Career
The conservative cricket establishment of the time was not effusive in its appreciation of this great keeper mainly because he broke with the tradition of standing up to the faster bowlers as was practised by all the great keepers till then He did so on the advice of West. G. Grace who, on seeing him standing up to Tom Richardson, the legendary England fast bowler, suggested that he would "do better by standing back", which Lilley did for the rest of his career. He was renowned for his cricketing knowledge, and advised English captains.
However, he once started to set the field without consulting his county skipper, Frank Foster, 23 years his junior, who told him there and then to mind his own business.
Foster later advised the Warwickshire committee to drop him.
