James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1889

CRICKETIN 1888. 5 beneficially on the out-cricket , and the necessity of trying several youngsters before one could be found at all capable of filling the position satisfactorily had, as can easily be understood , a disturbing effect on the team. As a matter of fact , no one could accuse the committee of any lack of energy in testing the merits of their likely youngsters , for several of the more capable had a fair and thorough trial . Oneof these (Wainwright, to wit), too, more than fulfilled the expectations formed fromhis play in the early matches , developing , in fact , into one of the most promising all-round cricketers of the year. If there was no great amount of fault to be found with the play of the Yorkshire eleven in 1838 , there was, on the other hand, muchthat could afford substantial ground for praise . There were disappointments , it is true , not the least of which wasthe ill -success which attended the captain , LordHawke, one of the keenest cricketers wehave, as a batsman. The soft wickets were apparently not to his taste at all , and otherwise the batting wasin some cases hardly up to the average . While Ulyett and Hall rarely failed , Lee and Peel did quite their fair share of the run- getting . As has already been said , the youngprofessional , Wainwright, proved agreat acquisition to the team, both in batting and bowling ; andwith care he oughtto becomeone of the most reliable cricketers in the Yorkshire eleven . Preston andWadewere hardly as successful with the bat as might have been expected , but the former compensated for any shortcomings in this department bythe good work he did with the ball . On several occasions his bowling was most effective , and, in fact , he was only second in point of wickets got to Peel , w h owas in the very front rank of bowlers last year. The latter's performances just at one part of the season were phenomenal . Against the Australian team , in all the three matches with England, he proved singularly effective , andhe wasconsistently successful for his county, delivering just under nine hundred overs for a fraction over a run each , and taking eighty -six wickets at an averagecost of a little u n d e relevena n da half runs. TheLancashire eleven opened the season inauspiciously with a reverse at the hands of Kent, and on their ownground. Thoughon several notable oc- casions they proved themselves to be as dangerous a side as of old , there was at times an inequality whichmarred the play not a little . A t the same time it m u s tb eadmittedthattherew a sm o r et h a na fair shareof ill-luckto counteract the efforts of those in w h o mwas vested the managementof affairs . The im- portance of the absence of Mr. A. G. Steel from every match can be fully esti- matedby all whoknowhis exceptional abilities as an all -round cricketer . Nor wasthe wantof his services the only difficulty the county had to overcome . It wasrarely indeed that the full strength , without Mr. Steel , was available , and, in fact , the eleven was hardly , if ever , a true and full representation of the real capacity of Lancashire cricket . Robinson, the premier batsman of 1887 , wasnot able to play in the earlier fixtures owing to aninjury , and when he did join the teamthere waslittle or none of the dash and resolution which marked his hitting in the previous summer. Norwas Mr. Hornby, who bears his years so lightly that one would hardly take him to be, as he is , slightly the senior of Mr. W. G. Grace, in the same vein for run-getting as of old-a remark which will apply, in a lesser degree , to Barlow, his mate and trusty companion of many sum- mers . Thebulk of the work, in batting and bowling too, had to be done by the oldhands , for there was apparently , to judge from the absence of any lengthy trial , no youngster of any great promise to bring along . Mr. Eccles , one of the best amateurs of the day, wasthe most successful batsman of the year, and though the innings wasnot without a certain amount of luck, his fine display conduced very greatly to the brilliant success of the eleven at the Oval. O nthe generally slow wickets Sugg's hitting powers enabled him to be of great use to the side , of which Briggs was, as usual, a most conspicuous member. Thelittle m a nwas, in fact , the hero of the Lancashire team, as he was, too, one of the very best, if not the best , all -round player amongEnglish cricketers in 1888. Men- tion has already been made of Peel's effective bowling in the three matches between EnglandandAustralia , but if anything the performances of the York- shireman were surpassed by those of Briggs . Aglance at the respective bowling