James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1891

1 8 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. the doings of Palairet and Fry somewhatobscured the prowess of their less illustrious colleagues . T h emostinteresting event at Rossall last season musthavebeenthe visit of the Lancashire eleven . Watsonand Hewitson were naturally too good for the local contingent , but as Mr. A. N. Hornbystole some of his mostdaring runs, w ecanwell understand that there was a good deal worth seeing in the match. Awonderfully close thing was their engagement with Malvern, whenRossall w o nbythe narrow majority of 8 runs . Otherwise the cricket there last summer was not very noteworthy , for out of fourteen matches only two ended in victories . Late on in the season the batting improved considerably , and the boys got 307 against the old Rossalians , but the eleven never became really formidable . F. A. Phillips was the most consistent batsman, for Higson, the captain , was dead out of form at the beginning of the year . Phillips also heads the bowling averages with 48 wickets for 11 runs each . Bell andW e d dbothdid very creditably in this department , but the batting figures show the weakness of t h eside. Taking into account the long roll of excellent names which in years goneb y have figured in Sherborne cricket , it is impossible to deny that latterly there has beensomedecadencein the elevens turnedout by that school. In '89 a certain revival was noticed , and it is pleasing to hear that last season Sherborne had again a goodside anda satisfactory record. O u tof 13 matches7 werew o n, 4 drawn, and only 2 lost , though it must be admitted that in their drawngame withWellington they were far from having the best of matters . Agreat quality of the eleven was their good bowling and fielding . Leigh-Clare , indeed , appears to be a trundler of unusual promise ; his 61 wickets cost under 9 runs apiece-a performance of great merit . H e is a fast bowler with a high delivery , and is, withal , a very fair bat. Rutty is another all -round manwhobatted andbowled with muchsuccess , but the leaders in the batting averages are DixonandLam- bert . Dixon is also a first -rate field and a very safe catch . Lambert defends his wickets admirably and scored most consistently : he stays on for another year , and should be of great service . The point in the side with which the critics found fault was a fatal tendency which the batting had to break downin a m a n n e r, for which no efforts in the field could m a k eamends. Still , on the whole, Sherborne can look back on the past cricket season with a good deal of satisfaction, Rugbyonly netted 2 victories as against 6 defeats out of 10 matches . This, though, is not so bad as it sounds , for palliating circumstances can be found. Their opponents were nearly always strongish ; two of their losses were within a very few runs of being the other wayabout, and one of the drawn games reads greatly in their favour. Marlborough, however, smote them hip and thigh at Lord's , holding a clear advantage throughout . The largest aggregate scorer wasWarner, a sound and taking player , whoannexed over 500 runs and averaged 37. Whitting's average is higher still -46, but 5 not out innings assisted him materially . Still ,muchpraise is due to both of these boys for their goodbatting , and, as they both stay on at Rugbynext season , they should become very uncom- fortable thorns in the side of opposing bowlers . Taylor was the most promising bowler, he got 47 wickets for 10 runs apiece : he was a little erratic at times- fewyouthful fast bowlers are not but on his day he was very deadly . Ellis , a slow bowler , also did well , though his average is not nearly as good as Taylor's . Thedrop after Whitting and Warnerin the batting averages , of over 20 points , speaks for itself ; andit is there , we fear , that the defeats come in. Uncertainty stamped the play of the team-witness their 303 against the Free Foresters , and their 79, a few days later , against the Old Rugbeians-and rendered their record rather morenoticeable for individual achievement than for general well -doing. Agood nucleus are available next season , and there should be a bright future before the eleven , if they continue to improve . U pto the end of June the Shrewsbury boys had a brilliant run of triumphs : until the Old Boys beat them by 1 run . Early in July they had not lost a match , but during the last month of the term they deteriorated rather , and the last