James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1895

6 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. Somerset 319, Gloucestershire 301 , Mr. C. W. Wright's Eleven 284 (for seven wickets ), Sussex 278, and Warwickshire 252. Thus there were seven scores of 250 and over made by the Colonists , and a like number madeagainst them. Their lowest completed innings was 52 v. Surrey , and on six other occasions were the whole eleven dismissed short of three figures . The lowest against them were Leicesteshire's 46 and 52 ; and seven times in other matches was the opposing side out short of the hundred; while on six other occasions the total wasno morethan ten abovetheh u n d r e d. Four centuries were m a d eagainst them: W . G. Grace's 129 (not out) for Gloucestershire (the tour would scarcely have been complete without a century from W. G.'s bat ) ; Ranjitsinhji's 146 not out for Wright's Eleven , Walter Sugg's 121 for Derbyshire , and A. J. L. Hill's 109 for Hampshire. Six were made for them : C. O. H. Sewell's 170 v. Somerset , and 128 v. Derbyshire ; T. Routledge's 152 v. Wright's Eleven ; C. L. Johnson's 112 v. Liverpool and District , E. A. Halliwell's 110, and F. Hearne's 104 v. Gloucestershire . The credit of the longest stand madeby any two batsmen on the side belonged to FrankHearne and Halliwell, w h o put on no fewer than 196 for the fourth wicket in the second innings v. Gloucestershire . The tour scarcely started propitiously . Abeating by ten wickets at the hands of Lord Sheffield's Eleven a side whichincluded at least five cricketers with no pretensions to first -class form-was followed by an unfavourable draw with Hampshire, a fairly level one with Oxford University , and an innings defeat from a Surrey team, which only included four members of the regular county team as then constituted . This match was, however, rendered memorable by a very plucky stand made when all seemed lost by G. Glover , whowas playing for the first time, and the captain , H. H. Castens . Thencame the first success of the tour-the memorable victory over a very fairly strong team of the M.C.C. and Ground, by the narrow margin of eleven runs , and snatched when the limits of time alone seemed effectually to preclude any possibility of a Colonial victory . Middleton did quite his best bowling per- formance of the tour in this match, and was ably backed up by young Roweat the other end, andthe teamas a wholein the field . Thenext three matcheswere all won, Middleton and Rowebowling unchanged in a very small -scoring gamev. Leicestershire , and the former in the next match(v. Chathamand District ) and his younger confrére in that succeeding it (v. Glamorganshire ) again winning laurels . So far the South African bowling had apparently been stronger than the batting . But in the next game, that with Somerset, the Colonists , although beaten by the heavy margin of nine wickets in the end, scored a second innings of 380 , C. Ó. H. Sewell one of the youngest members of the team, playing grandly for 170; and in the succeeding match, v. Gloucestershire , for which W. G. made a century and took nine wickets in the first African innings , Frank Hearne and Halliwell both ran into three figures , though the support they received was of the most meagre description . The County won in the end by five wickets ; and Sussex the rest to oppose the Colonists , secured victory by nine wickets , Hump- hreys , as at Sheffield Park proving sadly puzzling . B u tSussexw a sthe last t e a mto beatourvisitors. T h eresult of thet e a mso far read : 11 played ; 4 won; 5 lost ; 2 drawn. The rest of it gave : 13 played ; 8 won; 5 drawn. It is true that the calibre of the teams opposed in the latter half of the time was scarcely so heavy; but nevertheless the Africans ' success in it seemed to us due more to the fact that they had at last managedto get together and to some extent to master the difficulties of English wickets , which, in spite of their monthof practice must have seemed very strange , after matting , than to the inferior strength of their opponents . Nothing did the team more good -thoughthe success of Roweand Middleton with the ball in the early matches m a yhave done it almost as much-than Sewell's long score at Taunton. It was a