All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

70 in the first of his two matches for the county, put on 30 for the fourth wicket before another collapse left the score at 46 for seven. After that, 106 all out was something of a recovery. Long-serving fast bowler Robert Burrows, a useful hard-hitting batsman who would eventually make two first-class centuries, chipped in with a few runs, and a last wicket partnership between Albert Bird and wicketkeeper Tom Straw which added 32 was finally ended when Bird came down the pitch to Briggs and was bowled. 33-year-old off-spinner Bird, a stalwart of Worcestershire and Warwickshire pre-first-class cricket, was playing his fourteenth first-class match and made his highest score so far – a fine performance against a strong attack. A Nottinghamshire miner, Straw’s greatest claim to fame is that he managed to get himself out ‘obstructing the field’ not once but twice in a 61-match first-class career. Briggs bowled throughout the innings whilst Willis Cuttell and Arthur Mold, both England bowlers, who between them took over 200 wickets for the county in 1900, went wicketless. The Lancashire fielding had not been faultless, but Briggs had received considerable help from his captain, and then England captain, the imperious, and often impecunious, Archie MacLaren, who took three catches off his bowling. Over a 20-year playing career Walter Wright had appeared in two matches involving all-tens; after three matches as an umpire he had now stood in another. Lancashire made a shaky start to their innings, but going in at 53 for four Briggs, with 33 in less than half an hour, got them going again and at 191 for seven at the close they were reasonably well placed. The visitors put on a much better display on the second day. Soon dismissing Lancashire they scored 253 (Briggs three for 63), and then reduced Lancashire to 82 for five still needing another 73 to win. Fortunately for Lancashire, Johnny (J.T.) Tyldesley was still there and, together with Alexander Eccles (with MacLaren and Charlie Hartley, one of only three amateurs in the side), he safely saw his side home, the remaining 48 runs being hit off without further loss in half an hour on Saturday morning. Lancashire easily won the return at Worcester just over a month later, Tyldesley and Eccles both making centuries. This time Briggs only took one wicket, but it was a good one: Reginald (R.E.) Foster, who just over three years later would make the then-record Test score, 287, against Australia at Sydney. Dying in 1914, like Briggs he would not live to see his fortieth birthday. Briggs’ first-class career came to an end at Lord’s in September playing for North against South. He took six wickets in South’s first innings. Three of his victims (W.G.Grace, Trott and Bland) had also taken an all-ten, as had umpire Pickett. After that his health deteriorated and he was readmitted to the asylum in the following March. This time there was no recovery and he died in January 1902. More than 4,000 people were present at Stretford Cemetery to see him laid to rest: evidence of the esteem in which the ever popular Johnny was held. Johnny Briggs