Double Headers

70 •In the 1901 game at Oxford, the euphonious pairing of Frank Hollins (84 at no. 9) and Bernard Collins (83* at no. 11) added 149 for the tenth wicket in the University’s second innings. This was wicket-keeper Collins’ only first-class match; he had been dismissed for a duck in the first innings, again batting at number 11. After the First World War, MCC’s first-class fixture list at home reduced significantly. The club played only six first-class fixtures in each of 1919 and 1920, only five in each of 1921 and 1922, and just four in 1923 and 1924 – their lowest figure until 1970. The ‘irreducible minimum’ of fixtures that had now been reached was made up of one early-season game against the tourists, a match at Lord’s against each of the Universities in their run-up to the University Match, and the end-of-season fixture against Yorkshire at Scarborough. From 1925 the fixture list began to grow again by the addition of a few games against county XIs, and it sometimes included an away match against either Scotland or Ireland. But a team with the unqualified name ‘MCC’ never again played more than nine first-class matches in a single English season; in the years after the Second World War the figure was generally between six and eight. In these circumstances, the need to double-up first-class fixtures did not arise again ... ... until the 1950s. In 1948, and in alternate years thereafter, MCC played a first-class match against Ireland at Dublin towards the end of the season, and in the intervening years from 1957 onwards they added an away fixture against Scotland to their programme. 58 The MCC sides for these games were generally weaker than those for the games against the counties, though perhaps on a par with those selected to play the Universities. MCC was of course able to select its elevens having regard to the expected strength of the opposition, and – as a crowd-puller – their XIs would generally include the occasional ‘big name’ player, though perhaps one whose very best years were behind him. MCC’s first-class fixtures with Ireland and Scotland ended after 1968, but in the meantime the demands created by these fixtures led, in the 1950s and early 1960s, to four further and final instances of MCC first-class double-headers in Britain, as follows – in each case including one match outside England: Season Play dates Fixture Venue Result 1950 2-4-5 Sept Ireland v MCC Dublin D 2-4-5 Sept MCC v Yorkshire Scarborough L 1957 3-4-5 July MCC v Cambridge U Lord’s D 3-4-5 July Scotland v MCC Aberdeen D 1959 24-25-26 June MCC v Oxford U Lord’s L 24-25-26 June Scotland v MCC Edinburgh W 1961 14-15-16 June MCC v Oxford U Lord’s D 14-15-16 June Scotland v MCC Greenock L 58 There was no fixture in Ireland in 1962, but this had already been compensated for by the fact that in 1961, for the only time in its history, MCC played away first-class matches in both Ireland and Scotland. Other instances in the British Isles