100 Years Ago: 26 July 1924

by John Ward

Day 1

Manchester: England v South Africa (Fourth Test Match)

South Africa Struggle on Short Day

SOUTH AFRICA 116/4 (T A Ward 50, A W Nourse 18, H W Taylor 18*, R H Catterall 6*; M W Tate 3/34). ENGLAND to bat.

England left Ernest Tyldesley, on his home ground, out of their twelve for this match, which made five changes from the team that played at Headingley.  Jack MacBryan, George Geary and George Duckworth are all making their Test debuts.  South Africa won the toss for the third time in four matches, and Herby Taylor decided to bat.  Unfortunately play was only possible for less than three hours, there being two interruptions for rain before a major downpour just after four o’clock ended play for the day.  It lasted only half an hour and then the sun came out, but the pitch was so muddy that the umpires felt that there was no alternative but to abandon play.  There were only about 6000 spectators, and at the early abandonment a thousand or so of them invaded the field in protest and shouted in front of the pavilion for almost half an hour.  It is thought that this was not only the result of frustration at the slow play, the interruptions and the long wait, with lack of information, but also much dissatisfaction at the excessive, in the view of the public, minimum admission charge of half a crown.

The South Africans have now apparently settled on using Tommy Ward, who is really nothing more than a stubborn tail-ender, as a stopgap opening batsman to partner Mick Commaille.  Today, however, was his day.  His chin was a mass of plaster, as he had just had an abscess on it lanced. Maurice Tate and Johnny Douglas opened the bowling, and although Ward had a couple of narrow escapes—

—it was his more renowned batting partners Mick Commaille and Manfred Susskind who were both dismissed for single figures, two wickets being down for 40.  Dave Nourse made 18 before he was unluckily bowled by Maurice Tate after lunch, playing the ball on to his stumps off bat and foot:

Herby Taylor began very uncertainly before he finally settled down.  Ward reached his fifty after about 2¼ hours and was soon afterwards dismissed, bowled playing back to a superb delivery from Tate, who often troubled the batsmen, to make the score 98 for four.  Run-scoring was never quick, due to accurate bowling, keen fielding and a slow outfield.  Bob Catterall had joined Taylor when the rain came on and ended play.  Cue the public demonstrations.

Bournemouth: Hampshire v Warwickshire

Howell Restrains Hampshire

HAMPSHIRE 266 (R Aird 69, C P Mead 32, H L V Day 53, G Brown 37*, W H Livsey 20; H Howell 4/85, G A Jennings 47). WARWICKSHIRE 10/1 (L T A Bates 6*).

Some fine fast bowling from Harry Howell restrained Hampshire as they batted first at Bournemouth.  In his opening spell he removed Alec Kennedy lbw for 3, while Freddie Calthorpe dismissed William Shirley so that both openers were gone for 8.  Ronnie Aird then shared valuable partnerships of 76 and 83 with Philip Mead and Harold Day respectively, although both Aird and Day benefited from missed chances in the field.  Aird batted altogether for 69 in three hours and 20 minutes, while Day was aggressive from the start, his 53 taking 70 minutes before Howell returned and dismissed both him and Lionel Tennyson (6) just before the tea interval.  Afterwards only George Brown did much and Hampshire were all out for 266.  In two overs before the close, Shirley had Tiger Smith caught in the slips without scoring.

Leicester: Leicestershire v Glamorgan

No Play — Rain

Three heavy rainstorms, the first as the pitch was being prepared for play, destroyed all hopes of cricket being played at Leicester today.

Northampton: Northamptonshire v Essex

Jupp Shines Alone

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 213 (V W C Jupp 74, C N Woolley 32, W Wells 23, A H Bull 20; L C Eastman 4/61, A B Hipkin 4/62). ESSEX 8/0 (J R Freeman 3*, H M Morris 5*).

The pitch was soft and not easy for batting, but Northamptonshire chose to go in first, and were very fortunate.  Vallance Jupp had scored 3 when he was dropped off a fairly easy chance in the covers, and he went on to show brilliant form.  He put on 97 for the opening partnership with Claud Woolley (32), and went on to score 74 in just over an hour and a half.  None of his team-mates could emulate him, and his was the first of five wickets to go down for 21 runs in the middle order — 123 for one to 144 for six.  Then there was a break of 1¾ hours for rain, which eased the pitch somewhat.  After that Bumper Wells and Arthur Bull both scored twenties, and the score went past 200.  Essex were without Johnny Douglas to lead the team and the bowling, but Laurie Eastman and Joe Hipkin did a good job in his absence.

