James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1895

T H EF I R S TS O U T HA F R I C A NT E A M, 5 P A R TI. C H A P T E R I. T H ET O U RO FT H EF I R S TS O U T H A F R I C A NT E A M . B YJ. N. P E N T E L O W . O n the whole, the South African tour must be conceded to have been , from the point of view of the players themselves , which is certainly the most important point of view , a distinct success . Early in the course of it , at the dinner given in their honour by the Surrey Club, Mr. Castens expressed a doubt as to whether Mr. Alcock had not tried them a little too highly in the list of fixtures he had made. Results have shown, however, that Mr. Alcock's judgment was, as usual , not at all at fault . At any rate , with such figures as-- 24 played , 12 won, 7 drawn and 5 lost , it would scarcely seem that our visitors h a dbeen meeting foemen of such calibre as not to give them a fair chance of s u c c e s s . The average number of runs per wicket for and against -as reliable a test of strength , perhaps , as we can well have-point to a general superiority , not great , indeed, but still decided , of the South Africans over their opponents . It is worthy of note that , while the Colonists did decidedly better , on the whole , in the second innings than in the first , their opponents madea very muchlarger pro- portion of their runs in first innings . 4 3 4 1 2 4 1 2 4 8 9 1 6 8 6 8 3 0 4 0 9 Runsmade Wkts. Rns.made Wkts. Total Ttl.wkts . Avrg. in 1st ins. d o w n. in 2ndins. d o w n. runsmade. d o w n. perw k t. S o u t hAfricans... 3 9 8 4 2 4 1 2 4 0 8 1 2 5 6 3 9 2 3 6 6 1 7 . 4 6 Opponents 1 6 . 6 9 The highest total of the South Africans was 380 in the second innings , against Somerset . Theyalso scored 300 v. Derbyshire , 287 v. Liverpool and District , 281 v. Mr. C. W. Wright's Eleven , 275 v. Hampshire, 262 v. Gloucestershire , and250 v. Gentlemen of Ireland . Against them Hampshire made408, Derbyshire 325.