100 Years Ago: 29 July 2024

by John Ward

Day 3

Manchester: England v South Africa (Fourth Test Match)

Match Abandoned — Rain

SOUTH AFRICA 116/4 (Taylor 18*, Catterall 6*). ENGLAND did not bat. Match drawn.

After 36 hours of rain, it finally stopped overnight, and the umpires did their best to make play possible today, inspecting the pitch, ordering it to be cut at two o’clock and otherwise rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, in light that was in any case too bad for play.  However, Jupiter Pluvius decided to make quite sure of victory, so he sent another heavy downpour that forced an official abandonment of the match.

Note: reports in the Yorkshire Post and the Sportsman both state clearly that the South African opening partnership between Commaille and Ward put on 29 runs, not 8 as incorrectly shown in official scorecards.

Bournemouth: Hampshire v Warwickshire

Match Abandoned — Rain

HAMPSHIRE 266. WARWICKSHIRE 10/1 (Bates 6*). Match drawn — no result.

There was plenty of rain during the night, and when another torrential downpour arrived at 12.30 p.m., leaving the ground completely waterlogged, the match was officially abandoned as a draw.

Leicester: Leicestershire v Glamorgan

Bates Earns Points for Glamorgan

LEICESTERSHIRE 93 (W E Astill 12, C G Watts 16, A W Shipman 17*; J Mercer 5/30, F P Ryan 4/37). GLAMORGAN 107/8 (W E Bates 53, C F Walters 13; W E Astill 4/34, C H Taylor 2/6). Match drawn (Glamorgan 3 pts, Leicestershire 1 pt).

In a small dry pocket in the country today, the pitch at Leicester had recovered remarkably quickly from all the recent rain and play was possible, although it played treacherously for batsmen.  Leicestershire decided to bat on winning the toss when the sun shone, no doubt expecting it to get worse as the match progressed, which did not happen.  They began very badly, with their first seven wickets going down for 42, but the debutant amateur Charles Watts, of Hinckley, was joined by Alan Shipman, and the two put on 26 for the eighth wicket, the only significant stand of the innings.  Joe Mercer and Frank Ryan did most of the bowling, with Ryan bowling particularly well, spinning the ball viciously and reaching 100 wickets for the season; he is the first Glamorgan bowler ever to do so in first-class cricket.

Glamorgan had 2¼ hours left to bat, and they had reason to be grateful for the Yorkshire expertise of Eddie Bates in batting on difficult pitches, as he made a superb fighting fifty when no other player in the match could score a third of his runs, and only Cyril Walters of his own team-mates could even reach double figures.  The Leicestershire total was passed with only four wickets down and Bates still there, after which he and the middle order felt free to collapse to Ewart Astill and Claude Taylor when it no longer mattered.  Both teams have low percentages in the championship table, so a first-innings victory was well worth playing for — worth 60% of match points — whereas it would have been a liability for the top teams who have earned higher percentages than that.

Northampton: Northamptonshire v Essex

Advantage Essex

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 213 and 25/3 (J D Barnfather 2/8). ESSEX 313 (H M Morris 77, C A G Russell 64, J O’Connor 22, P E Perrin 72, A B Hipkin 31, J D Barnfather 17*; C N Woolley 2/63, J V Murdin 3/42, F I Walden 4/65). Match drawn (Essex 3 pts, Northamptonshire 1 pt). Overnight score was: Essex (1) 8/0 (Freeman 3*, Morris 5*).

Jupiter Pluvius in his blanket coverage of England missed a small area of the Midlands today, and Leicester and Northampton made the most of it.  An outright result wasn’t expected after the washout yesterday, but both teams had such low percentages that they were eager to play for three first-innings points.  Essex soon lost John Freeman for 7, but there followed a second-wicket stand of 116 between the aggressive Whiz Morris and the battling Jack Russell.  With the stand-in captain Percy Perrin also batting well, Essex reached 196 before the fourth wicket fell, but the middle order collapsed around Perrin; six wickets were down when Essex took the lead, and eight for 219.  Then Perrin found good partners in the last two men, Joe Hipkin and James Barnfather, and added a further 94 with them.  The home side missed the bowling of Jupp, who was hurt in a motor accident over the weekend.  In the time left Northamptonshire made a bad start to their second innings, losing three wickets for 25, but the cricket was now meaningless.

The Oval: Surrey v Kent

Match Abandoned — Rain

KENT 182/2 (Seymour 80*, Knott 8*). SURREY to bat. Match drawn — no result.

Not much rain fell during the morning, but the pitch had been so badly affected by the recent rain that the match was abandoned after an inspection at two o’clock.

Stourbridge: Worcestershire v Lancashire

Match Abandoned — Rain

LANCASHIRE 54/0 (J W H Makepeace 20*, C Hallows 34*). WORCESTERSHIRE to bat. Match drawn (no result).

The weather was dry and pleasant at Stourbridge yesterday, but it was too late for this match, as so much rain had fallen that the pitch was unplayable, especially at one end.  At two o’clock the captains agreed that there was no alternative but to abandon the match.

Leeds: Yorkshire v Gloucestershire

Match Abandoned — Rain

YORKSHIRE 137/2 (E Oldroyd 58*, A Mitchell 7*). GLOUCESTERSHIRE to bat. Match drawn (no result).

So much rain had fallen and the pitch was so saturated that this morning it was considered very unlikely that any play would be possible at all.  Another shower at one o’clock made quite sure of that.

County championship positions: Middlesex 77.14, Yorkshire 73.33, Surrey 67.69, Lancashire 66.31, Kent 57.77, Somerset 55.29, Nottinghamshire 53.84.

TOMORROW’S MATCHES (first-class)

Tourist Match:

Sussex v South Africans

County Championship:

Leyton: Essex v Lancashire

Nottingham: Nottinghamshire v Leicestershire

Taunton: Somerset v Warwickshire

The Oval: Surrey v Hampshire

Huddersfield: Yorkshire v Derbyshire

No matches: Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Middlesex, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire.

Essex took first-innings points against Northamptonshire, and Glamorgan did so against Leicestershire.  All other matches failed to achieve a result even on first innings due to the excessive rain.  The percentages of the top ten teams in the table remain completely unchanged after this disastrous round of matches.  Conditions should be a little better for the remainder of this week, when there are no Big Six clashes.  For neutral observers, the match between Somerset and Warwickshire may be most interesting, as both teams have had some good results recently and appear to be well matched.

WEATHER FORECAST: Rather less rain in the next three days, and some outright results may even be possible.  But conditions may be expected to favour the bowlers.

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.