Double Headers

22 Other possibles might perhaps have been former Surrey captains Lord Dalmeny (last match for Surrey 1908) and Digby Jephson (last match 1904), as well as two recently-retired pros, Albert Baker (now playing in Ireland) and Frederick Holland; and not forgetting Harry Bush, who played for Surrey from 1901 to 1912, but was frequently absent on military duty. Neither should we forget up-and-coming youngsters who were to break through to the First XI over the next couple of years – players like 18-year- old Ion Campbell from Repton School, or Tokyo-born Julian Piggott, now in his second year at Cambridge where he had performed well enough in the Freshman’s and Seniors matches without getting a first-team place (though it was surely inconceivable that a Cambridge undergraduate would have been selected for a county fixture against Oxford). And a few months earlier there had been a missed opportunity regarding a youngster named Andrew Sandham 20 ... Without knowing who was approached, and why, it is difficult to comment on the soundness of the selection of the non-groundstaff batsmen for the Reigate game. Perhaps, strange though their selections may now seem, Sarel, Raphael – yes, and Shuter too – were genuinely the best available. As for the ‘local selection’, there was an obvious candidate in Harry Budgen , a slow left-arm bowler who had been a member of Reigate Priory CC since 1902. Budgen had played once for Surrey in 1904 (he was selected after taking six wickets for Reigate Priory against the Gentlemen of Surrey, and then 8-115 in an innings against John Shuter’s XI, both in July 1904), and once again in 1905, though he had gone wicketless on both occasions. 21 In 1904 he had taken 140 wickets for the Priory club at 12.87 – over three times as many as any of the club’s other bowlers - and in a reduced 1905 season he took 55 wickets at 10.80. Figures for later seasons are unfortunately not available, but his fame had gone before him, locally at least: speaking to its local audience, the Surrey Mirror wrote, when puffing the Surrey team for the forthcoming Oxford game, that “the record of H Budgen in local cricket is too well known to need any reference in these columns” ( Surrey Mirror 18 June 1909). 20 From the minutes of the Match Committee, 10 September 1908: “The question of engaging Sandham of Streatham and Blythe of Kent on the Ground Staff in 1909 was considered. The Committee do not consider their engagement desirable.” Two ‘What might have beens’ for the price of one! Sandham had turned 18 in July 1908; it was 1911 before he finally broke through on to the Surrey staff. 21 According to the Surrey Mirror , Budgen had come close to joining those taking a wicket with their first ball in first-class cricket, but after that his debut match seems to have gone downhill: “The young Reigate Priory player, H.Budgen … was given a trial in the Surrey team [against Nottinghamshire], and received the honour of going in fifth wicket down. Over-eagerness, perhaps, led to his early dismissal [he was run out for 2], and later in the day, after beating and nearly bowling W.Gunn with his first ball, was rather ineffective” [ Surrey Mirror , 2 August 1904]. Surrey in 1909 Reigate’s own: Harry Budgen