modest impression deserves to be resurrected here. Mr. Edward Lyttelton has stated that the ball with which the victorious lob bowler dismissed each of his victims was "a straight low one on the leg stump which did not turn an inch." Of the match in 1876 it may be stated that Mr. W. S. Patterson was the first "centurion" to be undefeated, and Mr. W. H. Game, the first Oxonian to run into three figures against Cambridge, though in the following year his example was followed by Mr. F. M. Buckland. It may be pointed out that Oxford from 1871 to 1875 and Cambridge from 1876 to 1880 each won four victories, interrupted by one defeat. In 1876 each University had won an equal number of matches.[1]
1878 was the first year of modern cricket as generally accepted, but it was hardly more notable for the first visit of the Australians than for the unrivalled ability of the Cambridge eleven. They played eight matches, and won them all, a result as much due to magnificent fielding as to any other cause. Of course the phenomenal agency was the marvellous skill of Mr. A. G. Steel, but this great exponent of every department of the game was admirably backed up by the whole side. They opened by defeating Mr. C. I. Thornton's eleven, which included Dr. W. G. Grace and his younger
- ↑ Allusion may here be made to the match with the cumbrous title, "Gentlemen of England who had not been educated at the Universities v. Gentlemen of England who had been educated at the Universities (Past and Present)," which was played at the Oval, 15th and 16th June 1874. The Gentlemen "who had not" won by an innings and 76 runs, Messrs. W. G. Grace and Appleby bowling unchanged in the first University innings, which only amounted to 58. The game was never repeated.
