James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1894

C R I C K E TIN 18932 1 1 centres of cricket in Durham. Recently a new candidate for county honours and one of some promise has appeared in Worcestershire . Just at present it is fortunate in the possession of several amateurs of the class of Mr. P. H. Latham, of the Cambridge eleven , and with a capable and energetic honorary secretary there is no knowing, always provided , of course , that the sinews of war are favourable , howfar the development mayextend . At all events the experience o flast s u m m e rs h e w e dthattherew a sthematerialfor theformationof a neleven quite able to m a k ea good showagainst some of the formidable of the second gradeof counties . O nthe respective form of the two elevens , the Oxford and Cambridge match wason paper as near a certainty as any thing in a game proverbial for its uncer- tainty could be. The result was strictly in accordance with the general anticipa- tion . Though they had the advantage of first innings , Oxford were quite over matched at every point of the game. The play generally was hardly up to the best standard of the match, in fact , the two sides were as a whole below the average . Still there was only one cause for regret in the match. The action of the Cambridge captain in directing Mr. Wells to bowl wides at the close of Oxford's first innings , to prevent if possible , their following on, gave rise rightly to a good deal ofcomment--some of it not of the most favourable character . That the object of course is to win the match no one will dispute , nor that the Cambridge captain was within the law, as well as only doing what others have done in first -class matches, and not so very long ago. Still in such a contest as Oxford and Cam- bridge , there is an unwritten law to play the game without reproach as well as: without fear . If only for this anything which savours of sharp practice or is sugges-- tive of an outrage on the proprieties of better class cricket ought to be rigidly discountenanced. Public School cricket is so exhaustively dealt with in a susequent chapter that there is little need for comment here. Still , a brief reference maybe made withregard to the great match of the year at Lord's . Here too , the result was never in doubt. Eton, whohad already the credit of a thoroughly well deserved victory over Winchester , were infinitely better at all points than Harrow, who werelast year distinctly below the average . The Harrow captain , C. S. Rome, ofw h o ma good deal was expected , failed in anywayto realise the anticipations of those who had watched his cricket . His failure , of course , reacted onthe eleven generally , but still there was really no form of any great promise on the side . A s the season , with the exception of a short interval about the middle of July, was all in favour of batsmen, the scoring in some cases was abnormally high. The ground of the United Services , at Portsmouth , which has always been noted for the run-getting character of its wickets , was the scene of a phenomenal performance in the way of scoring . In this case the sufferers were an eleven selected from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge-who are not likely to forget their outing at the hands of the Australian team. Hitherto the highest innings on record in animportantmatchwasthe 803 of the N o n-Smokersagainst the Smokers, on the East Melbourne ground in 1887. The Australians though, outdid this with plenty to spare , and their innings , which lasted over ten hours , realised 843, or 40 more than the previous best . Curiously , to Notts belonged the distinction of the largest as well as the smallest innings in county cricket . T h eSussexeleven havefurnished the occasion for mostof the big scores registered in Inter -County matches during the last ten years , so it was in the fitness of things that they should give Notts. the opportunity in 1893. As it was the score of 674madeby Notts . against Sussex at Brighton in June was only a few runs short of the highest record in first -class County cricket , to wit, Surrey's 698 against Sussex at the oval in 1888. The 38 of Notts . against Yorkshire , at Trent Bridge , w a sthe smallest total in a first -class Inter CountyMatchlast summer. The run getting character of the wickets generally had naturally a sensible effect on the batting averages , some of which were exceptionally good. Atthe commencementof the season Shrewsbury , as in 1892 , was wofully out of luck, so muchso, that it really seemed as if there was little or no chance of his ever making a bold bid for the first place again . Still , though he never quite managed to get