Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/188

 Individual batting performances were as brilliant as in any previous year, and we have to go far to find as good results as the following:

Over 200 in an innings, in first-class matches, was exceeded 6 times: twice by Mr. W. W. Read, and once each by Messrs. K. J. Key, A. J. Webbe, Shrewsbury, and Gunn. Over 100 in an innings, in first-class matches, was scored 123 times: six times by Shrewsbury, six times by myself (twice in one match), and more than once by two or three others. My two centuries in one match were made against Kent, at Clifton, on the 25th, 26th, 27th August, and it was the second time I had done it in first-class cricket.

The Players won both matches very easily against the Gentlemen: the first, at Lord's, by an innings and 123 runs; the return, at the Oval, by an innings and 16 runs. Shrewsbury, in the first match, batted excellently for in; but it was owing to the fine all-round play of the team that they did so well, and asserted their undoubted superiority. The successful bowlers were also successful with the bat, and their fielding was quite as brilliant as that of the Gentlemen. It was the strongest all-round team that had ever represented them. The bowling of the Gentlemen was their weak spot, and their eleven was over-matched in both contests.

Perhaps this would be the proper place in which to trace the steps which led to the formation of the County Cricket Council.

As long ago as 1868, when it was no unusual thing for a player to represent two or even three counties in the same season, Nottinghamshire, at a General Meeting, passed a resolution as an instruction to its Committee to this effect:

Under the impression that County Cricket, to be thoroughly appreciated by the public, a return ought to be made as near as may be to the manner in which those