James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1885

17 gcorTOK have made a most excellent nucleus, round whom F lowers , (jiiNXj S elby , and A tteuell have hovered, and the aggregate is formidable. 'I' 1)e team has been greatly strengtliened by the vast improvement that lias, taken place in S cotton ’ s play. It is hardly too much to say that IPs defence during this year has been excelled by no other batsman in England. There is a good, sound working material all through the Eleven, F lowers , A ttewell , and B arnes all being good all-round men, and SiiKinviN, as usual, has kept wicket well. Y orkshire , in spite of some defeats, may have the second place assigned to it, Y orkshire cricket always presents very much the same characteristics. The team have three excellent bats in H all , U lyett , and B ates , but two of these are a little uncertain, and though H all had a large average, he was mainly indebted to three innings of over 100 got against S ussex , M iddlesex , and K ent , three counties not by any means strong in bowling. They were apt, occasionally, to collapse entirely, and not even their great bowling strength could counterbalance this weakness. Some promise was shown by a new professional, L ee , and the County will do well to play him all through next season. The bowling of the Eleven was excellent, when the dryness of the grounds is taken into consideration. The ever-green E mmett , a model to all young cricketers in his zeal for his side, is at the head of the bowling averages, and this is the nineteenth season that he has played for his County. The committee wisely removed him from the captaincy, not that he was bad in that capacity, but he did not bowl himself enough, and the result of H all leading the team was that E mmett bowled more overs than any other member of the team, except P eate . P eate bowled very well, as also has U lyett , who was certainly the best, fast howler in England last season, though he is not good enough for such a position. The whole eleven may be briefly described as a good rough-and-tumble team, with considerable accuracy in bowling. They were badly beaten by S ussex in a match where the weakness of the Y orkshire batting was painfully apparent. . - • . . . . There was little to choose between M iddlesex and S urrey last year, each defeating the other. It is probable, however, that M iddlesex would win a majority of matches. The latter County were deprived in several of their matches of the services of Mr. C. T. S tudd , who had, however, lost a great deal of his batting form. The traditional weak­ ness of M iddlesex bowling was still obvious, and they were unlucky in not oftener being able to secure the services of Mr. C. E. C ottrell , who would greatly have assisted them where they were weak. There were the usual features of the county team—the grey-haired veteran, i). W alker , scoring remarkably well, as of yore, but treading the hard grounds a little gingerly ; T. S. P earson , acrobatic at point, and useful, ■hough not graceful when batting; A. J. "VV kbbb !,. who was severely nuidicapped by an affection in his eyes, but still a batsman of great jenius on bad wickets; A lfred L yttelton , available only in late Hatches, but a tower of strength in these ; and G. 1 . V ernon , who has ahen off this year. The brunt of the bowling fell on B urton , who 'owls a good length, but is very slow, and with no spin in his ball, and herefore not sufficiently able to take advantage of bumpy wickets, ^he Countv were heavily defeated by N otts , and had a yveat deal be worst of a drawn match with Y orkshire . O’B rien played well