County Championship records for runs and centuries scored, and wickets taken in a season are dominated by cricketers from years when 25 to 30 matches were played in the championship. Modern players have very little chance of breaking those records, but we ought to be able to celebrate the best of their performances. Up to 1991, the County Championship was at least 22 games-a-side (as is mentioned by the post two below this one). From 1992 to 2000, each county played 17 games, which dropped to 16 with the introduction of two divisions. The tables below show the top twenty performances all-time and those from 1992 to 2016 inclusive.
Modern players have had getting on for only half the innings enjoyed by their predecessors. Their averages are better. Although the modern County Championship has 4-day games, as many overs were bowled in the 3-day games of yore (if that expression can be used of the first half of the 20th century); over rates having fallen lamentably. So, batsmen probably face, on average, a similar number of balls in each match. The higher batting average for modern players is predominantly a consequence of wickets being covered. Yes, there are still some dodgy surfaces prepared (hello, Taunton), but batsmen no longer have to worry about being caught on a “sticky dog.”
Mark Ramprakash must be the most notable modern County Championship batsman: three times topping 2000 runs in a season and twice averaging over 100; the only cricketer to do so in consecutive seasons in England. He recalled for Wisden his remarkable 1995 season, in particular the 205 he made for Middlesex against Sussex at Lord’s:
I started the season quite well, then I got a pair at Lord’s against West Indies and I was a bit hacked off. I’d bought this bat from Dominic Cork for £50 and decided to give it a go against Sussex. I thought “I’ve got nothing to lose”, so I took it out of the wrapper and went on an incredible run. I ended up with about 2,000 runs that year, and about 1,850 from that bat! [Interview with Sam Snow for Wisden, 2011]
Ramps in action during 2006, a record-setting year (The Cricketer)
Also Ramps tops the modern century-making list. The rate at which the best batsmen have compiled centuries is pretty similar, but the all-time rate includes a fair few innings on poor surfaces. Perhaps, finding himself on a good batting track, and with the threat of English summer rain ever-present, there was more determination to cash in?
In 2008 Ramps became the 25th cricketer – and almost certainly the last – to score 100 centuries in first-class cricket. The completion came after a move from Middlesex to south London:
I rediscovered my love for cricket at Surrey. I was enjoying what I was doing, batting in the middle and getting big scores gave me a huge amount of satisfaction … I managed to stay relatively fit and injury-free over a long period of time. When it [the 100th century] did come in 2008, it was 20 years after my debut and it came against Yorkshire at Headingley, which is exactly where I scored my first century, so that was very special. [Interview with Addis Army Cricket, 7 Jan 2021].
Ramps celebrates his 100th century at Headingley: 2nd of August 2008 (Test Match Special on X)
From the late 19th century to the Second World War about 30% of CC games saw an innings muster fewer than 100 runs. For 1992- 2016 this drops to 8% (see the graph in post below). As well as uncovered wickets, out-grounds were used regularly for CC games and many often had very exciting tracks. All this amounts to wickets being cheaper of yore, which is reflected in the averages. As covered in the post below, the ascendancy of ball over bat has declined for various reasons.
The difference in all-time and modern strike rates is perhaps smaller than expected, given the generally truer surfaces (which bowlers from between the wars would from heaven doubtless condemn as shirt-fronts). There’s a much bigger disparity in wickets taken per match by these top bowlers, averaging out at 8 per match compared to 5.7 for modern bowlers.
Spin has not much changed so much. Generally, there’s usually only one ace spin bowler in the side, and he bears that load himself. For a similar number of balls bowled per match, the all-time record spinners should average more wickets. They were the ones who profited most from sticky dogs. That’s why 14 of the top 20 all-time wicket-takers are spinners. There is a big drop in the balls bowled per match by pace bowlers. The predominance of medium pace in the modern game means most sides can field two or even three all-rounders (or, shall we say in some cases, batsmen who are allowed to bowl?) Thus, in the modern game the pace bowling load is spread across more players.
The bowler of the modern County Championship game must be Mushtaq Ahmed. His 2006 SR is better than most of those of the wonderful Tich Freeman. In eleven seasons, he was the Championship’s leading wicket-taker six times (once in his 5 years at Somerset, five times in 6 years at Sussex). Only Tich has exceeded that mark with eight.
Mushy making the ball fizz for Sussex
Sussex coach Peter Moores remembered Mushtaq’s focus at their first meeting. “He said, ‘If you pick me, Mr Peter, I’ll get 100 wickets in the first season.’ And he did. It was like signing a top-class striker. Rather than drawing 1-1, we’d win 2-1 because Mushy would do something special.” Not that the signing was entirely straightforward. There was an impasse in a committee meeting, but captain Chris Adams and Moores had a strategy. “We didn’t have any money to sign him,” Adams says. “The strategy was to pitch them [the committee] Stuart MacGill – who was coming in at twice what Mushy wanted – and then throw in the cost, knowing there was no chance we’d get that. But then we’d say, ‘Well, there is another option…’ “We nailed it. We got the committee to buy into the idea that this player was going to complete the side.” [Good old Mushy by the sea, Scott Oliver, The Cricket Monthly 6 Jun 2018]
Mushy takes his 100th wicket in 2003, bowling Brad Hodge of Leicestershire in the final County Championship match at Hove (Sussex Cricket Museum)
Sussex weren’t a one-man band. Chris Adams: “Of course, Mushtaq’s contribution was immense, and I know many people outside our environment at Sussex would say, ‘Well, you only won it because you had Mushtaq’, but he’d played five years at Somerset and never got close to taking that many wickets or winning the Championship. We were obviously doing something right to get the very best out of him as a team, as a club, and as a management.” [Good old Mushy by the sea, Scott Oliver, The Cricket Monthly 6 Jun 2018]
Mushy bowls Ryan Sidebottom of Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in the final County Championship match of the season: his 100th wicket in 2006 (The Cricketer)
Mushy decided to retire after the 2008 season:
“This is a very hard decision for me to make, as I feel that I could possible play one more year, but out of respect, I would only do that if I felt one-hundred per cent … I am going to miss playing for the club greatly. I am truly honoured to have spent six wonderful years here. There are not enough words to express my gratitude to the club, but I would like to specially thank Peter Moores, Mark Robinson, Chris Adams, all my team-mates, all the fans and everyone who is part of this magnificent family for all the opportunities and memories that they have provided me with … My love, my feelings and my heart will always be with Sussex and I will always pray to Allah for continued success at Sussex.” [Cricket World 2008]
From 2017 the number of County Championship matches played by each team was reduced to 14, so it’s unlikely that the season records of 1992 – 2016 will be broken. However, it’s early years yet, and one can only hope that the County Championship season is not reduced further. Here are the season records for each county (click to view)
The top five so far from seasons of 14 games are shown in the table below. Only Simon Harmer’s 83 wickets would have cracked the modern Top 20. Kumar’s run-total falls short but it came from only 16 innings. His 8 centuries at one every other innings is the best rate all-time.
