James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annaul 1897

5 4 L I L L Y W H I T E ' SC R I C K E T E R S' A N N U A L. andonly twice madeanunfavourable draw. In representative teams theirrecord wasnot so good. They were beaten twice by England and once by M.C.C. and Ground, the Midland Counties , and Mr. Thornton's X I. at Scarborough. Besides the draws against Lord Sheffield's XI. and the return with M. C.C. and Ground and the South of England at Hastings were greatly against them. Their one victory in the test matches was the result of excellent all- round cricket , and they won thoroughly on their merits as the game went. T h ecomparatively poor show of the English bowlers on that occasion , with the exception of Richardson , created some misgivings as to the result of the remaining game at the Oval . As it was, until the last the Australians had something of a chance , and it was mainly their ill -luck in having to bat at the finish on a wicket entirely in favour of the bowlers that caused their defeata n dlostt h e mt h er u b b e r. A s a batting side they were undoubtedly strong . A sameness of style made the play unattractive , and they were certainly not interesting to watch . Thelack of variety caused their methods to be rather monotonous , and a really good hitter of the style of Massie, or McDonnell, or even Bonnor, would have furnished a great relief . At the same time , if there was a want of polish in the batting it was throughout of a very useful kind , as English bowlers of every class found out. Thefielding was hardly as good as one hadbeenled to expect , but even here there was no serious fault to be found. Oddly enough , the bowling proved to be the strength rather than , as pre- dicted , the weakness of the side . Trumble on all sorts of wickets proved himself to be thoroughly reliable , and his performances will compare favourably with those of the best bowlers of the year. W h e nthe wickets were fast , with a tendency to be fiery , Jones ' pace was effective , at times very muchso . Later in the tour M'Kibbin's break puzzled the majority of English batsmengreatly , and his success certainly confirmed the judgment of those w h o had expressed such confidence in his ability as a bowler. George Giffen was as crafty as ever , and his precision and judgment were hardly less marked than on previous visits . Trott and Eady, too , were useful changes , though the latter , who was not in the best of health , did not get many opportunities of showing his form . Theinterest in the CountyChampionshipdid not apparently suffer even by the presence of the Australians . Onthe contrary , the public interest was, if anything , greater than in previous years . In the early part of the season it seemed to be a toss up as to whether Surrey or Yorkshire would be the premiers . Forsome time neither team could do wrong. But Surrey's defeats byLancashire and Middlesex in June showed that on certain wickets theywere uncertain . Then for a time Lancashire and Middlesex began to look dangerous in the face of a slight retrogression of Yorkshire . A little improvement in Surrey's cricket gave a renewed interest , but it was only momentary, and August saw the Yorkshiremen so steadily successful that their position at the head of the first -class counties was practically assured . The Yorkshire Eleven were beyond a doubt, on the formof the year, the best County team. On good wickets their bowling varied , as it was not particularly deadly . O nthe other hand, with a good fielding side they were able to keep the runs down fairly well , even when the pitches favoured run-getting . But on all kinds of wickets they were more reliable than any of the other counties , even than Lancashire , who would, perhaps , haverunthemclosest , whenthe grounds helped the bowler. Evenwhere