights to prominent places in the Lancashire records of 1887 . The Nottinghamshire eleven were unable to maintain the proud position they had occupied at the head of the poll of county cricket for several years , and this , too , although they proved themselves in the majority of their matches to be hardly, if at all , inferior to the best of their predecessors . Still they were beaten, and on their merits , or at least without any influence that could be construed into real ill -luck , twice by Surrey, and once by Lancashire at Man- chester , in which latter , however, they had considerably the worst of the wicket . Someof the performances of the team in the wayof run-getting were remark- able , particularly in the latter part of the season , and their score of 596 against Middlesex at Nottingham, in August, was entitled to the distinction of the highest total in a county match in 1887. Shrewsbury's exceptionally brilliant displays of batting one after the other throughout the summer, and his average of 77.2 for eighteen completed innings , has only once been surpassed , by the greatest of all cricketers , Mr. W. G. Grace, w h owas able to show an average of over eighty runs for Gloucestershire in the season of 1876. Shrewsbury's record was phenomenal, but otherwise there waslittle or no fault to be found with the batting . Scotton was hardly so suc- cessful , but Gunnwas in great form for run-getting , and Barnes, Mr. H. B.