100 Years Ago: 6 August 1924
by John Ward
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Day 1
Bristol: Gloucestershire v Essex
Hipkin’s Greatest Haul
GLOUCESTERSHIRE 201 (A E Dipper 83, H Smith 30, W R Hammond 34; J W H T Douglas 2/76, A B Hipkin 8/71). ESSEX 1/2 (F W Gilligan 0*; C W L Parker 2 wkts).
Rain early in the morning delayed the start and made the pitch rather difficult for batting. Gloucestershire, and Alf Dipper in particular, took note of this and batted very cautiously, with Dipper and Harry Smith putting on 64 for the third wicket in an hour and a half. Dipper eventually batted three hours and ten minutes for his 83. Wally Hammond brightened up the scoring a bit with a more aggressive 34. Joe Hipkin bowled superbly, and in his final spell of bowling after tea he took the last six wickets for only 34 runs scored off him; his eventual eight wickets was his best innings haul in his career. There was some excellent fielding from Essex, especially Jack Russell, who took three fine catches in the slips.
If Essex felt satisfied to bowl the home side out for 201, they soon had a shock when they batted for a disastrous ten minutes in their innings. Charlie Parker opened the bowling and first had Percy Perrin, opening, caught in the slips without scoring, and then John Freeman lbw for a single; one run for two wickets. At this point Jupiter Pluvius decided to stop Gloucestershire’s fun and promptly ended play for the day.
Canterbury Week: Kent v Nottinghamshire
Matthews Massacres Kent
KENT 67 (H T W Hardinge 35, A C Wright 19*; F C L Matthews 8/33, S J Staples 2/27). NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 233/9 (W W Whysall 104*, A W Carr 42, W R D Payton 19, W A Flint 22; C S Marriott 3 wkts, A P Freeman 2 wkts, F E Woolley 2 wkts).
Were Kent a little complacent after their easy victory over Hampshire? They certainly seemed unprepared for what hit them this morning. They very quickly regretted winning the toss. Nottinghamshire had to replace Fred Barratt, who has a foot injury, with the big Frank Matthews, who has not had many matches for Nottinghamshire this season, and was no doubt eager to make an impression — which he did in brilliant fashion on a reasonably good pitch. Sam Staples took the first wicket by trapping Jack Bryan lbw for 3. Then, bowling from the Nackington end, Matthews ripped through the middle order as the score went from 17 for one to 27 for seven. He removed five middle-order batsmen for ducks, including James Seymour, caught at short leg, and Frank Woolley, bowled first ball. Then he dismissed Bill Ashdown, John Knott and George Wood in the same over. He bowled at a great pace and swung the ball in awkwardly. The only batsman able to stand up to him was Wally Hardinge, who played a fine defensive innings. There was some recovery in the batting as Charlie Wright put on 30 with Hardinge in a rather lucky innings before Hardinge was finally out brilliantly stumped by Tom Oates off Staples for a fine 35 in an hour and a quarter. But the final total of 67 was a disaster — two batsmen reached double figures and the other nine scored only six runs between them. Matthews and Staples bowled unchanged for the 24.5 overs, 90 minutes and 67 runs the innings lasted.
Kent still seemed rather shell-shocked as they went into the field, and their fielding was poor, several chances going down. Nottinghamshire lost two wickets for 33, but Dodger Whysall, one of the beneficiaries of a missed chance, played yet another sound innings, although he is never really an attractive batsman to watch, with his two-shouldered stance and leg-side bias. He does not look quite the sort of batsman one would expect to be a Test player, but sheer weight of runs must cause the selectors to think of him sometime, as he progressed to his fifth century of the season. Arthur Carr played the most attractive innings of the day in scoring 42 in 50 minutes. The middle order sagged to 128 for six until Bill Flint put on 76 for the seventh wicket with Whysall, who was still there at the close. Matthews finished his successful day with a huge six before being out in the final over.
Liverpool: Lancashire v Northamptonshire
Northants Collapse to Dick Tyldesley
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 71/6 (C N Woolley 33, V W C Jupp 26, W Wells 1*, R L Wright 0*; R K Tyldesley 5 wkts). LANCASHIRE to bat.
Play began on time at Liverpool, despite plenty of rain yesterday. Rawlings Hawtin was quickly out, caught at the wicket off Ted McDonald for 1, but Claud Woolley and Vallance Jupp played up well and saw the fast bowler off, getting quite on top of both him and Cecil Parkin. Jupp batted well despite having his right forefinger in splints after it had been crushed in a motor accident. They took the score to 56 when Dick Tyldesley took over from McDonald, with disastrous results for the visitors. In six overs on the drying pitch Tyldesley not only dismissed these two batsmen, but took three more good middle-order wickets in succession, all five falling in 25 minutes for only four runs. He turned the ball just enough to beat the bat, and that was all he needed. Northamptonshire went into lunch in disarray, but summoned help from Jupiter Pluvius, who arrived during lunch time in rain which fell for almost three hours and ended play for the day.
Leicester: Leicestershire v Yorkshire
Sharp and Waddington Come Good
LEICESTERSHIRE 114 (S S Coulson 11, C H Taylor 16, A T Sharp 51, A W Shipman 17; G G Macaulay 3/38, A Waddington 7/43). YORKSHIRE to bat.
