Double Headers

5 Introduction Many books have been written about, or around, individual cricket matches. Generally, what made those matches special were events that took place during the game itself – perhaps an outstanding batting or bowling performance, or an exceptional recovery by a team that looked well beaten, or whatever. This book also started life looking at a single cricket match - Surrey’s game against Oxford University at Reigate in June 1909. But in this instance what made the match of special interest wasn’t something that happened on the field of play. What made the match remarkable was the fact that it took place at all, and that right from the start it was accepted without any challenge into the canon of first-class matches. For at the same time as Surrey were playing at Reigate, another Surrey side was playing a County Championship match against Lancashire 20 miles away at The Oval. Originally, I had thought simply to explore the whys and wherefores of what, at first sight, was surely a unique instance of an English side playing two simultaneous first-class matches. But the unusual nature of this occurrence led me to start looking for other instances, both in England and elsewhere. It turns out that there are over two dozen instances in England alone, and many more overseas. But in only one other instance in England was it a county side that doubled up. This was in 1919, when Warwickshire played a championship match at Derby early in August, on the same dates as another Warwickshire side was playing a non-championship match against Worcestershire at Edgbaston. Unlike the Surrey instance – where there has never been any doubt about the first-class status of both the matches concerned – the status of the game at Edgbaston in 1919 is still disputed in some quarters over 90 years later. After due consideration, the ACS accepted it as first- class several years ago, and I am content to accept the Association’s view on this matter. So the original aim of this book itself quickly doubled up. The first two chapters now concentrate on these two main ‘double-headers’ in England, seeking to bring together, as far as can now be traced, the why, where, who and what of these two instances, with particular reference to the ‘lesser’ (non-Championship) match in each case. However, the completist in me would not be satisfied if I didn’t also identify and comment on other instances of doubling-up – or in some cases ‘tripling-up’ - both in England and around the world. So I have sought to cover this area in Chapters 3 to 10. I have used the term ‘double-header’ to refer to such occurrences as a term of convenience, although I acknowledge that it doesn’t exactly match any of the established definitions of the term, sporting or non-sporting. In this book I have used the term to refer to any instance when two first-class matches were in play, or were scheduled to be in play, on the same day or days that involved either