These matches are very pleasant; the wickets perhaps are not quite so good as Brighton or the Oval, but this is entirely an advantage, as it enables matches frequently to be finished in two days. There is good-fellowship and friendship between the amateur members of the teams; each side is keen to win, but there is not the stress and strain of a first-class county match; there are no telegrams sent; the scoring is not reckoned in averages, and the cricket is altogether of a more light-hearted description. They are more of the nature of club matches, such as formerly were played between Town Mailing and Benenden, or Montpelier and Clapton. I should be sorry to see these matches discontinued; they are to those who see them excellent reminders of what cricket used to be before modern excrescences had been allowed to grow. There is one drawback, and that is, that if a real native professional of high merit and skill be found in these counties, instead of devoting the remainder of his life to his native county, he is tempted away by the magic gold of Surrey, Lancashire, or some other first-class county. He has got to earn his living, and it is not in human nature
