James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1888

CRICKETIN 1887. 5 Daft, and Flowers were generally successful . Mr. J. A. Dixon , too , reappeared in the eleven to its decided advantage, and Richardson , an addition to the team, s h o w e dhimselfto b e of use. Sherwin at the wicket was seen at his best, but the ont cricket was on the wholenot quite so good as it has been, and to defects therein maybe ascribed the lack of success which attended the county in comparison with previous years . Attewell bowled with most satisfactory results , and Barnes and Flowers , as well as Richardson , who fully established his right to a place in the eleven , all can show creditable figures . On the whole, though, there was not the same amountof devil in the bowling, andit maybe added, with equal truth , hardly the samequantity of first -class bowling . The fielding , too , was not as even as in the case of manyother of the county elevens , and indeed on more than one important occasion it might have been described as loose and faulty . Shrews- bury's batting was unmistakably the feature of the season , and though the compliment m a yhave lost something of its force by the long delay in its expression , it is satisfactory to hear that the sporting folk of Nottingham are organizing a fund to present himwith something in recognition of a batting record with only one parallel . Mr. A. J. Webbehas every reason to be satisfied with the results which have attended the efforts of the Middlesexeleven since he undertookthe respon- sibilities of the captaincy . Atthe time he succeeded to the command, on the retirement of Mr. I. D. Walker, the outlook was not by anymeans a cheery one, andwhatimprovement has been made has been in a great measure due to his personal influence and example. The record of last season was, on the whole, a satisfactory one . Considering that the wickets were generally in favour of run -getting , the Middlesex bowlers did extremely well to get rid of their opponents so cheaply . Dunkley , a left -hand bowler , was tried in the eleven for the first time, and with success , at least on one important occasion to wit, the return against Surrey at the Oval. His bowling helped , in no small measure, towards the brilliant victory of Middlesex in that match, but he failed to fulfil thepromiseexcited by that one performance. Thebrunt of the bowling was borne by Mr. J. Robertson , Burton , and Mr. A. J. Webbe, and their figures , if not exceptionally good , were very creditable . TheHon. Alfred Lyttleton was able to play, weare glad to have to record , once , and cricketers welcomed with pleasure the reappearance of Mr. A. P. Lucas, after being lost to first -class cricket for two years . Mr. Stoddart was hardly so successful as might have been expected from the easy character of the wickets , and Mr. J. G. Walkerdid not quite come up to his form of 1886. Still , the batting was no less formidable than of late years , although Mr. A. J. Webbe's performance far eclipsed that of the other membersof the team. His batting was, indeed , one of the most noticeable features of a run-getting season , and some of his innings , notably those against Kent at Canterbury , and against Yorkshire at Huddersfield , in each of which he went in first and carried out his bat, towards the end of the season , were worthy of his very best day. In Mr. A. E. Nepean, the Oxford slow bowler, Mr. Webbesecured the help of a useful all -round cricketer ; and when Rawlin , the Yorkshireman , is qualified by residence , as we believe will be the case next year, the eleven will be further strengthened by a useful bowler, and at the same time a run-getting bat. In the later fixtures the Yorkshire eleven showed themselves to be possessed of batting capacity considerably above the average , and their scoring on some few occasions , against Kent at Canterbury , and against Lancashire at Bradford, might with reason be described as abnormally high . Still , although their summary only showed three defeats in a card of sixteen matches , there wereas manyas six unfinished games, of which morethan one would certainly have ended disastrously had time been extended sufficiently to admit of a definite issue . In batting , on paper, Yorkshire was beyond a doubt particularly strong . Ulyett , fortunately for the side , had recovered his old powers of hitting , and cricketers generally were gratified to see so sterling and powerful a batsmanagain at the head of the averages . Hall , in a different style , was hardly less useful ,