100 Years Ago: 27 August 1924

by John Ward

The ACS’s latest publication, a lively history of cricket in Suffolk by Simon Sweetman, is available for purchase on our website. Buy it here.

Day 1

Swansea: Glamorgan v H D G Leveson Gower’s XI

Bell Brings Future Hope for Glamorgan

GLAMORGAN 178 (N V H Riches 47, J T Bell 87, M J L Turnbull 11, F B Pinch 15; G O B Allen 4/28, A B Hipkin 4/58). H D G LEVESON GOWER’S XI 60/1 (J W H T Douglas 19, C A G Russell 35*, J W Hearne 1*).

Henry Leveson Gower, a staunch supporter of Glamorgan cricket, brought a team to play Glamorgan composed mainly of Middlesex and Essex players, as those counties are not playing in the championship in this round.  Since this is not a championship match, the Yorkshireman John Bell, who did well for Wales against Scotland last Saturday, is able to play for the county and did even better this time.  With Norman Riches he put on 101 for the first wicket in almost two hours, and altogether batted for 2¾ hours to score an excellent 87.  Glamorgan are eagerly looking forward to his being available to strengthen their championship team when he qualifies in 1926.

Bell and Maurice Turnbull put on 45 for the third wicket, but after that the Glamorgan innings was a disaster, as Gubby Allen and Joe Hipkin ran through the rest of the batting very easily, the last six batsmen scoring only 16 runs among them.  A score of 147 for two was turned into 178 all out; the bowling was good and most of the fielding excellent, but certainly not as good as the collapse would suggest.  Leveson Gower’s team had 80 minutes to bat before the close, and the Glamorgan bowlers and fielders did at least make them fight for every run, especially Joe Mercer, although they could only take the wicket of Johnny Douglas ten minutes before the close after an opening stand of 57.

Portsmouth: Hampshire v Yorkshire

Yorkshire Struggle into the Lead

HAMPSHIRE 74 (H L V Day 11, J A Newman 15; G G Macaulay 5/31, R Kilner 5/33). YORKSHIRE 113/7 (P Holmes 60, E Oldroyd 18, W Rhodes 11, E Robinson 13*, G G Macaulay 3*; A S Kennedy 5 wkts).

The pitch was unevenly soft and rain-affected, but Lionel Tennyson decided to bat on winning the toss, and went out to open the Hampshire innings himself, probably thinking the pitch would get more difficult and it would be wise to hit out before then.  He was soon out for 7, and his whole team struggled as George Macaulay and Roy Kilner made the ball turn and lift awkwardly off the pitch.  The other Hampshire batsmen played an innings of strict defence, and little good did it do them.  Philip Mead was out for 5, while a normally aggressive batsman like Harold Day took 1¼ hours to score 11.  Hampshire were 19 for five at one stage, and 43 for eight, but Jack Newman played more aggressively and boosted the final total to 74, which took all of 56.4 overs, Macaulay and Kilner bowling unchanged.  Nine wickets fell to catches and Yorkshire missed nothing in the field.  Maurice Leyland, a fielder who has been rather fallible in taking catches in the deep, held two very good ones.

Yorkshire also found batting difficult, especially against the skill of Alec Kennedy, and Herbert Sutcliffe was caught at slip second ball without scoring — his fifth successive single-figure innings.  Percy Holmes, back in the side after nursing his strain, played a fine innings to hold his side together, batting for two hours to score 60 with excellent defence and judicious hitting of the loose balls.  After 18 from Edgar Oldroyd his partners did not last long against the superb bowling of Kennedy.  Yorkshire took the lead with seven wickets in hand, but Yorkshire’s seventh wicket fell at 97.  Only Holmes reached 20 runs during the day; without him Yorkshire would have done no better than Hampshire.  Much depends on the pitch and the weather tomorrow.

Dover Week: Kent v Warwickshire

Seymour Back to Form

KENT 350 (H T W Hardinge 19, J L Bryan 25, J Seymour 103, F E Woolley 26, L P Hedges 43, C H Knott 64, G C Collins 58; H Howell 2/98, W G Quaife 5/26). WARWICKSHIRE to bat.

