Double Headers

45 Warwickshire, having previously played elsewhere. The season did not start well for the weakened Warwickshire side. By early August they had not won any of their ten matches, and they were stuck on the bottom of the Championship table as the only county without a victory. They had yet to find anything approaching a settled side. 23 different players had appeared in the ten matches, and although nine had appeared in seven or more matches (Willie Quaife was the only one to have appeared in all ten), as many as six had made just a single appearance, and four others had played in only two or three matches. Five of the 23 were first-class debutants, another two had made their debuts earlier in 1919 for one or other of the Universities, and three more had made their Warwickshire debuts after playing elsewhere before the War. So when at the end of July Warwickshire had to pick two sides to play over the August Bank Holiday, the selection of neither side was straightforward. As with Surrey in 1909, the selectors understandably gave priority to the side to play in the Championship fixture at Derby. But even for this game they made four changes from the side in the previous Championship match at Old Trafford, giving a county debut to Freddie Calthorpe (who was to become the county captain in 1920) and recalling Cowan, Mick Waddy and Gerry Rotherham (all of whom had appeared in the county side earlier in the season), at the expense of A.F. ‘Spinney’ Lane, John Stevenson (whose appearance at Old Trafford turned out to be his one and only first- class match), William Harris, and Luckin. The selected team, with their number of appearances for Warwickshire in their ten matches to date, was as follows: L.T.A.Bates (9), E.J.Smith (9), W.G.Quaife (10), R.L.Holdsworth (3), E.F.Waddy (3), F.S.G.Calthorpe (0), G.A.Rotherham (2), Commander C.F.R.Cowan (1), G.W.Stephens (captain; 7), W.C.Hands (5), and H.Howell (9). In theory enough other players had already played for Warwickshire in 1919 to make up another eleven to play the Bank Holiday match with Worcestershire. But not all were available, or were considered for selection. Crowther Charlesworth and Jack Parsons, both of whom would surely have played at Derby if fit or available, were missing through illness and military duties respectively; Frank Field was only intermittently available during 1919, and John Stevenson was also not available; while Harry Austin, Charlie Baker and Eric Crockford had shown insufficient form in their earlier matches to justify an automatic place in the side for the Worcestershire game - particularly given Warwickshire’s wish, already noted, to give opportunities to promising players from all over the county in the hope of turning up new players of ability. That left six players who had played in Championship matches already in 1919 who were not needed at Derby, but who were otherwise available and were regarded as being in some sort of form. These were Verner Luckin 44 , who had played in the county’s first seven matches of the season, and had reappeared for the Old Trafford match; William Harris , who had made 44 Those selected to play in the match at Edgbaston are named in bold type in the following sections. Warwickshire in 1919