James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annaul 1897

5 8 L I L L YW H I T E ' SC R I C K E T E R S' A N N U A L. boundunderfavourable conditions to score well at times . So they did more than once against Hampshire in particular . Towards the end of the season , as usual , and on their ownground, they did fairly well. In addition to their victory over Surrey, which was an extremely creditable achievement , in all likelihood they wouldhavebeen very near beating the Australian team h a dtimeallowed. The Warwickshire Eleven had only a disappointing season . Walter Quaife, owing to ill -health , was quite out of form, and this affected the batting , of course , prejudically . Mr. Bainbridge and W. G. Quaife were fortunately consistently successful , and Diver's free style proved very effective . Still , altogether the batting was hardly as reliable as in 1895 . Lackof bowling has been Warwickshire's weakness just lately , and it was noless pronouncedin 1896. Thewickets generally were not in favour of bowlers at all , and, as they were , the Eleven were fairly certain of a long outing on a run-getting ground like theirs at Birmingham with anything like fine weather . InLeicestershire's cricket there was little to furnish ground for encour- agement. Theydid win two matches, it is true, but one of themwasby a wicket and the other by twenty -one runs . Mr. De Trafford , after the first few matches , did little in batting , and with his hitting comparatively unsuc- cessful the scoring capacity of the side was greatly weakened . As it was, the team were unreliable as run-getters . Pougher played very well at times , but owing to an injury was not at his best towards the finish . All round there was room for improvement . Woodcock's fast bowling was not helped bythe wickets which generally prevailed , and with Pougher practically out of it later on there was really little bowling to get a good side out . K .S. B u t The Sussex Eleven did some fine performances in the wayof run -getting ontheir ownground. Theyplayed several up-hill games with remarkable pluck, whichmadetheir ill -success all the more unsatisfactory . O fcourse, whattriumphs they madewere, in the main, the work of one m a n. Ranjitsinhji's consistently brilliant form was the great incident of the season's cricket . That he succeeded in beating W. G.'s best record for first- class matches will be sufficient evidence of his extraordinary success . besides Ranjitsinhji Sussex had Messrs . Newhamand Murdoch and Bean andMarlow, all tried batsmenandlikely run-getters . In Killick , too , they found a young batsman of very exceptional promise , as his performances proved . In bowling the side was still very weak. Tate bowled generally well, but there was little or no change of any account , so that the brilliant achievements of the eleven with the bat were quite neutralised . Therelative positions of the fourteen first class Counties at the end of the season will be gathered from the following table :- Played. W o n. Lost. Drawn. Points Finished Percent- i n G a m e s. a g e. Yorkshire 2 6 1 6 3 7 1 3 1 9 6 8 Lancashire 2 2 1 1 4 7 7 1 5 4 6 M i d d l e s e x 1 6 8 3 5 5 1 1 4 5 Surrey 2 6 1 7 7 2 1 0 2 4 4 1 E s s e x 1 2 5 4 3 1 9 1 1 N o t t s 1 6 5 5 6 0 1 0 Derbyshire 1 6 4 6 6 - 2 1 0 - 2 0 H a m p s h i r e 1 6 5 8 K e n t... 1 8 5 9 Gloucestershire 1 8 5 1 0 Somersetshire 1 6 3 7 Warwickshire 1 8 3 Leicestershire 1 4 2 S u s s e x 1 8 2 8 8 8 0 3 4 3 - 3 1 3 - 2 3 - 4 1 4 - 2 8 - 5 1 5 - 3 3 - 4 1 0 - 4 0 - 5 1 1 - 4 5 - 6 1 0 - 6 0 - 7 - 1 1 - 6 3