Excluding Durham, who started playing First-Class (FC) cricket only in 1992, four-fifths of County Cricket’s FC records for lowest scores and best bowling date from before World War II when wickets were uncovered, matches were played frequently at out-grounds often on sporting tracks and changes to the laws almost always favoured bowlers. A quarter of these records were set in the 19th century when the “normal” wicket was very different to that of today. A comparison can be made across the years.
At the Antelope Ground in Southampton in July 1876 Hampshire played Derbyshire on a pitch provoking approval – “an exceedingly good wicket … a piece of bright green shining out conspicuously” (Hampshire Advertiser) – which drew, one imagines, the usual resigned sighs from batsmen and the trade of itinerant pedlars offering witch-hazel, gauze and finger-splints.
In August 2000, Scarborough saw Surrey meet Yorkshire for a title-deciding match. They played on a similar pitch – “it had so much grass that it was greener than the rest of the square” (Times) – which this time attracted disgust from the visitors (“the most important match of the season and they produced that!”) and a TCCB pitch inspector who imposed an 8-point penalty.
After World War II pitches were still uncovered and many out-grounds remained in common use, but changes to the laws, with one important exception, tended to favour batsmen. After 1980 wickets were covered, apart from a brief lapse in 1987 which was condemned unanimously by the 17 county captains. Only 7% of the FC records for lowest score and best bowling were set after 1980.
Many of the FC records, then, are unlikely to be beaten in the modern County Championship where conditions are comparatively less favourable to bowlers. So it seemed useful to compile lists of the best performances since the County Championship was decided wholly by four-day matches. At least the lists provide a fairer context in which to appreciate, say, Simon Harmer’s 14-wicket hauls, Rory Kleinveldt’s 9-65 and Kent’s dismissal of Gloucestershire for 61 in the 2017 season.
This pdf –>: Modern_Season_bowling shows the top 3 performances (for and against) for each county in the County Championship from 1993 to 2017. The FC records for each county are also shown, with comments augmenting the dry statistics. These records are colour-coded: orange depicts a record attained on a pitch described by contemporary reports as treacherous for batsmen and green depicts a pitch considered to be reasonable. Those records set on pitches whose nature is unclear are left uncoloured. Excepting Durham again, for those cases where conditions are known 82% of FC records for lowest totals and best bowling were set on wickets treacherous for batsmen.
In all the FC records for lowest totals (excluding Durham’s) sides have been dismissed for fewer than 50 runs. Twenty-seven of those records were set before 1993. Since then, there have been 8 occasions when a county has been dismissed for fewer than 50 runs in the Championship. The table summarises the conditions under which these bowling-fests occurred.
Of the records set before 1993 which are not attributable to poor batting, spin bowling featured in half of them – in 9 taking all or almost all the wickets and contributing to 4 others. (“Both” in the table means a 4-6, 5-5 or 6-4 split of wickets between pace and spin).
Two of the totals under 50 since 1992 are FC records (Essex’s 20 and Glamorgan’s 31), and are covered in the pdf above. They were the result of poor batting. The other 6 low totals were a result of late swing, sometimes with assistance from the pitch.
Middlesex 49 v Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge 2006. “Charlie Shreck (8-31) was irresistible, controlling his line superbly and swinging the ball from a full length. From the moment that Ed Smith fell to his fifth ball, trapped leg-before to a rare in-swinger as he padded up, the Middlesex batsmen were unsure which balls to play and which ones to leave … As panic began to take hold, Eoin Morgan’s dismissal highlighted the uncertainty that had crept into Middlesex minds, shouldering arms to be leg-before (Times).”
Derbyshire 44 v Gloucestershire at Bristol 2010. James Franklin took 5 wickets in his first three overs without conceding a run, as Derbyshire, inserted, slumped to 9-6. John Jameson, an ECB Pitch Inspector, was satisfied it was swing, not seam, with some indifferent batting, that caused the carnage. Going in to this match Gloucestershire were in the hunt for promotion and Derbyshire were bottom of Division 2 with only 2 wins from 14 matches (with 7 losses). So, after Franklin’s effort, the hosts must have been confident. They lost. Set 125 to win, Hamish Marshall scored 44 at No. 3. That might have been the platform for victory but, having seen an opener fall for 0, he then watched a succession of partners go for 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Understandably losing heart he was dismissed a few balls later and, soon after, the side was all out for 70. Gloucestershire’s heart followed Marshall’s as they slumped to defeat in their last two fixtures. Worcestershire, who had been behind them before the Derbyshire match, won their last two games to earn promotion alongside Sussex.
