James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1884

23 full strength is available ? Yet nobody can claim the pride of place for j I iddlesex . Let ween N otts and Y orkshire this year the difference is very minute. S ussex has been the means of complicating the situation, for she beat Y orkshire at Sheffield, and against N otts at Brighton suc­ ceeded in making a draw, leaving it anybody's game. On the whole N otts may be said to have earned the honour of being Champion County, for, though she played a large proportion of drawn matches, these were somewhat in her favour, and she can lay claim to have beaten Y ork ­ shire ) and played an even drawn game on the return. A t the beginning of the season it hardly looked possible for N otts to hold her own at the top of the list. The services of O scroft were no longer available; 31 orley was practically hors de combat , and B arnes was altogether out of form in Australia, and began the season very moderately in England. As the summer wore on he recovered his form in a wonderful manner, and h&s never played better than during the last two months of the season. S hrewsbury has been safe as ever, F lowers both in batting and bowling has been bustling and useful as before, while W. W right has turned out an excellent bowler and useful in the other departments, and G unn has improved vastly as a bat. When it is remembered that they are captained by S haw , still the straightest bowler in England, and probably gifted with the wisest cricket head amongst all the pro­ fessionals, and the bulky form o f S herwin spreads itself behind the wicket, preventing all hut the widest amateur ball from passing him, no surprise need be shown at their position. The supporters of N otts may well be proud indeed of the lustre that has spread over their County for the last fifteen years, at no time lower than second or third in the list of Counties, frequently indeed first, contributing, entirely by men bred and born in the Countj' itself, four or -five of the eleven picked to play for the Players of England, and also contributing largely to the position that Lancashire has hitherto occupied, for where would this County have been without W m . M c I ntyre in the past and C rossland and B riggs in the present ? N otts may, indeed, justifiably look over their past records with pride. To go over their famous names is almost beyond the limits of a single article, yet who can forget the deeds of P arr , D aft , J ackson , G rundy , W ootton , B rampton , J. C. S haw , TY nley , and O scroft , not to mention those still to he found fighting for their County ? Who can forget also the hordes of Nottingham men who year by year dock over England as professional bowlers, instructing members of other clubs in the rudiments of the game. Yet the vein of cricketers seems in no wise worked out, for the young cricketers of this year, A ttewell , M ills , and W right , any County would be proud to include in their ranks. There must be intense pride in the fact ot their being horn and bred natives of the County itself. It is in the pow ei ot no other County but Y orkshire to raise eleven professional players who Year affpr vpnr vday for their County,— real N oitingham men, bom and working there ; and even Y orkshire is hardly *ate gory for its enormous size and number oi inhabi- -----o, nuuicxousby ten times than N otts , gives it a huge advantage —in fact so big is it that i f possible it might be expedient to divide if % some process. . , , ,. ^ ^ To Y orkshire the second place must certainly be adjudged reason why i t is not probably quite so good as N otts is that the The en is