100 Years Ago: 11 July 1924

By John Ward

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Day 3

Birmingham: Warwickshire v South Africans

Taylor Leads Tourists to Safety

SOUTH AFRICANS 317 and 384/8 (J M M Commaille 69, H W Taylor 116, H G Deane 26, J M Blanckenberg 33, E P Nupen 23*, S J Pegler 21*; R E S Wyatt 2/77). WARWICKSHIRE 440 (J H Parsons 43, F R Santall 102, F S G Calthorpe 76, N Kilner 48, L T A Bates 76, A J W Croom 21, H Howell 26*; S J Pegler 3/75, J M Blanckenberg 3/104). Overnight score was: South Africans (2) 25/0 (Commaille 14*, Ward 5*).

Their pride stung after falling so far behind Warwickshire in the first innings, the South Africans batted with great determination throughout the final day to secure an honourable draw.  Mick Commaille began the fightback with a very sound innings of 69 in 2½ hours, with some support from players all down the order — in fact, all the ten men who batted today reached double figures.  When the fifth wicket, that of Bob Catterall, went down at 192, the South Africans were only 69 ahead and not out of danger yet.  But Herby Taylor was still in and he stood as firm as a rock and ensured the safety of his team with his second fine innings of the match.  His next partnership was one of 87 with Nummy Deane, and he made no mistake about the century this time, scoring 116 in nearly three hours.

By the time he was out Warwickshire had given up serious bowling and were using part-timers, their main bowlers now wilting in the heat of the day.  The inexperienced Arthur Croom took his wicket, and if Taylor did not manage a century in each innings, he did achieve an even rarer but less coveted double feat — he was out hit wicket in both innings, playing back too far.  There was a very poor attendance for this match — only 372 paid for attendance today — which is believed again to be in protest against the two-shilling admission charge laid down for South African matches against the counties.  At the lunch interval there was a presentation by Warwickshire members of a gold watch to Reg Santall in honour of his first century for Warwickshire — and tomorrow happens also to be his 21st birthday.

County championship positions: Middlesex and Yorkshire 73.33, Lancashire 70.00, Surrey 69.09, Somerset and Sussex 60.00, Nottinghamshire 58.33, Kent 54.28, Warwickshire 51.11.

Southend-on-Sea: Essex v Yorkshire

Rhodes Completes Yorkshire Victory

ESSEX 132 and 208 (H M Morris 58, P A Perrin 31, J W H T Douglas 35; A Waddington 3/63, G G Macaulay 2/43, W Rhodes 4/16). YORKSHIRE 471/5 dec (H Sutcliffe 255*, E Oldroyd 138, E Robinson 28*; L C Eastman 2/84). Yorkshire won by an innings and 131 runs. Overnight score was: Essex (2) 114/3 (Morris 56*, Perrin 5*).

As was generally expected, Yorkshire cruised to an innings victory over Essex this morning, completing their victory before lunch.  Buzz Morris hit the first ball he faced today, from George Macaulay, for two, but was bowled by the second.  Percy Perrin and Johnny Douglas showed some fight, putting on 49 for the fifth wicket in 40 minutes, but after Perrin was out there was not much further resistance.  Douglas batted for almost two hours to be ninth out, while Wilfred Rhodes took four wickets cheaply to wrap up Perrin and the tail with his variations of pace and flight.  As a result of this victory, Yorkshire now draw level with Middlesex at the top of the county championship table, both counties having a percentage of 73.33.

It is reported that Abe Waddington will not appear for Yorkshire in the match against Kent tomorrow.  He was recalled from Southend today by the Yorkshire Cricket Committee to answer a charge made by the umpires against him for his behaviour in a certain incident during the recent match against Middlesex.

Northampton: Northamptonshire v Lancashire

Lancashire’s Quick Victory

LANCASHIRE 376/8 dec. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 87 and (following on) 228 (W W Timms 75, R L Wright 32; E A McDonald 4/63, R K Tyldesley 3/51). Lancashire won by an innings and 61 runs. Overnight score was: Northamptonshire (1) 176/4 (Timms 60*, Wright 7*).

