James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1885

24 For tliG third consecutive year, and for the sixth time since 1875 th Eton and Harrow match was left unfinished. This result must have been most disappointing to the partisans of the dark blues, as victory would almost certainly have lested with them* btill the E ton eleven must not be judged by this performance. From some cause or other their batsmen seemed utterly unable to cope with the by no means deadly bowling of the Harrovians, and had it not been for a capital innings of S cott ’ s , and some plucky hitting by F orster , the collapse would have been complete. And yet this same team had been good enough to beat Winchester, who were by no means a very weak lot, and had shown fine form on more than one occasion against first-class bowling. Attewell, for instance, found the Eton boys quite as hard to dispose of as the redoubtable Australians. How can we then account for the miserable fiasco at Lord’s? Well, it would seem that Eton elevens, during the last few years, have lost that confidence which used to he pre-eminently characteristic of Etonian cricketers, and for this reason they have not shown their true form in the all-exciting match of the year. We trust that this foolish nervousness will not again he noticeable. The batting averages of the team prove that in L ucas , T homas , and P iiilipson they had three good men. For the second year L ucas is at the head of the batting list, but his average has fallen nine points since the previous season. Still, he is a very useful man, and we hope to hear of his success at Cambridge this summer. As captain he was most painstaking. T homas ’ s play improved considerably, and P hilipsox , a new choice, has an excellent record, and with more experience will probably become a really good bat. Of the others, S cott on more than one occasion made runs just when they were wanted, hut F orster owes his high place almost entirely to a long innings against Oriel College, Oxford. Of the bowlers, F orster was by far the most successful, and has the capital average of twelve runs per wicket. M ordaunt and B romley -M artin were both very useful, hut the latter was terribly expensive. On the whole the fielding of the team was very fair throughout the year. The H arrow eleven* was probably a better team than that of the previous year. It is true that there was not a G reatorex among them, hut several of them were safe run-getters, and the bowling was quite up to the mark, even though Y oung , the best of a bad lot in 1883, proved almost useless, having lost both pitch and direction. Large scoring is seldom associated with Harrow cricket, a fact that is almost entirely due to the ground, which certainly favours the bowler more than enough. In this respect the present season was no exception, as neither for nor against the School did the telegraph ever mark 200 runs. The record of six defeats out of ten matches certainly does not read well, hut their performances against Eton and M.C.C. afforded a practical proof that the eleven was by no means to he despised. We have already stated that, in our opinion, the defeat of Eton was almost a certainty, and in the M.C.C, match, the odds were decidedly against the premier club. It was most unfortunate for the team that C rawley could play so little, as B utler , who acted as captain in his absence, was rather disappointing in that capacity, as well as in his play. B uxton seems to have been the best all round man in the school, and as he showed such ■