All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

24 William Hickton 11 times. Lancashire started the season well, beating Surrey by eight wickets at the end of May, with Hickton taking six for 17 in the Surrey second innings. The team that met Hampshire included three players, Joseph Leese, Alexander Rowley and Frederick Reynolds, who had been in the Lancashire side at the same venue five years before when V.E.Walker had taken all-ten against them. They were captained by Edmund Rowley, Alexander’s younger brother. The Hampshire team of the early 1870s wasn’t terribly strong. It played just two first-class matches in 1870, both against Lancashire, both lost, and then played no more first-class cricket until 1875. Only two of the team that Hickton skittled ever scored a first- class fifty (none scored a hundred), and only two ever took five or more wickets in an innings. Three were making their first-class debuts: Charles Eccles, captain Arthur Wood, and Frederick Tate who made a very good start to a very short career. Both umpires were standing for the first time. For umpire Kay it would be his sole first-class match. However Cornelius Coward would eventually officiate in 98 matches, although not on a regular basis until the 1880s as he was still a Lancashire player; having made his debut for them in 1865 he would play for them until 1876. Lancashire batted first and were all out for 262 just before close of play, an innings dominated by Albert (A.N.) Hornby’s 132, the first of 16 centuries in a 437-match career. Future England captain ‘Monkey’ Hornby would lead Lancashire through most of the 1880s and ‘90s, as would his son, also Albert, in the period up to the Great War. For Hampshire, fast bowlers Tate (six for 63) and John May (four for 80), each of whom would only play four first-class matches, shared the wickets. Hampshire’s first innings lasted 80 four-ball overs but yielded only 138 runs, Hickton taking four for 27 and Francis Birley three for 76 on debut with his right-arm slows. Birley only played five first-class matches but was later to achieve greater success on the football field, playing in four FA cup finals (for Oxford University and Wanderers) and twice for England. Hampshire went in again. The follow-on was then compulsory if a team was 80 runs behind, although no doubt Lancashire were in any case happy to have another go at the Hampshire batting. The score at the close was 52 for three with Edward Ede, who had made 37 in the first innings, still there on 23. Although Hampshire again batted for some time next day they failed to set Lancashire a decent target and the match finished just after two o’clock. There is little to be said about the Hampshire batting, except perhaps to commend Eccles, Ede and May for providing some resistance to Hickton. Eccles played in three first-class matches and his 23 was his highest score. Ede opened the batting and top scored in each innings - a praiseworthy performance given that his final career average was 9.46. His twin brother George, who had captained the county during the 1860s and been its secretary, was also a fine horseman. He had ridden the Grand National winner in 1868 but tragically had been killed steeplechasing at Aintree two years later. May made 28 in the first innings and remained undefeated with 14 whilst Hickton created havoc in the second. Alfred Seymour was less successful, scoring 2 and 0 in this, his only match for Hampshire. An amateur, he played just one other first-class match in his career. Interestingly this had been for Lancashire the previous season,