All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

67 would have no further chance to redeem himself. He was playing for Kent for the last time, a three-match career having yielded three runs and five wickets. Medium pacer Fred Tate who took over 100 wickets in the season had failed to strike at the other end, and Murdoch even gave Ranji a few overs. The great batsman had his moments with the ball, eventually taking 133 first-class wickets. A week later his slow bowling would take five Nottinghamshire first-innings wickets, and dismiss Arthur Shrewsbury, still a fine batsman, twice. Bland’s figures remain a Sussex record, although Ian Thomson would come close to beating them at Worthing in 1964. They are the best innings figures in 106 matches at the Angel. As the ground is now a shopping centre they are unlikely to be beaten. The admirable magazine Cricket gave a long report of the match. Whilst giving considerable prominence to the batting performances (or lack of them) in the match it devoted minimum space to two outstanding bowling performances: ‘Mr Bradley bowled very finely’ … and ‘Kent collapsed…before the bowling of Bland’. Hearne’s single-handed battle with Bland deserves a mention. He was the first batsman to carry his bat during an all-ten, a feat only achieved twice since. Hearne was a genuine allrounder: only he and Frank Woolley have scored over 10,000 runs and taken over 1,000 wickets for Kent. His county had their revenge later in the season, beating Sussex in the return at Hove. Bland took one wicket in the match. Ironically it was Alec Hearne, the only batsman to elude him at Tonbridge. Bland’s form began to decline in 1901, Wisden cryptically referring to his ‘decadence’, and by 1904 his county career was over. Why, after taking 431 wickets in four seasons, did his career fall away so quickly? Perhaps as an out-and-out fast bowler coming into the first-class game at a relatively late age he was never going to last long. Also there was some suspicion about his action, although he was never called. He continued to play club and league cricket. CricketArchive records him as late as 1913 playing for Stourbridge as their professional in the Birmingham and District Cricket League. Returning to his native Lincolnshire, he served in the Army Veterinary Corps in the First World War, and was for a time cricket coach at RAF Cranwell. His life ended tragically. At the beginning of July 1950 he drowned himself in the Maud Foster Canal, not far from his Old Leake birthplace. A heavy drinker, he had made a previous suicide attempt. Cyril Bland