tinued his successful career in 1886; and in 1887 his results with the bat far outshone every professional display since the game began.
The year 1888 was a blank one for him in English cricket, owing to his absence in Australia; but 1889 saw him well to the front again. To-day he has lost none of his skill.
He has represented the Players against the Gentlemen since 1876, and his batting has been a tower of strength for them. In conjunction with Alfred Shaw and Jas. Lillywhite, he has taken a team to Australia four times, and on every occasion batted splendidly. On his return from Australia, in December, 1888, a very handsome testimonial was presented to him by the noblemen, gentlemen, and residents of the town and county of Nottingham, in acknowledgment of his great ability as a cricketer, and manly, straightforward bearing in private life.
His style is too well known to demand a lengthy description. Great patience and coolness are his chief characteristics. You can never tell by his manner or play whether he has just scored his first run or his hundredth. Good balls are carefully watched by him to the end of his innings, however long it may be; and loose ones are freely punished. His defence is admirable, and his fine wrist-play enables him to play the ball firmly away from his wicket, and he rarely allows a ball to pass. His hitting is as safe and scientific as his defence. He times the ball most accurately, gets well over it, and risks nothing in the way of lofty hitting. On good or bad wickets he is equally at home, and more than once he has shone conspicuously when the rest of the team had collapsed. Of late years he has fielded chiefly at point; but it is not so very long ago since he could have been placed anywhere. His best years with the bat have been:
