doubt who this is to be: Barnes of Nottingham, with his nasty awkward action, his break-back, and the kicky nature of his bowling on almost all wickets, is clearly the man. Some might say that Lohmann of Surrey should have this No. 3 place. He is a very good bowler; but on a hard true wicket we fancy Barnes against the best batsmen. No. 4.—Our captain wants a right-arm slow bowler accurate enough to keep down the runs (if wanted to) on a hard true wicket, and powerful enough with the ball to take advantage of crumbled or sticky wickets. Who is he to take? Bates of Yorkshire; Alfred Shaw of Nottingham; Plowers of the same county; Attewell of ditto, are all good names. Bates is not accurate enough, Shaw is not quite so good as he used to be—but what a good one he was once! Perhaps his best performance was in 1875, when for Notts and the M.C.C. at Lord's he bowled 162 balls for 7 runs and 7 wickets (bother the maidens: we don't care how many of them he bowled!), and amongst these seven wickets were W. G. Grace, Ridley, Buller, and Lord Harris; in the same match for the M.C.C. Ridley with his lobs had a good analysis for the two innings—208 balls, 46 runs, and 10 wickets. Our captain thinks he could not do better than Attewell, and we agree with him; but he has quite made up his mind to tell this bowler not to bowl for maidens but wickets. No. 5.—The wicket-keeper. There are only two in it: Pilling and Sherwin. The best wicket-keeper is wanted, quite irrespective of batting. They are both very good, but our captain thinks Pilling is the safest, lets off fewer chances (all wicket-keepers let off some), has the best hands to stand fast bowling, and is the quietest behind the sticks. So Pilling is chosen as our stumper, and we only hope that his health will allow him to remain there for many years to come. No. 6.—Now our captain has got to fill up six places; he has up to the present provided for getting rid of the opposite side: he now turns his attention to providing for his batsmen. W. G. Grace first, no one disputes. Does someone suggest Shrewsbury? Well, certainly, in the season of 1887 he had a