Leicestershire 34 v Essex at Southend-on-Sea 2011. This match, the last County Championship fixture played at Garon Park, was thoroughly enjoyed by David Masters. Early on the third morning, he joined Ravi Bopara with Essex only 127 runs ahead with 4 wickets in hand. They added 111, Masters making 48, his highest FC score for 15 months – and this on a nasty pitch. David capped off his day with 8-10 in under 8 overs: “Ravi’s batting set it all up. It was a pretty good pitch to bowl on – it was seaming and swinging – so his innings was outstanding. It’s an unbelievable day for me; the sort of thing you dream about as a kid.” On this pitch Ravi Bopara batted for almost seven-and-a-half hours scoring 178 and turned the match.
Leicestershire 48 v Northamptonshire at Grace Road 2011. In June, a little over one month before the shambles by the seaside, Leicestershire entertained Northamptonshire who were leading Division 2. Electing to bat, the hosts lost the last 5 wickets of their first innings for 13 runs. They began Day 3 on 27-2 in their second, trailing by 176. In a little over an hour the right-left combination of David Lucas (5-20) and Jack Brooks (now Yorkshire, 5-23) swung the new ball to take the last 8 wickets for 15 runs. Phil Whitticase, Leicestershire head coach, “I’m embarrassed for the players and the supporters, who have come paying a lot of money expecting a full day’s cricket, so I apologise to them.” Northamptonshire remained in a promotion berth until August Bank Holiday, but then lost at home to Surrey who went on to win their last two games (the final one with maximum points) to deny Northamptonshire promotion by 2 points.
Northamptonshire 46 v Essex at Luton 1995. Six years previously in mid-June Northamptonshire were leading the Championship. They started promisingly at Wardown Park by inserting Essex and extracting them for 127. But Mark Ilott made that seem like riches by taking 9-19 to shoot out Northamptonshire for 46. “Ilott’s feat … was the result of late swing under heavy cloud cover on a pitch still drying after heavy rain during the past week … As the ball zigged and zagged laterally, 13 batsmen fell to LBW decisions (Times)”. Mark became the first player since Mike Procter at Cheltenham against Yorkshire in 1979 to take a hat-trick of LBWs. He said afterwards: “It was not my first hat-trick of leg-befores. I got one playing for Watford under-15s. On that occasion my dad was umpire and, in my excitement, I shouted ‘howzat, Dad?'”. The first day had yet more excitement; Essex were dismissed in their second innings for 107, and play closed with Northamptonshire on 1-0, needing another 188 runs for victory. The next day saw the hosts recover from 56-4, but stutter to 161-8. Anil Kumble provided some fluency with an unbeaten 17 to help Alan Lamb (50*) to add 31 and take the title-aspirants to victory. A month earlier Northamptonshire had won a game in which they had been bowled out for 59; beating Surrey by 7 runs at Wantage Road. Luton marked their 6th win in 7 games. Northamptonshire took their title challenge deep into the season, but a crucial match against Middlesex ended in stalemate on a good batting track at Uxbridge in early September, and Warwickshire were able to overtake both of them by winning their last three games to clinch the title.
[As an aside, Steven Patterson of Yorkshire was on a hat-trick of LBWs at the end of Surrey’s 593 at the Oval this season, but his ball to the prospective victim Gareth Batty was wide outside off-stump].
Leicestershire 43 v Worcestershire at Grace Road 2016. Leicestershire made an excellent start to the County Championship. They beat Glamorgan easily in Cardiff after the home side had begun the match by making 348, had the better of a draw at home to Kent in a rain-shortened match, scared Sussex at Hove by bowling them out for 163 and running up 473-8 declared, and were robbed by poor weather of victory at home to Northamptonshire. They started their match against Worcester brightly, posting 316 and early on Day 3 took the last two Worcestershire wickets for a first-innings lead of 42. However, two hours later the Foxes had been run to earth – two of them attempting suicidal scampers. The deteriorating pitch played its part with some balls keeping low and others leaping shoulder-high off a length. They lost the match but kept their heads, drawing at Canterbury and, two weeks later, inflicting a first defeat of the season on leaders Essex at Chelmsford. Halfway through the season after 8 games, Leicestershire were third in Division 2, four points outside a promotion place. They then suffered a controversial defeat in their return match at New Road: Joe Clarke, given out LBW on 31, was recalled and went on to score 127 to lead Worcestershire’s run chase. Even with that set-back, Leicestershire kept their tails up. After 12 matches they were still third and four points away from a promotion berth. Big defeats to Essex and Sussex and the loss of their coach in late August and early September ended a fine run.
Looking at the modern County Championship records in the pdf, all the lowest scores are under 100, best bowling figures in an innings are at least 7 wickets (Kent against) and in a match at least 11 (Leicester for, two and Surrey against, two). The figure below shows how often totals below 100 (completed innings only), innings hauls of 7(+) wickets and match hauls of 11(+) wickets have occurred across the years of the County Championship. What is plotted in each case is the number of instances in a season divided by the total number of matches played in that season. This is not strictly the percentage of games in which these totals or hauls occurred (low scores tend to appear more than once in a match or not at all, for example), but it gives some indication of frequency.
Although there are year-to-year variations, often reflecting the weather but sometimes changes to the laws, the steady decline of ball over bat is clear. Eight of the FC records for lowest totals were set before the County Championship began in 1890. The table below shows the instances of totals of fewer than 100 runs (completed innings) for FC county games back to 1830 – the year in which the oldest FC record was set; Sussex’s 19 against Surrey at Godalming. The matches included are those between FC counties and FC games featuring a FC county against another non-county opponent. These opponents are usually England and the MCC (throughout these decades), Cambridge University and Oxford University (from 1860 onwards), touring Australians (from 1878) and occasional festival games.