Northamptonshire had to score 289 in their second innings to avoid an innings defeat today.  Wilfrid Timms and Richard Wright, the latter at last showing his true batting ability, made a stubborn partnership and took the overnight score of 176 to 220 before Timms was fifth out.  He had batted for most of his innings with a runner after straining his side.  But Wright soon followed and the tail collapsed, the last five wickets going down for only 8 runs in 20 minutes to Ted McDonald and Dick Tyldesley.  It took a little over an hour to finish the match this morning.  Timms had played a fine defensive innings for 3½ hours.  McDonald finished with 10 for 89 in the match and now looked more like the great fast bowler of 1921.  Vallance Jupp, who had been hit on the elbow by McDonald yesterday, came to the ground but still cannot hold a bat, so Northamptonshire had only ten batsmen in their second innings.  He will probably miss tomorrow’s match against Worcestershire, at least.

Bath: Somerset v Derbyshire

Cadman Again Fights in Vain

SOMERSET 230 and 299/8 dec. DERBYSHIRE 117 and 220 (S W A Cadman 73, G R Jackson 28, L F Townsend 33, J Horsley 25*; J J Bridges 2/65, H S R Critchley-Salmonson 4/60). Somerset won by 192 runs. Overnight score was: Somerset (1) 299/8 dec.

Somerset declared at their overnight total, setting Derbyshire 413 to win, a next to impossible score for them, and there was no rain to save them.  Derbyshire put up quite a good fight, mainly in the person again of Sam Cadman, who batted very well and with great patience to score 66 before he was run out.  The score at one stage just before his dismissal was 157 for three, but then the wickets fell steadily as Somerset moved to victory.

The Oval: Surrey v Gloucestershire

Soon Over

SURREY 184 and 374/7 dec. GLOUCESTERSHIRE 78 and 157 (B S Bloodworth 42; W C H Sadler 2/40, P G H Fender 4/31 including hat-trick). Surrey won by 323 runs. Overnight score was: Surrey (2) 11/0 (Hobbs 9*, Sandham 0*).

It took only 20 minutes for Surrey to finish off this match; 19 runs were scored and two wickets fell.  The one remaining recognized batsman, Bernie Bloodworth, who had batted with much more resolution than his colleagues and batted for 80 minutes, was the last man out, caught by Percy Fender at second slip off Bill Sadler for 42.  Percy Mills with an injured left hand did not bat, as there was nothing to gain by his going in and it would have been foolish to risk a hit on that hand.

TOMORROW’S MATCHES (first-class)

Test Match:

Leeds: England v South Africa (Third Test Match)

County Championship:

Swansea: Glamorgan v Derbyshire

Maidstone: Kent v Yorkshire

Leicester: Leicestershire v Warwickshire

Kettering: Northamptonshire v Worcestershire

Nottingham: Nottinghamshire v Middlesex

Bath: Somerset v Hampshire

The Oval: Surrey v Lancashire

Eastbourne: Sussex v Gloucestershire

No matches: Essex.

Yorkshire and Middlesex are now equal at the top of the championship table, and both have Big Six opponents to play tomorrow, while only Nottinghamshire will be unaffected by Test match calls.  The other two Big Six teams, Surrey and Lancashire, play each other at the Oval — it really is most unfortunate that these matches should clash with the Test match.  There are no real mismatches in the other matches, either — all eight matches could go either way.  It could be said that the only mismatch in the fixture list is the Test match itself.  The matches at Swansea and Kettering give four basement teams the opportunity to pick up rare victories.

WEATHER FORECAST: The generally fine, hot weather seems set to continue.

John Ward is an ACS member and a long-serving Zimbabwean cricket statistician. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please either respond to the email in which you received it, or leave a comment below.