Cambridge in the same period had more men of mark. At the outset
there were the erratic but devastating deliveries of Mr. T. Lang,
who captured in all fifteen Oxford wickets for 84 runs, and for his
University has the magnificent figures of forty-six wickets at a cost
of 5.54 apiece. Then too flourished Lord Cobham, of whom Mr. Clement
Booth—a veteran not given to rash assertions—states, “He was
absolutely the best all-round cricketer I ever played with.” Note that
Mr. Booth actually participated in first-class cricket—fine steady
bat that he was—until 1887, and still keeps up his interest in the
game. To collaborate with these three were Messrs. H. M. Marshall, A.
W. T. Daniel, H. M. Plowden, an excellent slow bowler, and W. Bury,
“who never missed a catch.” Truly was it said that the 1862 eleven was
not surpassed until that of 1878. It will be noted that Cambridge was
now enjoying the era of the Lytteltons, G. S., the second brother to
Lord Cobham, coming up in 1866, and showing wonderful nerve in a trying
finish in the following year. It was then the turn of the Light Blues
to win for four successive encounters. Much of this was due to the
great command of that eccentric free-lance Mr. C. A. Absalom over the
ball. He was outside all laws of cricket convention, among other ethics
of his being that a half-volley on the leg stump was the best delivery
with which to attack a fresh batsman. Altogether he took one hundred
wickets for 14 runs each as an undergraduate, and twenty-two wickets
for 247 runs in his three encounters with Oxford. Of course he was
utterly unorthodox as a bat too, but his hard hitting produced quite
a respectable figure in the average-sheet of the Light Blues. Of his
acrobatic agility in the field, it is safe to say that never will its
like be seen again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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