Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/163

 The Gentlemen v. Players, North v. South, and University contests were quite as interesting and exciting as county contests; but at last the All-England Eleven, United South, and United North began to lose their attractions; for no one thought of going out of his way to watch the skill of a first-class professional bowler pitted against indifferent country batsmen, when he could witness county matches fought out from start to finish by the very best professional and amateur talent. The All-England Eleven played two or three matches in 1876, but very little afterwards, and died out for lack of gate support. The United South lived two or three years longer; but after 1877 my medical studies demanded more of my time, and I could only play for Gloucestershire, M.C.C., and in the great matches. I believe the United South played its last match at Stroud in 1880.

Messrs. W. W. Read, A. P. Lucas, A. J. Webbe and F. Penn had now taken a very high position amongst the amateurs, and batted in very fine style. Mr. W. W. Read and Jupp, for Surrey v. Yorkshire at the Oval, scored 206 for first wicket, the second highest yet recorded in a county match; and Mr. J. M. Cotterill and myself put on 281 runs between the fall of the first and second wickets for the South v. North at Prince's. Individual performances of 200 runs in an innings were scored 10 times, and the century was scored more than 500 times. G. Hearne, Mycroft, Morley and myself were very successful with the ball. For M.C.C. and Ground v. Oxford University, Morley bowled 33.1 overs for 14 runs and 13 wickets a feat that has not often been surpassed.

For Gloucestershire v. Nottinghamshire at Cheltenham, at the end of the match, I bowled 25 balls for no runs and 7 wickets.