All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

108 Charlie Parker With Dennett still serving as an officer in India the county acquiesced and Parker repaid them by taking wickets in vast numbers. Over six feet tall, Parker had a beautiful smooth action and spun the ball fiercely despite bowling quicker than most spinners. Near unplayable on difficult pitches, his accuracy, puzzling flight and bristling aggression still made him a formidable opponent even in less helpful conditions. Gloucestershire were a middling team in 1921, in fact so middling that of 24 Championship matches played they won 12 and lost 12. They had four captains during the season, Foster Robinson leading in half their matches. He usually also kept wicket although Gloucestershire had a very efficient keeper in Harry Smith who would play once for England in 1928. Smith was a useful batsman and would play even when not keeping. Gloucestershire had already beaten Somerset once in 1921, Parker taking ten wickets at Taunton back in May. They would also win the Bristol return, but it would be a much closer game and Parker would take even more wickets. He had been in good form coming into the match, reaching his 100 wickets for the season earlier in the month, just before appearing in his one and only Test. There was a good crowd for the first day of the traditional August Bank Holiday fixture with the neighbours. The ground had been purchased in 1915 by J.S. Fry and Sons Ltd (the chocolate manufacturers), giving the county some respite from its pre-war financial difficulties. Opening the bowling, probably wearing his cap as was often his custom, Parker quickly had Randall Johnson caught for one by Edgar Barnett. After that he worked his way steadily through the Somerset batting, eight batsmen reaching double figures but none scoring fifty. Only Jack MacBryan seemed comfortable, a fine performance given that as an amateur his availability in 1921 had been limited, his only Championship appearance so far being over two months before. At 176 for nine Parker had no doubt hoped to wrap up the Somerset innings quickly and complete his all-ten. However, numbers ten and eleven, Jimmy Bridges and Raymond Robertson-Glasgow, then scored 36 for the last wicket in less than half an hour before the final wicket eventually fell, like the first, caught Barnett bowled Parker. Fast-medium bowler Bridges is one of those unfortunate individuals whose highest first-class score is 99 not out, remarkably made when going in at number eleven against Essex at Weston-super-Mare in 1919. In 348 first-class innings he scored just two fifties and never got near a hundred again. Parker had bowled unchanged for three and a half hours and conceded just seven boundaries. A collection raised £53 for him. One of his victims was the Somerset captain and, more importantly, Test selector, John Daniell, stumped by Robinson for four. Surely this must have helped his future Test prospects? Evidently not. Robinson deserves a mention for keeping for 80 overs without conceding a bye. Perhaps surprisingly, fellow slow left-armer George Dennett, now back from India and who would take 107 wickets in the season, bowled only two overs in the innings, 42-year-old medium pacer Percy Mills being left to do all the hard work. A mainstay of Gloucestershire’s attack for many years, the virtual retirement of Dennett