James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1884

15 ; . ^yincU lie showed magnificent form throughout the season. Mr. fkeD L yttelton ’ s superb batting in the few matches in which he took | rkcaused general regret that he was unable to play more o ften : we rust that his services w ill be available in the representative matches v. A ustralia during the coming season. Mr. R idley , too, showed that his old defensive and punishing powers were as great as ever, and Mr. A. P. ' j jUCAS is still the steadiest and straiglitest bat in England : his innings i gainst the P layers were indeed admirable. Mr. W. G. G race , the finest cricketer the woi*ld has ever seen, no longer makes the phenomenal scores with which his name w i l l ever be associated; yet there is no batsman in all England whose back his opponents prefer to see. Mr. H ornby early in the season played some dashing innings, but fell off towards the close, and we doubt whether he has even yet quite recovered from his severe accident in the hunting field. Lord H arris was all in I all to K ent , and when once set is well in the first flight of batsmen, whilst too high praise cannot be accorded to Mr. I. D. W alker , the veteran of cricketers of the present day, whose form throughout the season has been quite up to that of his earlier days. The stand made by « himand Mr. A lfred L yttelton against G loucestershire will live in the memories of cricket critics for many a year to come. Mr. A llan S teel played very finely at times, but was not often available; we trust that the rumour that he w ill no longer play in first-class matches is devoid of foundation. Mr. E. F. S. T ylecote showed splendid batting against the P layers at Lord’s, and Messrs. H. W iiitfeld , M. B. H awke , E. L umb , J. S huter , J. G. W alker , C. W. W eight , and W. E. R oller deserve mention amongst a crowd o f batsmen who have scored largely in first- > 0 class matches. F f . f Of the professionals U lyett again stands out conspicuously, and though he has occasionally sacrificed his wicket reckless!}", he has a good claim to leading honours. B arnes , apparently not quite himself 1ft point of health early in the season, was in grand form aftei wards, and has never played better cricket. H all has come rapidly to the front, and liis steady defence has placed him at the head ul the pio- fessional batsmen in point of average. These three playei^ ma\ be s,it aown as the crack professional batsmen of 1883. F loweks has also made great improvement, and was quite invaluable to the j U arileloxe C lub as well as to his County. S hrewsbury and B ates have well Maintained their reputations, but B arlow s defence v as, peiliaps, baldly