Back at Scarborough

By Brian Sanderson.

The above photograph is of Norman Yardley and  Herbert Sutcliffe coming out on the first day of the Northampton match on the 27 July 1938.Yorkshire were missing Hutton ,Smailes and Wood.

Northants batted first but lost seven wickets for 145, but Nelson and Dunkley put on 102 for the eighth wicket .Maurice Dunkley played 36 matches for his county up to 1939.On this day he scored his highest championship score of 70 including twelve fours. Robert Nelson was the county captain who had played for Middlesex and Cambridge University .He was killed in 1940 whilst serving in the Royal Marines .Another interesting Northants batsman was Shaikh Nasiruddin who was born in India and only played five matches for Northants. In this match he scored a

duck and eleven. Northants scored 283.

One of the Yorkshire opening bowler was Frank Wilkinson who only played 14 matches for the county. A week before he had taken his best bowling figures of 7-68 against Hampshire at  Bournemouth.  In this innings he bowled twenty three overs for twenty three runs but no wickets. Hedley Verity was top wicket takers in both innings and reached a hundred wickets for the season.

Yorkshire opening pair was Brian Sellers and Cyril Turner. Cyril edged a ball on to his nose and was taken to hospital and did not play in the match again Despite good work by Leyland ,Gibb and

Verity Yorkshire managed a lead of 28.

In the second innings Northants batted stubbornly with Henry Greenwood top scoring with 52 in a total of 155. Owing  to rain Yorkshire were left only two hours to get 128 for victory. Thanks to the sportsmanship of Nelson in continuing in the  rain , they accomplished the task with an half an hour to spare. Arthur Mitchell top scored with 49.

In this season Yorkshire  had twenty victories  and only met two defeats .Herbert Sutcliffe  was the top run score for the season with 1451.

June 3rd 1901

posted by John Winn

Today would have been my dad's birthday and the title of the posting is his date of birth. Noel Winn was a very keen cricketer who played until he was in his early fifties, captaining Haughton CC  and being a key figure in its  revival  after World War II. How pleased he would have been by their success in the Darlington and District league in recent years. The club still play where they played throughout the last century and here is a photograph of the team in the mid 20s. My dad is second from the left of the seated players and to his left his oldest brother Roland, captain at that time.

Looking back to 1901 the most significant event in British people's lives was the death of Queen Victoria who died on January 22nd. She was succeeded by her son Edward VII. Further afield the Second Boer War had entered its guerilla phase and still had a year to run. On June 3rd Cape Colony was invaded by 700 Boer troops who were repulsed after a nine hour battle. 

On the cricket field life proceeded as normal with the county championship going through what Stephen Chalke has described as 'a rare decade of stability' with no changes to the points system and fifteen counties competing for the championship. Northants were to be admitted in 1905, Glamorgan in 1921 and Durham in 1992. The number of matches played by each county varied significantly however, the places were decided on a percentage basis, with Lancashire playing 28, the most, and Warwickshire only 16. Abandoned matches were excluded from the table. 

From 27 matches Yorkshire collected 90% of the points available, runners up Middlesex 50%, which shows the overwhelming superiority of Yorkshire. They lost just one match, to Somerset, and that in such a sensational manner as to merit its own posting. Watch this space. On June 3rd the champions elect began a two day match against Hampshire at Bournemouth and on a pitch which assisted the bowlers the game was over in two days. Yorkshire batted first and thanks to a hundred for Mitchell scored 365 all out. With Rhodes taking seven wickets in the match that was enough to gain an innings victory

Elsewhere there was a run fest at Edgbaston with Warwickshire, largely thanks to a third wicket stand of 327 between Kinneir and Quaife recording 532 for 4. The stand between Kinneir and Quaife remains the record third wicket stand for Warwickshire. Quaife took five second innings wickets as Lancashire fell to an innings defeat which coming just a week after a heavy defeat by Yorkshire at Old Trafford severely damaged their championship hopes. 

