All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

119 Harry Howell the second highest of the innings, between Wilson and Abe Waddington had at least allowed them to limp to three figures. Howell’s figures were a Warwickshire record, improving on the nine for 35 taken by the left-arm of Sam Hargreave twenty years before at The Oval. He is the last bowler (after Burton, Tyler and Bill Howell) to have taken all-ten against the eventual County Champions (see Appendix for further details). After a great fight before a rapt crowd Warwickshire failed by three runs to match Yorkshire’s total. They started well, but 72 for three became 72 for six, as fiery medium-pace off-spinner George Macaulay, perhaps incited by his first innings duck, took the first of his four hat-tricks for the county (a record shared with Fred Trueman), and there was no recovery. The only Warwickshire batsman who reached twenty was Len Bates, literally batting on his home ground as, son of the groundsman, he had been born there in 1895. Yorkshire again made a shaky start to their second innings. This time it was Warwickshire captain Freddie Calthorpe (four for 52) who did the early damage, Howell also chipping in with two more wickets. Sadly Calthorpe died prematurely, in 1935 aged only 43. At 59 for five Yorkshire were again in trouble, but they had just the pair for a crisis, Roy Kilner (another early death, five years later) and a young Maurice Leyland, whose partnership of 84 enabled a declaration to be made at 162 for six. With more rain on the third day, Warwickshire were left only two hours and a quarter to make 166. At first a draw seemed likely, but nobody resisted Emmott Robinson, Macaulay and Kilner for long and just before half past six Yorkshire had won by 84 runs. Given the conditions, most of Warwickshire’s wickets in the match fell, not surprisingly, to Yorkshire spin and it is ironic that it was his own county’s lack of a quality spinner that gave Howell the chance to perform his great feat. The 152 wickets that Howell took in 1923 were at the time a Warwickshire record. (Their next highest wicket-takers were Norman Partridge and Calthorpe who took just 56 and 55 wickets respectively with their medium pace.) The only fast bowler to have exceeded this total for the county is New Zealander Tom Pritchard who took an impressive 166 in 1948. England still needed a fast bowler and Howell went Down Under again in 1924/25. However, this time he got little opportunity and did not appear in any of the Tests. Howell continued to be the mainstay of the Warwickshire attack but at the end of 1925 when, despite being handicapped by illness, he had taken over 100 wickets for the sixth successive year, he decided that the strain of regular county cricket was too much and that he could not undertake another season. He went into the Birmingham League, but still played a few more games for the county until 1928. He had also had a brief Football League career, mainly with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Like his former captain Calthorpe he died tragically early, in 1932 aged 41.