Kent batted first on a slow pitch which rather neutralized the efforts of Harry Howell, who could not trouble the batsmen and was not particularly accurate.  Wally Hardinge and Jack Bryan put on a good 48 for the first wicket until Hardinge was out, and Bryan followed him next ball, belatedly trying to run a risky single as James Seymour, badly out of form recently, tried to get off the mark.  Seymour came right, though, and hit a superb century in 2½ hours, showing his wide range of strokes all round the wicket that makes setting a field to him so difficult.  Frank Woolley made only 26 today, caught in the slips making a rash drive for 26, but Lionel Hedges played very well and put on 126 for the fourth wicket with Seymour.  There was another stand, 105 for the sixth wicket between John Knott and George Collins, the latter in his aggressive mood today.  At 340 for five Kent looked set for a very impressive total before the tail made a total hash of the gentle non-spinning leg-breaks of Willie Quaife as they tried to hit quick runs, and instead got themselves out mostly to bad balls or brilliant catches, notably two in the deep by Jack Parsons.  Quaife must have thought it was his benefit match as he took the last five wickets in 17 balls for only 4 runs.  The last five wickets added only 10 runs to the score.

A general meeting of the Warwickshire County Cricket Club was held yesterday, where it was shown that in 14 home matches this season, virtually 12 full days were lost to the rain, while seven more had been seriously curtailed.  The deficit on the season’s working is so large that it was decided to launch an appeal for £3000, of which £500 was quickly subscribed in the meeting.

Taunton: Somerset v South Africans

Taylor and Catterall to the Rescue

SOMERSET 208 (J C W MacBryan 59, J C White 37, P R Johnson 23, G E Hunt 28; J M Blanckenberg 6/76, S J Pegler 3/63). SOUTH AFRICANS 140/4 (H W Taylor 37*, R H Catterall 78*; R C Robertson-Glasgow 2 wkts, J J Bridges 2 wkts).

On a cold miserable day Herby Taylor again put his opponents in to bat on winning the toss, a policy that has sometimes backfired before and almost did again today.  The pitch was soft and damp, but it was not until about midafternoon that it started playing rather awkwardly.  Jack White, who apparently has to bat at No 3 for Somerset now as well as bowl most of the overs, shared a good second-wicket partnership of 60 with the more aggressive Jack MacBryan, and with useful runs from the middle order the score reached 180 before the fifth wicket fell.  With the pitch now changing, Jimmy Blanckenberg began to cause trouble for the batsmen and he took four more wickets quite quickly as Somerset struggled past 200.  Otherwise the bowling was not particularly good.  Several chances went down in the field and MacBryan, with 59 in an hour, played the only memorable innings.

The South Africans began their innings badly, as Jim Bridges and Raymond Robertson-Glasgow also enjoyed the pitch and four wickets went down for 36, helped by three good catches.  They were rescued by a good partnership between Taylor, very cautious, and Bob Catterall, more aggressive after a steady start, was dropped three times.  They had put on 104 together in an hour and a half by the close and were still together, being apparently well placed for taking a lead tomorrow.  But overall it was another disappointing display by the South Africans, who appear to be mentally on the boat home now.

The Oval: Surrey v Leicestershire

Sandham in the Runs Again, Fenley in the Wickets

LEICESTERSHIRE 133 (E W Dawson 13, S S Coulson 27, W E Astill 18, T E Sidwell 16, A W Shipman 15*; W C H Sadler 2/36, S Fenley 7/57). SURREY 150/2 (J B Hobbs 21, A Sandham 69*, T F Shepherd 51*; G Geary 2 wkts).

The Oval had recovered from all its recent rain and things looked good for Leicestershire when they won the toss and batted.  They began well by reaching 52 with only Eddie Dawson’s wicket down, but after that some astute bowling changes by Percy Fender and fine leg-break bowling from Stanley Fenley meant that everything went downhill from here.  A few minutes after lunch the sixth and seventh wickets fell at 81, but some useful scores from the tail took the total to 133.  Seven Leicestershire batsmen reached double figures, but Sydney Coulson was the only one even to reach 20.  Fenley’s skilful and accurate bowling with good turn from leg brought him seven wickets.  Bert Strudwick kept wicket superbly and took three catches and a stumping.

Leicestershire did bowl well when Surrey replied, and even Jack Hobbs and Andy Sandham had to proceed with caution for a long time against the accuracy of Alex Skelding and Ewart Astill.  Then Jack Hobbs was caught at short leg as soon as George Geary came on to bowl, having taken 55 minutes to score 21, and Donald Knight brilliantly caught low in the slips for 5; 58 for two.  But Sandham, who has improved very much as a batsman this season, continued on his correct, steady way, while Tom Shepherd, who escaped a difficult chance to square leg before he had scored, joined him, and after they had reached 100 on the board began to plunder the attack, leaving Surrey well in the driver’s seat at the close of play.

