All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

72 contributed fully with both bat and ball. Captained by Gregor MacGregor, or in his absence by their best batsman Pelham Warner, Middlesex, who would finish halfway in the Championship, had a curious season. By the end of June they had won just once, but then picked up so much that in the second half of the season they were a match for anybody. Somerset finished below halfway. Two of the team, Sammy Woods and Ted Tyler, of course already knew what it was like to take all ten wickets. Woods wasn’t bowling much now however, and the side was also weakened by the non- availability, because of the Boer War, of Coote Hedley, Frank Phillips and Henry Stanley (who lost his life in September), all of whom had performed usefully in 1899. Both teams still had a strong amateur representation, although the bowling was still mainly in the hands of the paid. Woods won the toss and chose to bat. After morning rain play could not start until 3.15, by which time the pitch, drying under a hot sun and a strong wind, gave Trott considerable help. Few home batsmen withstood him for long as, varying his pace, he turned the ball sharply. With six batsmen bowled, two leg-before and one caught and bowled it was a virtually single-handed performance. The two leg-befores were captain Woods and future captain John Daniell. The two (possibly brave) umpires were John Moss and William West. Between them they played just six first-class matches, but by the time their umpiring careers finished in the 1930s they had each stood in over 650 matches, a total still only achieved by three others: David Constant, Tom Spencer and, top of the list, Frank Chester (774). Initially while Lionel Palairet and Charles Bernard were at the wicket batting had not looked too difficult, but once the former left the only batsmen who put up a fight were Bernard who resisted for over an hour before being seventh out, and Vernon Hill who had gone in at 43 for six and hit a bright and breezy 35. He was last out having been missed by Richard Nicholls off a difficult skyer in Trott’s previous over. Hill played 121 first-class matches for Somerset between 1891 and 1912. He only made two first-class centuries: one for Somerset (116 against Kent in 1898) and one for Oxford in the 1892 University Match. Born in Wales, he played an important role in cricket history by helping to arrange matches which provided funds for the campaign which eventually led to Glamorgan achieving first-class status. Edinburgh-born batsman Charles Dunlop (only five fifties in a 43-match career) just got off the mark. He would not do this well in the second innings. Trott had bowled unchanged with J.T. Hearne. In helpful conditions the great J.T., one of only four bowlers to take over 3,000 first-class wickets, could not get even one while Trott enjoyed himself at the other end. Wisden said that he was not ‘the Hearne of four years ago’ (when he took 257 wickets). However he wasn’t finished yet and ten years later, aged 43, topped the national averages with 119 wickets at under 13 apiece. Trott’s figures were a county record and have only been bettered once (by Gubby Allen in 1929). There was still time for Middlesex to score 35 for two before the close. In good weather Somerset fought back on the second day, finishing off Middlesex for only 139, Beaumont Cranfield taking seven Albert Trott