Double Headers

61 players’. But for several of the others, the Edgbaston game marked the end of their first-class careers, or the end of their careers with the county they represented in that game. Here are some fuller details of (mostly) the later lives of the 23 Edgbaston players, on or off the field. Harold Benjamin did not play again for Warwickshire. He made a single appearance for Northamptonshire nine seasons later, recording the best bowling figures of his career (3-38 in Gloucestershire’s second innings, at Peterborough) before leaving the first-class game altogether. Reginald Burton , Warwickshire second-top-scorer at Edgbaston, played in no other first-class matches, but appeared in four games for Warwickshire II in their first two seasons in the Minor Counties Championship (1931-32). He had joined Rugby CC in 1914 and remained devoted to the club for the next 66 years. He captained Rugby from 1928 until 1947, and - known to all simply as ‘The Head Man’ - he thereafter continued to be involved with the club in every possible way, including holding the post of club President from 1950 until his death at the age of 80 in October 1980. He was the last survivor of the Edgbaston game. For William Harris the game against Worcestershire was his 12th and last first-class match, recorded in the unusual pattern of one in each of 1904 and 1905, and five in each of 1907 and 1919. He is said to have played football as an amateur for West Bromwich Albion, though no-one bearing his name ever played in the club’s First XI. He died in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in October 1967. Alec Hastilow CBE played no further first-class cricket after the game against Worcestershire, but captained Warwickshire II from 1935-47. He was a longstanding Committee member of the club, serving as Hon Secretary, Chairman and finally President. He also became Chairman of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, and was the father-in-law of Warwickshire in 1919 Reginald Burton was a stalwart of Rugby CC for the whole of his life. This picture of him and his wife was taken during a match played in 1974 to mark his 60 years with the club. (Courtesy of Rugby CC)