James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1891

CRICKETIN 1890. 7 handicapped the side very heavily , and to those whoknowwell his remarkable ability whenhe is in form his moderate performance time after time with the bat wasdoubly disappointing . Mention has already been made of the exсер- tional scoring of Shrewsbury and Gunnin the early part of the season . The best feature of the season, however, was the excellent all-roundcricket shown byAttewell . Onseveral occasions he was of great use as a bat, but his capacity has always been in the direction of keeping the runs down, and his reputation as a bowler was never higher than at the present time . Altogether he secured seventy -three wickets for Notts, and as these were obtained at a cost of under twelve runs apiece an idea of his accuracycan be obtained. Woof's engagement at Cheltenham College has deprived Gloucestershire during the last two or three years of its most reliable bowler during a greater part of the season , and his absence has seriously affected the position of the county. A fair estimate of the value of his services , indeed , can be gathered fromthe different effects while he was a w a yand while he waswiththe team. U pto the time of his appearanceGloucestershire hadnot beenable to winone ofthe seven matches in which they had taken part . To whatever cause maybe attributed the change, the fact remains that he was not again on the losing side , though the bulk of the work of the Gloucestershire eleven is usually done during thelatter part of the season . T h eexcellent all -roundcricket shownby Gloucestershire after starting on their northern tour , on July 26, moreparticularly whentheir continuous ill -suc- cess up to date is taken into account , certainly deserves to be classed as among quitethe mostnoteworthyincidents of the year. H o wm u c hof their success towards the close of the season wasdue to Woofwill be readily understood by a reference to his figures as a bowler. In four hundredovers he took fifty -five wickets at an aggregate cost of seven hundred and twenty runs , and as this gives an average of a little over thirteen runs for each batsman he got it will be seenthathissuccessw a scontinuousa n dunmistakable. Muchas m a ybe and deservedly written in eulogy of Woof's performance , itm u s tnotbeforgotten that the batting of someof the chief membersof the eleven wasan equally important factor in the success which attended Gloucester- shire cricket in August. Mr. W. G. Grace showed that increasing years and weight have not as yet interfered appreciably with his extraordinary vitality as a cricketer , and nothing was calculated to give more pleasure to the lovers of the gamethan that he should be still able to retain the position he has nowheld unchallenged for twenty-six years as the foremost batsman of the day. Mr. Cranston's consistent success as a rungetter was also one of the most encouraging features of Gloucestershire cricket in 1890. Nor would it be regarded as a com- plete summaryof the county's indebtedness were no allusion made to the valuable help of Painter , whose brilliant hitting on frequent and important occasions was of the greatest service to the side . Middlesex cricket , owing to the preponderance of amateurs , has not of late years at least been a very certain quantity . Theresults of the early part of the season , in spite of a defeat by Kent in the opening match, too, raised hopes whichwere unfortunately not destined to be realized . Thedouble victory over Notts and Lancashire seemed to suggest Middlesex as a dangerous outsider in the race for the Championship Stakes . The glory of these two extremely credit- able achievements was, however, considerably dimmedby the generally poor exhibition of the second half of the s u m m e r. T h eintroduction of a n e wbowler of considerable promise in J. T. Hearne seemed to augur well as strengthening thedepartmentin whichthe Middlesexeleven haveof late years beenmostde- ficient , and there is every reason to hope that he will prove to be a useful additionto theelevenas a nall-r o u n dcricketer. The failure of the Middlesex tearn in July andAugust was attributable to a variety of causes . In the first place , Mr. E. A. Nepean, whose bowling had proved remarkably successful when he was able to assist , could only play in a very few matches, and his all-round cricket was sadly missed . Mr. A. E. toddart , too , did not show himself to be anything like as dangerous a batsman