100 Years Ago: 16 July 2024

By John Ward

Note to readers: The latest ACS auction of cricket books, with a focus on Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Shropshire, is open to members and non-members alike—an excellent way of supporting our work. Check it out here.

Day 1

Lord’s: Gentlemen v Players

Laborious Hobbs Leads from the Front

PLAYERS 357/5 (J B Hobbs 118, H Sutcliffe 20, J W Hearne 61, F E Woolley 38, G E Tyldesley 37*, R Kilner 58*; J W H T Douglas 2 wkts, R C Robertson-Glasgow 2 wkts). GENTLEMEN to bat.

The Gentlemen in this match are playing one of their strongest bowling sides for years: they are fielding Johnny Douglas, the greatly improved Raymond Robertson-Glasgow, Arthur Gilligan, Jack White, Percy Fender and Greville Stevens. There was no room even for Michael Falcon, and they bowled very well on a pitch that was quite lively at the start after early rain. However, fortune favoured the powerful Players batting line-up, the top eight of whom have all played in the Tests against South Africa. Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe put on only 36 for the first wicket this time before Robertson-Glasgow had Sutcliffe caught in the slips off a ball that lifted sharply. Jack Hobbs was beaten several times and looked quite stale, unable to time the ball well and being beaten quite often, though without giving an actual chance. Jack Hearne came in and reached his fifty before Hobbs did; the latter took 2¾ hours to reach his landmark.

Frank Woolley started his innings with Hobbs on 60 and some speculated that he might reach a century before Hobbs did. But Woolley was not at his best; he went and Hobbs stayed, finally finding his usual form after the tea interval, reaching his century in more than four hours — possibly his slowest ever — and then playing some brilliant strokes before White had him caught by Dar Lyon at the wicket. The day finished with a fine partnership with Ernest Tyldesley, who had a scratchy start, and Roy Kilner, who hit out in brilliant and unorthodox style; their partnership had so far put on 94 runs, with Kilner much the more dominant. This was all against fine bowling, with Johnny Douglas bowling so well that The Times has said he has never bowled better in this fixture, yet able to take only two wickets; also the Somerset pair of Robertson-Glasgow and White deserve great praise. Gilligan himself is obviously not fully fit yet, the little bowling he did being innocuous, while Fender strained his back and had to leave the field.

Southampton: Hampshire v Northamptonshire

Day and Tennyson Put Hampshire Ahead

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 142 (C N Woolley 46, V W C Jupp 13, H F Bagnall 44, W Wells 14; A S Kennedy 3/50, W R Shirley 3/23, G S Boyes 2/4). HAMPSHIRE 191/9 (W R D Shirley 21, H L V Day 55, L H Tennyson 48, J A Newman 12*, G S Boyes 3* overnight).

Both sides batted poorly on a good pitch today. For Hampshire Claud Woolley held the top order together and was followed by Hamer Bagnall, who both reached the forties when nobody else could score 15, both playing good, positive innings. Bagnall in part batted well for 44 in 50 minutes. Alec Kennedy took the first three wickets to fall cheaply. The last five wickets went down to William Shirley and Stuart Boyes for six runs.

Hampshire’s early batting did not do much better, and Philip Mead was lbw to Bumper Wells second ball. They had four out for 80 when Lionel Tennyson joined Harold Day and the two attacked the bowling in fine style, passing the Northamptonshire total before they were separated after adding 82 runs in only 35 minutes. Then four wickets fell for 10 runs so that Hampshire wasted their chance of a big first-innings lead, unless the last two wickets can make a good stand.

Maidstone: Kent v Gloucestershire

Collapse after Dipper and Smith

GLOUCESTERSHIRE 213 (A E Dipper 61, H Smith 75, F G Rogers 13, P T Mills 15; G C Collins 5/59, A C Wright 3/58). KENT 61/2 (W H Ashdown 14, H T W Hardinge 21, J Seymour 15*, R T Bryan 8*).

The Gloucestershire innings relied on two batsmen only, with Alf Dipper and Harry Smith making fifties amid a string of failures. The pitch was fast and bouncy, but one end turned sharply. Bev Lyon opened with Dipper, but was soon bowled hitting across a swinging ball from George Collins. Dipper and Smith then built up the only real partnership of the innings as they put on 108 for the second wicket. Scoring was never easy and Smith settled for a solid, correct defensive innings. Dipper was actually the more confident and enterprising of the two, encouraged by his good recent form, but he played very much a leg-side innings. After he was out there was a steady procession of wickets down the order, with nobody else passing 15 and Smith never trying to play a dominant rôle. Collins and Charlie Wright took most of the wickets, but they were rather overbowled. Kent batted for about an hour before the close, losing both openers. Wally Hammond had a brief spell of bowling and looked very impressive, but without taking a wicket. He worked up a good pace, adopting an action and style similar to those of Maurice Tate, and he may well have a future as a serious bowler.

