James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1893

1 0 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. C H A P T E R III. P U B L I CS C H O O LC R I C K E TI N 1 8 9 2. B YT H ER E V. A. F. E. F O R M A N. NOTHING in the past season was more surprising to the army of critics , nothing more gratifying to the general public , than the success of the Somersetshire team. Their success ought to be a source of great comfort and encouragementto the coaches at our various public schools , for, be it remarked, eight membersof their best eleven were old public -school boys- boys whose praises have been sung in these very columns from year to year. Theyhave carried into county cricket the determination and strong esprit de corps which were born in them at their respective schools , and so have been able , with a very small amount of professional help , to meet and conquer the most powerful of their rivals . This , however, is no place to eulogise the wonderful doings of Hewett, Woods, Palairet , and others , they will be extolled elsewhere in the ANNUAL, but, as we watched the Somerset team in the field , a feeling of intense satisfaction , only natural we think , came over us, for w e rememberedthat they were almost all old friends , w h o mw ehad met over and over again in the pages of our yearly article on Public School Cricket . Surely Somersetshire's success ought to prove a real stimulus to school cricketers . That it m a ydo so is our earnest wish , that it would do so w e are confident , were there more counties whose ranks were open to the best of our young cricketers . Nottingham, perhaps the strongest shire of all , is , it is true, content to include in her team two amateurs whohave not thus far w o ntheir " blues." Glo'ster found one of her mostable members in a young Oxonian , whose doings for his county ought to secure him a place in the Oxford team this year, but the brothers Douglas, Fry, Wells , and others have, perforce , to eat the bread of idleness , simply because they have the honour of belonging to a county where the supply of cricketers exceeds the demand. It is, indeed , unfortunate for the future of amateur cricket that men, such as those we have mentioned , should practically be lost to first -class cricket so soon as the inter -'Varsity match is over. not be avoided , we know, but none the less it is a deplorable circumstance , and w e wish some system of transference could be suggested , by which such m e ncould give their services to counties where amateur help is sorely needed. I tc a n - Mention of these young Surreyites reminds us of another circumstance which, in our judgment , ought to afford satisfaction to the lovers of cricket . Timewas whenthe 'Varsity teams were composed very largely of represen- tatives of the two greatest of our public schools , indeed as lately as 1888 there were, we believe , no less than ten Etonians and Harrovians in the two elevens . Very probably this state of things may be repeated in the near future , but it must increase the general interest in the game if the honours are more widely distributed . The winners of 1892 were taken from nine different schools , Winchester and Repton alone being doubly represented , while in the rival team Dulwich, with three representatives , was the only school whichcontributed morethanone m e m b e rto the side . Lathamand Wilson have, so far as we can gather , the special distinction of being the first of their respective schools to earn a place in the great matchat Lord's . Latham's success was anticipated in these columns with some confidence last year, and with equal confidence we predict that his good example will be