All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

66 different venues. The Angel Ground, Tonbridge, with three games, of which the two in June were part of the town’s cricket week, was the most frequently used. It was to be used regularly until 1939 before financial problems, brought to a head by the War with money not available to repair damage caused by military occupation, led to an end to county cricket at the ground. Its great claim to fame is as the site of the nursery which provided many players for the great pre-war Kent teams as well as some who shone elsewhere. The 1899 Kent team could best be described as middling, probably stronger in batting than bowling. By early June they were without a win. Sussex on the other hand had started well and would finish fifth in the Championship. Bland had taken eight for 65 at the Angel two years previously and was no doubt looking forward to his return. Captained by Jack Mason, who opened the batting and was run out for one, Kent batted steadily on a good pitch to make 278 in their first innings, Bland taking two wickets. Sussex were a strong batting side. Australian opener and Sussex captain Billy Murdoch was the first batsman to make a Test double-century (although he was now 45 and in poor form), C.B.Fry would score over 2,000 runs in the season, and K.S. Ranjitsinhji would become the first batsman to score 3,000. Fry and Ranji had just returned from playing in the First Test at Trent Bridge where they had been the only England batsmen to make fifties. However, Sussex made only 154. It would probably have suited Kent to bat again, but the option of whether or not to enforce the follow-on was not available under contemporary regulations. Sussex improved in their second innings: Fry made 85, a number of other batsmen scored well, and even Bland made 12, his highest Championship score of the season in 27 innings! Amateur fast bowler Bill Bradley, playing his first full season, took eight for 122 (to add to his four first-innings wickets). Next month he would take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket. At 19 without loss, chasing 227, Kent had made a steady start. At 25 for six it was clear that they weren’t going to win. Led by Alec Hearne, who carried his bat for 55, they recovered partially. A ninth wicket partnership of 47 between Hearne and wicketkeeper Fred Huish (the season’s leading wicketkeeper with 79 victims) took the score to 114 for eight and Kent had some hope of holding on for a draw. After a short rest however Bland came back, had Huish leg-before for what was, in his fourth full season, his highest first-class score, then clean bowled Bradley and Sussex had won with about half an hour to spare. Wisden commented that Bland ‘bowled at a great pace and made the ball kick a good deal’. He took six wickets without help from the field; his other victims were all caught by Harry Butt, still the only Sussex wicketkeeper with over 1,000 victims for the county. There had been six ducks in the Kent innings, including a second in the match for William Rashleigh, a master at Tonbridge School and a previous victim of a W.G.Grace all-ten. The Reverend Rashleigh was a useful batsman who made nine first-class centuries, the last of which came later in the season against Warwickshire at Catford (‘a marvel of cleanness and power’, Wisden ). Another runless batsman, Stevens Brown, Cyril Bland