James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1890

4 8 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. morning before the partnership , which had resulted in anaddition of 229 runs was broken . Peel was batting altogether three hours and ten minutes for his 158, with only one chance , a hard return to Burton at 35, while Hall was in an hour and forty minutes longer for his 86-171 in the match for once out. Middlesex had 280 to win, with only three hours and thirty - five minutes left for play, and the probabilities were either a drawor a victory for Yorkshire . W h e n Mr.O'Brienjoined Mr.Nepean129hadbeengotfortheloss of fourof the best bats- men, andthere were still wanting 151 to win, with only anhour and a half in which to get them. In spite of Mr. O'Brien's fearless all -round hitting , the chances still seemed to be altogether against a success for Middlesex , and the successive dismissal of Messrs . Nepeanand Hadow, who had played an admirable innings of 62, still further improved the prospects of Yorkshire . With only J. E. West, Burton, and Mr. Bacmeister to follow , the last hope of Middlesex was centred in Mr. Vernon, and whenhe cameto face Mr. O'Brien 83 remained to ensure a win, with forty -eight minutes more of time, and only four wickets to fall . For fast scoring , and at such a crisis , there could hardly have been two better men, and they actually got the runs with ten minutes to spare . Mr. O'Brien's 100 not out wasone of the most brilliant exhibitions of continuous hitting ever seen , and his performance wasa constant topic of conversation among cricketers during the season. Inthe last ninety minutes151 wereadded, of which he m a d e100 not out-- a remarkable instance of fast run-getting . H escored in the match 192 runs for once out. In the three days 1,295 runs were totalled for thirty -six wickets- an average of just under thirty -six runs . Middlesex won by four wickets . Middlesex , 368 and 280 (six wickets ) ; total , 648. Yorkshire , 259 and 388 ; total , 647. (6) C a m b r i d g ev. Oxford. July 1 and 2. Onpublic form the match was rightly regarded as a fairly certain victory for Cambridge, and the result proved that this estimate of the respective merits of the elevens was correct . Neither had shownanyexceptional promise in the early matches ; in fact , in the homefixtures there was only mediocrity in both cases . Ox- ford hadlost every match, except the last trial against M.C.C. and Ground, which wasdrawnin their favour , so that there was little to encourage them. Thewant of a reliable fast bowler had handicapped them severely , but , in addition , the batting had generally been very disappointing , and the general impression was that the eleven were all round weaker than they had been for manyyears . On the other hand, Cambridge, though their form at homehad only been moderate , hadproved themselves to be a fairly good team at Brighton and Lord's , and on paperwere decidedly a stronger combination than the sister University . The matchitself proved the latter to be the stronger at all points , though Oxford madea muchworse show than was expected . In winning the toss they had a stroke of luck at the outset , but, except Lord George Scott , no one offered any resistance to the bowling of Mr. Woods. The second innings , too , was even more disappointing , Mr. Philipson's hitting forming the only relief to a very tame exhibition of batting . The weakness of the Oxford bowling wasmani- fested at the outset , and thirty -one runs were got in the first fifteen minutes . A t one time the score was 250 with only three batsmen out, but the tail did little against the bowling of Messrs . Bassett and Croome, so that the total wassmaller than seemed probable in the middle of the innings . Mr. Mordaunt's . batting was worthy of the highest praise . Going in first , he was out at 258, having only given one chance , to cover -point when he had made 92, during the three hours he was at the wickets , Cambridge wonby aninnings and105 runs . The Hon. F. J. Thesiger was unable to play for Oxford owing to family reasons . Mr. Mordaunt's 127 has only been twice beaten in Inter -University matches-b y Mr. Key's 143 for Oxford in 1886 , and Mr. Yardley's 130 for Cambridge in 1872 ,