100 Years Ago: 8 August 1924
by John Ward
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Day 3
The Oval: Surrey v South Africans
Surrey Bat Out Time
SURREY 300 and 203/4 (D J Knight 68, A Sandham 29, A Jeacocke 22, D R Jardine 38*, T F Shepherd 34*; J M Blanckenberg 2/84). SOUTH AFRICANS 418 (M J Susskind 137, R H Catterall 63, H G Deane 42, J M Blanckenberg 22; S Fenley 6/148). Match drawn. Overnight score was: South Africans (1) 311/5 (Susskind 118*, Catterall 63*).
The South Africans continued their first innings this morning until they passed 400 and earned a lead of 118 on the 18. The overnight pair went rather quickly after their partnership which eventually realized 139 runs. Fred Susskind had batted about four hours and 20 minutes for his score of 137. Nummy Deane and Jimmy Blanckenberg played useful innings, and in fact the only South African batsman who failed to reach double figures was the stand-in opener Tommy Ward who was run out yesterday for 5. The only bowler to trouble the batsmen was Stanley Fenley, who deserved his six wickets for his fine effort for 48 overs. Although the rest of the bowling rather wilted, the Surrey fielding never did. The total is the highest made by the South Africans on their tour to date.
Surrey went in again just before lunch, 118 runs behind, and a draw looked virtually certain unless the South Africans bowled particularly well or Surrey batted particularly badly. The latter seemed possible at times, especially when in the first over Andy Sandham most uncharacteristically skyed a ball over mid-off that the fielders could not quite reach. But then he settled in before being caught off another skyer, to mid-on with the score on 89. Surrey had just cleared off the arrears when three wickets fell in quick succession, and Douglas Jardine and Tom Shepherd were called upon to apply themselves more carefully and ensure a draw.
Bristol: Gloucestershire v Essex
Essex Lose Grim Struggle
GLOUCESTERSHIRE 201 and 248/5 dec. ESSEX 64 and 191 (J O’Connor 64, P A Perrin 30, J W H T Douglas 18, H M Morris 31; C W L Parker 5/82, E G Dennett 4/76). Gloucestershire won by 194 runs. Overnight score was: Gloucestershire (2) 248/5 dec.
After Gloucestershire declared at their overnight score with a lead of 385, Essex fought dourly in the final innings, but the match ended soon after four o’clock, with the left-arm spin bowlers Charlie Parker and George Dennett each bowling more than 40 overs to share nine wickets between them. The innings began badly with three batsmen out for 26, including Jack Russell for 3. Jack O’Connor and Percy Perrin then shared a dogged partnership of 64 for the fourth wicket, the best stand of the innings. So dogged were they that the bowlers at times tossed up deliveries trying to tempt them to go for their shots. Johnny Douglas and Whiz Morris also resisted well later, but ultimately in vain. Gloucestershire fielded very well, with Wally Hammond and Bev Lyon being especially notable. Hammond, like Patsy Hendren and Percy Chapman, fields brilliantly in all positions.
Canterbury Week: Kent v Nottinghamshire
Notts Cruise Home
KENT 67 and 229. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 242 and 55/0 (G Gunn 29*, W W Whysall 25*). Nottinghamshire won by ten wickets. Overnight score was: Kent (2) 229 all out.
The Nottinghamshire openers knocked off the runs required for victory in 25 overs in just over an hour without being separated. Tich Freeman bowled throughout, and troubled Dodger Whysall a couple of times, but George Gunn was completely at his ease, taking his time unhurriedly. Freeman was missing his new spin bowling partner, Father Marriott, who strained his knee on the first day.
Liverpool: Lancashire v Northamptonshire
Lancashire Innings Victory
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 97 and 108 (C N Woolley 28, W Wells 29, R L Wright 27; E A McDonald 7/35, R K Tyldesley 3/31). LANCASHIRE 206. Lancashire won by an innings and 1 run. Overnight score was: Northamptonshire (2) 47/5 (Woolley 27*, Wells 7*).
Apart from rain, the best Northamptonshire could hope for when they continued their second innings this morning was to avoid an innings defeat, and that depended largely on Claud Woolley. Ted McDonald soon removed Woolley, though, but there followed an unexpected partnership between Bumper Wells and Richard Wright that gave them some hope. They took the score to 103 for seven, but the last three wickets fell quickly and Northamptonshire failed to avoid the innings defeat by a single run. This morning McDonald and Dick Tyldesley did the bowling and cleaned up the innings in an hour between them, although they were less successful than yesterday. But with such a superb bowling attack as Cecil Parkin (when in the mood), McDonald and Tyldesley — and still unbeaten — perhaps Lancashire are a dark horse for the County Championship after all?
