Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/169

 Results showed that they were quite up to our best county form, but still unable to cope with a picked eleven. The memorable match against an Eleven of England, at the Oval on the 6th, 7th, and 8th September, in which Murdoch batted so grandly for 153 not out in the second innings and Spofforth was unable to play, may be advanced as an argument to the contrary; but I thought then, and I think still, that if three matches had been played between the same elevens, England would have won all three. The composition of the English team will be most interesting to students of the game, and will show how broadly county cricket was represented. There were three players selected from Nottinghamshire; three from Gloucestershire; two from Kent; one from Lancashire; one from Middlesex; and one from Yorkshire.

Two things were clearly revealed: that the Australians had in Spofforth and Murdoch a bowler and batsman of the very first class. Spofforth could show in eleven-a-side matches a bowling average equal to Alfred Shaw, who was undoubtedly the most successful English bowler that year; and in all matches, his 391 wickets for an average of 5.63 per wicket will bear comparison with anything recorded in the history of the game. Murdoch's average of 25.8 for 19 completed innings, while not quite up to the standard of our first-class batsmen, was a great advance on his 1878 performances.

County cricket was in no way affected by the Australian visit; for, if anything, the interest displayed during the season was greater than in any previous year. Nottinghamshire deservedly came out first, for it was the only county that lowered the colours of the I the Australian eleven.

Gloucestershire had now played for eleven years, and had held its own against all comers. I had