100 Years Ago: 16 August 1924

by John Ward

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Day 1

The Oval: England v South Africa (Fifth Test Match)

Catterall Again South Africa’s Star

SOUTH AFRICA 342 (M J Susskind 65, A W Nourse 37, R H Catterall 95, H G Deane 30, J M Blanckenberg 46*, S J Pegler 25; M W Tate 3/64, R K Tyldesley 2/36, J W Hearne 3/90). ENGLAND to bat.

The South African tour seems to have been plagued by much ill luck, especially in the matter of the weather.  Today was one of their best days, though.  With the weather forecast uncertain, winning the toss was important, and Herby Taylor did so.  Experts had speculated that if England had won the toss on such an easy pitch of good pace, they would have scored at least 450 during the day.  The South Africans were more careful and less confident than that, especially after their opening batsmen both perished in Maurice Tate’s third over, with George Hearne (4) running himself with a foolish call near Jack Hobbs, and Mick Commaille (3) bowled by a swinging ball.

Fred Susskind dropped anchor to score 65 in almost four hours, and twice almost ran out Dave Nourse—

—by calling for a single for a hit near Hobbs, who surprisingly missed the stumps both times. Susskind was unnecessarily dour at times—

—but he did a valuable job in anchoring the South African innings.  Bob Catterall, despite doing so little in county matches, once again came good in a Test, by free, enterprising batsmanship as usual — and enjoying some of his team’s good luck of the day.  He just failed to reach his third century of the series, and this innings was actually a better one than either of his hundreds.  Eight wickets were down for 268, but then Jimmy Blanckenberg and Sid Pegler hit out gaily, also enjoying some luck but deserving it as they added 69 runs for the ninth wicket.

The best England bowler as usual was Maurice Tate, who deserved more than three wickets.  Jack Hearne also bowled some excellent deliveries, but was expensive.  Dick Tyldesley and Arthur Gilligan were steady, with Gilligan still not back to his dangerous best, lacking pace and life.  Harry Howell, who exhausted himself trying to bowl out Hearne and Patsy Hendren at Birmingham two days ago, was innocuous, while Roy Kilner, whose left-arm spin would have been useful, had been made twelfth man.  Overall this has certainly been South Africa’s best performance of the series so far.  But England will bat on Monday, and their performance then will no doubt depend very much on the activities of the nefarious Jupiter Pluvius, who surprisingly forgot about this match today after attacking others.

Derby: Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire

A Rescue Partnership

DERBYSHIRE 96/3 (G R Jackson 38*, J L Crommelin-Brown 41*; F Barratt 3 wkts). NOTTINGHAMSHIRE to bat.

Only an hour and a half’s play was possible at Derby before a heavy thunderstorm washed out the rest of the cricket.  Fortunes in that time varied completely.  The first 25 minutes belonged to Nottinghamshire, and especially to Fred Barratt, who ripped out the first three batsmen with only 15 runs on the board.  The rest was dominated by Derbyshire, who enjoyed a fine recovery during a still unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of 81 between the captain, Guy Jackson, and John Crommelin-Brown.  Jackson was the more secure, and scored freely off Len Richmond, while Crommelin-Brown also played well but was dropped twice.  The great pace of Frank Matthews was their greatest challenge.  The overall balance of the game could be said to be fairly even when the rain came.

Cheltenham: Gloucestershire v Kent (Percy Mills’ Benefit)

Freeman the Wrecker

GLOUCESTERSHIRE 48 (A E Dipper 15; A C Wright 3/16, A P Freeman 7/20). KENT 57/6 (H T W Hardinge 27*, L P Hedges 12, J C Hubble 4*; W R Hammond 2 wkts, E G Dennett 3 wkts).

Play could only start at four o’clock after heavy rain, which so affected the pitch that in the two and a half hours’ play that was possible 16 wickets fell for only 105 runs.  Alf Dipper was the only batsman to play with any confidence in scoring 15 of the first 22 runs; no other man reached double figures.  The innings lasted only 80 minutes and Tich Freeman, well assisted by Charlie Wright—

—who made the ball lift awkwardly, picked the other batsmen off one after the other, bowling just 9.5 overs as he took seven wickets for only 20 runs; at one stage he had five for 7.

