James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1893

1 4 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. vain, however many defeats he may experience from other foreign teams . Actingon this dictum we propose first of all to treat of those elevens which w o n their school matches, andto leave the unfortunates to the last . Public opinion pronounced Winchester the strongest team of the year , and , at their best , they would probably have proved more than a match for anyother side . Theywere far too good for the Eton boys, but in this match, as indeed in most of the matches of the season , the real workwas done by Masonand Leveson-G o w e r, w h oscored over300 runsbetweenthem, andwereinstrumental in the fall of 19 of their opponents ' wickets ! Neither Gibson nor Wigrammet with success in the Eton match, but at the beginning of the season Wigram bowled well , and Gibson more than once proved himself a great addition to the team. Micklem and Stephens were far and awaythe best of the remaining batsmen, the others only making runs whenruns were easy to get. While the season was yet young the fielding was often very muchat fault , though Lewis was from the first absolutely irreproachable , but improvement was rapid , and before the close the team had, in this respect , reached the high standard which is always expected from a Wykehamisteleven . Twonotable performances de- serve more than the passing word of praise which they will here receive . Against the I Zingari , Leveson -Gower and Mason scored respectively 116 and 124 , but eventhis performance must yield in merit to Mason's 82 against the M.C.C. , an innings which the school authorities pronounce to have been the best ever played on the school ground. The future is , of course , uncertain , but with M a s o nat their head, and Stephens and Gibsonto help h i m, it does not seem unreasonable to predict another favourable season . A t Lord's Harrow repeated the triumph of 1891 , but by no means in such signal fashion . Indeed the Lord's match, full of interest as it was, reflected very little glory on either of the opposing teams. Earlier in the season the Harrovians won two very remarkable victories , the first against a very fair M.C.C. eleven , with Shacklock to help them, the second , and by far the most noteworthy , against a most powerful collection of Quidnuncs . This last was a really wonderful victory , and ought to have encouraged the boys to still greater efforts , but for some reason or other the rest of the season did not see the realisation of the high hopes formed after these matches . The batting was dis- appointing ; Clayton , who scored regularly , Paine and Torrens being the only ones w h odid anything out of the ordinary . Those whosee most of the cricket at Harrow assure us that Barlow , the captain , would have been a very dangerous batsman had he not been disabled for some weeks by a broken finger . Philcox also is said to have great natural abilities , and his failure to score was a source of much astonishment . But if it be true that the batting was faulty , it is equally true that the out-cricket was uniformly good . Romebowled extremely well throughout ; and when the ground was hard, and the ball dry , the left -hander, Rudd, was especially dangerous . Philcox and Paine were often useful , and as the general fielding was safe , and in Philcox's case brilliant , the team showed up well in the field . Four of the old choices , of whomRomeis one, will be available this year , and ought to form the nucleus of a strong side . Charterhouse wontheir two school matches easily , beating Westminister in aninnings , and Wellington by a large numberof runs. It wasin these matches Smith madehis sensational scores , and his 229 against Westminster is , webelieve , the largest innings ever played in a school match. This victory wasdue almost entirely to him, as Fane's 24 was positively the second best score on the side ! A tWellington Smith again topped the century , but there he divided the honours with Bray, whowas unlucky in just falling short of three figures . Of Smith wehave already spoken at some length , and he was indisputably the best man in the team. Of the others Winchwas the most trustworthy , and Bray the most brilliant . Winch is nowat Cambridge , but Bray will have another year at school , and, if he can only learn to steady himself whenhe first goes in, ought to do very well . In bowling Baker was the most consistent , but he did nothing out of the common, and it would seem that the attacking power of the team depended rather on the quantity than the quality of its bowlers , Crabtree will