100 Years Ago: 4 September 1924

South Africans falter, and MCC Fights Back

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Day 2

Scarborough: Yorkshire v M.C.C.

M.C.C. Fight Back

M.C.C. 101 and 165/2 (W E Astill 25, J W Hearne 86*, E H Hendren 43*; A Waddington 2 wkts). YORKSHIRE 252 (R Kilner 18, E Robinson 17*; G M Louden 2/75, A S Kennedy 3/55, W E Astill 3/29). Overnight score was: Yorkshire (1) 191/3 (Kilner 1*, Rhodes 0*).

After their disastrous first day, M.C.C. pulled back well against Yorkshire today, although they were greatly helped by the changing weather conditions.  The pitch was sweating considerably in the morning when Yorkshire continued their innings, which helped the bowlers, and eased in the afternoon when M.C.C. went in again.  George Louden was the first to make his presence felt as he brilliantly caught Wilfred Rhodes at slip and then bowled Roy Kilner with a fierce breakback.  Alec Kennedy backed him up well with the ball, and when Louden rested Ewart Astill replaced him and took three wickets in only two overs, a feat which brought him the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets for the fourth consecutive year.  The last five batsmen scored only 12 runs between them.  Yorkshire’s tail this season has been a weakness for the team.  Fine though their bowling was, the M.C.C. fielding was very poor, and overthrows were commonplace, although Frank Gilligan kept wicket superbly.

M.C.C. batted again with a deficit of 151, much less than had looked likely, but lost Gilligan quickly.  Astill scored 25 quickly before chopping on to his stumps a ball from Waddington, who was again given a chance with the new ball and this time used it very well.  Jack Hearne showed that, free from the stresses of Championship cricket, he can play a brisk, attractive innings, and was particularly skilful with the square cut, outscoring Patsy Hendren who joined him in a partnership of 128, still unbroken at the close.  Hendren is often an uncertain starter to an innings, and it took him a long time today to get through it.  M.C.C. are now almost on equal terms with Yorkshire, being 14 runs on with eight wickets in hand, and a good finish may be possible tomorrow.

Hastings Festival: South v South Africans

South Africans Fade After Ward and Nourse

SOUTH 312/9 dec. SOUTH AFRICANS 269 (T A Ward 68, R H Catterall 39, A W Nourse 69, M J Susskind 29; F E Woolley 4/66, R R Relf 4/24). Overnight score was: South 312/9 dec (M W Tate 25*).

The start was delayed due to an annoying drizzle.  Arthur Gilligan declared his team’s innings closed at the overnight score, which perhaps disappointed those who wanted to see Tate bat.  Gilligan wanted him for bowling, and he quickly picked up a wicket, Mick Commaille being well caught by Frank Woolley at backward point.  But the soft pitch did not suit him and it was his only wicket of the day, although he bowled 15 overs for only 21 runs.  Bob Catterall played a dashing innings of 39 in 40 minutes, but more than half the South African total came from the third-wicket partnership between Tommy Ward, their makeshift opening batsman, and Dave Nourse.  Ward is not a good enough bat for that position and he has just played seven successive single-figure innings, but today he did a sound holding job that enabled Nourse to play a fine innings.  The score reached 197 before the stand was broken on the dismissal of Ward.  After tea, though, the drying pitch began to cause difficulties for the batsmen, and wickets began to fall steadily, with Woolley and Robert Relf working their way through the later South African batsmen.  They were dismissed just before the close, 43 runs behind on the first innings.

Day 1

Blackpool: Lancashire v England XI

Hallows and Gunn Bat Well

LANCASHIRE 210 (J W H Makepeace 38, C Hallows 67, A W Pewtress 21, J Iddon 17*; C W L Parker 2/51, J A Newman 3/57, W R Hammond 3/46). ENGLAND XI 64/0 (G Gunn 38*, G Brown 22).

The artificial and under-strength Gentlemen v Players match had not attracted great crowds at Blackpool, but the presence of the Lancashire team was much more popular.  The match began half an hour late as the Lancashire team’s kit had got lost on the journey up from Dover.  Jack Sharp, unusually opening the batting, was bowled first ball by Charlie Parker, but Harry Makepeace and Charlie Hallows put on 112 for the second wicket, with Hallows much the more aggressive, showing much of his best form by playing his natural fluent game.  He reached his fifty in an hour and a quarter, and withstood some fine pace bowling from Fred Barratt in particular.  The rest of the batting proved weak, although four of them reached double figures without going on to anything substantial.  In the last 55 minutes George Gunn and George Brown gave the England team a good start, dashing off with 40 in the first 20 minutes, with Gunn in holiday mood.  On the whole, however, the players took the game seriously and played in real competitive spirit.

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.