James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1894

CRICKETIN 1893 9 season hadbeen fore -shadowed by their decline during the last few years . Int batting they were still strong with Shrewsbury and Gunn, the two best pro- fessional batsmen of the day, not to mention Mr. J. A. Dixon, the captain , and Flowers, both of w h o mwere only less successful than the great artist just named. There perhaps , the merits of Notts cricket , according to appearances , began and finished . In addition to an unmistakeable tail in the batting , the out cricket generally fell far below the high standard associated with Notts' cricket , say as recently as ten years ago. The bowling which used to be the great strength of Notts has latterly become their chief weakness . Attewell , though hardly so dangerous as of old, if as accurate as ever , had lost a good deal of the sting which used to markhis bowling . Shacklock , in the earlier matcheswas so far successful as to raise hopes which were never realised . For some reason or other , his last appearance was in the second fixture of the Canter- buryweek, after which the countyatleast k n e whimno more. Otherwise, though Flowers on some few occasions gave a taste of his old quality , the Notts. bowling was of only a mediocre kind, which would of itself account for the unmistakeableshortcomings in the record of the Notts. eleven. Sussex and Somersetshire were fairly well matched on the season results . Somersetshire is so far handicapped by the preponderance of its amateur talent that it is never able to put its full strength into the field , until the Universities are down and the sehool vacations commence. Sussex on the other handwas generally represented by its best side , very materially strengthened by the accession of Mr. W. L. Murdoch, the Australian cricketer , to whose markedability as a captain was no doubt attributable a part at least of the improvement which markedSussex cricket last summer. In spite too of the consistent form Mr. W. G. Grace had shewn throughout the season , more particularly in representative matches , the Gloucestershire elevenhada really badtime of it, so bad, that they wereeasily last of the nine leading Counties . To makematters worse , towards the end, differences arose whichaffected their mediocre all round cricket even more prejudicially . Excepting indeed for the appearance of a likely slow bowler in the young Cliftonian , C. L. Townsend, there was in fact nothing in any way encouraging in the records of Gloucestershire. The consolidation of County Cricket has caused the line of demarcation between the Counties generally regarded as first class , and the larger numberwhich the force , or I had almost said the press , of public opinion has declared to be out- side the magic circle , to be very fine , so fine indeed in some cases as almost to reach the vanishing point . The difference in fact between some of the sacred nine and the best equipped of those below the bar, is of the thinnest . More thanone of the secondclass Counties have latterly shewnthemselves to be more than equal to hold their own against even the best of their rivals of the upper grade. The effect has been a promotion thoroughly well earned, at least in one particular instance . Somersetshire was a case in point . The excellent all -round cricket shewn by the Somersetshire eleven was sufficient to secure for that County the recognition it so thoroughly well deserved . Without pressure of any kind or influence fromoutside , by the sheer force of its ownmerit Somersetshire was by the general acceptance of those most interested , elevated into the front rank of Counties . There is no royal road to favour in County Cricket , and it is idle to urge as some have done that there was any special influence to assist in Somer- setshire's elevation. There are other rising Counties no doubt equally capable of holding against the Clubs of older standing . Derbyshire for instance has for the last two or three seasons placed in the field a combination which, by reason of the excellence of its all-roundcricket , hasbeenable to meet as well as defeat under fair conditions , not only some of the least successful , but the best of the first class Counties of the year. The excellent show of the Derbyshire eleven against York- shire in both matches last summerwas good enough to warrant , it must be admitted