Hove: Sussex v Lancashire (Robert Relf’s Benefit)

Lancashire Fall to Tate

LANCASHIRE 76 (J W H Makepeace 20, G E Tyldesley 11, J Sharp 20*; M W Tate 7/41, N J Holloway 2/6) and 0/1 (A W Pewtress 0*). SUSSEX 123 (E H Bowley 18, R A Young 36, M W Tate 15, A E R Gilligan 30; C H Parkin 7/67, E A McDonald 3/32).

Early morning rain affected the pitch considerably, but Lancashire decided to bite the bullet and bat first on it against Maurice Tate.  Tate bowled superbly in the difficult conditions and most of the Lancashire batsmen found him virtually unplayable.  Harry Makepeace and Ernest Tyldesley put on 28 for the second wicket, but then came a collapse against Tate and Norman Holloway — Arthur Gilligan did not bowl particularly well — and five wickets were down for 44 just after lunch.  Jack Sharp held on grimly and fought hard to score 20 and remain unbeaten, but none of the later batsmen could stay with him long; in fact the last four scored only two runs among them.  Tate took seven wickets for 41 of a total of only 76.

When Sussex batted, Ted McDonald bowled with great pace, but he could not use the conditions as skilfully as Tate had done, and as Parkin later did.  Ted Bowley and Dick Young batted with great determination, and Sussex took the lead with four wickets down.  Young provided the sheet-anchor for the innings with his 36 in just over an hour and a half, while Arthur Gilligan hit boldly at the end and Sussex took a lead of 47 runs.  Lancashire suffered a great blow in five minutes before the close, as Gilligan had Harry Makepeace lbw without a run on the board, and they face a big uphill struggle tomorrow.  21 wickets fell during the day for 199 runs, with seven wickets each to Parkin, who a couple of years ago was rated by many as the best bowler in England, and Tate, who is now generally so rated; both bowled unchanged through their opponents’ innings.

Worcester: Worcestershire v Nottinghamshire

Hopkins Boosts Worcestershire

WORCESTERSHIRE 189 (F A Pearson 18, H L Higgins 22, R H Holyoake 22, H O Hopkins 77*, C F Root 20; F Barratt 3/29, S J Staples 3/59, T L Richmond 2/55). NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 119/3 (G Gunn 29, W W Whysall 25, J R Gunn 36*, W R D Payton 4*; C F Root 2 wkts).

It was a strangely pleasant day at Worcester today.  Dick Pearson had an unusual opening partner for this match — Lord Cobham, formerly the Hon John C Lyttelton, benefactor of the county, making his first-class début at the age of 42.  However, he managed only 5 runs.  The Worcestershire top order generally did not flourish, and five wickets were down for 89 with no batsman having scored more than 22.  But then Herbert Hopkins, familiar with the Nottinghamshire bowlers after scoring a century against them at Trent Bridge in the teams’ first encounter, again came good and played a fine fluent unbeaten innings of 77, but without any help from the later batsmen apart from 20 by Fred Root, was not able to take the total to 200.

The time-honoured Nottinghamshire opening pair of George Gunn and Dodger Whysall gave their team a confident start, though like ten of the Worcestershire batsmen never cracked the 30 barrier, which had been achieved by John Gunn before play ended for the day.  Apart from George Gunn, in a happy mood, the other batsmen played rather dull innings.

Bristol (Greenbank): Gloucestershire v Scotland (two-day match, not first-class)

Sinfield Comes Good for Gloucestershire

GLOUCESTERSHIRE 222/9 dec (H Smith 21, R A Sinfield 50, D C Robinson 39, F G Rogers 46; C S Scobie 4/51, T D Watt 3/26). SCOTLAND 143/7 (C Groves 24, D S Weir 22, G L D Hole 58, W W Anderson 15*; T W J Goddard 2 wkts, R A Sinfield 2 wkts, E G Dennett 2 wkts).

Gloucestershire’s top-order batting failed against some fine bowling from Charles Scobie, and they would have been in a bad way without a fine 50 from their colt Reg Sinfield, going in at No 3 and scoring his runs out of 90 for five wickets.  Then Douglas Robinson and Francis Rogers retrieved the innings with a sixth-wicket partnership of 85.  Scotland’s early batting also faltered, with John Kerr out for 1, but their hero was Gilbert Hole with a good aggressive fifty before being out in the last over of the day.

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.