Page:Jubilee Book of Cricket (Second edition, 1897).djvu/424

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462
COUNTY CRICKET.

sustain his form for so long, has ever represented us, and no one is known better all the world over. Very resourceful, he continues to maintain his position cleverly, and there is plenty of cricket in him yet. Walter Robinson, Nash, Crossland, Yates, and Frank Ward have all in their time rendered great service; and Messrs Frank Taylor, O. P. Lancashire, J. Eccles, S. M. Crossfield, G. Jowett, C. H. Benton, and others in the amateur division have represented it faithfully and well.

Coming to the team as at present constituted, during the last ten years no eleven has been more consistent without attaining the high position of champions. Wonderful, indeed, have been the exhibitions of Archie MacLaren. From his Harrow days up to the present he has placed on record a series of magnificent performances, at the head of which is his famous record score of 424, made against Somerset at Taunton in July 1895. Frank Sugg, Albert Ward, George Baker, and Arthur Mold are all players of the finest ability,—men who, in all the varied departments of the game, represent its truest interests, and are as well conducted as they are clever. Indeed I wish to speak in the highest terms of professional cricketers generally, who engage in a game of the most searching nature, and, by their respectfulness and respectability, make their profession one for which there is much admiration.

It would not be possible to conclude this article without referring to my excellent friend and honorary secretary, Sam Swire. First elected a member of the club in 1858, he has been in the thick of it throughout; and elected as honorary secretary in 1862, he remained until 1865, and resumed again in 1869, from which time until the present he has held uninterrupted office. He has been at the head in all its improvements and increases, and still guides it with power that few men possess.


LEICESTERSHIRE.


By T. BURDETT.


Leicestershire is one of those counties in which cricket flourished in days long gone by, for we find it playing nine matches with Nottinghamshire between the years 1789 and 1829, of which Notts won five and Leicestershire four. It also had the good fortune to have one of the best county grounds in the country in the old Wharf Street ground; but this, through