James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1892

PUBLIC SCHOOL CRICKET ÎN 1891 . 1 1 the ease with which it was acquired , would not only be prejudicial to school cricket , but would promote selfishness , and destroy the nobler qualities of boy hood, which are fostered on the cricket field perhaps more than anywhere else . This danger past , w e nowsee before us an enemyof still greater strength , an enemy, moreover, led by those very menwho, in times past, have worthily up. heldthehonoursof their respective schools at cricket andother manlyexercises . Notthat wewould for one momentassert that golf is not a manlygame, indeed, w ebelieve that the danger is intensified a hundredfold by the very fact that someof our mostdistinguished cricketers consider it the finest gamein the world, anddevote themselves to it heart and soul . It is a fascinating game, no one can denythis , but we unhesitatingly affirm it is no gamefor schools and schoolboys . It is useless for its devotees to assert that in nothing else is to be found so splendid a school for the temper, for though this maybe so, andwe do not doubt it, the terrible danger of a gamein which a boy has to play for himself rather than for his side must be patent to all . This is no idle scare , for reports have reached us of boys whose play has been ruined by the acquisition of the golf swing, if that is the correct name, and we here call upon all true lovers of cricket to do their utmost to dissuade their boyfriends fromthe pursuit of whatwem a y reasonably call the fashionable craze of the day. Thus far the evil is not deep rooted , and if all school mentors set their faces strenuously against the first introduction of the gameinto their respective schools , the danger maybe averted , and in a few years ' time we maybe able to say of this , as of the lawn-tennis mania, that , though some few cricketers have been thereby ruined , no permanent harmhas accrued to the true national gameof England. Butenough ! Let us turn to the records of last year's cricket , and see what promise for the future is to be found in them. There is something to deplore , as our readers will find for themselves if they take the trouble to go carefully through the appended reports , but there is muchfor which wehave reason to be thankful . 1891 was by no means an ideal year for boy cricket , and without question some of our young friends suffered severely from the vile weather, which wasexperienced in the earlier weeks of the season , during which, on some grounds at all events , practice of any value was almost impossible . This must be borne inmindin estimating the performances of the three hundred or so boys whose doings form the subject of this article . That some of the three hundred rose superior to all difficulties will be proved by our subjoined statements , but in almost every case it will be found that the old stagers were the heroes of their respective teams . Boys whohad had the advantage of careful training for one or two seasons hold the first places , almost without exception , and 1891 seems to us to haveproduced singularly few new stars , in batting at all events , on the horizon of public school cricket . A most earnest request was madeto us some fewweeks ago that we would try to determine the relative positions of some of the moresuccessful teams of the year. This is a course beset with such innumer- able , and it maybe added insuperable , difficulties , that , in our opinion , it is far better to makeno such attempt. W eare content to let the several accounts speak for themselves , and the selection of the crack teams of the year must be left to the individual choice of our various readers . Oneassertion w eare bold enoughto make, as our opinion is fortified by the decision of some of the best judges in England, and our assertion is that , taken all round, the Winchester boys were the equals , if not the superiors , of anyeleven that took the field last summer. Further than this w ecannot nowventure , though we mayadd that manyexperienced cricketers think that some of the most promising play of the year wasshownby the leading boys of the less -noted schools . Thatthese cracks will develop into the great menof the future is by no means certain , for , as a rule , the representatives of Eton, Harrow, and other schools of the class , have such untold advantages over the menwhohail from the smaller schools , that it is only reasonable to expect more marked advance in them than in their less favoured rivals . It maybe urged that from the very first the advantage is on the side of Etonians and the like , in that they have the best teachers , indeed the very best of everything that money can supply . This is indisputably true , but