Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/202

 {{hwe|tiring|untiring, and when the bowling was good there was no tempting him to hit; but immediately the bowler began to tire and sent up a loose ball, Barrett cracked it to the boundary as well as most batsmen. His fine score of 170 for once out, in the concluding match at Manchester, will be remembered for many a long day. He was a fair bowler also, and with practice will be yet heard of in that department.

Of the others, in batting, very little need be said. Lyons gave us occasional displays of lofty hitting, but he was not the equal of Bonnor in that respect; and for brilliancy, dash, cleanness and placing, was far behind McDonnell in his best days. Trott maintained his 1888 reputation, and at times did exceptionally well, but he lacked in consistency. Turner, Ferris, and Blackham, batted as well as they ever did; but the others met with only moderate success.

It is almost impossible to praise Turner and Ferris too highly for their great bowling performances. Murdoch, like McDonnell, found that they were head and shoulders above everybody else, and he must have had many an anxious quarter of an hour speculating what the team would do in the case of either breaking down. Turner, now and then, was irresistible, and carried everything before him on sticky wickets; but Ferris did better on the hard, good wickets, pegging away in his persistent, plucky way, never minding being hit, and determined at all costs to get the batsmen out Rumours had reached us before the team appeared that Ferris had gone off, but he bowled better than ever; and it was a fitting finish to their grand displays that Turner and he should have ended the season with the same number of wickets, 215, to their credit.

Equally high praise may be bestowed on Blackham's wicket-keeping. It was finer than ever, and he did