James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1891

CRICKETIN 1890. 3 ship of county cricket has done much to give a new and special interest to the inter -county matches of the year. It is idle to say that there is no such thing as a county championship . Technically there maynot be, but the public , who, after all , form the high court of appeal , have accepted the principle and the adhesion of the representatives of the leading clubs to a system of scoring which wasmerely giving official countenance to an arrangement which in fact had beenadopted by the sporting papers for some time past . It is not a little sin- gular , too , that those who are the most vigorous in protesting against the ex- istence of a championship have tacitly admitted the principle by themselves supplying the only thing wanted to makethe series of matches between the eight counties recognized as first class complete . Whateverm a ybe urged against the championship of county cricket , even in name, the fact remains that usage has sanctioned such a competition , and it will have to be dealt with as within the scope of serious politics . Theinterest in the competition last year was abnormal, and the excitement was sustained without abatement right up to the finish . At the outset the result seemed to be very open, and, indeed , in addition to Nottinghamshire , Lancashire , and Surrey , w h ohadall tied for the first place in 1889 , it looked as if there were dangerous rivals in Yorkshire and Middlesex . The bold front shown by the Yorkshire eleven , practically the same combination which had been so unsuccessful the previous year, in the earlier matches was one of the most noteworthy features of the season , and in fact until quite the middle of the summerthere was more than an outside chance that they would be well in the running for the first place . Middlesex , who began, too, in a waythat gave the greatest encouragement , however, signally failed to fulfil the promise of M a yand June, and in fact to their supporters their failure in their August fixtures caused their good performances in the earlier fixtures to be forgotten . Notts , as in 1889 , too, showed a great deterioration as the season advanced, and wereonly able to gain fifth place with Yorkshire and Kent next above equal , a fraction below Lancashire , whowere able to qualify for the second place . The Surrey eleven , whohad, under the system of scoring recognized at the time, been bracketed equal with Lancashire and Notts for the first place in county cricket in 1889 , not only maintained the reputation they had wonby the sheer excellence of their all -round play , but enhanced it , and were indisputably the best team on public form last summer. Their record , too, was the more praiseworthy , as the mannerin which they opened the season was not by any means encouraging , and radical changes had to be madein the constitution of theteam. B e a u m o n tandBowleyhadfor several years donesuch goodservices in the bowling department that very few of Surrey's supporters would have, I venture to think, been bold enough to risk a prophecy that the county could dispense with their services . Yet, as a matter of fact , Mr. Shuter had sufficient confidence in his side to hazard the experiment , and, as subsequent experience showed, with the best results . Still , though his judgmentproved to becorrect as it happened, none the less the policy of relying exclusively on two bowlers , however good they maybe, must at any time be attended with considerable danger, andit was fortunate that Lohmannand Sharpe, whobore the burden of Surrey's bowling until quite the end of the season , were both able to go through the summerwithout accident of any kind. Sharpe's remarkable advance as a bowler of course justified the Surrey captain to a certain extent in his attempt to strengthen the all -round cricket of his eleven by the withdrawal ofmerebowlers like Beaumontand Bowley, andthe markedability of Lohmann and Sharpe crowned the attempt with success . O nthe form of the season , too , Surrey's claims to the premier position could not be gainsaid . They commenced themoreimportant part of their programme, as already stated , in anything but a nauspicious manner, and their easy defeat byNotts at Nottingham in Whit- weekcertainly did not inspire the belief that their record would be so brilliant . Yet, until nearly the end of August, this reverse was the only one they experienced in inter -county matches , and although the glory of their previous achievements was considerably dimmed by their ill -success in the two last