Only eleven-a-side matches are included. Some games featured a county with 12, 13 or 14 players (batting) against the 11 of the MCC or England, or a county allowing a University side extra players. Thus, the table covers only those FC games in which a FC county record might have been set. To give an example of the type of match excluded; England played 13 of Kent at Lord’s on the 6th and 7th July 1863. Cambridgeshire’s George Tarrant in England colours returned figures of 37-20-40-10 in Kent’s second innings. The fixture is deemed FC and George’s haul is the best conceded by Kent, but his performance is not considered a FC record because of the extra batsmen he faced. Thus, these types of FC fixture, ineligible for FC records one could say, are not included in the table. Clearly also a batting side of 14 players would be expected to fare better than the usual eleven.
The percentage figure shown is the same as that used in the figure above – the number of times a side was dismissed for fewer than 100 runs divided by the number of matches. The average score is for completed innings only.
Batsmen had a difficult life in the middle decades of the 19th century. Pitches were prepared differently then. The methods used at Lord’s were described by Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane in his Introduction to “Lord’s and the MCC”(1914):
“the grass, as I have said, was never mowed. It was usually kept down by a flock of sheep, which was penned up on match days, and on Saturdays four or five hundred sheep were driven on to the ground on their way to the Monday Smithfield Market. It was marvellous to see how they cleared the herbage. From the pitch itself, selected by Mr Dark, half a dozen boys picked out the rough stalks of the grass. The wickets were sometimes difficult – in a dry north-east wind, for instance, but when they were in good order it was a joy to play on them, they were so full of life and spirit.”
Lord’s hosted a match between England and Kent in July 1841. The joy presumably was shared by William Lillywhite, who took 13 wickets for England, and the county’s combination of Alfred Mynn “The Lion of Kent” and William Hillyer, who took 9 wickets apiece (the other two being run-outs). The batsmen, however, were left with little spirit. Kent, with totals of 54 and 91, beat England, who could muster only 31 and 44. Fuller Pilch’s unbeaten 33 in Kent’s second innings must have been a masterpiece of batting and a prolonged tutorial on the benefits of forward play, which he is said to have introduced (“Pilch’s Poke”) to combat the shooters and spitters common to wickets of his time. Arthur Haygarth’s career as England and Sussex cricketer overlapped that of Pilch. Arthur was familiar with the diligence required of batsmen, once opening the innings for the MCC and battled away for nearly two hours to score 7 runs, more than anyone else in the top seven. Haygarth was a noted cricket historian and wrote:
“Fuller Pilch is the best batsman that has ever yet appeared … His style of batting was very commanding, extremely forward, and he seemed to rush to the best bowling by his long forward play before it had time to shoot or rise, or do mischief by catches” (“Frederick Lillywhite’s Cricket Scores and Biographies”, 1862).
Fuller Pilch
Charles Taylor, the first captain of Sussex, scored 4 not out and 19 for England in this 1841 match. The same fixture in 1846 at Lord’s saw better scoring. Kent (91 and 66) set England (71) 87 runs for victory. Kent did not help their cause by carelessly running out the best batsman for one. When allowed to show his form in the second innings, Fuller Pilch responded with 27, but was abandoned by the lower order as Kent subsided from 39-3. Charles Taylor excelled, scoring 16 in his first knock and, with 43, provided the backbone of England’s run-chase. He fell on the brink of victory, 85-9, but last-man Tom Sewell smacked the first ball he faced for the winning two runs.
Charles Taylor (copyright Sussex CCC)
In the 1850s mowing machines became available:
“Mechanical lawn mowers came into use at the majority of cricket grounds during the second half of the 19th century, despite opposition from conservatives like Robert Grimston [President of the MCC] at Lord’s who was still advocating [till his death in post in 1884] sheep-grazed turf for cricket.” (Roger D C Evans: “Cricket Grounds, The Evolution, Maintenance and Construction of Natural Turf Cricket Tables and Outfields”, Sports Turf Research Institute, 1991 – an excellent book).
The table shows that scoring in the 1860s, 70s and 80s was significantly better than the earlier decades. Mass-produced cast iron heavy rollers became available in the 1880s. The MCC acquired one of the first models which came to be known by the ground-staff as “Thomas Lord”. The beast can be seen in the Coronation Garden at Lord’s, presumably having rolled out the pitch for WG.
WG and the ‘Thomas Lord’ Roller, Coronation Garden Lord’s, copyright Paul Birnie, The Sporting Statues Project
All this might have been considered progress by Fuller Pilch and his fellow batsmen, but new technology was not (as was to prove usual) met with universal approbation. Hon. Robert Henry Lyttelton (of whom more later) commented on developments in pitch preparation in his essay The Development of Cricket for the 1892 edition of Wisden:
“Of all the inventions that ever worked a revolution in cricket, nothing had more effect than the heavy roller and the mowing machine. The old scythe, however deftly wielded, left a tuft of grass here and there. But watch the mowing machine – it shaves to a perfectly uniform length or shortness, the wicket becomes a billiard table. While, if the weather is dry, only a ponderous modern roller can have any effect on a clay soil; so, in former days, in addition to the tufts of grass you had little lumps of clay.”
Another advance – in the view of batsmen – was the use of red Nottingham marl as a top-dressing which was absorbed into soil as a binding element and produced longer-lasting, fast and true pitches. “Fiddler” Walker, groundsman at Trent Bridge, introduced the practice in the last third of the 19th century, and within a decade or so most county grounds were using marl as a top-dressing. Spectators enjoyed the stroke-play, as scoring improved.
Marl itself was an excellent tool in pitch preparation, but a particular way of using it on cricket pitches came to be regarded as evil; “doping”. In the 19th century, farmyard manure was commonly used as the fertilizer on cricket grounds. The Sports Turf Research Institute book above suggests that groundsmen accidentally became aware of the effect of a watery slurry mixture of marl and manure. When used to form a liquid layer on the soil surface, the pitch could be rolled out to be a shiny “shirt-front”. Such doped wickets were judged unfair to bowlers.