Other county matches being played on June 3rd 1901 were at The Oval, Gravesend and Worcester. At the first of these Lockwood with seven second innings wickets gave Surrey victory over Somerset. In the runs for Gloucestershire at Gravesend was Sidney Kitcat but they were not enough to prevent his side losing an exciting game by 38 runs. Kitcat* was an occasional bowler and one can only speculate what his skipper said to him when he felt he needed a rest. 

At New Road Leicestershire were the visitors and a second innings 156 from their opener CJB Wood was the backbone of their victory by 70 runs. 

Wisden's editor Sydney H Pardon devotes almost his 'Notes by The Editor' to the issue of illegal bowling and in this he refers to the action of Arthur Mold to which I made reference in a posting at the end of April. In case you missed it you can judge for yourself the legality of Mold's action on YouTube. There were no test matches in 1901 but curiously given the state of the Boer war visitors from South Africa were touring this country. They played a series of mainly two day matches and Wisden declared the tour 'a decided success' .Rather nicely on June 3rd they were at Lord's taking on MCC and Ground, which XI included WG, Ranji and the renowned hitter Albert Trott, believed to be the only batsman to clear the pavilion at Lord's. Wisden reports that on this occasion he hit with 'characteristic vigour'. The bowling honours went to Walter Mead who took 8 wickets in the visitors second innings as they fell to a 53 run defeat. Their disappointment might have been softened by their dismissal of WG and Ranji for an aggregate of 45 in the match. 

* Whilst a schoolboy at Marlborough College and playing  in a school match, Sidney Kitcat was involved in an incident which led to a change in the laws of cricket and which made it illegal for a bowler to bowl consecutive others. 

Two debuts

By Brian Sanderson

Carrying on with my theme of recently purchased photographs this is Tony Nicholson and Tony Clarkson coming on to  the ground at Bristol on the 21st of June 1963. This was the debut match for Clarkson who only played 6 first class matches for Yorkshire before moving on to Somerset in 1966 .He played 104 matches for Somerset up to 1971.He went on to play for Devonshire and a number of league clubs before returning to Killinghall.

The other debutant was Martin Ashenden for Gloucestershire. He was a right arm fast medium bowler who  had previously played 19 matches for Northants. However he only played 15 matches for Gloucester up to 1965..The highlight of his career was taking all ten wickets for Bedfordshire in 1958.

Back to the match which was a draw due to the loss of the first day and a good part of the second through rain. The match could not start until quarter to four on the Thursday. then Gloucester

made 126 for 2 in an hour and a half and then declared.

Yorkshire replied with 63 for 2 in the last three quarters of an hour and gave Gloucester two points for first innings lead by declaring at this score on the third morning. Young, whose forceful strokes included two sixes enabled Gloucester to score at an  over a run a minute prior to another

declaration which set Yorkshire to obtain 218 to win  in two

hours and fifty minutes. However the openers Padgett and Hampshire failed and the total was never reached. Ashenden took two wickets for twenty three.

Yorkshire went on to win the Championship under the new captaincy of Brian Close. His leadership was inspiring both by example and in a tactical sense. Gloucester had also a new captain, Ken Graveney but finished eighth 

 

Record crowd at Hove

By Brian Sanderson

Another recent photograph I purchased shows Brian Close leading out Yorkshire at Hove on the 12 June 1963 in the Second Round of the Gillette Cup which was the first year of the competition.

Yorkshire had beaten Nottingham in the first round at Middlesbrough even though Brian Bolus had scored 100 not out for Nottingham in his first season since moving from Yorkshire.

Sussex had beaten Kent at Tunbridge Wells with Ken Suttle scoring104 in two and three quarters hours .At this time it was a 65 over competition.

The Sussex match was played in waves of sea mist sweeping across the ground all day but Yorkshire bowlers, Trueman, in particular failed to profit from the conditions. He bowled 14 overs

for 0 for 40 runs The top wicket taker was Brian Close with4 for 60.The Sussex top scorer was Jim Parks who drovein great style and hit 3 sixes and ten fours in his 90 runs.

The Sussex total was 292.

Yorkshire opened with Padgett and Hampshire whilst Bryan

Stott batted at 5 and Geoff Boycott at 6.Yorkshire, who needed to 

maintain a scoring rate of 4.5 an over were indebted to Boycott

for excellent stroke play .While he remained Yorkshire possessed 

an excellent chance, but he was run out in the 62nd over at 262 for 9.

