John and James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1882

fi4 I# ®hc Counties in 1 8 8 1 , a L ANCA S H I RE . H on . S kc ............... S. H. SWIRE, E sq ., A siitox - vkder -L yne , L ancashire . C HAMPIONSHIP AMONG THE COUNTIES was never more fair] won than by Lancashire during the past season. Of thirteen hoi Jich County engagements, ten ended in victory, and the remaining three were left unfinished. On paper this is a splendid record, but it j, marvellous indeed when we come to look into the details of the play Of the ten victories, nine were easily achieved, and, except by som? extraordinary chance, not one of the drawn games could have results indefeat. Once indeed the team was hardpressed,—in the first match witl Yorkshire,—and then undoubtedly the scale was turned by a stroke of gooc fortune. On the third morning Yorkshire, with 8 wickets to fall, wante 120 runs to win, hut, as it happened, a heavy fall of rain saturated the ground, and the task became practically impossible. In justice to Lanca­ shire, however, it should be remembered that Mr. A. G. Steel was no: playing for his County, and that Yorkshire was fully represented. In the return match the Yorkshiremen made a plucky, but unsuccessful fight against diiliculties, engendered by the loss of Ulyett’s batting and Hill’s bowling. 1 The success of Lancashire throughout the season was the success of first- rate all-round cricket. Praise without stint is due to Mr. A. N. Hornby for his brilliant and consistently effective batting, to Pilling for his wicket- keeping, to Mr. Steel, Harlow, Watson, and Nash, for their remarkable bowling, and to the whole teamfor their unflaggingwork in the field. Goinj; eighteen times to the wicket, Mr. Hornby played the following series of innings188, 145, 102, 09, 05, 61, 50, 49, 46, 42, 41, 40, 34,14, 7 , 4 , 3 , and 2, being thus out only four times for a single figure. In each of the two matches against Derbyshire, he made more runs off his own hat i>* one innings than the entire opposing eleven in two innings. Finely a* he has played for Lancashire in former years he has never equalled such achievements as these. Ilis value to the eleven, however, goe* far beyond the number of runs that he scores. Ilis mere presence iuspire* confidence, his example makes other players take extra trouble* and into the whole team he contrives to infuse something of his own enthU' •hem. In the old days of the Surrey eleven, Mr. F. P. Miller had much the 'lime effect upon his side, though his individual efforts were less striking Mr. A. G. Steel only played five times, but in those five matches he ma(lc 3 run-, and took 42 wickets, nearly all liis best cricket during the seaso1 b‘-mg *hown for the County. His performances were all the more brillifllltj ; h* aooeared ai/airist the. «tron£fo«t nnnrmonfa__Gloucestershire*