Lancashire captain Archie Maclaren lamented these “shining billiard table pitches” when he wrote for Wisden in 1906 and, in the same year, E V Lucas longed for the day when “pitches were less perfect” and “117 was a decent score for a whole side.”(“Cricket All His Life: The Cricket Writings of E V Lucas”, The Pavilion Library, 1989).
Eventually the authorities took action to “assist the bowler to check the heavy scoring which has become noticeable of late.” In April 1929 the Advisory County Cricket Council (ACCC) increased the size of the wicket (adding an inch to the width and to the height), limited the use of a heavy roller to 7 minutes instead of the customary 10 and introduced an experimental LBW rule. Strangely, this rule bore no relation at all to the debate which had been raging for the previous 30 years.
Since the late 19th century, batsmen had been using their pads to protect the wicket from balls that pitched outside the line of the stumps. The first meeting of the ACCC on 5th December 1887 discussed this pad play which Lord Harris hesitated to call notorious, and resolved to tell the MCC that the LBW law was unsatisfactory.
The Hon. Robert Henry Lyttelton detested pad play, regarding it as a breach of sporting etiquette, and “strove for half his life to bring about amendments to the law which would penalise any batsmen who resorted to such distasteful tactics (Wisden)”. Lyttleton drafted a new law under which a batsman would be given out LBW if he was struck in line with the stumps by a ball which would have gone on to hit the wicket, irrespective of where the ball had pitched. It was considered that “the impunity with which batsmen defend their wickets from balls curling from leg [as well as coming in from the off] had become detrimental to good play. It does not pay a right-hand bowler to bowl round the wicket with a leg-twist … the result is that bowlers confine their attention to the off-side which is easy to defend instead of attacking the leg-side of the wicket which is difficult to defend.”
The MCC was to consider the Lyttelton law at its meeting on the 1st May 1901. Those members opening their morning Times over kippers would have read sterling advice in the Letters Column.
WG wrote: “the alteration of the LBW rule would do good in first-class matches where you have the best umpires” but he warned about introducing any change, though it be advisable in itself, if it is against the wishes of the majority of players: “nearly all first-class cricketers led by county captains, are strongly opposed to the change.” An accompanying letter from Lord Hawke, Plum Warner and four other august worthies argued against the new law, complaining that a ball pitching a foot outside leg and breaking in cannot be judged by an umpire unless he is standing at mid-on.
How many members were influenced by this thundering over their breakfast? In the event, the MCC voted in favour of the new law by a margin of 259 to 188, but this was not the required two-thirds majority, so the law was rejected. Discussion over the subsequent years centred on whether or not balls pitching outside leg should be included in a new law.
The experimental rule introduced in April 1929 reflected none of this, leaving Lyttleton dissatisfied over its trivial nature. Instead it said that a batsman would be out LBW if struck in line by a ball which would have gone on to hit the wicket even if he had deflected it by bat or hand first.
The ACCC sent a questionnaire to players and umpires after the 1929 season. There was unanimity that the larger wicket had helped the bowler, as had the limit placed on the use of a heavy roller. The experimental LBW law met with an unenthusiastic response from bowlers but a majority of umpires thought it had helped the bowler. One fault was found – when a ball was played down with the face of the bat but rolled on to hit the pad or foot the batsman had to be given out LBW. The experimental law was carried on for the next few seasons, but only covered cases when the ball had been edged onto the pads and would then have gone on to hit the stumps. Frank Chester in The Umpire’s Point of View in the 1933 edition of Wisden considered “the experimental rule regarding LBW and ‘the snick’ has been a very good one, and I think it has come to stay”.
Frank’s predictions were nowhere near as infallible as his decisions behind the stumps, for the Snick LBW rule was dropped soon after that edition of Wisden was published. The table shows the number of totals below 100 runs and above 500 runs in the decade or so before World War II. Pretty much the same number of County Championship matches were played in these years, so the statistics are comparable season-to-season. The table shows the heavier scoring in 1928 which finally prompted action to help the bowler, and the impact of the changes over the next few seasons.
Scoring improved quickly in 1933 and 1934, in response to which the ACCC decided in November 1934 to introduce an amended LBW rule, which might be termed “The Half-Lyttelton”: a batsman struck in line by a ball going on to hit the stumps would be out LBW if the ball had pitched in line or outside off-stump. This was sometimes referred to as the Lyttelton law or the “N” law. An umpire giving a batsman out under this experimental law, held up an arm to signify to the scorers that the ball had pitched outside off-stump. Such dismissals were annotated on scorecards with “(N)”.
Times match report, 20th May 1935
The County Secretaries meeting at Lord’s in December 1935 considered the “experimental LBW rule had been an unqualified success and that many off those people who at the start had opposed the innovation admitted at the finish that their fears were groundless. It did help the bowler and it would help him more if he made use of the bowling crease [a fault which remains common in county cricket today].” It was continued for following season and became the new LBW law in May 1937.
The table shows the help it afforded bowlers (although they were also assisted by wickets which were difficult in the first three months of the 1935 season) as the number of totals under 100 shot up, and those over 500 halved. Nevertheless, as reflected in the statistics for the 1937 to 1939 seasons, batsmen adjusted. There had been a worry that they would cut down their off-side strokes, but the Times Cricket Correspondent commented in 1935:
“gradually batsmen realised that their off-side strokes need not be discouraged and that in fact when playing to the off it was to their advantage to fling their left leg well out, so that it should be clear of the wicket. I believe that as the season advanced I noticed a distinct increase in off-side play.”
Patsy Hendren in his Reflections essay for the 1938 Wisden:
Personally, I thought the ‘snick’ experiment with the LBW Law was better than the ‘N’ rule. The new rule is not fulfilling expectations as regards improvement in off-side strokes; maybe it makes batsmen afraid to get across as they should [although as the Times Correspondent had noticed, it was safest to thrust the leg outside off stump]. One thing I do think, and that is that a batsman should not be given out under the ‘N’ rule when playing a forward stroke … and I am pleased to say that, so far as I have noticed, not many umpires give a man out in these circumstances.”