The Yorkshire bowlers were in good form today and the Leicestershire batsmen had to struggle for every run. Only two singles were scored from the bat in the first ten overs. They lost five wickets for 49 runs before lunch, and the only man able to cope with the persistent, accurate bowling, backed by superb fielding, was Aubrey Sharp. They were not helped by the pitch, which was lifeless but suffered from uneven bounce, the ball sometimes keeping unexpectedly low. The situation worsened after lunch, and seven wickets were down for 64 before Alan Shipman, holding his end up with great resolution for 80 minutes, stayed in with Sharp while their partnership added 43. Then the last three wickets fell quickly, including that of Sharp, brilliantly caught one-handed by Emmott Robinson at silly mid-off just after reaching his fifty. He had shown real class and fighting spirit to score almost half the total. The leading bowler today was Abe Waddington, showing his best bowling form since his injury last year. The pitch had just been rolled for Yorkshire to start their innings when Jupiter Pluvius struck heavily and no more play was possible.
The Oval: Surrey v South Africans
Shepherd Century off Tourists
SURREY 300 (A Sandham 51, T F Shepherd 127, P G H Fender 56; J M Blanckenberg 3/37, A D Nourse 3/27). SOUTH AFRICANS 44/2 (J M M Commaille 27, M J Susskind 4*, P A M Hands 4*).
Surrey batted first on a pitch that took some spin right from the start after all the recent rain, and they owed their big score to three men only. Jack Hobbs is resting, so Donald Knight reverted to his old position as opening batsman with Andy Sandham, but scored only 12. He was bowled by Douggie Meintjes, who bowled very well, working up a good pace and cutting the ball from leg. Two wickets were down for 34, but then Tom Shepherd joined Sandham and their partnership was worth 94 for the third wicket. Sandham played a sound but scarcely memorable innings, while Shepherd was rather more aggressive. The next major partnership came when Percy Fender joined Shepherd to add 109 for the sixth wicket, and the score was 285 for five before Shepherd was out for a very fine 127, very well caught down the leg side by Tommy Ward. This is the first time this season that Shepherd has really played in his best form, although he never really dominated the bowling. Fender, though, played few memorable shots today.
Jimmy Blanckenberg and Dave Nourse then wrapped up the tail for just 15 more runs. The South African bowling confirmed the general impression today that the South African bowling is usually too good to be dominated by ordinary batsmen, but class players rarely find it difficult. Meintjes and Blanckenberg were their best bowlers today. The South Africans lost their opening batsmen with 38 on the board when they went in for 55 minutes before the close. The weather today was dry but drab.
Hastings Week: Sussex v Hampshire
266 For the Third Wicket
HAMPSHIRE 356/4 (R Aird 113, C P Mead 154, H L V Day 38*, L H Tennyson 28*; M W Tate 2 wkts). SUSSEX to bat.
Not even Maurice Tate could get any life from this featherbed pitch at Hastings today. The most remarkable fact of the day was surely that Hampshire lost their opening batsmen with only four runs on the board: George Brown bowled by a straight ball from Tate and William Shirley by Jim Parks. But then Ronnie Aird and Philip Mead settled in to a major third-wicket partnership that eventually brought 266 runs to their team, but mostly at a laborious rate. It took 2½ hours to put the first 100 runs on the board. Mead is still not back to his best form, and so he took no chances, but even he scored more freely than Aird, who did not even try to score off many loose balls until late in his innings, and on such a pitch was in over four hours for his 113. Mead’s 154 was not much longer, 4½ hours. Both escaped a possible chance in the field. Before the close Harold Day and Lionel Tennyson came in and hit about them more freely, adding 63 in the last 45 minutes, but 356 runs for only four wickets is poor going on such a lifeless pitch against bowling that apart from Tate is weak — no Arthur Gilligan or George Cox due to injuries. To their credit, though, neither the Sussex bowling nor fielding lost heart or became untidy.
Birmingham: Warwickshire v Glamorgan
Riches Valuable Innings
GLAMORGAN 191/5 (W E Bates 46, N V H Riches 78, F B Pinch 23*, J C Clay 7*; R E S Wyatt 3 wkts). WARWICKSHIRE to bat.
Freddie Calthorpe decided to put Glamorgan in to bat today, but whatever the reason may have been, it did not work out as he would have hoped. His bowlers found no help from the pitch, and Eddie Bates and Norman Riches settled in for a steady, valuable opening partnership that realized 98 in almost two hours. At this point Bob Wyatt came back for a second spell and bowled Bates for 46, later doing the same to Riches, who played a classy and enterprising innings. The middle order was not very steady, apart from Frank Pinch, who seemed to be settling into a useful but rather slow partnership with Johnnie Clay when the players trooped off for tea. They never returned, because the rain did.
Worcester: Worcestershire v Derbyshire
Foster to the Rescue Again
WORCESTERSHIRE 184/6 (F A Pearson 33, C V Tarbox 33, M K Foster 57, C F Root 30*, J B Coventry 20*; J Horsley 2 wkts). DERBYSHIRE to bat.
Dick Pearson and Charles Tarbox made a sound start for Worcestershire by putting on 48 for the first wicket before Pearson played on to Jim Horsley. The next two batsmen came and went quickly, so three were down for 53. For once Maurice Foster decided to temper his natural aggression and play safely, but Tarbox left at 77 after scoring 33 in 1¾ hours. Foster passed 1000 runs for the season and completed his fifty, holding the innings together, but was sixth out at 147; it wasn’t one of his best innings. Then came some spirited hitting from Fred Root and John Coventry before rain came on at 4.40 and ended play for the day after 3½ hours. Derbyshire bowled and fielded well, with Jim Hutchinson as usual brilliant in the covers.
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.