Over 200 runs in an innings was scored by ten amateurs, and the century was scored about 350 times.
Before the first Australian eleven had completed its tour in England it was decided that a fifth eleven of English players should go out to Australia. On this occasion it was an invitation from the Melbourne Cricket Club to the amateurs of England; but a team made up of amateurs entirely was found impracticable, and two most popular professionals, Emmett and Ulyett—both belonging to Yorkshire,—had to be included. Ulyett was a good all-round player, but not a very successful bowler on good wickets; and it was not expected that the eleven would show such favourable results as those which had preceded it. And so it turned out; for, while the batting generally was quite up to the quality of anything the Colonials had yet seen, the weakness of the bowling caused the tour to turn out rather an uneventful one.
An English eleven, made up of professionals from Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, which visited Canada and America at the end of the season, had a different tale to tell when it returned. Of twelve matches played, nine were won and three were drawn; and it was the bowling that did it!
The season of 1879 in England was a very wet one from beginning to end, and the bowling beat the batting; Alfred Shaw, Morley, and Peate, in particular, showing grand results.
County contests were more exciting than ever, and the struggle for supremacy was a close and keen one.
Amongst the amateur batsmen, Messrs. A. N. Hornby, Hon. A. Lyttelton, A. G. Steel, and A. P. Lucas did particularly well; and amongst the professionals, Flowers, Bates, Barnes, and Scotton showed excellent promise of things to come. I was still busy