That observation was confirmed by Frank Chester’s comment in the Times in 1937:
“The new LBW rule has increased the umpire’s difficulties considerably. Personally, I treat it in the same way as I did the snick rule. I give the batsman out only when he plays back. I do not consider that the new rule has improved off-side play. It has undoubtedly helped the bowler.”
Patsy also preferred the “Full-Lyttelton”:
“I am in favour of the rule being applied to the ball turning from leg as well as that breaking from the off. After all, the leg-break is the most difficult ball to bowl, and the additional reward to this type of attack would bring the spin-bowler back into the game.”
Don Bradman also sided with Patsy and the Honourable Robert in this regard. One shudders to imagine the utter carnage Shane Warne would have wreaked if dear old Nasser Hussain and countless others had not been allowed to kick away his deliveries pitching outside leg.
Irrespective of the LBW rule in force, bowlers might take the advice suggested by 19th century Nottinghamshire captain and “Lion of the North” George Parr:
“When you play in a match, be sure not to forget to pay a little attention to the umpire. First of all inquire after his health, then say what a fine player his father was, and, finally, present him with a brace of birds or rabbits. This will give you confidence, and you will probably do well”
Bowlers after World War II might not be able to lay hands easily on game (and in the scheme of things they were more likely to be beaters than shooters), but there is no doubt that a diplomatic approach would become increasingly important with umpires as now the authorities largely turned against them.
From the outset the new LBW rule prompted worries that bowlers would just bowl in-swingers or off-breaks and have close fielders on the leg-side to catch edges. This came to pass.
As Bill Bowes observed in Wisden 1956, bowlers “found that a leg-stump attack to expert short-leg and leg-slip fieldsmen paid dividends … moreover, the nearer you bowl to a batsman’s legs – with a well-placed field – the more you limit his scoring. During last summer the South African bowler, Goddard, showed that this type of attack could be extended to well outside leg-stump and still be successful.” At Leeds in the 4th Test in 1955, England began the last day on 115 for 2, chasing 381. Trevor Goddard bowled unchanged “to a strong leg-side field” until South Africa won at quarter past four, returning overall figures of 62-37-69-5. Jim Laker liked to bowl to 3 short-legs and 3 men on the leg-side boundary on turning pitches. Indeed, on the intentionally dodgy pitch at Old Trafford in 1956 he bowled with 4 close-in fielders on the leg-side with 3 further back.
In 1957 the authorities attempted to shift the bowler’s attention from leg-stump by limiting the total number of on-side fielders to five, and stipulating that three of them must be in front of square.
Ken MacKay caught by Alan Oakman off Jim Laker, final day Manchester Test, 31July 1956 copyright The Cricketer International
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw wickets being covered in various ways. After the 1962 season the ACCC had some regret over these moves, as it was found that pitches sweated under the type of covers used then (unlike modern ones) and grass grew;
“Over the last two seasons when pitches have for the most part been covered there has been, if anything, a growth in seam bowling, which is precisely what we were aiming to avoid.” After the 1963 season the Times Cricket Correspondent amplified the tune; “The Championship is in the grip of seam bowling. Even in a wet summer of partially-covered pitches the spinners have hardly had a look in. Only four slow bowlers have taken 100 wickets. Instead … medium pace bowling has monopolised the scene … the wrist spinner is looked upon as an expensive luxury, the off spinner as more expensive than the accurate seam bowler.” Before the 1964 season the ACCC lamented “the canker of seam bowling” and urged counties to produce dry wickets with less grass.
There were two consequences. First, bowlers had to wait longer to get a new ball. This had been a running theme: in 1949, 65 overs instead of 55; in 1954, after 200 runs had been scored (the average score at 65 overs had been about 150); in 1956, 200 runs or 75 overs. Now, to encourage slow bowling, the new ball would be delayed further to 85 overs.
The second consequence was fore-shadowed in speeches in the winter of 1963. GOB Allen, President of MCC, guest of honour at Sussex’s annual dinner, hinted that there; “wereplans to control the prevalence of seam bowling and something might be done to prevent the polishing of the ball by bowlers.” A fortnight later, SC Griffith, Secretary of the MCC, in his annual speech to the County Secretaries at Lord’s expressed concern over seam bowling but then moved on to swing, noting that green wickets and plush outfields helped maintain the ball’s shine. Groundsmen were instructed to cut outfield grass shorter for the 1964 season. Griffith then said, “Although one does not wish to knock the swing bowler, I feel that the practice of polishing the ball has gone too far and I think the time has come to add a word or two to Note 4 of Law 46 about fair and unfair play.” The Imperial (!) Cricket Conference in July 1964 discussed “excessive polishing of the ball, which is considered to be time wasting.” After an initial rejection, polishing the ball was prohibited for the 1966 season. The ACCC decided to continue the ban into 1967 and, following a unanimous recommendation from the MCC National Cricket Association, even imposed it on village cricket. That was an unwelcome burden on the village umpire, who was already hard-pressed to protect his half-pint glass of beer while craftily rolling a fag. Polishing was allowed again from 1968 but only by the bowler: it was only in 1976 that the TCCB allowed anyone to polish the ball. The counties and the England team imposed their own restriction; usually choosing only fielders with a predilection for boiled sweets or Murray Mints.
That restrictions on polishing the ball might not entirely “control the prevalence of seam bowling” finally dawned in 1989 when the 15-strand seam Reader ball with a seam height of 0.9mm was outlawed by the TCCB in favour of the 9-strand version with a lower seam (0.5mm).
Bowlers did have something to cheer about when in 1970 the new LBW law (as we know it today) was introduced. Nevertheless, after World War II, the sensible cricket-aspiring schoolboy would have chosen willow over leather, whereas his predecessor would have been seeking advice about his run-up.
