All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

92 Alonzo Drake county. Still playing in 1923, he was appointed to the umpires’ list for the following season but died in May before donning the white coat. Set an unlikely 231 to win, Somerset began batting just before lunch on the second day. This time wicketkeeper Harry Chidgey (final career record 99 matches, 717 runs), promoted from his first innings number eleven, opened with Bisgood. Like most of his colleagues, he didn’t last long, although he helped put on 13, the highest opening partnership of the match. Somerset’s puny final total might have been even worse if John Harcombe, going in at 52 for eight, had not hit Drake for 11 in an over on the way to a bright 26 before the Yorkshireman bowled him to finish the innings. Harcombe was a 31-year-old South African who had settled in the west and was playing his first match for nine years. He played a few matches for the county, but with little success. Bowled twice by Drake without scoring, Henry Saunders, another occasional amateur, would not have enjoyed his only Championship match. Drake needed only 53 balls to take all-ten (and in fact took the wickets in a spell of 42 balls). To this day no other bowler has performed the feat so quickly, or without bowling a maiden. Bowling within himself as the end drew close, Booth did his best not to spoil Drake’s show. Drake had been well supported by Arthur Dolphin, Yorkshire’s regular wicketkeeper since 1910, a position he would hold until 1927. Dolphin later became a respected first-class, and Test, umpire, standing bareheaded whatever the weather. One of Dolphin’s victims, William Hyman, was playing in the penultimate match of a 38-match career in which he would make exactly 1,000 runs. His main claim to fame is an innings of 359 not out for Bath Cricket Association against Thornbury in 1902 (apparently made in less than two hours!). Drake’s figures beat Yorkshire’s previous best, nine for 22 by left-arm spinner Bobby Peel in 1895, also against Somerset. A sign of Yorkshire’s strength is that for various reasons three of its greats, all left-armers, were playing but didn’t bowl. Still a formidable opponent, Wilfred Rhodes wasn’t quite the bowler he used to be, or would become again; Hirst was coming to the end of his illustrious career; and Roy Kilner was played mainly as a batsman. As well as taking most wickets in the match Drake also scored most runs. Drake was to play just one more match before his career ended with 480 wickets at 18.03 each. A rather brooding character, there were reservations about his temperament. If things did not go his way in the field he could become despondent, and his fielding could leave something to be desired. It is fairly clear now that these weaknesses were related to the illness that was to end his life prematurely. Turned down for military service his physical decline had been evident for some time, although he was still working as a wool operative in 1918 and playing cricket. A heavy smoker he probably had cancer although it was a heart attack that took him suddenly in 1919. What might Alonzo Drake, and Major Booth, have achieved after the War if they had been spared? Yorkshire quickly developed some new stars and returned to their powerful best but England were initially outclassed by Australia and they might just have helped stem the tide. Who knows?