James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1891

8 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L, 1 as he really is , and his failure naturally had a very prejudicial effect on the side . Asit happened , to add to the general disappointment , the captain himself , Mr. A. J. Webbe, after commencingthe season in exceptionally promising style , failed to maintain his character as a safe rungetter , and in the later matches the scoring was very muchbelow the standard of what might have been ex- pected from a side so pre-eminently strong in batting . Ill -luck has followed Sussex so persistently of late years , that expressions of regret have come to be regarded as a necessary corollary of any reference to the cricket of the eleven . Nor can it be said that the experience of 1890 fur- nished any cause for a more hopeful view of the general situation . The return of Mr. C. A. Smith from South Africa was naturally regarded as an augury of hope; but, in spite of the energy and force of his example, the judgmenthe showedas captain of the eleven failed to produce any tangible results . Sussex cricket , in fact , failed to furnish real grounds for encouragement , and the record of the year was about as bad as it well could be, showing only one match won out of the twelve played . Arthur Hide's engagement at Marlborough College prevented him from assisting the county during a great part of the season , andthe already weakbowl- ing wasstill further weakened. Unfortunately for the team, too, Mr. N e w h a m, w h ohadbeen the mainstay with the bat for some years , was quite out of form ; and Quaife , whopromised , on his exceptionally good form of 1888 , to develop into one of quite the best batsmen of the day, except for one big score failed quite to come up to expectations . Ten of the eleven matches lost by Sussex were, it is significant to add, lost with more than an innings to spare , so that it w o u l dbe difficult to find eventhe smallest material for a hopeful view of their cricket . Indeed, the only really encouraging outcome of last year seems to have been the appearance of a capable young wicket -keeper in Butt , of Hastings , w h obids fair to supply a great wantof late years . Thecontinuous ill -success of the Sussex eleven of late years has naturally brought the claims of some of the more likely of the younger counties to be considered of equal rank. During the last few years , indeed , there has been such a markedimprovement in the general character of the cricket outside what are termed the first -class counties, that it has been difficult to see h o wtheir reasonable aspirations could be refused . Derbyshire , Warwickshire , Leicester- shire , and Essex have all proved themselves capable of making a good show against some of the older shires , and the two first -named in particular showed themselves to be, in several cases , well worthy of a comparison with someof even the moreinfluential of the leading counties . The most notable advance in recent years , though, has been that of the Somersetshire eleven , whose brilliant performances throughout last summer fully entitled them to the unstinted praise showered on them, not only by the critics , but by cricketers of all kinds . That their victory over a good side of Middlesex early in the year , at Lord's , was in no waya fluke was proved by their unbroken successes in subsequent matches, and finally by the result of the return at Taunton, whichended, as will be well remembered, in a tie . It has been urged that the showof the Somersetshire eleven in 1890 was in no w a y moreexceptional than that of Leicestershire or Warwickshire in their best years . Theargument maybe correct , or it maynot. In a long recollection of cricket , Ia m, however, myself unable to instance any record for a youngcounty so dis- tinctly creditable throughout as was that of Somersetshire last summer; and it will be very interesting to see howthe eleven will fare in the coming season , whenthey will have to bear the strain of a very muchheavier and more trying programme, including as it will engagements with no less than six of the eight leading counties . O npaper the Oxford and Cambridge match seemed to be a certainty for Cambridge , and the result proved that the public estimate was correct . As a batting side , Cambridge was indeed very strong ; and if the eleven generally werenotquite up to the standard perhaps of the best teams the University has had, they were undoubtedly above rather than below the average . O n hard