Liverpool: Lancashire v South Africans

Double-Century Opening Partnership

LANCASHIRE 299/3 (L Green 79, C Hallows 124, F B Watson 49*, J L Hopwood 33*; J M Blanckenberg 3 wkts). SOUTH AFRICANS to bat.

This was the return match between the two teams, with Lancashire having won the first at Manchester early in the tour by an innings. Right now the South Africans don’t look likely to do much better in this match either. With Harry Makepeace resting his lame leg — Cecil Parkin also is not well enough to play — Leonard Green opened the innings with Charlie Hallows, and the pair scored steadily and refused to get out on a pitch deadened by early-morning rain. Green, however, was dropped in the slips when he had scored 1. Soon after lunch more rain cut a large chunk out of the afternoon, which only made the batting easier as the South Africans were badly handicapped by a wet ball when they returned. Hallows was in joyful form, dominating the opening partnership that was not broken until 201, when Green was out for 79, bowled by Jimmy Blanckenberg. It was a three-wicket burst by Blanckenberg, who had Hallows caught at the wicket at 208 for 124, his fourth century in three weeks, and then did the same to John Barnes, who did not score. But Frank Watson and Len Hopwood then settled in and saw Lancashire through to the close.

The South Africans looked rather tired mentally in the field. Ted McDonald and the South African Alfred Hall are both playing for Lancashire in this match, and in place of George Duckworth they are giving a début to Bill Farrimond, a promising young wicket-keeper who is also a good batsman.

Weston-super-Mare: Somerset v Yorkshire

Rhodes Leads Good Yorkshire Total

YORKSHIRE 342 (M Leyland 57, E Oldroyd 23, A Mitchell 19, W Rhodes 100, E Robinson 63, G Wilson 37; J J Bridges 3/106, G E Hunt 2/95, G F Earle 2/50, A Young 3/18). SOMERSET to bat.

On a hot day but with a pleasant breeze, Yorkshire were fortunate to win the toss after arriving from Maidstone at 1 am. They did not begin their innings too well, losing Percy Holmes for 6 and Edgar Oldroyd for 23 with the score 39. Maurice Leyland took his duties as stand-in opener for Herbert Sutcliffe very seriously, starting off with grim defence, and he was joined by Arthur Mitchell, making a well-deserved third appearance for Yorkshire after playing in two matches two years ago. They took the score to 80, which brought in Wilfred Rhodes, in fine form today. Rhodes was especially strong on the drive and was the backbone of the Yorkshire innings. At 169 for five the innings was at the crossroads, but Emmott Robinson joined Rhodes and their partnership added 93 runs in an hour and a half. Rhodes scored his first century of the season, batting for only about 2½ hours altogether, surviving just one chance on 39. With Geoffrey Wilson contributing with the bat for once, the score passed 300. It was thought that the loss of the top players in both teams to Gentlemen v Players would lessen local interest in this match, but there was an excellent attendance.

Eastbourne: Sussex v Essex

Russell and Freeman Whip Disastrous Sussex

ESSEX 347/9 (C A G Russell 68, J R Freeman 113, J O’Connor 78, J V Richardson 25, H W F Franklin 9*, G M Louden 2*; H E Roberts 5 wkts, A F Wensley 2 wkts, G R Cox 2 wkts). SUSSEX to bat.

Sussex are experiencing how tough life can be without Arthur Gilligan and Maurice Tate available, and they are clearly letting it get to their heads when Essex batted first at Eastbourne today. The loss of two great players should have been balanced by the return of Ted Bowley after injury and the absence of Johnny Douglas, also in Gentlemen v Players, but the Essex players handled their losses far better — and they do have George Louden in their team. Essex kicked off with a fine opening partnership between Jack Russell and John Freeman on a very good pitch against inconsistent bowling, and they put on 121 together in just under two hours. But as Jack O’Connor, who played the best innings, settled into another good partnership with Freeman, Sussex began to wilt in the field and catches went down. Essex reached 258 before the second wicket, Freeman’s, fell. After that wickets fell fairly regularly as the middle order chased quick runs and the bowling showed improvement, with Henry Roberts the best of them, but the damage had already been done for Sussex. As usual they have a batting order that runs down to George Cox and Roberts at Nos. 10 and 11, so it will be a test of their spirit tomorrow to see how they face up to the large Essex total.

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.