All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

12 in 1859, with George Parr, he took the first England touring team abroad; he was also Secretary of the Cricketers’ Fund Friendly Society for over 20 years. And of course the first Almanack appeared in 1864. Wisden’s famous all-ten was achieved in a match scheduled to last three days, but which finished in one. Obviously Lord’s pitches hadn’t improved yet. It may seem strange that he appeared for the North. However, in 1849, even at the age of 23, he was looking for business opportunities and with Parr had become joint proprietor of a cricket ground at Leamington, Warwickshire. By the relaxed rules of the time he was thereby qualified to play for the North! Having made his first-class debut in 1845 Wisden was approaching the height of his powers. The previous season he had taken 129 wickets and his fine form continued in 1850. At the end of June, playing for Sussex, he took eight wickets in an innings for the fourth time in his career, against an MCC side two of whom, Alfred Diver and Samuel Dakin, would later be umpiring while he took his all-ten. Despite the presence at Lord’s of some of the greatest cricketers of the day, including William Caffyn, Nicholas Felix and Alfred Mynn, South’s batting failed completely twice. Wisden took three wickets in their meagre first innings and William Clarke six. Mynn, caught by Lord Burghley off Wisden’s bowling, would be the only batsman dismissed in this manner in the match. North then collapsed against the pace of Surrey’s Thomas Sherman and at 53 for eight a decent lead looked unlikely. However the later batsmen brought about a recovery, Wisden scoring 22, Clarke 13, and top-scorer Lord Guernsey 27 not out. His Lordship was a surprising saviour. In a 21-match first-class career, played mainly for MCC, he averaged only 7.14 and if Clarke hadn’t got out first he might even have beaten what would remain his highest first-class score, 28 not out! South went in again a daunting 95 behind. Dean, Box, Kynaston and Hervey-Bathurst had all been victims of Hinkly’s all-ten two years before. They were now to suffer the same fate again as Wisden ripped through South’s batting, uniquely hitting the stumps ten times. As well as Dean and Box, Wisden’s victims included another Sussex colleague, John Lillywhite, cousin of James. Surrey’s Caffyn top scored in each South innings with 9 and 24. Allrounder Caffyn was just beginning a first-class career that lasted until 1873. After touring with Parr’s 1863/64 team he stayed behind to coach in Australia, making an important contribution to the development of the game there. Some might say he did too good a job! He easily outlived all other participants in Wisden’s match, dying in 1919 aged 91. Not surprisingly a number of South batsmen failed to score. However the only batsman in the match who registered a pair was Roger Kynaston. With an eventual career average of 9.15 from 166 matches he wasn’t one of the most prolific batsmen of the period. His only stroke apparently was a slash between cover point and mid off, which is probably why he reportedly took his stance with his legs as far from the wicket as possible. One of the other batsmen who ‘failed to trouble the scorers’ was the rather more eminent Felix, whom Wisden eventually dismissed no fewer than 31 times in first-class cricket. Having been Hinkly’s final victim two years John Wisden