100 Years Ago: 2 August 1924
by John Ward
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Day 1
Birmingham: Warwickshire v Derbyshire
No Play — Rain
Yet another washout at Edgbaston! There was so much rain before the match started that there were pools of water all over the field. At about noon the weather cleared and the sun even came out, but this was just the sadistic sense of humour of Jupiter Pluvius, who knew very well that the field was so sodden the cricket would never be possible today.
Cardiff: Glamorgan v South Africans
Blanckenberg Accounts for Glamorgan
GLAMORGAN 178 (J T Bell 38, C F Walters 19, D Davies 34, T Arnott 31; J M Blanckenberg 8/97, S J Pegler 2/42). SOUTH AFRICANS 15/1 (J M M Commaille 6*, P A M Hands 7*).
Heavy overnight rain left the ground so wet that play could not start until after lunch, and Herby Taylor, on winning the toss, decided with the sun now shining to put Glamorgan in to bat. The pitch did help the bowlers but never became quite sticky. The early batting was held together by the former Yorkshire batsman John Bell, now still qualifying to play for Glamorgan in the county championship, but included here as opening partner to Norman Riches, who was soon bowled by Jimmy Blanckenberg for 5. Bell’s innings was particularly notable for his quick footwork on the difficult pitch. Blanckenberg enjoyed the conditions, making the ball spin from leg and lift awkwardly, and actually bowled throughout the innings for 41 overs without a break to take eight wickets, while the bowling at the other end was shared by Sid Pegler and Claude Carter. All ten Glamorgan batsmen to be dismissed were bowled out. Six wickets were down for 93, all to Blanckenberg, but Dai Davies and Trevor Arnott decided on bold hitting, and for a while both succeeded and brought about some recovery. The South Africans had 15 minutes to bat before the close and lost the wicket of Tommy Ward, caught in the slips off Joe Mercer for 2.
Bristol: Gloucestershire v Somerset
Dipper Settles In
GLOUCESTERSHIRE 186/5 (A E Dipper 54*, W R Hammond 31, M G Salter 50, F G Rogers 26*; J C White 2 wkts). SOMERSET to bat.
After heavy overnight rain, play could not start at Bristol until 2.15, and then run-getting was difficult, especially as Somerset fielded very well. Bev Lyon was out for 7 and Harry Smith batted 20 minutes without scoring, before Alf Dipper and Wally Hammond put on 41 together — 31 of them to Hammond, who had three escapes in the field. Four wickets were down for 72, but Malcolm Salter scored an enterprising 50 in 80 minutes out of a partnership of 67 for the fifth wicket with the dogged Dipper. Dipper was still unbeaten, in now with Francis Rogers, after more than three hours’ play. After being dropped at 17, Dipper then took an half an hour over two runs, and reached his fifty in the last over of the day. It was not the sort of cricket the Bank Holiday crowd wanted to see, but they were remarkably patient and even applauded Dipper off the field at the close of play.
Canterbury Week: Kent v Hampshire
Good Start for Kent
KENT 215/4 (J L Bryan 42, H T W Hardinge 67, J Seymour 25, F E Woolley 51*, C H Knott 17, G J Bryan 9*; G S Boyes 3 wkts). HAMPSHIRE to bat.
Some heavy thundershowers in the morning restricted play to about the last three hours of the day, when the weather became much better. Now that August has come, whether Jupiter Pluvius likes it or not, Kent have most of their top amateurs available and are playing six of them today: Jack and Godfrey Bryan, John Knott, George Wood and ‘Father’ Marriott, in addition to the captain, Stanley Cornwallis. They were able to omit players of the quality of Jack Hubble, Bill Ashdown and Charlie Wright. The pitch was very soft to begin with, and proved to be slow and easy-paced. The Kent batsmen adjusted to it better than did the Hampshire bowlers, who tended to bowl too short and at times strayed down the leg side.
