All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

13 John Wisden before, Hervey-Bathurst now became Wisden’s final victim. After a perhaps not unsurprising first-innings duck, this time he had at least reached the dizzy heights of four; batting nine times it was a score he managed to reach just twice during the season. One of the bowlers at the other end to Wisden was 51-year-old Clarke. In ten matches in 1850 it was the only innings in which he bowled without taking a wicket. Throughout most of the 1850s Wisden remained one of the best bowlers in England. In his fascinating book Number One Simon Wilde argues that during the mid-1850s he was the best, taking over the accolade from the wily Clarke before handing it to Nottinghamshire’s fast bowler John Jackson. Wisden had played for Clarke’s All-England Eleven. However in 1852 he left and, with Dean, set up the rival United All-England Eleven. Clarke probably wasn’t best pleased that his young business rival was also now the better bowler. Wisden was clearly a busy man: in 1852 he also began coaching at Harrow School, a post he held for four years. V.E.Walker, the next bowler after Wisden to take an all-ten, was a pupil at the time. Wisden seems to have liked Lord’s. Playing 68 first-class matches there it was easily his most frequently visited ground. Conditions obviously suited him. He had a better strike rate (probably a term unfamiliar to Victorians!) than at other grounds and not surprisingly also took significantly more wickets there: 400 in all, including 56 in five games in 1850. Wisden’s good form continued during the rest of 1850. At Lord’s a fortnight later, playing for Under 36, he missed another all-ten by one wicket, Nottinghamshire’s James Grundy, making his first-class debut, spoiling things by bowling Box midway through the Over 36 innings. Finishing with 103 wickets and 374 runs Wisden was the season’s leading wicket-taker and run-scorer, as well as being the only century-maker (and only Surrey’s wicketkeeper Thomas Lockyer exceeded his 14 catches). Wisden died of cancer in 1884 a successful businessman. Not all of his colleagues fared so well. Box had tried many forms of employment with little success before becoming attendant and ground-keeper at Prince’s Cricket Ground, Middlesex’s then home ground, where he collapsed at a match in 1876 whilst putting up the score, dying three hours later. Dean put on weight, suffered from asthma and bronchitis and was found dead in bed on Christmas Day 1881. His old friend John Wisden had seen him the previous evening. Perhaps they spent their last hours together reminiscing about old times over a final drink?