100 Years Ago: 15 September 1924

Yorkshire falters as the Rest’s pacers dominate at the Oval

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Day 2

The Oval: The Rest v Champion County (Yorkshire)

Brilliant Woolley Outscores Yorkshire

YORKSHIRE 166 and 103/2 (P Holmes 37, H Sutcliffe 25, E Oldroyd 27*, R Kilner 14*). THE REST 524/8 dec (J W Hearne 37, F E Woolley 202, A P Freeman 74, J W H T Douglas 42*, M W Tate 26; G G Macaulay 2/109, R Kilner 4/146, A Waddington 2/72). Overnight score was: The Rest (1) 165/2 (Hearne 29*, Woolley 46*).

The Yorkshire bowling this morning took a pasting the likes of which have not been seen since before the war.  For once their fielding failed them; in the first over of the day Arthur Dolphin missed a chance to stump Jack Hearne off Wilfred Rhodes, and several other chances, mostly difficult or lost in the bad light that seemed to affect the fielders more than the batsmen, were missed during the day.  Frank Woolley popped up the first ball he received from Roy Kilner, which the bowler just failed to reach.  After Hearne was out the slaughter began in earnest, as Percy Chapman joined Woolley.  Both are left-handed, and so are better equipped to deal with the spin of Rhodes and Roy Kilner than right-handers are.  Both took an unheard-of massacre at the hands of these two, with Chapman even outpacing Woolley, and the Yorkshire tactics were at fault for using these two for so long.

The two batsmen put on 124 for the fifth wicket in 52 minutes; at one time 50 came in only seven minutes, including 6, 6, 3 (by Chapman) and 6 by Woolley, 21 off four consecutive balls from Rhodes.  Chapman eventually hit a catch straight to Herbert Sutcliffe at extra cover, having hit 3 sixes and 6 fours, but Woolley continued powerfully, gracefully and serenely to his double-century before allowing himself to be stumped, having survived four chances, mostly quite difficult.  There were brief double-figure cameos from Maurice Tate, Arthur Gilligan and Dick Tyldesley, while Johnny Douglas refused to join in the frivolity by making 42 not out in 2¼ hours, and The Rest declared at tea with a lead of 358.  Both Rhodes and Kilner returned shocking figures for them as they went for more than four runs as over, thanks mainly to the onslaught of the two left-handers.

Yorkshire in their second innings faced up well and batted positively.  Sutcliffe looked in superb form until he was well caught in the slips off Douglas, and Percy Holmes batted well until he was so well beaten by a Tyldesley’s disguised top-spinner that hit his leg that he walked off for lbw without even looking at the umpire or the replay on the big screen.  Edgar Oldroyd and Kilner were playing well by the close, and Yorkshire look like making a good fight for a draw tomorrow.

SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISTS

The South African tourists were guests last night at a dinner given by the Lord Mayor of London before their return home.  The Lord Mayor praised the sportsmanship of the team and regretted the appalling weather for much of the season.  He looked forward to the coming tour this winter of Solly Joel’s team in South Africa.  Herby Taylor in reply expressed his gratitude for all the hospitality they had received.  Lord Harris gave some of his usual positive thoughts about the future of the game whatever the odds.

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.