Page:Jubilee Book of Cricket (Second edition, 1897).djvu/380

358 from others of the team, brought the total to 215, and Cambridge lost 3 wickets in knocking off the runs. Smith and Studd again shared the wickets, the former taking 6 and the latter 4; but both, especially Studd, were fairly expensive. E. Peake did a fine bit of bowling for Oxford: put on to bowl quite late, he took five wickets for 2 7 runs, including the century-getter.

After the loss of one match, Cambridge won, again by 7 wickets, in 1885, and again Wright played admirably for 78 and 15, every one thinking and hoping during his first innings that he would rival Yardley's feat of twice getting into three figures. Though he did not succeed, yet one of his confrères, H. W. Bainbridge, made loi, and the total of 287 left Cambridge well ahead, to the extent of 154 runs. A first-rate 78 by Page, made by the fastest hitting, and 51 by K. J. Key, largely helped to Oxford's 239, but Cambridge soon knocked off the necessary runs. T. C. O'Brien (now Sir Timothy), who had been very unfortunate in his debut the previous year, made excellent scores of 44 and 28 for Oxford. Of the bowling brigade, C. Toppin and C. A. Smith for Cambridge, and A. H. J. Cochrane and E. W. Bastard for Oxford, were the most successful. Wright and Bainbridge put on 152 for the first wicket, Toppin and Smith 53 for the last wicket, so that the intermediates did nothing startling. Cambridge was now four matches to the good, which advantage was reduced to two in the next two years, while the fifty-fourth match, the match of 1888, was unfinished, owing to rain, and though it was arranged to play on the fourth day, yet that day was so wet that cricket was impossible. No draw had occurred for forty-four years. The scores stood, Cambridge 171 and 170, Oxford 124, so that the Cantabs. had the best of things—on paper. No individual score was higher than 37, and the bowling of S. M. J. Woods (Cambridge) and A. H. J. Cochrane (Oxford) was the chief feature of an unsatisfactory match.

Once more, beginning with 1889, Cambridge had a series of three wins, in this year by an innings totalling 300 to Oxford's 105 and 90. Woods was the destroying angel, capturing 11 wickets for 82 runs,—in fact, Lord George Scott and H. Philipson alone seemed able to play him; at least both got a few runs, and he got neither of them out in either innings. H. J. Mordaunt made over 100 runs—127, to be exact—and batted exceedingly well; but after Oxford's miserable start all the life seemed to be taken out of the game, and even so good an innings caused little enthusiasm. E. Crawley's 54, a smart display, deserves a line of record. H. Bassett got 5 Cambridge wickets