Jack Bryan, who survived an easy chance in the covers, and Wally Hardinge gave Kent a sound start of 92 for the first wicket—
—while James Seymour looked in superb form until he hit across a straight ball from Alec Kennedy and was out lbw. Then Frank Woolley took over, with his usual ability to look like a thoroughbred while his partners, whoever they were, resembled carthorses by comparison. His elegant style and effortless play brought him a fifty in the final hour of play, and Kent finished in potentially a strong position.
Manchester: Lancashire v Yorkshire
Sutcliffe Takes on McDonald
YORKSHIRE 147/3 (H Sutcliffe 90, M Leyland 34*, W Rhodes 1*). LANCASHIRE to bat.
Heavy overnight rain soaked the pitch and no play was possible until 3.20, when Jack Sharp suffered the unusual experience this season of losing the toss. Ted McDonald, released by the Nelson club especially for this match, bowled at a tremendous pace with frequent bouncers. He ran in from the Stretford end with a strong wind behind him, squeezing life out of a lifeless pitch, and for half an hour Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe had a torrid time fighting for survival. Both were fortunate in being beaten at times without being bowled, but they survived, and once Sutcliffe had got his eye in he began hooking McDonald’s short balls brilliantly, racing to his fifty in just over an hour. Holmes never emerged from his struggle and was finally out for 10, just after Sutcliffe had reached his fifty, with the score on 68, lbw to Dick Tyldesley. Edgar Oldroyd ran himself out for 1, and then Sutcliffe and Maurice Leyland had to face superb bowling from Cecil Parkin and Dick Tyldesley, who both got a lot out of the pitch as the sun came out and it began to turn sticky. Sutcliffe, having won his battle with McDonald with much skill, courage and some luck, was caught at the wicket off Frank Woolley just before the close for 90 in just over 2½ hours, having hit 14 fours. Leyland too did a fine job in facing excellent bowling.
Despite such fine bowling, McDonald finished the day without a wicket. The Lancashire Club, however, has by hook or by crook come to an agreement with Nelson to cancel his future contract with them so that he will be free to play fulltime for Lancashire next season. It is understood that he will not play for Australia during the coming winter, as this would break his qualification for Lancashire ― not that the Australian Board would have anything to do with a player who is playing professionally in England.
But Lancashire’s hiring of McDonald to my mind is against the spirit of county cricket, although they are not breaking any actual regulations. First of all the Lancashire club actively pursued McDonald to play for them, and in effect they have bribed Nelson to release him. If McDonald had approached the county and himself expressed a wish to qualify for them, it would have been different. Secondly, this is an opportunity that of all the counties only Lancashire is able to take. No other county has world-famous leagues that attract top overseas professionals. Middlesex may be able to pinch promising young overseas players from the Lord’s ground staff to play for them, as they did before the war with Albert Trott and Frank Tarrant. Impoverished (in both talent and finance) counties like Worcestershire or Northamptonshire who desperately need such help to be competitive have no chance of following the Lancashire route, which I strongly oppose.
Northampton: Northamptonshire v Leicestershire
Leicestershire Crawl
LEICESTERSHIRE 45/1 (S S Coulson 12, C H Taylor 12*, W E Astill 21*). NORTHAMPTONSHIRE to bat.
Heavy morning rain and a lunch-time storm meant no play at Northampton until five o’clock. The pitch was easy, but in the hour and a half that remained Leicestershire made very slow progress on a lifeless pitch, scoring at below 1½ runs an over. The main culprit was Claude Taylor, who seems determined to take on the mantle of William Scotton these days, opening the batting and scoring only 12 not out in that time. In the first hour he scraped together 4 runs. Ewart Astill was rather more attractive to watch.
The Oval: Surrey v Nottinghamshire
Notts Recovery
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 291/6 (W W Whysall 81, W R D Payton 38, W Walker 70*, W A Flint 66*; H A Peach 2 wkts, P G H Fender 2 wkts). SURREY to bat.