Parks finished the match by catching Nicholson. Parks won the

 man of the match. The attendance was 15000  which

was a record for the ground.

Sussex went on to the final at Lords where they beat Worcestershire. 

Wisden quoted two points of criticism of the competition. Firstly, the majority of counties were loath to include even one slow bowler in their side and relied on mainly on pace and secondly the placing of the entire field around the boundary to prevent rapid scoring. 

How things have changed with the reduction of overs, increased 

run rates , opening with spin bowlers and field restrictions.

Hallows be Thy Name

posted by John Winn

Turn to page 1229 in this year's Wisden and under the heading 1,000 RUNS IN MAY you will see just three names listed. Two, WG Grace and Wally Hammond are amongst the most famous cricketers of all time, the third, Charlie Hallows, other than in Lancashire, is  less well known. Yet on the 31st of May 1928 Hallows added his name to those of Grace and Hammond and in the 92 years and 1 day that have passed nobody has joined them.

Beginning on May 5th with exactly 100 against Northants at Old Trafford followed by another century against Glamorgan in the same week and at the same venue, the left-handed Hallows proceeded to score consistently including two hundreds at Edgbaston the following week (four centuries in ten days). His form barely faltered so that by the penultimate day of the month and the start of Lancashire's home match with Sussex, Charlie needed 232 runs to join the illustrious company. Fortunately Lancs won the toss and chose to bat and at stumps on that Wednesday they were 376 for 3 with our hero on 190 not out.

Next morning Hallows proceed to score the remaining 42 and having done so was out next ball, ct J Parks b Gilligan 232. Job done. Further investigation however shows that Sussex used ten bowlers and in his book 'Red Roses Crest Their Caps' Eric Midwinter describes the Sussex bowling as 'sympathetic'. One member of the attack. Arthur Watson, had the analysis of one over nought for one, respectable enough but it was the only over he bowled that season.

It does seem therefore that Hallows feat on those last two days and particularly the morning of the 31st was made easier by the opposition but in his defence he was dismissed by Gilligan who was definitely not an occasional bowler. A wise man Hallows had chosen the match against Surrey beginning on June 2nd for his benefit. Somewhat anti-climatically he scored only 34 and then watched as F Watson and E Tyldesley add 371 which remains the highest second wicket partnership for Lancashire. Sadly Wisden does not tell us the size of the crowd or how much the benefit yielded but let's hope it was more than the £111 a collection had raised for him on reaching his 1000 runs in May.

If we bring April into the mix then we need to add five more names to the list: Tom Hayward, Don Bradman (twice). Bill Edrich, Glen Turner and Graham Hick. On both occasions Bradman began his season on April 30th as did Edrich.

Charles Hallows 1895 to 1972

Catch up four years later

Posted by Tony Hutton

For the last four days YouTube has shown full coverage of the match at Lord's in 2016 when, in the last match of the season, Middlesex beat Yorkshire to win the County Championship in one of the most exciting finishes ever. This was of special significance to me as, although I had been present to see the first three and a half days, I had to leave after lunch on the last day to catch a train back to Paris. The reasons for this were spelled out in my blog at the time, but suffice to say I had commuted from and to Paris to celebrate the birthdays of my two grandsons, both born inconveniently in September.

Time to leave.

This meant I missed the denouement, which my dictionary describes as 'the outcome of a complex series of events'. You could certainly say that about the events on the afternoon of 24th September 2016. Three teams were still in with a chance of winning the title, the two engaged at Lord's, plus Somerset who had already won at Taunton. Somerset appeared to have a good chance of winning their first ever title if the game at Lord's ended in a draw, which at lunchtime on day four seemed the most likely result.

What happened next was that the two captains, James Franklin and Andrew Gale, devised a cunning plan which involved joke bowling to feed Middlesex easy runs, prompting an eventual target of 240 runs for Yorkshire to win in 40 overs. Both teams needed an outright win for the championship title. Many commentators and cricket followers thought this plan to be 'not cricket', especially those of a Somerset persuasion. However the pundits on the Sky coverage thought otherwise. Obviously it made good television and both teams had to go all the way in pursuit of victory.

