James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1890

2 0 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. Merchiston and Glenalmond were very unlucky last year , and we should not judge any memberof either team to have been above the average in any department of the game, though perhaps a saving clause may be put in for Lamb, the Merchiston bowler, whodid an enormous amount of work for his side , andmet with considerable success , this being all the more creditable as he was troubled throughout the season by a bad knee. Gow's century in the second innings of the Loretto match deserves mention ; it was a capital performance , worthy of all praise , but , with the exception of a 70 against Craigmount and a 40 against Lasswade , he did little else during the term , and w efear he mustbe reckoneda brilliant but uncertain hitter . Our analysis would have come to an end here, hadnot a correspondent requested that a few words on Welsh cricket might be added to this sketch , in the hope that the attention of cricketers maythereby be called to what is thought to be a well -founded grievance . W eaccede to his request most gladly , feeling sure that the M.C.C. secretary and other enthusiasts , who have ever been ready to give help , whenever it has been sought , will not fail to foster rising talent , wherever it maybe found , even if their kindness entails a journey into the somewhatremote regions of South Wales. There was a time , some fifteen or sixteen years ago we should say, when two South Welshmen, Jones and Lewis, played no insignificant part in Oxford cricket , and few finer fieldsmen have ever been seen at Lord's than T. B. Jones . And there is some good material at Llandovery College and Christ's College , Brecon, now, but the cricket generally wants stimulation and encouragement . The boys seldom see a good team; hence, for the most part, they have to depend on their natural powers alone , and never acquire that knowledge of the game, which can be learnt only from a careful study of the play of a high-class eleven under the guidance of an experienced captain . The Llandovery eleven of last season were an uneven lot , but their captain , J. C. Rees, was a heavy scorer , and has the makings of a really fine bat ; while , in A. B. Jones , they possessed a fast bowler of distinct promise. Atkin, the Brecon captain , could hardly be called a good bat, as his play was far too rash , but he mayfairly be called a dangerous man. There m a y have been other boys in those parts who could lay claim to cricketing ability of nomeanorder , but we are in ignorance on this point , and wewill conclude these remarks by expressing a hope that an M.C.C. team m a yfind its way to Llandovery andBrecon this summer, and so give the necessary stimulus to the cricketersof S o u t hW a l e s. Havingnow made the various school teams pass , as it were, in review , before our readers , we must leave themto return the verdict on the performances of ourboys during the season of 1889. W edo not even reserve to ourselves the judge's right of summing up the , at times , conflicting evidence , as we are conscious of having already trespassed very largely on the generosity of the Editor. He has good reason to complain that year byyear the Public Schools demandan ever -increasing number of pages in the Annual. This is , however, practically unavoidable , for cricket at the smaller schools goes on improving , andw econfess that we should be loth to exclude any one of the schools wehave mentioned from a place in this sketch . C H A P T E R I V. T H E N G L I S HC R I C K E T E R S I N S O U T HA F R I C A . B yT H EEDITOR. T H Evisit of anEnglish teamof cricketers to SouthAfrica at the end of 1888 marked a new era in the history of our national game.. Hitherto , of our ownpossessions Australia and Canada had been the only parts of the Empire to which parties of English players had been conducted under an organized system or with anything like an elaborate programme. It is only within the last few