The decline in the bowler’s lot, especially the spinner, is evident when considering Simon Harmer’s two 14-wicket hauls in the 2017 County Championship mentioned earlier.
The last time a bowler took 14 wickets in a match twice in a season in the County Championship was 1960 when Fred Trueman performed the feat for Yorkshire. Fred played 22 matches compared to Simon’s 14, but both helped their side win the title. 1948 was the last time a spinner had two 14(+)-wicket match hauls: Len Muncer of Glamorgan (again in a title-winning cause) and Jack Walsh of Leicestershire (sadly for the Foxes, more in an avoiding-the-wooden-spoon effort).
Only 6 times in 72 seasons since World War II has a bowler had two 14(+) wicket hauls in a County Championship season. Between the wars this feat was much more common, 21 times in 21 years. Spinners accounted for 18 of those: Tich Freeman of Kent and Charlie Parker of Gloucestershire did it 6 times each. Before 1914 it was done 16 times in 25 seasons, evenly split between pace and spin.
Only two other bowlers have managed the feat for Essex, Simon Harmer being the first spinner: fast bowler Ken Farnes (14-119 against Worcestershire and 15-112 against Glamorgan) in only 8 County Championship matches in 1938 and JWHT Douglas in 1921.
John William Henry Tyler Douglas was an indefatigable captain. His 14-156 against Worcestershire in May 1921 combined with his unbeaten 123 helped Essex recover from being bowled out for 90 to win their opening home match of the season. He might have been denied three wickets in his 14-91 against Hampshire the following month at Bournemouth. Hampshire, beginning the match, were on 40-6 (Douglas having taken four of the wickets) with Phil Mead on 28 when Mead was cut over the eye by a rising ball from Joseph Dixon. The cut was bad and Mead was going to retire hurt. However, there was no one to come in in place of him, as Alex Bowell, Alex Kennedy and Walter Livesey had missed a train from Southampton. The umpires agreed to a delay of 10 minutes so Mead could get treatment. During his resumption, the Hampshire tail arrived; two of them following Mead as grist to Johnny’s mill.
Johnny Douglas may have enjoyed an advantage over Simon Harmer in gaining his two 14-wicket hauls for the simple reason that he was captain. In those days, an umpire’s position depended on the views of captains, all of whom were amateur. Michael Marshall gives a flavour in his “Gentlemen and Players”, Grafton Books, 1987.
GOB Allen, an amateur, playing in his first Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s in 1925 was given out LBW by Bill West. In the pavilion Lord Harris asked Allen if he was satisfied with the decision. “When Allen indicated he was extremely unhappy about it, Lord Harris had umpire West (who was considered good enough to stand in Test matches) struck off the first-class fixture list.” Allen commented; “Bill was a dear old boy and I was terribly upset.”
Amateur captains were known to get the benefit of the doubt from umpires. Johnny Douglas himself confirmed this:
“They said that I seemed to have lost form, to which I replied, ‘Loss of form be hanged!’ When I was relieved of the captaincy of Essex it cost me thirty wickets and two hundred runs a season. The bloody umpire couldn’t say anything but ‘Not out’ when I appealed and they only said ‘Out’ when I was appealed against.”
The season after Johnny Douglas took his two 14-wicket match hauls saw the afore-quoted Frank Chester join the ranks of FC umpires. His county championship debut was Essex’s opener against Somerset at Leyton. Frank can be seen, in flat cap and tie, second from the right on the back row: his fellow umpire, Harry Butt, similarly attired, at the other end. Johnny Douglas, bare-headed, is in the centre wearing his splendid blazer.
The Essex team to play Somerset at Leyton, May 1922 copyright The Cricketer
Vivian Jenkins’ essay Thirty Years an Umpire in the 1955 edition of Wisden completes the story and underlines the point made by Johnny Douglas:
“… young Chester was called on to give decisions against both captains, Johnny Douglas and John Daniell, and did his duty according to his lights. Douglas LBW, Daniell stumped [off the first ball he faced]. “You’ll be signing your death warrant if you go on like that”, he was warned by his venerable colleague [Harry Butt], but Chester has gone on giving out captains ever since, reports to Lord’s notwithstanding.
Chester’s integrity is perhaps more notable when it is remembered that Johnny Douglas won the Middleweight Boxing Gold Medal at the 1908 London Olympics and 6-foot-7-inch, 16-and-a-half stone John Daniell played rugby union for England.
Back to the present day; among Simon Harmer’s 14-128 and 14-172 were 12 LBW victims. Perhaps the most important came under floodlights on the last Thursday in June. Middlesex, facing a first-innings deficit of 296, had fought their way to 252-5 with only 12 overs left to survive. Nick Compton, whose previous 5 Championship innings had yielded 83 runs, had patiently amassed 120 over more than 6 hours at the crease. However, to the first ball of Simon Harmer’s next over, he offered no shot to a ball that came in sharply and was given LBW. Harmer dismissed Ollie Rayner by the same means and, to great roars around the County Ground, had Steve Finn (plunging forward with no shot), leg-before to complete an innings-victory with only 8 balls remaining.
Simon Harmer and team-mates celebrate beating Middlesex under floodlights at Chelmsford, copyright Getty Images
The win lifted Essex 29 points clear and installed them as title favourites – an estimation they fulfilled joyously at Edgbaston with two games to play. Both those games finished with the County Champions routing their opponents: Hampshire for 76 and Yorkshire for 74.
Life is more difficult for bowlers than it once was, but Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer have shown that they still win Championships.
General Sources: Wisden, Cricket Archive, ESPN Cricinfo.
An enthralling two days were spent at the Rose Bowl in April supporting Captain Ballance’s splendid resistance. In his second innings, as Yorkshire neared safety and Ballance approached an aggregate of 500 runs in the first three County Championship matches, thoughts turned to where he, and indeed Ben Coad (who had taken 22 wickets in the same three matches), might finish the season in the county’s records.
