James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1885

in four. It 'wus a cuiious thing that M r . O’B rien , who had boen making most brilliant scoies, should have been bowled in each innings without getting a lun. M r . R ock played a patient and invaluable innings for C ambridge , but his style was of the stiffest. The County season suffered a little from the presence of the A ustralians , but was thoroughly interesting nevertheless. As the subject has been fully dealt with by the H on . R. H. L yttelton in another part of the Companion, there is no need to say much here. Whatever doubt may have existed at the end of 1883 as to which County was entitled to claim the championship, there was no possible question last summer. The N otts men showed themselves clearly 0 superior to all their opponents, and were left with an absolute supremacy. It is important to remember, however, that on the throwing question the N ottingham Committee abstained from arranging their usual matches with L ancashire . Y orkshire did not have so good a season as in 1883, being twice beaten by N ottinghamshire , and once each by L ancashire and S ussex . H arrison , who bowled so successfully in the previous year, was practically useless, and the County lost a good bats- man through the illness of Mr. L umb . M iddlesex was sadly weakened in the return matches by the absence of Mr 0. T. S tudd , and the strong batting could not make up for the, at times, pitiable weakness of the bowling. S urrey did not improve upon the form of 1883, but kept well in the front rank. A very promising all-round player was discovered in L ohmaxn . Mr. W. W. R ead was, as usual, the mainstay of the team. L ancashire had only a moderate season, the best feature of the cricket being the wonderfully good and consistent bowling of B arlow . The best performance of the team was the victory over Y orkshire in A llan H ill ’ s benefit match at Sheffield. The decline of Mr. H ornby ’ s batting bad, of course, a very serious effect upon the success of the County. Next to the great form shown by N otts , the most interesting point of the County season, was the advance of S ussex . Not for a very long time ha> tbi- County possessed such a capital all-round eleven. L ord S heffield has every reason to feel satisfied with the result of his enterprise and per­ severance. K ent did only fairly well in County matches, but gained a memorable triumph over the A ustralians at Canterbury-a performance which was in itself sufficient to stamp the season a success. L ord H arris worked untiringly for the side, and obtained the best County average of the year. (G loucestershire had to contend against the