Kent might have fared even worse had it not been for Wally Hardinge, who opened the batting and was still there at the close with 27 runs out of the 57 on the board in 55 minutes, playing very soundly.  Lionel Hedges chanced his arm and reached 12, the only other double-figure score.  He was the only wicket so far of Charlie Parker, who surprisingly has been overshadowed today by George Dennett, whose slower deliveries have proved more effective, and most of the batsmen found him almost unplayable.  Wally Hammond supported him well and there has been some brilliant catching.

Bournemouth: Hampshire v Essex

Essex Early Struggle

ESSEX 63/4 (C T Ashton 29, J O’Connor 17*, J W H T Douglas 5*). HAMPSHIRE to bat.

Play was only possible for 1¼ hours before lunch at Bournemouth today before a series of showers prevented any resumption in the afternoon.  Early rain left the pitch soft.  John Freeman was out for 1, but Claude Ashton, promoted to open, played confidently until he was second out at 43, having hit 6 fours in 29.  This began a minor collapse, with Jack Russell run out for 2 and Percy Perrin brilliantly caught by Alec Kennedy for 1.  Jack O’Connor, dropped by Kennedy, and Johnny Douglas were working to restore the innings when the rain came.

Taunton: Somerset v Surrey

No Play — Rain

Somerset has a record virtually as bad as Birmingham this season, for only two of their home matches have not been badly affected by rain — and this is not a third.  Heavy morning rain finally cleared, but just as there was a little hope of making a start later, Jupiter Pluvius struck again and by three o’clock it was obvious that play had to be abandoned for the day.  This is a serious financial loss for Somerset, as many visitors had come to Taunton for the Saturday of this match against Surrey.

Birmingham: Warwickshire v Lancashire

Makepeace Out for 3 . . .

LANCASHIRE 34/1 (C Hallows 7*, G E Tyldesley 22*). WARWICKSHIRE to bat.

The headline refers to the only noteworthy incident in the 45 minutes’ play allowed by Jupiter Pluvius at Edgbaston today.  Lancashire arrived at Birmingham just before three o’clock this morning after another harrowing rail journey, fresh (or stale) from their defeat at Swansea, only to find they had only three-quarters of an hour’s play this afternoon after four o’clock in between storms.  At least they had the relief of winning the toss and batting on a sodden pitch.  Harry Makepeace was soon out caught at slip by Jack Parsons off the pace of Bob Wyatt for 3.  Ernest Tyldesley came in and showed signs of a more positive mindset than has been the case for most of the season, but Charlie Hallows was content just to stay in.  Then another heavy storm broke and the pitch was soon under water.

A cynic would say that Edgbaston had a successful day, as four of their previous Saturdays this season have been completely blank, and another two also seriously affected.  Lancashire are having to play a rather threadbare bowling attack in this match with only Cecil Parkin of their three main bowlers in the team: Dick Tyldesley is playing in the Test match and Ted McDonald has a club match for Nelson today.

Worcester: Worcestershire v Northamptonshire

Two Overs for One Run

WORCESTERSHIRE 1/0 (F A Pearson 1*, C V Tarbox 0*). NORTHAMPTONSHIRE to bat.

After much rain play could only start at 4.30 pm — and stop at 4.35.  Dick Pearson had scored one run off two overs bowled when a thunderstorm broke and ended play for the day.

Bradford: Yorkshire v Leicestershire

Yorkshire Lose Two in 45 Minutes

YORKSHIRE 29/2 (M Leyland 11*, E Robinson 8*). LEICESTERSHIRE to bat.

The only play possible at Bradford was for fewer than 45 minutes before lunch.  Yorkshire have donated Herbert Sutcliffe and Roy Kilner to the Test match, and soon lost the wickets of their two most experienced remaining batsmen this morning with 16 runs on the board.  George Geary had Percy Holmes caught in the slips for 2, while Edgar Oldroyd was caught at mid-on off Ewart Astill from a ill-judged hook.  Maurice Leyland and Emmott Robinson played very cautiously together before rain arrived before lunch, kept returning and eventually ended play for the day.  It was a big disappointment for Bowling Tide, the annual Bradford holiday today.

Today is Lord Hawke’s 64th birthday, and the Yorkshire players made him a special presentation of an autographed and inscribed silver salver, presented to him by Wilfred Rhodes.

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.