Double Headers

Double Headers KEITH WALMSLEY AcS PubLIcATIonS When Surrey took the field in their first-class match against oxford university at Reigate in June 1909, their team was unrecognisable from the Surrey side that was riding high in the championship at the time. This was not altogether surprising, as 20 miles away at The oval the first-choice eleven was busy playing a championship match against Lancashire. When Warwickshire played their regular bank Holiday fixture against Worcestershire at Edgbaston early in August 1919, they too put a very unfamiliar team into the field - because their first eleven was playing a championship match at Derby on the same days. In Double Headers Keith Walmsley throws light into one of cricket’s more intriguing, if inconsequential, obscure corners by investigating the background of these, the only two occasions in England when one county has been engaged in two first-class matches at the same time. Were they the result of mistakes in drawing up the fixture lists, or was there a more rational explanation? Double Headers also explores issues of team selection for these games, and looks into why there has been no recurrence since 1919 of a county playing two first-class matches at once. As well as examining these two instances in detail, it also identifies and explains the background to numerous other occasions, from all around the cricketing world, when teams ‘double-headed’, and even ‘triple-headed’. These include over two dozen other instances in britain, and even some instances in Test cricket.