James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1894

PUBLICS C H O O LCRICKETIN 1893. 1 7 good fortune which has not fallen to their lot since 1869 , It maybe too muchto expect a repetition of all these victories in the present year, and fortunately it is not our province to dwell on the possibilities of Henley, but so far as cricket is concerned we can truthfully say that Etonian hopes rest on a very solid foun- dation. With a large per centage of the 1893 eleven ready to do battle for the school it will be astonishing if Bromley-Martin does not again earn the gratitude ofhis fellows by conquering the rival schools . No little share of the success of last season belongs to Bromley-Martin , who, in addition to being one of the best bats and fields in the team, was a most energetic and judicious captain . From small beginnings the eleven trained on and on, until , at the close of term, they were worthy of the old traditions of Eton cricket . It is a long time since so good a side represented the Light Blues at Lords , and though their fielding was not so brilliant as that of the Harrovians they were immeasurably superior in all other respects . The Harrow eleven was not nearly so strong as usual , and in our opinion the victory over Winchester was of far greater merit . W emustnot pause to review any of the matches in detail , suffice it to say that , on their preform- ances as a whole, the Etonian team has been declared , by competent critics , the best school team of the year, and with this opinion w e are not disposed to disagree . A team with 10 (perhaps 11) batsmen all likely to score , and4bowlers quite up to the average must be a bad one to beat! O f these batsmenand bowlers the best , perhaps , were the captain , Cunliffe , Pilkington , and Cobbold , though it seems unfair to omit from our list of merit Kettlewell and Egerton , who stand at the head of averages , Harrison and Meeking, the heroes of Lords , and Greenly , the fieldsman of the side and a good bat to boot. B y the way we ought to say that Greenly was unable to play at Lords , and his absence , in the field especially , was much deplored . But we have said enough . N o better testimonial of the general excellence of the eleven could be found than our absolute inability to select the swells of the year, and with this confession of ignorance we close our sketch of Eton cricket in 1893. In last year's Annual we ventured to predict a favourable season for the Haileybury boys, notwithstanding the loss of their best men. This prediction wasnot falsified by events , but it would, in all probability , have been far more completely fulfilled had it not been for a series of disasters , against which it wouldbe difficult for any school to contend . To begin with , the Captain was unable to play until quite late in the season , and even then could not occupy his usual place behind the wickets . Then, of the other old choices , two were more or less incapacitated , and so in no one of their matches was the team able to take the field with its full strength . These hindrances notwithstanding victory alter- nated with defeat , and, after a very inauspicious beginning , their only other serious failure was against Wellington College . The Uppingham match fell through , a lucky circumstance it maybe for the Herts' boys , but another school match was added to the programme, Haileybury meeting Cheltenham at Lords at the beginning of August. This matchproduced one of the best finishes of the year, and in the end it was anybody's game. The averages of the team disclose no" star ," but Snell was the most successful of a lot of useful batsmen, Barton of a somewhat weak bowling division . The M.C.C. match will probably long live in the annals of the schools , for fromwhatw ehaveheard, the excitement at the finish w a sm o s tintense. T h e visitors still w a n t e d4 to w i nw h e nthe9th wicket fell , and the last pair of defenders consisted of a well -known venerable pro., who had not touched a bat for years , and an amateur whose identity has not been as yet revealed to m e. But pro. and amateur were equal to the occasion , the pro . stopped some straight ones , and the amateurhit his first , whether straight or no history does not relate , to the boundary, and, though bowled next ball , wonthe match for his side ! What is to happen this year we don't quite know, but if Attewell is as energetic as before hewill probably be able to turn out a very fair side .