James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1891

CRICKETIN 1890. 5 T h e on the whole hardly fulfilled the expectations of their supporters . eleven were of course severely handicapped by Pilling's illness , and though Mr. A. T. Kemblekept wicket very well , considering he had to take such a fast bowler as Mold, his hands gave waytowards the end of the season , and in some of the later and more important matches the chances of the county were in consequence discounted . Briggs , owing to a strain , too, had to be absent from a few matches, although , as it happened, the county was able to win in his absence. T h eLancashirelevenw e r ea bettersidet h a ntheresults of theseasonw o u l d seem to indicate . In Briggs , Watson, and Mold they had undoubtedly a more formidable trio of bowlers than any other county could boast , and if their bat- ting had been as reliable as their bowling wasdeadly , they would have been even moresuccessful . As it was, more than one of the batsmen on w h o mthey had previously relied hardly came up to expectations , and the play was often very uneven. Albert Ward, whohad shownhimself such a consistent scorer against every kind of bowling , was not seen to anything like the same advantage , and neither Mr. Hornby, Sugg , nor Barlow were up to their best standard . O ntheir form of last year, Kent, it is only fair to the county to say, had few, if any, superiors . The eleven , it is true, only tied with Yorkshire for third place, but it must be remembered that they were on paper better than Surrey, so far , at least , as the matches between the twocounties can be taken as a guide , having wonat the Oval , and had practically the best of the gameat Canterbury. O nthe other hand, if a complete analysis were madeof the five drawnmatches , it would be found that in two of them, at all events , those against Notts at Gravesend , and Gloucestershire at Gloucester , the result , had time permitted , w o u l dh a v eb e e ndisastrousfor K e n t. In any case they were, like Surrey and Lancashire , only defeated on three occasions , and in one of these , at York, they were, owing to a mistake in the management, seriously handicapped , having only eight menin fact to bat in their first innings . Another of their reverses , too, wasin quite the early part of the season , against Lancashire at Manchester , whenthey wereby no meanswell represented , and curiously their only other failure was at the end of the season , whenthe Lancashire eleven again proved too muchfor them-this time on a bowler'swicketatB e c k e n h a m . InAugust, when Mr. W. H. Patterson is able to take his place at the head of the eleven , and Messrs . M. C. K e m pand the best of the manygood amateurs whose services Kent can claim are available , Kent has undoubtedly a formidable all -roundside . Martin's remarkablesuccess as a bowlerwas one of the most noteworthy features of the year's cricket , and with Walter Wright to keep up the other end the county is fortunate in having two of the most reliable professional bowlers of the day. Theserious injury to Wright's hand, which has made the joint of the thumb of his bowling hand permanently stiff , it is to behoped will not prove so serious as to prevent his maintaining his reputa- tion as well as continuing his career of usefulness as a bowler. In any case , Alec Hearne proved, whenthe emergency arose on the occasion of Wright's accident at the Oval, that he has lost little if any of his cunning as a bowler, while, as last year showed, he has developed into a really capable and reliable batsmanof the defensive type. Alwaysa strong side in batting , Kent received two valuable additions to its strength in this department in the persons of Messrs . L. A. Hamilton andA. Daffen, both of whomare considerably above the average . The former in particular is a dangerous batsman, as he proved un- mistakably by his many good performances in August , notably against the Australians at Canterbury , and if his military duties allow him to remain in England, he is sure to prove a great acquisition . The Yorkshire eleven , up to a certain point , afforded their supporters some ground for the hope that they might be really in the running for the premier- ship of county cricket . Their excellent all -round form during the first half of theseason wasthe more surprising as the team was identical with that which had fared so badly in the previous year . Victory in each of the first four fixtures