It was a rain-interrupted day, although there was more play possible than was expected, certainly by the public, with this Bank Holiday crowd only numbering about 10,000. Surrey appeared rather casual in the field, except for the brilliant Bert Strudwick, but during the first hour Alan Peach and Stanley Fenley bowled very well on a lifeless pitch. The Gunn brothers were both out by the time the score was 35, caught in the slips off lively deliveries. Arthur Carr decided to knock the bowlers off their length, drove one powerful four and was then caught off a hard hit at mid-off to make three down for 41.
After that the solid Dodger Whysall was joined by Wilf Payton, and as they worked to master the attack the bowlers began to wilt. There was a heavy shower of rain at lunch, which made the ball wet and heavy, and the bowlers lost their skill, accuracy and spirit. Whysall played a fine innings, in particular driving well:
Still, six wickets were down for 166 when Bill Flint, a rugged fighter, joined Willis Walker, a classical batsman playing in the shadow of his more famous colleagues and fighting for a regular place in the team, at the crease. They were able to flourish by just taking advantage of the many loose balls sent down by the Surrey bowlers, although Flint survived an easy chance — off the bowling of Douglas Jardine, too — just before the tea interval. By the close they had added 125 without separation. The score is better than it appears, as the slow outfield cost the batsmen many runs.
Hove: Sussex v Middlesex
Mann Revives Middlesex
MIDDLESEX 225/8 (G T S Stevens 18, H L Dales 28, E H Hendren 35, G O B Allen 45, F T Mann 53*, H R Murrell 4*; M W Tate 5 wkts, A F Wensley 3 wkts). SUSSEX to bat.
Middlesex did not bat particularly well on a pitch that was not really difficult, but neither was it encouraging to batsmen. Sussex were still without Arthur Gilligan and George Cox was injured, but Maurice Tate recovered some of his freshness and the bowling was generally very steady and persistent. Horace Dales began their innings with some positive strokes, but Greville Stevens got himself so bogged down that his 18 lasted 1¾ hours. Jack Hearne failed for once, Tate removing him for 4. Patsy Hendren and Gubby Allen batted well in the middle order without going on to greater things, and it took Frank Mann to revive the innings after surviving a scratchy start. He reached his fifty in 70 minutes just before rain brought an early close; play altogether was limited to four hours. For Sussex it was a rather encouraging day after so many bad ones recently.
Worcester: Worcestershire v Essex
Root Routs Essex
ESSEX 110 (C A G Russell 25, J O’Connor 20, J W H T Douglas 12, F W Gilligan 26*; C F Root 9/40). WORCESTERSHIRE 85/6 (Lord Somers 18, F A Pearson 22*, J B Coventry 16*; J W H T Douglas 4 wkts).
Play could only begin after lunch at Worcester today, and the pitch had been seriously affected by the rain to give the bowlers much help. Fred Root thrived in the conditions, although Jack Russell and Jack O’Connor took the score to 47 before the second wicket fell. Then Root ripped out the middle order, with the seventh wicket falling at 69. The dogged Johnny Douglas and Frank Gilligan, fortunate to be dropped as soon as he came in off Root, fought back to take the score past 100. Root, bowling unchanged for 2½ hours, took nine wickets in the innings in 29.3 overs.
Worcestershire also struggled when they went in, losing their openers Charles Tarbox for 0 and Maurice Foster for 1. They looked like falling well behind on the first innings when they had four wickets down for 38 and six down for 56. Johnny Douglas did most of the damage, backed up by the accurate Harold Palmer. Then Dick Pearson and John Coventry fought it out together until the close, and the first-innings result could still go either way. Two Ashton brothers are making their first appearance of the season in first-class cricket in this match, Gilbert for Worcestershire and Claude for Essex; they scored 7 and 5 respectively, but Claude took two brilliant catches at silly mid-on early in the Worcestershire innings.
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.