James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1894

6 LILLYWHITE'S CRICKETERS' ANNUAL. C H A P T E R II. C R I C K E TIN 1 8 9 3. B YI N C O G. TIMEwas, and that not so very long ago, whenthe visit of an Australian Team wouldalone have sufficed to m a k ethe cricket season memorable. Thatw a s before the competition amongthe first class counties had been magnified by the force of a general interest into almost a national question . As it is , the whirligig of time has brought its revenges only too plainly . The excitement created b y the early appearances of Australian cricketers has worn away by too frequent iteration . The question now is, not how soon the next combination will be welcomed, but rather the length of the interval before another party is to be received . The explanation is, perhaps , not so much that the cricket public loves the Australians less , but that it finds more real enjoyment in the infinite variety of the series of matches which has to be decided before the premiership of county cricket for the year can be definitely settled . English cricket is, in fact , the cry just now. Recent experience , at all events , has shewn beyond a doubt that there has been , if anything , a surfeit of what we maycall visiting teams. Whatwas an attraction , early in the eighties , before county cricket had as yet become a matter of public concern , has latterly , in the face of a yearly increase in the number and importance of county fixtures , not only ceased to be anything of a sensation , but come to be regarded as a bit of a nuisance . That the English programme is considerably disarranged by the visit of an Australian teamnow-a-days is only too certain . In saying this there is no desire to overlook the undoubted impetus the special methods of the pioneer teams of Australians gave to the gamehere ; on the contrary , the force of the example they set in the wayof discipline and all round excellence , undoubtedly did much to give new life to English cricket . The pity is that the later teams have hardly been true to these traditions . In any case the effect has been quite the reverse . Indeed, the unity which was once the great characteristic of the Australian cricketers over here , seems of late to have been the more conspicuous by its absence . The result has been a visible diminutionin the interest they have excited and a corresponding preference for the cricket of native production . The methods of Australian teams , have been , it must beadmitted , in a great measure responsible for this . Whatever the reason the fact remains , and it is indisputable that the tendency among all who have the best interests of cricket at heart is in the direction of a discouragement rather than of an encouragement of these periodical tours , unless , at all events , the intervals are considerably longer . Still it is satisfactory to be able to note that even in the face of the Eighth Australian team, to whose doings full justice will be done in a later chapter , English cricket not only held its own but more than its own. Just at the com- mencementit seemedas if the long continuance of dry weatherin the latter part of the spring , and indeed , well into the summer, would have had a lasting effect andfor evil on the whole of the wickets . In some particular cases the influence wasvisible throughout the season . A sa rule , however, the gentle rains in the middle of the season completed naturally the good work which the watchful care of ground-keepers had so far done by artificial means. O n the whole it was an ideal season from the point of view of a player as well as a spectator . During the greater part the wickets were just of the kind to make the play lively as well as interesting . Whatslight interruption there was from rain only sufficed to give new zest to the renewal . On the whole the game could hardly have been pursued under better conditions , and the seasen was, in fact, one of themostenjoyable that cricketers have experienced for a long term of years . The general expectation that the competition for the premiership of the leading counties would be more than usually interesting , wasfully confirmed by the result . The loss of such an exceptional all -round cricketer as George Lohmann,