James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1889

1 4 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' ANNUAL. hadbeen specially coached against him. Tollemache played one sterling innings , buthe cultivated one stroke to the exclusion of all others , andso w a sa certain victim of any bowler who knewhis weak points . Gosling's energy andperse- verance wonhim a place in the team, but he has not any decided talent for the game; nor , we believe , has Goad, but his play against Harrow deserves the highest praise . Jones , Ward, and Pechell all proved useful with the ball , and it wouldbedifficult to find three bowlers of more utterly different styles . Jones was straight and steady , Wardfast and erratic , and Pechell very slow-an exaggerated edition of Barratt ; still , if he can learn to get a little pace on, he wouldbe dangerous , and even as it is he has some good performances to his credit , though the best of these , it should be stated , were achieved against the school team. W ehave entered somewhat fully into the merits of this eleven becausetheyare not the duffers whichsomecritics declared themto be after their failure at Lord's , and weheartily wish Davenport better luck this year. Anticipations of the most dismal order were indulged in at the beginning of the term, and it was predicted that the Haileybury boys wouldprove themselves good for nothing . The four victories of the season must therefore have comeas amost welcome surprise , the more so as among their victims they could count their old , and at one time invincible , opponents , Uppingham. In this match they achieved their greatest triumph, for the combination of want of bowling and wantof confidence , brought them utterly to grief in several of their other engagements . It would seemas if the team trained off , their last four encounters all ending disastrously . Against Wellington they were unfortunate in the spin of the coin , and this practically settled the match, as the wicket , easy at first , became very difficult when the Herts boys were batting ; still their opponents were probably the better side . To sum up, we think they were a deserving lot , they never got slack in the field , however heavy the scoring against themmight be,but they were not strong , moderate in batting , and very short of bowling . This year again the bowling threatens to be weak, but there ought to be a fair teamnevertheless , as several of last year's eleven are still available . The Harroweleven were singularly unfortunate this year in their home contests , only winning one match, that against the Town, out of nine . Their ill -fortune on the school ground was fully atoned for by a very easy victory at Lord's , though we cannot think the actual result of that match was a fair criterion of therelativemeritsof thet w oelevens. T h et e a m sthatw e n td o w n to play against the school were for the most part very strong , but careless fielding , in more than one instance , was largely accountable for the defeats . Takenas a whole the eleven cannot be reckoned a strong one, but it contained three memberscapable of getting a large score , and though, in the words of an old Harrowsong, " One that we put our hopes upon has chosen to wait a year," the other two, Hoare and Jackson, came off with a vengeance ; indeed , having regard to their all -round cricket , it is not too muchto say that these twopractically w o nthe matchfor their school ; but the valuable assistance rendered by Gilroy andWatsonmust not be forgotten . Hoare bowls slow-round, straight , anda good pitch , and should improve with another year's experience . Jackson's bowling in the Eton match was of a very high order ; it is notoften that a school eleven contains so fine an all -round cricketer , and Harrowis indeed fortunate in retaining his services as captain for another year . The two Maclarens , Giffard , and Roffey , though unfortunate in the big match, all played good innings during the term. Thegeneral good fielding at Lord's astonished those who had seen the somewhatfeeble displays in this department in the homematches . The chief credit for this pleasant surprise is due to the captain , J. A. Maclaren, who for some weeks devoted himself vigorously to improving the eleven in this important branch of the game, thereby setting a good example , which we hope maybe followed by very manysuccessors . Aglance at the batting averages of Lancing proves the immeasurable superiority of Gresson and Richards , not only to any, but to all of the rest of the team. These two secured infinitely more runs during the year than the other nine put together , and without them the eleven would have been a sorry