James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1890

PUBLICS C H O O LC R I C K E TI N 1889. 1 3 deserves a word of praise for his performance in the Winchester match , and the play of Crum and Gosling against Harrow is worthy of the highest praise . Thebowler of the team must not be left out, especially as , in J. H. W a r d, Eton possessed one of the best school -bowlers of the year, and his average is a really fine one, if webear in mindthe good sides he hadto meet. In speaking of any other school w eshould say the out-look was gloomy in the extreme , as Gosling is the sole remnant of the '89 team, but Eton always has such a large stock of promising youngsters , that , it m a ybe, we shall see a really good lot at Lord's nextJuly. Thevictory over Uppinghamin '88 was not repeated by the Haileyburians last year ; indeed , their two school matchesresulted most disastrously , an inning's defeat being their fate in either case. W eknew that there was a dearth of bowlers at Haileybury , but we hadbeen led to expect that this wouldbe more or less counterbalanced by very fair batting and smart fielding . Thebatting was very fair , Howard, Snell , Frere , and others all got runs, but whispers have reached us that the fielding was slovenly , that runs were not saved , that catches weremissed. If this be the case w e can readily understand whythe bowling averages are so poor . Hamilton , on his day, and with the wicket a little bit sticky , proved very effective , but even he could not be depended on, and he wasthe only real bowler. Stubbs and Howardgot some wickets , but only at a heavy cost , though the indifferent fielding was, to some extent , responsible for their figures . Uppinghamand Wellington will probably have good teams this year, so the Haileybury boys must leave no stone unturned if they meanto beat t h e m. Uppingha TheHarroweleven of last year wasdecidedly superior to those which have represented the school for the past three seasons , and was distinctly above the average . In the home matches they did well , and their victories over strong teams of Harlequins and old Harrovians were performances of which anyteam might have been proud . At Lord's they amply justified the confidence of their friends , and showed up well in batting and bowling , though their fielding , in spite of the care and attention devoted to it, left muchto be desired . The eleven contained morethan an average share of good batsmen, and we should have to go far back in the annals of the school cricket to find a team of which nine membershave good double -figure averages . Jackson, the captain , was the mainstay of the side ; a good bowler, and safe field ,he almost invariably made runs , and that , too, in form which leads us to predict , with no small confidence , a great future for him at Cambridge. Hoareand Maclaren , though dangerous bats , failed to come up to expectations , the former adopting too free astyle of hitting . Wills , Napier, and Butler were all sound players , the last two having very taking style and promising well for another season . Chaplin wassuccessful on fast ,Anderson on slow wickets ; in fact , the batting throughout the term was sound and reliable . In bowling there was a certain variety of attack . Jackson (fast ) was very effective on certain wickets , but did not prove as deadly as his friends had anticipated . Anderson andPope were the steadiest bowlers , always to be counted on to keep downruns ; Hoare frequently got a wicket at a critical time ; and Peebles , with lobs , wasuseful onseveral occasions . Altogether the bowling , though not deadly, was steady , and it was seldom that long scores were madeagainst the school . The fielding wasbut moderate , though Jackson and Maclaren were brilliant exceptions ; andGowans, though only as a substitute for Butler, kept wicket most creditably at Lord's . Forthe coming struggles nine of the old eleven are still available , and, though Jackson , Hoare,andWills will be seriously missed ,Harrowm a yconfidently look forward to anotherseason of great success . Thecricket at Lancing last season would have been of a very colourless order hadit not been for the performances of their captain . W ewere led to speak highly of Richards ' merits in the last Annual , and he has more than justified ourpredictions . Without him the school team would have been a sorry one, though Church was a very fair bat, and there were one ontwo hitters , who surprised their friends byadding materially to the score , just whenruns were