All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

172 Eddie Watts scotched any chance of recovery as a succession of batsmen were caught behind the wicket. With the score 190 for nine the last man, Charlie Grove, came out to join wicketkeeper Jack Buckingham, another member of the side appearing in his last season. Watts had been well served by his close fielders who took eight catches, but he nearly scuppered his chances of an all-ten by dropping a return catch off Grove. Fortunately the other bowlers, including Brown and Gover, who took over 200 wickets between them in 1939, couldn’t (or perhaps wouldn’t?) take the final wicket and after the last pair had put on 30 Watts pinned Buckingham in front of the stumps, only the third Warwickshire wicket in the match not to fall to a catch. Watts’ all-ten was the last of the 23 between the Wars. One of Watts’ victims was Eric Hollies. Seven years later he would be the next bowler to take an all-ten. One of cricket’s great rabbits Hollies would finish his long and successful career in 1957 with a batting average of 4.99, having exceeded 25 just once in 617 innings. Surprisingly he batted at number nine against Surrey, although to be fair by the end of the season his career average had reached the heady heights of 5.66. Watts’ season finished with three more matches. In the first two he took just two wickets, but he came back to form with five for 60 in the first Lancashire innings of the final game at Old Trafford. This turned out to be the home side’s only innings as when the teams reached the ground on the third morning it was agreed that because of the worsening international situation the match would be abandoned. Strictly this was a Surrey home game, but with The Oval not available it had been transferred to Manchester. Eighteen-year-old Bernard Constable, one of the stars of the great post-war Surrey team, made his Championship debut in the match. He would still be playing for the county 25 years later. Edgbaston too would host one more match before war came. At least Warwickshire supporters had a victory against Gloucestershire, and a Dollery century, to savour. Watts never received representative honours; in fact all but four of his 244 first-class matches were played for Surrey. The other four were played on tours he made to South America in 1937/38 with Sir Theodore Brinkman’s team and to New Zealand the following winter with Sir Julien Cahn. A commissioned officer during the War, he returned to the Surrey side in 1946 and, although suffering with a knee injury, still contributed 58 Championship wickets to the cause as he provided support to Gover and the emerging Alec Bedser. Watts’ career faded after his immediate post-war swansong and following knee surgery he played irregularly until retiring at the end of 1949, a season in which his benefit yielded £5,000 - then a Surrey record. His 729 career wickets cost him just over 26 runs apiece; a good record for somebody who did half his bowling at The Oval. A good striker of the ball he also made 6,000 runs at a respectable average of 21. Watts later played in the Birmingham League, coached at Whitgift School at Croydon, and ran a sports shop. He died in Cheam, south London in 1982, aged nearly 70.