James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1892

PUBLICSCHOOLCRICKET IN 1891 . 1 9 opponents . Five of the games were unfinished it is true , and amongthemthe Marlborough match , and of the four defeats two were lost by very small margins . Still the results were certainly not as good as had been expected . Theprimary cause of this comparative failure is not hard to find . Whitting and Warnerscored nearly 1000 runs between them in 1890 , last year they did not knock up 500 ! Their decline was not counterbalanced byanyconsistent run- getting by other membersof the team. Warner's fall in average was due to a nasty accident which crippled him for the whole season , and not to any loss of form. H eplayed a splendid innings for the Public School Eleven against the Gentlemenof Surrey, and is considered by some good judges to be one of the most promising boys of the day. W e shall expect great things from him this year. For Whitting's decline w ecan offer no excuse or explanation . It may behewill appear in a very different light at the 'Varsity , as, judged by some of his earlier doings , he is a cricketer of no meanability . Ofthe bowlers Ellis and Slater did the bulk of the work, but Whitting was the most successful , and he compensated for his failure with the bat by a marked improvement in bowling, andhe is quite likely , with his great natural advantages , to makea namefor himself inthis line . Enoughof the past it was a season of disappointment , andwehopethat its memorymaybe lost in the triumphs of the coming summer. Warnerhas no easy workbefore him, but as he is very keen and bent on success , w ebelieve that his eleven will do well , the more so because just nowthe boys, from w h o mthe new choices must come, are said to be more than usually promising. F e wof the public schools of last year had a more successful season than Sherborne , and Painter deserves every credit for the steady improvement which h ehaseffected ever since hehas hadthe superintendenceof the school crieket . Ruttyproved himself an able captain : he set his side a good example by scoring consistently , he managedhis bowling well, and, whatis far from unimportant , hehadthe happyknack of winning the toss . There is one thing in which w e hope his successor will be more fortunate than he, for , notwithstanding the m a n yvictories , the [record would have been even better had the fielding been upto the mark. The bowlers , Joy and Carey especially , did their work really well,but the long list of catches missed leads to the conclusion that their averages ought to have been even better than they were. Itm a ybe, enough care is not given to the lower games, andif so it is vain to hope that boys will field well when their turncomesto represent the school. Mostof the runs last season came from the bats of Rutty and Lambert, whoscored more than all the rest of the teamput together , and fully justified the high opinions that had been formed of themin the previous year. Lambert, we believe , is bound for Sandhurst , so it is improbable he will ever come prominently before the public , but Ruttyand Carey are at Oxford, and will , we trust , morethan confirm their school reputa- tions . Apleasant feature of the season wasthe institution of the match with Bradfield , to which we have already referred , and we hope it will become an annualfixture . A sfar as the Shirburnians are concerned the matchw a snote- worthyfor the partial failure of the two swells , and the success of Randolph, Maunsell and others . This is an encouraging omenfor coming struggles , and it is not unreasonable to expect that the Dorsetshire boys will have another good recordto s h o w h e nexts u m m e rt e r md r a w sto a close. Shrewsbury hada very fairly successful season in 1891 , a result mainly due to the efforts of Raikes and Burrough. Raikes had shownvery good form in the previous year, and was even then at the head of the batting averages . Last season he was still more successful , and after scoring regularly in almost every match finished off with the magnificent average of 46. Salopians claim for him, probably with justice , a high place amongthe school cricketers of the year, and his future career will be watched with great interest . Thoughnot so large a scorer as his captain , Burrough's services were almost as invaluable , as not only didheget a lot of runs, but in bowling he was the mainstay of the side . If all goes well the team this year ought to do some fine performances , as no less thanten old choices , Raikes and Burrough included , are available , and the