Leicester: Leicestershire v Yorkshire
Leicestershire Save Innings Defeat
LEICESTERSHIRE 114 and 166 (A W Shipman 11, A T Sharp 49, W E Astill 65, J H King 12; G G Macaulay 2/44, R Kilner 3/36, A Waddington 2/44). YORKSHIRE 228 and 54/2 (E Oldroyd 26*, M Leyland 20*; G Geary 2/18). Yorkshire won by eight wickets. Overnight score was: Leicestershire (2) 14/2 (Shipman 5*, Fowke 2*).
Leicestershire began the day in real danger of an innings defeat, and this is what they would have suffered were it not for two fighting innings when the rest of the team failed. Four wickets were down for 23, but then Aubrey Sharp, after his 51 in the first innings, was joined by Ewart Astill, and the two of them fought so well that they put on exactly 100 and were not separated until the arrears had been cleared off. Astill was the more aggressive, scoring 65 in 1¾ hours, while Sharp was the last man out, run out by a good throw-in from Maurice Leyland as he risked a second run to reach his fifty. The tail had not contributed much and Yorkshire were left with 53 to win.
George Geary fought with the ball, and had Percy Holmes (2) caught at the wicket and Herbert Sutcliffe (1) lbw with only 7 runs on the board, but then Edgar Oldroyd and Maurice Leyland took the champions home without further loss by four o’clock. During the day Maurice Leyland reached 1000 runs in a season, and Roy Kilner completed his 100 wickets. Some people have been asking why Rockley Wilson has not come into the Yorkshire team in August as he has done in past years, which also takes some of the strain off the other bowlers, but it seems for whatever reason he has decided not to make himself available this year — which may well mean that his first-class career is over.
Hastings Week: Sussex v Hampshire
Brilliant Tate Saves Sussex
HAMPSHIRE 516/8 dec. SUSSEX 347 (E H Bowley 48, W L Cornford 23, T E R Cook 24, M W Tate 164, A J Holmes 18; A S Kennedy 2/78, G Brown 3/94, G S Boyes 3/70) and (following on) 111/2 (R A Young 62*, W L Cornford 24). Match drawn (Hampshire 3 pts, Sussex 1 pt). Overnight score was: Sussex (1) 83/2 (Bowley 43*, Cornford 10*).
A magnificent innings by Maurice Tate foiled Hampshire’s bid for victory today, although Sussex were still forced to follow on. Sussex’s overnight pair of Ted Bowley and Tich Cornford did not stay too long and four wickets were down for 110. Bowley had played a fine defensive innings of 48 in 2¼ hours to try to save his side. But then Tate came in to join Tommy Cook — with whom he shared a partnership of 94 — and took over the game with complete confidence. His powerful hitting earned him 4 sixes and 21 fours, mostly drives, in an innings that lasted only 2¼ hours. He massacred all the bowlers tried against him except Alec Kennedy, who was so accurate and skilful that even Tate had to play him with care. He survived chances at 19 and 100, and became the first cricketer of the season to reach the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets. Some sound defensive play by James Langridge at No 11 in a partnership of 33 kept Tate going until he was last out, caught at long-off having scored nearly half the team total.
Although a draw was now almost certain at 3.30, Hampshire had to take their only chance of victory and put Sussex in to follow on 169 behind in the hope of a collapse — and no doubt Tate was happy with that, as he had bowled 52 overs in Hampshire’s first innings. Dick Young played a good attractive innings to keep the crowd entertained.
Birmingham: Warwickshire v Glamorgan
Match-Winner Howell
GLAMORGAN 266 and 168 (F B Pinch 28, T Arnott 48, J C Clay 27, H Spencer 27; H Howell 6/66). WARWICKSHIRE 355 (W G Quaife 141, R E S Wyatt 25*; J Mercer 2/40, F P Ryan 4/102, D Davies 2/60) and 81/2 (F R Santall 55*). Warwickshire won by eight wickets. Overnight score was: Warwickshire (1) 268/6 (W G Quaife 109*).
