James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1896

10 l il l yw h it e ’ s cr icketers ’ annu al Of tile other seven Counties the characteristic was a scale of diminishing noints « ' from minus two to minus eight.. Essex was just at the head of 1ist stage of the season was better than the first, and considerabl) so. Lp to the niddle of the summer Essex had not won a match ; after June 4 their record showed five victories to three defeats. A comparison with Somersetshire was a 1to the advantage of Essex, for the simple reason that the former came off second best both at Leyton and Taunton. But the best performances of the year were the defeats of Derbyshire at Leyton and Yorkshire at the end of the season at Harrogate. The latter was a highly creditable performance, the outcome of really fine all-round cricket. Mead’s bowling and Carpenter a batting were among the very best features of the season. In Air. I . Cx. Hull Essex found a young player of considerable promise. It was not the season tor slow bowlers, but onwickets which help the ball he is sure to be of use, and with more experience ought to develop into a very useful all-round ciicketcr. With Captain Hedley not available till the latter part of the season, and Mr. Woods not able to bowl his hardest, Somersetshire’s out-cricket showed to comparative disadvantage on the hard wickets in the earlier matches. Tyler’s bowling had little or no sting, and the one redeeming feature of the first half of the season was the exceptionally fine batting of Mr. L. C. Palairet. Any previous shortcomings were more than atoned ior by the excellent all-round cricket shown by the eleven in August. The season was finished with a flourish of trumpets, and no mistake, and successive victories over Yorkshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, and Gloucestershire showred of what Somersetshire wTas capable represented at its best. The fact that the eleven wrere only able to show six victories to eight defeats during the year makes one regret the more that the excellent all-round cricket which marked their play in August at Taunton did not come a little earlier in the season. Unlike Somersetshire, the best part of Hampshire’s cricket was seen in the earlier matches. In each match against Yorkshire they made a very creditable tight. At Sheffield they even succeeded in gaining a thoroughly wrell-earned victory, one, as it happened, which did much to rob Yorksnire of its then excellent chance of the championship. Baldwin’s bowling in the earlier matches in particular proved very effective, and his figures altogether w’ere very noteworthy, as wTere in a lesser degree those of Soar. Still, it wTas in batting more than bowling that Hampshire’s strength lay. Unfortunately for them, Captain Wynyard, who had been so remarkably successful in 1894, never leally got into form, and Hampshire suffered materially in consequence. The promise of the earlier matches was not, it must be admitted, in anyway lealised. All the same, Hampshire had a fair all-round side, and the results of the season certainly stamped it as better than two at least of the older Counties, Notts and Kent. r Sussex received a valuable addition to its all-round cricket in the person of lx. S. lUnjitsinhji, who had qualified by residence. His batting in the early pait of the season was of a really remarkable character, challenging com the P b^ n en a ! performances of the great W. G. himself. ' L\ a / fe towards the end, his record nevertheless wn Z L i t l V J beSt vSti11’ tho%Th Tate>with lessened pace, he S o ' V Z l f the b0wlme otherwise was very moderate, and the want of Humphreys lobs was at times severely felt. On occasions the been*for ^vears be the same sfcron£ batting side they have incident of lheseasor. was ufe n e ^ p a r t u r e ^ ' noteworthy match tnhpnltiv^ u ' 4 r departure in arranging for the Yorkslnro cricket week quite3 jLufied'the e l wrimmTofjthe IIast' uf sand Leonards success, so much so indeed that a fixture a w\Va an annual feature of the Sussex programme 8 7 t0’ " 8h°uld b<i’