All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

78 George Dennett farmland to the north of Bristol. By the beginning of the century it was largely surrounded by residential streets and was overlooked on two sides by the grim grey buildings of Muller’s orphanage, but despite this it still had a sense of spaciousness. The match started on August Bank Holiday Monday. Gloucestershire and Essex were reasonably well matched, both eventually finishing around halfway in the Championship, both relying heavily on amateurs: Gloucestershire fielding eight and Essex seven. Dennett hardly failed during 1906, succeeding nearly every time he bowled, and finishing with 175 wickets, a total surpassed only by Arthur Fielder and George Hirst. Gloucestershire’s reliance on him was remarkable. He took 160 Championship wickets; their next highest wicket-taker was Henry Huggins with 39. Essex, who went in first, were a decent batting side. Wisden commented that ‘the team had run-getting power down to almost the last man’. However overnight rain had produced a bowler-friendly pitch on which 24 wickets fell on the first day. Essex made a steady start, reaching 47 before the second wicket fell. Frederick Fane and Johnny Douglas, both future England captains, had opened the batting. They were followed by ‘The Essex Twins’, Percy Perrin and Charlie McGahey. Between them the two were to make over 50,000 first-class runs but in this match they only made 48. Two years previously at Chesterfield Perrin had made 343 not out, still an Essex record. Despite this he never played for England, probably because he was a very slow fielder. Dennett sent down seven overs before getting his first wicket, but after that he needed only another 12 to dismiss Essex before lunch for 84. He was supported by brilliant fielding, Leigh Brownlee in particular making three very good catches in the deep from hard-hit drives. An Oxford Blue and future editor of the Daily Mirror Brownlee’s early career had shown some promise: in his sixth match, not yet aged 20, he made a century for Gloucestershire against a strong Kent attack. However, in a 82-match first- class career he never again reached three figures. Cricket was not impressed by the Essex batting: ‘No one played him [Dennett] with any confidence and the innings calls for no detailed description’. Looking at the scorecard it doesn’t seem an unreasonable comment. The brothers Turner, Walter and Arthur, aggregated only three runs, although Walter would top score in the Essex second innings. Making 13 centuries between them in 128 matches they were both batsmen of considerable talent who, because of Army duties, were unable to play regularly. If they had they might well have gone further. Walter Turner was stumped by Jack Board, a fate that befell many batsmen: in a career that lasted a quarter of a century he stumped 359 batsmen, a total only exceeded by Kent’s Les Ames and Fred Huish. Board’s Essex counterpart, Edward Russell, who had succeeded older brother Tom behind the stumps, evaded Dennett’s clutches and would be rewarded by promotion to nightwatchman in the second innings. The last Essex batsman Walter Mead did not make Dennett wait long for his tenth wicket. He was caught by Harry Goodwin whose undistinguished eleven-year first-class career (in 31 matches he never bowled or reached fifty) would finish the following