James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1889

C R I C K E TIN 1888. 3 havenot seemed to affect the position of the Surrey eleven just of late ; and it is opento question whether county cricket has seen , for manyyears at least , so formidablea nall-r o u n dside. Singularly enough Surrey's season ended as it began with a defeat at the hands of the Australian team. Theopening matchcould hardly be said to have furnished anything like a reflex of the merits of the two elevens . Most of the Surrey eleven were out of practice ; but in addition , Lohmannand Maurice Readhad only arrived in Londonfrom N e wZealand the night before the game commenced, and, to makematters muchworse, LohmannandBeaumont-the two bowlers on whomthe county has had chiefly to rely during the last two or three years were both incapacitated in the earlier part of the game. Thethird matchwith the Australian team wasplayed very late in September, and though w ehavenotthe smallest desire to detract fromthe merits of a well-deserved success , no one who followed the play at all closely but will admit that the choice ofinnings gave amaterial advantage- -to the extent , indeed, ofinfluencing the result very considerably . Omitting the narrow victory of Leicestershire over a purely professional team of Surrey as an incident hardly worthy to affect the general estimate of the eleven , the summarywas a most brilliant one. The county defeated five of the seven other leading shires they had to meet onboth occasions ; while of the tworemaining matches, one, the return with Gloucestershire , would in all proba- bility have resulted , hadnot the rain interfered , in another signal triumph. O fthe fourteen important engagements undertaken , only one, indeed , ended unsatisfactorily . U pto the middle of August it looked as if the county would be able to boast an unbroken record of victories , and there were hopes that the result of the season might justify the revival of the once interesting contest between Surrey and England. Unhappily for those whowere anxious to see the Surrey eleven testing their strength against the rest of England, just as the cricket year was closing came the onedisaster of the campaign, the one flaw in an otherwise exceptionally bril- liant record . TheLancashire eleven had, in the earlier part of the season ,proved their ability to play an up-hill gameby morethan one hard-earned victory , and no one would think for a momentof detracting from the great merit of their gain over Surrey at the Oval. N omanis said to be wise at all hours, and the best of elevens has an occasional badday. It was emphatically one of the very worst of the few bad days the Surrey eleven havehadof late . Theloss of their regular wicket -keeper , W o o d, proved a very serious disadvantage to them, as the gamewent; but the play all round was by no means up to their best standard , and had the batting been at all up to the average even on the third day, they ought certainly , at least , to have been spared a defeat of more than ordinary moment. At the same time, Lancashire's victory was the result of a combination of distinctly good all -round cricket , and their success , as it deserved , was very popular . It spoke highly for the pluck of the eleven that they played so well after having to go in against a long score of just under three hundred runs ; indeed , it mayfairly be claimed that this wasone of the best performances inthe moreimportant inter -county engagements during the year. Lohmann, though in batting at times he hardly came up to the expectations formed by his generally good play of the previous year , proved himself to be without a doubt one of the finest all -round cricketers of the day. Without a superior as a field , his out -cricket was unmistakably one of the most conspicuous features of the county season . Aglutton for work, he was never happyunless he washard at it , pegging awayat the wickets of Surrey's opponents ; and it is not too muchto say that his personal efforts have contributed during the last twoyears as muchas, if not more than, those of any other memberof the team toplace Surrey in the proud position it has once again w o n. Anymention of Surrey , too , would be incomplete were not prominent notice taken of the valu- able help rendered by Beaumont, who had to share the brunt of the bowling with Lohmann. Always reliable , he did his part right well , keeping uphis end without tiring , and on several occasions proved very successful whenhis younger