Double Headers

34 Surrey in 1909 or breaking of any of its players, but the Surrey side from that game was definitely on the up: although they eventually slipped to fifth position in the Championship table in 1909, they were back up to second in 1910, and champions in 1914. For the Surrey side at Reigate, the story was rather different. Apart from Shuter, whose 306th and last match this was, only four of the eleven at Reigate made as many as 80 first-class appearances in their entire careers (Hitch 350, Bird 192, Abel 171, Goatly 126; next came Raphael with 77). And despite repeated ructions in 1909 between the Surrey Committee and its senior professionals, which led to the departure of Jack Crawford from the club early in July and the unrelated short-term suspensions of three other players, only four of the team from Reigate - Bird, Goatly, Hitch and Platt - made it into Surrey’s true First XI before the 1909 season was out, and only one of these four was anything like a regular selection for the Championship side. Overall the Surrey side at Reigate must be seen for what it was: a makeshift combination of aspiring hopefuls who mostly didn’t make it, and of former players who, apart from Shuter, never had really made it. The subsequent careers of the Reigate players, in and out of cricket, may be summarised as follows. For William Abel , the Reigate match was the start of a lengthy but patchy first-class career. In all, he made 171 first-class appearances for Surrey over the years to 1926, though especially before the War he was very much in and out of Championship side. He did not play again in 1909, and only in 1910, 1912, 1914, 1919 and 1921-24 did he play as many as ten first- class matches in the season (though he managed 27 in 1922 and 25 in 1923). He never scored more than 851 runs, or took more than 37 wickets, in a single season. He died aged only 46 in 1934. Harry Altham also did not play again for Surrey in 1909, but he reappeared for the county once in 1910, and in half a dozen Championship matches in 1912; he also finally secured an Oxford Blue in 1911, and another in 1912. After the war he made a couple of dozen appearances for Hampshire, the last in 1923. His final first-class appearance came in 1931, making him the last of the Surrey side at Reigate to appear in a first-class match. Long-serving cricket coach at Winchester, he became better known as an administrator than as a player. He held various MCC offices over the years, culminating in the Presidency in 1959/60, and was also President of Hampshire CCC from 1946 until his death in 1965. He was a leading light in schools’ and youth cricket for many years, and was the author of A History of Cricket (first edition 1926) and of the MCC Cricket Coaching Book (1952). The award of the CBE in 1957 added to the DSO and MC that he had won during the First World War. With such a distinguished record, it is not surprising that he has entries in both Who’s Who and the Dictionary of National Biography , a distinction shared by none of his Reigate colleagues. For Morice Bird , the Reigate game could be seen as an early stepping stone towards greater things. Following the unhappy departure of Jack Crawford from Surrey early in July 1909, Bird took over the county captaincy for the