All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

10 Edmund Hinkly only batsman who withstood him with any success was Nottinghamshire’s Joseph Guy who went in at 31 for three and remained undefeated with 28. ‘All ease and elegance’, for a number of years Guy was a regular for the All- England Eleven and for the Players against the Gentlemen. He was also an occasional wicketkeeper, and became a very reliable long stop. However he found little support as Hinkly swept away the England batting, including, for the second time in the match Parr, the season’s leading run-scorer. Another Hinkly victim was Wisden, one of four ducks. 1848 wasn’t a good year for batsmen: there was just one century and 13 fifties in 28 first-class matches, but after John Lee’s century (for Cambridge University against Gentlemen of Kent) Wisden later made the second highest score with 92 for Sussex against Nottinghamshire. Hinkly’s penultimate victim was William Lillywhite (who as mentioned in the Introduction had taken ten wickets in an innings against 16 Gentlemen in 1837). He then finished off the England second innings, as he had the first, by bowling Frederick Hervey-Bathurst for a duck, a score that in a 30-year career the 41-year-old fast bowler would eventually equal in over a third of his 138 completed innings. The unsuccessful bowlers at the other end during Hinkly’s historic feat were Hillyer, with 85 wickets the season’s leading wicket-taker, and medium pacer William Martingell, a decidedly useful bowler who would finish his career with 529 wickets. Although Hinkly was probably not ‘fast’ by present standards, he must have been fairly pacy. Despite this, wicketkeeper Dorrinton was able to stump two batsmen in the England second innings because, at the time, despite wearing only rudimentary protection, wicketkeepers usually stood up to the stumps whoever the bowler. Long stop was therefore a key fielding position to stop those balls that the keeper chose to leave or failed to collect. Sadly, Dorrinton died aged 39 only a few months later from a chill contracted while playing for the All-England Eleven on damp northern grounds. Kent needed 105 to win. As this total had only been reached in six out of 19 completed innings at Lord’s so far in 1848 their chance of success was slight. And with Wisden adding five wickets to his first innings seven, so it proved. Hinkly had further successes in 1848 and 1849, but after that his first-class appearances were relatively limited. As late as 1856 however, aged 39, he had one last great performance left, taking 13 wickets in the match for All-England against Nottinghamshire at Newark. He played his last first- class match two years later, finishing a 46-match career with 189 wickets. During the 1850s Hinkly often appeared as a ‘given man’ brought in to strengthen local teams (which might sometimes field as many as 22 players) in their matches against one of the professional touring sides. He spent his later years in south London and was recorded in the 1871 Census as a cricket ball maker. He died in 1880.