In the end, despite a valiant attempt from Yorkshire, who continued to go for the runs to the bitter end, rather than play for a draw, which would have given Somerset the honours, Middlesex emerged triumphant. The bowling of Toby Roland-Jones clinched matters for Middlesex when he achieved a remarkable hat-trick, completed with the first two balls of the 36th over. He removed the last man Ryan Sidebottom and his leg stump as shown on the front cover of Duncan Hamilton's book 'The Kings of Summer'.

This slim volume concentrates entirely on the four days of this memorable match and was all I had to go on until this week, when I found the Sky coverage and the high standard of the pictures such an excellent way to catch up with the events which I had missed four years ago. The book ends as the season comes to a close and the author quotes Neville Cardus 'There can be no summer in this land without cricket'. Little did either of them know what was in store for all of us in the summer of 2020.

Shortly after finishing this blog I received a message from Peter France in Huddersfield to confirm that the mystery ground shown in my previous blog was that of Paddock cricket club, now sadly no longer in existence. Thanks to the detective work of Peter's son and friends. Obviously the Sykes Cup semi-final was played on a neutral ground, but most certainly it was not Lascelles Hall.

Eton & Harrow Part two

posted by John Winn

Eton and Harrow returned to Lord's in 1919 and remained there until the Second World War twenty years later. It was a period in which Eton dominated and they began with a crushing win, their side including eight future first class cricketers, the best known and most influential of which was George 'Gubby' Allen. Wisden describes how 'Lord's was thronged with people, the King was present before luncheon, and every thing seemed just as it was in the old days'. Except of course that many old boys had lost their lives in the trenches. Rain delayed the start on the second day but set 244 to win Harrow were bowled out for 41 with Wilfrid Hill-Wood, later to play for Derbyshire, taking 7 for 29.

This photograph shows the future Edward VIII arriving at Lord's for the 1921 match which ended in another comfortable win for Eton by seven wickets.

Moving forward to 1939 and the match that took priority over the county championship at Lord's and a game of cricket that reversed the fortunes of the previous thirty years with Harrow recording their first victory since 1908. Harrow's hero was Edward Crutchley who made 115 in their first innings and was at the non-striker's end when AOL Lithgow hit three successive fours to win the match by seven wickets. The crowd, at least those who supported Harrow, went wild, the school song was sung and top hats thrown in the air. The crowd at Eton Harrow matches had not always behaved with decorum and warnings had been issued at the 1920 match that should there  be a  repetition of the fighting that had broken out the previous year it would lead to the games not being played at Lord's. Wisden reports 'the behaviour had been exemplary until this 1939 meeting.' It was 1946 before the teams returned to Lord's although matches between the schools continued throughout the war.

Crutchley merited an obituary in the 1983 Wisden following his death aged 60. He had been wounded during the war but played two matches for Middlesex in 1947. A nice touch is that his father was part of the Harrow XI that won in 1908.

A major change came over the fixtures between the two schools in 1982 when for the first time at Lord's the match became a one day/one innings fixture but not a limited overs game. Titchner-Barrett attributes this 'regrettable' change to 'pressures of the academic timetable and fixture congestion at Lord's'.  The match continues to be played at Lord's in this format, in 2019 it was won by Harrow and remains the only schools' fixture to be played at HQ. There were at one time ten Lord's Schools  and Wisden devoted considerable space to matches between them.

We need to go back fifty years to find the one peacetime match between the two schools not played at Lord's for in 1970 the annual fixture was played at Harrow School because Lord's had been set aside in case it was needed by Middlesex for a Gillette Cup tie. The schools' match was played on July 9th and 10th, Eton won, but Middlesex had been knocked out of the Gillette on the 8th losing to Surrey at The Oval by just 8 runs. The late Bob Willis was Surrey's hero taking six wickets as Middlesex were reduced from 240 for 3 to 256 for 9 and 272 all out. Influential Old Harrovians and Old Etonians made sure the fixture was restored to its traditional venue in 1971.