All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

63 Bill Howell one-nil, the second of four successive series victories. They had begun their tour with a number of matches in London, having the best of a draw against a strong South of England team at the Crystal Palace but then surprisingly losing to Essex at Leyton. Howell had not played in either match because of leg strain. There was a crowd of about 8,000 at The Oval for their third match, some of whom sat in the impressive new £38,000 pavilion. Bobby Abel and Bill Brockwell opened the batting for Surrey on a soft pitch made relatively easy by rain which had prevented play until 1 pm and would threaten all day. Forty-one-year-old Abel was then one of the most prolific batsmen in the game and, apart from Ranjitsinhji, would be the season’s highest run-scorer, whilst Brockwell had started the season well having already made two Championship centuries. The Australians’ attack was opened by Monty Noble and Hugh Trumble. In 74 Tests these two Australian greats would take 262 wickets between them, but neither could make a breakthrough and with the score 39 the Australian captain Joe Darling turned to Howell. With his first ball in England he bowled Abel. After that nobody mastered him as, bowling with great accuracy and varying his pace skilfully, he hit the stumps eight times. The early batsmen all reached double figures and at 99 for four things weren’t going too badly. However, with the exception of Surrey captain Kingsmill Key, who at least remained undefeated, the batsmen who followed provided little resistance. England’s Tom Hayward could make little of Howell and would be dismissed by him cheaply in both innings. In the five Tests that followed however, Hayward would easily be England’s leading batsman while Howell would take eight expensive wickets. Further down the order slow left-arm bowler Harry Clode who had been playing in the Second Eleven with some success was rewarded for his promotion to the first-class game with a debut duck. He was followed to the wicket by Tom Richardson and Charles Marshall. Four years previously they had been the last two wickets to fall when Somerset’s Ted Tyler had taken his all-ten against Surrey. The same fate now befell them again. Howell’s figures are still the best ever for any Australian team, and have only been bettered four times in cricket history: a remarkable performance for somebody who had never before taken more than six wickets in an innings. Surrey had now been on the receiving end of three all-tens in the last 11 seasons and Bobby Abel had played in all three games (and also played when Richardson took one). Two members of the Surrey side, Frederick Holland and Harry Clode, would still be alive 57 years and a day later when a Yorkshireman famously turned the tables on the Australians by taking all ten of their wickets on the same ground. The Australians passed the Surrey total just before the close of the first day for the loss of four wickets. Surrey had opened their bowling with the pace of Richardson and the spin of Clode, the debutant soon compensating for his duck by bowling the Australian captain Joe Darling. Although Richardson, who had taken an all-ten five years before, took three good wickets his powers were on the wane, Wisden pointing out that he had put on quite a lot of weight. Next day heavy rain after lunch sent