Northamptonshire may have benefited from the dropped catch from Jupp, but they themselves then threw away a chance to take a big advantage in the game, as the Essex opening batsmen, John Freeman and Whiz Morris, were both dropped before they had scored when Essex batted during the last ten minutes of the day.

The Oval: Surrey v Kent

Slow Hardinge, Hasty Seymour

KENT 182/2 (W H Ashdown 18, H T W Hardinge 61, J Seymour 80*, C H Knott 8* overnight). SURREY to bat.

In gloomy weather Kent batted first on a replacement pitch, the original one being too wet.  It gave very little help to bowlers, but scoring from it with a heavy outfield was not very easy.  Bill Ashdown and Wally Hardinge scored only 6 runs in the first half-hour, and their 38-run partnership took an hour and a quarter.  Hardinge took almost two and a half hours to score 68.  James Seymour was much more enterprising, playing a fine dashing innings, reaching 50 in 45 minutes, although he had two or three rather lucky escapes.  There were two short interruptions for rain, but then just after four o’clock a major downpour ended play for the day.  Just under three hours’ play was possible.  Stanley Fenley was the only bowler to cause the batsmen much difficulty, but he had no luck.  Despite the weather and the loss of players to the Test match, there was a crowd of over 10,000.

Stourbridge: Worcestershire v Lancashire

Hallows Starts Well

LANCASHIRE 54/0 (J W H Makepeace 20*, C Hallows 34*). WORCESTERSHIRE to bat.

Play was sandwiched in between three and four o’clock today, after a long delay from a heavy shower.  Even though Jack Sharp as a selector was required at the Test match st Old Trafford, Lancashire under Leonard Green still won the toss and batted first on a soft pitch that looked likely to deteriorate.  Conditions were scarcely fit for play and the players found the turf very slippery.  It was worse for the bowlers.  Harry Makepeace and Charlie Hallows put on 54 runs in just over an hour without being separated, and Hallows played particularly well, driving powerfully before another great downpour ended play for the day.  There was good bowling from Fred Root and Dick Pearson, and Worcestershire fielded well, especially the diminutive James Smith.

Leeds: Yorkshire v Gloucestershire

Two Yorkshire Fifties

YORKSHIRE 137/2 (M Leyland 51, E Oldroyd 58*, A Mitchell 7* overnight). GLOUCESTERSHIRE to bat.

Only three hours’ play was possible owing to rain interruptions.  Percy Holmes did not find his touch, batting half an hour for 5, but Yorkshire then enjoyed an excellent second-wicket partnership worth 88 runs between Maurice Leyland, who is gradually showing more confidence and freedom as a stand-in opener for Herbert Sutcliffe, and Edgar Oldroyd.  The scoring was never quick, but the bowling was very accurate, especially that of Percy Mills, who bowled 22 overs for 28 runs and the wicket of Leyland, and the fielding good and tight.  Michael Green in the deep and John Bessant at square leg were the best of all, while the batsmen were not prepared to take any risks.  Oldroyd was still there at the close after batting for 2½ hours.  At No 4 is Arthur Mitchell, a batsman good enough to be a regular in almost any other county team, but finding no vacancies in the Yorkshire side except when the established batsmen are unavailable.  He was still in, batting doggedly for 7 in about three-quarters of an hour, when rain at about four o’clock ended play.

The Waddington Affair

A Yorkshire committee meeting was held after the club received the report from M.C.C. on the matter of Abe Waddington’s allegedly unsportsmanlike behaviour in the match between Yorkshire and Middlesex at Sheffield.  The bottom line is that M.C.C. considered that a serious warning to Waddington about his future behaviour would be appropriate.  Lord Hawke later summoned Waddington, who afterwards wrote a letter of apology to M.C.C., promising it would not occur again.  There has so far been no official statement from Middlesex regarding the reports that they were considering the cancellation of fixtures with Yorkshire next year.

Day 3

Lord’s: Army v Royal Navy

Army Pay for Late Declaration

ROYAL NAVY 119 and 61/3 (K A Sellar 28; M B Burrows 2/31). ARMY 533/7 dec. Match drawn. Overnight score was: Navy (2) 33/2 (Sellar 13*).

Rain, leaking covers and their own late declaration yesterday prevented the Army from gaining a big victory over the Navy today.  The covers leaked a large amount of water on to the pitch at the pavilion end during the night so that play could not start before three o’clock, and then it lasted only three-quarters of an hour before a thunderstorm ended the match altogether.  The Navy was completely outclassed, but they did produce two very promising cricketers.  Their batsman Kenneth Sellar, the only batsman out today, looked a very good prospect, as long as he can find a county to play for, and their wicket-keeper, Edward Bartley, did an excellent unobtrusive job behind the stumps throughout the long Army innings yesterday.

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.