Naturally, cricket’s season records are dominated by those years in which rather more First-Class (FC) games were played than are today. Between the World Wars teams did not play the same number of County Championship games, but many played 28 and some played 30 or 32. From 1946 to 1968 all counties played 26 or 28 games, with some playing 32 in the early Sixties. Further, usually all counties played at least one FC game against Tourists and two against the Universities. In contrast, from 1993 when the County Championship was decided wholly by four-day games, counties played 17 matches – 16 from 2000 when the teams were split between two divisions – with usually only one game against a University and rarely against the Tourists.
Playing 28 three-day games amounts to 84 days of cricket, compared to 64 days in the modern County Championship up to 2016. The meeting of the counties at Lord’s in November 1961 noted that, “despite the plea at the start of the season to improve over rates, the average was raised only from 19.28 overs to 20.11 overs per hour”. That equates to 120 overs a day; much more than today’s norm of 96 overs. The disappointment expressed at the meeting suggests higher over rates had been achieved in the past. In 1966, the Advisory Cricket Committee decided at Lord’s on March 1st that, “County committees must instruct their team to bowl an average of 20 overs an hour and should make enquiries as to the reason on each occasion when the target is not achieved.” The Times Cricket Correspondent wrote on the 29th May 1967; “In 1937 bowlers might average six overs an hour more than they do now”. Perhaps then, in the 1930s more than 120 overs in a day would not have been uncommon. Anyhow, there were more overs per day, as well as more days of FC cricket, in the past.
The tables in the attached PDF file –> Modern_Season_blog_tables_2017show the best three performances for the most FC and County Championship runs, wickets and centuries in a season for each county since the County Championship became a wholly four-day affair. The all-time FC records in these categories cited in the Playfair Cricket Annual 2017 and the all-time County Championship records for each county are also given.
Almost all county FC season records (the exception being Durham) will never be beaten now that the amount of cricket played is so much less. Yet, it is interesting to compare the level of performance at the top. In batting, the modern-day season records for Yorkshire, Gloucestershire and Hampshire are inferior to those of the all-time record-holders Herbert Sutcliffe, Walter Hammond and Phil Mead, respectively. In contrast, modern-day batsmen for seven counties have markedly superior records.
Kent: David Fulton (average 75.68) compared to Frank Woolley (59.06).
Lancashire: Stuart Law (91.00) compared to Johnny Tyldesley (56.02).
Leicestershire: HD Ackermann (75.33) compared to Les Berry (52.04).
Northamptonshire: Mike Hussey – twice (79.03 and 89.31) compared to Dennis Brooks (51.11).
Somerset: Marcus Trescothick – twice (75.70 and 79.66) compared to Bill Alley (58.74).
Surrey: Mark Ramprakash – twice (103.54 and 101.30) compared to Tom Hayward (72.13).
Warwickshire: Nick Knight (95.00) and Brian Lara (89.82) compared to Mike Smith (60.42).
The situation is different when it comes to bowling where modern-day cricketers of only four counties have turned in superior performances compared to the all-time record.
Essex: David Masters (average 18.13, strike rate 41.11) compared to Peter Smith (27.13, 56.02).
Lancashire: Muralitharan (11.77, 35.12) compared to Ted McDonald (18.55, 36.79).
Northamptonshire: Curtly Ambrose (14.45, 42.08) compared to George Tribe (18.70, 43.47).
Worcestershire: Glenn McGrath (13.21, 31.18) compared to Fred Root (17.52, 42.41).
Modern Record … Inferior Equal Superior
——————————————————————————————-
Batting 3 7 7
Bowling 9 4 4
Counties season performances: 1993-2016 compared to earlier years (excluding Durham)
The record for most wickets taken in a season for every County (excluding Durham) was set in a year when pitches were completely uncovered. Of course, they were also set when more games were played than today. Bowlers setting the record for most FC wickets in a season played in at least 26 matches and most played 29 or more. Limited covering of wickets in the County Championship was decided upon at the Advisory County Cricket Committee’s meeting at Lord’s in March 1959. Much toing and froing then ensued with covers over the next two decades, with further dithering in 1987. The extent to which sticky wickets, as opposed to sheer weight of overs, helped the bowlers who set season records for FC dismissals is unclear. However, one wonders if county FC records for low totals and best bowling come from games on uncovered pitches (apart from the alarming 20 at Chelmsford in 2013), but that is a project for another day.
Perhaps ex-players are not really interested in cricket statistics. However, Peter Hartley, now one of our redoubtable FC umpires, may be tickled to know that he has taken more FC wickets (81) and County Championship wickets (71) in a season in the four-day era than any other Yorkshire bowler. Other modern-day record holders who may be seen with finger aloft:
Tim Robinson – most FC runs (1728) and County Championship runs (1627) for Nottinghamshire;
David Millns – most FC wickets (76) and County Championship wickets (68, tied with Devon Malcolm) for Leicestershire;
Martin Saggers – most County Championship wickets (79, tied with Min Patel) for Kent.
And what about Gary Ballance and Ben Coad, who sparked off this short project? Of course, now that the ECB has decided to limit the County Championship to 14 games, it will be harder for players to break modern-day records. At the time of writing (16 June 2017) Captain Ballance is on pace to break the Yorkshire record for most FC runs, but Ben Coad, who was on track to beat Peter Hartley’s record, did not play in the recent match against Somerset. Other players presently on pace to break their county’s modern-day records:
Kumar Sangakkara (Surrey) – runs and centuries;
Darren Mitchell (Worcestershire) – centuries;
Billy Godleman (Derbyshire) – centuries;
Kyle Abbott (Hampshire) – wickets;
Darren Stevens (Kent) – County Championship wickets.
An Occasional Cricket Statistician 