In the following year, 1847, the Players again won, but at this period
the sides were far more even than they had been before for any long
time together. The redoubtable bowlers Mynn and Bathurst were helped by
Harvey Fellows, the celebrated Etonian, and George Yonge the Oxonian;
and we doubt if the Gentlemen have ever been so strong in this line
since. These two bowled out the Players in 1848 for 79 and 77 runs,
Mynn getting eight wickets in the second innings and hitting up 66
runs. In this year, in fact, it is a question if the amateurs were not
stronger in bowling than batting.
In the next year, 1849, further triumph awaited the amateurs, for
winning the toss they scored 192 runs, compelled the Players to follow
on, and won the match in one innings and 40 runs. Alfred Mynn did not
get a wicket, but Harvey Fellows bowled his fastest, first hurt his
opponents, and then got them out. Old Wm. Lillywhite played his last
Gentlemen and Players match this year, and we read that he refused to
bat in his second innings because he was hurt by Mr. Fellows. He was 57
years old, so may be excused if he felt a little nervous on old Lord’s
ground at standing up to one who used to make the ball hum like a top.
The famous ‘Nonpareil bowler,’ as old Lillywhite was called, was the
king of bowlers in the days when he flourished. Mr. Robert Grimston,
who remembered him well, said that though a slow bowler he was quicker
off the ground than Alfred Shaw. He lived in the days when wides were
common, but it is recorded that during his whole career he did not
deliver half a dozen. He was born in Sussex in 1792, and played as a
given man for the Gentlemen in 1829 and 1830; after that began his
long career as principal bowler for the Players. He was, therefore,
no less than 39 years of age when he played his first match for the
Players. If to other cricketers may be given the credit of inventing
round-arm bowling, still to Lillywhite and Broadbridge all honour is
due for having been the first really good round-arm bowlers. Lillywhite
bowled in seventeen matches against the Gentlemen and got 132 wickets,
or close upon eight wickets per match. He was occasionally useful as a
bat, and though he refused to go in, as just recorded, he had plenty
of pluck when younger, for in a single wicket match he stood up for
278 balls to George Brown, to whose bowling Little Dench of Brighton
used to long-stop with a sack stuffed full of straw to protect his
chest. Batting gloves were not used in those days, and Lillywhite had
his fingers broken three times before they were invented. Fuller Pilch
played his last Gentlemen and Players match this year, which is famous
for witnessing the farewell of such great cricketers as himself and
William Lillywhite. Pilch was born in 1803, and was therefore 46 years
old in 1849.
Another young tailor, as fine a young man
As e’er hit a ball and then afterwards ran.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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