All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

57 on a remarkable first day at Southampton in June 1891 in which over 500 runs were scored, he partnered Charles Kortright (158) in an eighth wicket stand of 244, making 114 in only 90 minutes. Pickett’s success was unexpected, albeit it was in a non-first-class match. Unfortunately, after this innings, double figures generally continued to be a good score for him. Pickett’s all-ten might never have happened. He seemed to be coming towards the end of his county career and in 1894 he was ‘an utter failure’, taking just 11 wickets. But he was still in the team the following season, and started in slightly better form. Even so his performance in the match at the county headquarters, Leyton in East London, against Leicestershire must have caused some surprise. Leicestershire, like Essex, were appearing in the Championship for the first time in 1895 and had started the season well, including a win over eventual Champions Surrey at The Oval. Leyton was never a lovely ground, but it was an interesting one with, eventually, an impressive pavilion. In the winter it was put to other uses, and three months previously had even hosted a Football League match, Woolwich Arsenal’s Manor Ground having been closed following a crowd disturbance. (Some 4,000 spectators saw a 3-3 draw with Leicester Fosse.) The Leicestershire match was the 11th first-class match to be played at Leyton. The ground would eventually host 412 matches, the last in 1977. Essex were now captained by Hugh Owen. In 1894 he had become the first batsman to score a first-class fifty, and later in the season a century, for the county. Twenty-one wickets fell on the first day. Leicestershire batted first in front of a Whitsun Bank Holiday crowd which was to reach a then near-record 8,000. Opening the bowling at the pavilion end Pickett found the fast pitch to his liking and in two hours, bowling unchanged, dismissed the visitors for 111. He was playing in his 19th first-class match, and had never taken more than four wickets in an innings before (although he had taken eight in an innings three times for the county in non-first-class matches). Leicestershire were not a strong batting side; only one batsman, William Tomlin, made a century for them during the season, which makes it even more remarkable that Walter Mead and Kortright were incapable of getting even one wicket at the other end. A spontaneous collection round the ground for the popular Pickett realised £20. Pickett’s analysis is one of the longest-standing county bowling records. Only the Lancashire innings record, set by Hickton in 1870, has greater longevity (although Tyler set the current Somerset record later in 1895). Pickett’s figures have only been bettered three times in the Championship. Mark Ilott came close to beating Pickett’s Essex record when he took nine for 19 against Northamptonshire at Luton exactly 100 years later, and Stan Nichols came close to equalling it in 1936 with nine for 32 against Nottinghamshire, the other wicket falling to a run-out. The only other all- ten for Essex was achieved by Trevor Bailey in 1949, but his wickets cost 90 runs. Leicestershire’s top-scorer, captain Charles de Trafford, was a famed hitter Harry Pickett