All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

150 the nine for 30 taken by the medium pace of Albert Thomas, a Welsh recruit, against Yorkshire at Bradford in 1920. They are also still a record for the Nevill Ground. The previous record-holder was Worcestershire’s Fred Root who had taken nine for 81 two years previously and, like Jupp, still finished on the losing side. Kent’s total of 360 was the highest at the time in which a bowler had taken an all-ten. Only Lillywhite in 1872 and Freeman in 1929 had taken an all-ten while the opposition made 300, and Ames’ 149 is still the highest individual score in an all-ten innings. Northants were 4 for one overnight. Thundery rain next day prevented any play after one o’clock, by which time they had staggered to 93 for nine. For a while it had looked as if Tich Freeman might emulate Jupp’s feat. However, after he had taken the first six wickets, the slow left-arm of Wally Hardinge (one of only 12 English double football cricket internationals) broke the spell. The last wicket fell quickly the next morning; Jupp top scored with 34 out of 97 and Freeman, who had bowled unchanged, finished with eight for 44 in 21.1 overs. Jupp had a wide range of strokes but often had to moderate the enterprise of his early days to help stabilise the Northants batting. His county’s performance at Tunbridge Wells illustrated why. Following on in bright sunny conditions, Northants were once more soon in trouble. Going in at eight for 3 Jupp (32), late cutting particularly skilfully, was again the only batsman to play the sharply turning spin of Freeman with any confidence, the little man bowling unchanged again in a Northants innings of 75 that was all over by lunch. The Northants captain William Brown had a modest record for the county, just one century and two fifties in 127 matches, but going in with six wickets down in each innings and remaining undefeated with six and 12 he at least provided some leadership by resisting the irresistible Freeman. Kent’s win enabled them to remain at the top of the Championship table. However, again they faded towards the end of the season, winning only five more matches out of 12 and slipping to third place, whilst Yorkshire’s run of 11 wins out of 12 would see them finish well clear at the top. Northants would finish 16th, just above Worcestershire. It was a position they would only improve upon once in the next ten seasons. In 1935 tragically Jupp became the first of three Northants Test cricketers whose careers were blighted by automobile accidents. In 1936 Fred Bakewell was so severely injured that he never played again, and 33 years later Colin Milburn lost an eye. They were both gifted openers whose careers were in effect ended at the age of 27. The consequences of Jupp’s accident were even more serious. Just before midnight on Saturday 12 January, near to his Northamptonshire home, the car he was driving was in collision with a motorcycle, killing the 19-year-old pillion passenger. Found guilty of manslaughter Jupp was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. He returned to county cricket in 1936 and finally retired in 1938 with over 23,000 runs and nearly 1,700 wickets to his name. Vallance Jupp