Warwickshire do not win matches all that often these days, but when they do, their most likely match-winner is Harry Howell. Today he did it again as they beat Glamorgan. Warwickshire continued their first innings this morning with Willie Quaife batting with unusual fluency for him, adding another 32 runs in less than an hour, to give Warwickshire a lead of 89 on the first innings. Quaife’s innings eventually lasted 4½ hours, but he hit only 6 fours.
A draw looked the most likely result as Norman Riches and Eddie Bates opened the Glamorgan second innings just before lunch. They looked quite comfortable for a few overs, but the last ten minutes before the interval virtually decided the match. Howell, having got properly warmed up, gave a burst of blistering pace, having Riches caught at the wicket and then sending the off stumps of both Eddie Bates and Cyril Walters spinning out of the ground. Hewetson removed Dai Davies and in ten minutes the score went from 16 for no wicket to 24 for four. Howell was less effective after lunch, and Frank Pinch and Trevor Arnott managed to add 73 for the fifth wicket. Then three wickets fell quickly before Johnnie Clay and Helm Spencer put on 45 for the eighth wicket. At this point Howell returned and wrapped up the innings.
Warwickshire needed 80 to win in two hours, quite a comfortable task. The only man to reach double figures, actually, was Reg Santall, going in at No 3 and finding his best form. Freddie Calthorpe came in at 81 for two and wisely stood by and allowed Santall to race to his fifty in less than an hour, Calthorpe contributing only 2 not out to their unbroken partnership of 40.
Worcester: Worcestershire v Derbyshire
Rare Worcestershire Win with All-Round Root
WORCESTERSHIRE 212 and 229 (Lord Somers 42, C F Root 62; W Bestwick 2/67, A Morton 4/51, J Horsley 4/53). DERBYSHIRE 102 and 116 (W W H Hill-Wood 33, A Morton 19, W Bestwick 18; C F Root 5/67, G C Wilson 4/27). Worcestershire won by 223 runs. Overnight score was: Worcestershire (2) 150/6 (Somers 16*, Root 31*).
Worcestershire are flying high right now, with their second successive victory and their fourth in the last month. Some hitting from their later batsmen, especially Fred Root, enabled them to set Derbyshire 340 to win, which was never going to happen. His overnight partnership with Lord Somers eventually added 92 runs for the seventh wicket. Root scored 99 runs in the match, and actually finished as the most successful batsman as well as bowler in the match, and missed the match double by only a single run. His 62 came in only an hour and a quarter.
Then he took over the bowling again as Derbyshire went in on their hopeless errand. Wilfred Hill-Wood played well at the start, scoring 33 out of 43, but nobody else reached 20 as Derbyshire put up a dispirited batting performance and again only just scraped past a 100 total — and that thanks to some free hitting from their last man Bill Bestwick. Root took five wickets to give him twelve for 104 in the match, and this time his main support came from the very accurate Cliff Wilson. Derbyshire of course are still awaiting their first victory this season, while Worcestershire have climbed to the giddy heights of 14th in the County Championship table.
Yorkshire and Middlesex: The Middlesex committee continued their deliberations at Lord’s yesterday to discuss their relationship with Yorkshire, but have not released any information about it.
County championship positions: Middlesex 78.66, Yorkshire 74.11, Lancashire 69.52, Surrey 64.00, Nottinghamshire 57.50, Kent 57.00, Warwickshire 56.00, Somerset 52.22, Gloucestershire 50.52.
TOMORROW’S MATCHES (first-class)
Tourist Match
Portsmouth: Combined Services v South Africans
County Championship Matches
Cheltenham: Gloucestershire v Worcestershire
Southampton: Hampshire v Leicestershire
Blackpool: Lancashire v Essex
Nottingham: Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire
The Oval: Surrey v Middlesex
Hastings: Sussex v Kent
Sheffield: Yorkshire v Warwickshire
No matches: Glamorgan, Northamptonshire and Somerset.
Middlesex continue to hold a good lead over Yorkshire in the County Championship table, and it will be a real test to see if they can improve their percentage by beating Yorkshire at the Oval in the only Big Six clash of the next round. Yorkshire may have a strong fight on their hands against Warwickshire, who have enjoyed some good successes recently, in spite of the rain that has rarely left Edgbaston along this season. Lancashire will expect to beat Essex and keep close to the top of the table. Arthur Gilligan returns to the Sussex team — can he revive their recent gloomy record in the match against Kent?
WEATHER FORECAST: It should remain quite dry over the next few days, and often sunny and warm.
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.