brave stab at it, Foster (149) and the talented amateur Leonard Crawley (85) – who later played for Essex but was never able to spare much time for cricket – adding 155 for the second wicket, but they were all out for 319. Root’s method was not lost on Douglas, who altered his style in 1923. He adopted Root’s field of six men on the leg-side, aiming at the leg stump with in swingers and this brought him much success in the closing years of his career. Meanwhile, Root was now proving a handful for everybody and after Essex won the 1924 Leyton game they felt the full force at Worcester over the August Bank Holiday. He took nine for 40 in an Essex total of 110, finishing with 13-108 in the match, which was won by Worcestershire. It would be five years before they tasted holiday success again, Essex winning four of the next eight matches in Worcestershire’s lean years. But when victory came it had the stuff of fairy tales. The season of 1929 began with Worcestershire entertaining the South Africans for the first match of their tour. None of the Big Six wanted the fixture at such an early stage of the season so Worcestershire seized the opportunity and began a popular tradition that endured, apart from an occasional summer, for many years. Then, on 18, 20 and 21 May the side was in Leyton for the Essex match, where despite 64 from Gibbons, they were soon struggling with eight wickets down for 206. At this point a wealthy, 43-year-old amateur, Albert Lane, joined Root. Lane, an off break bowler and useful middle-order batsman, was one of the best amateur cricketers in the Midlands. Known as Spinney, he appeared in 45 matches for Worcestershire between 1914 and 1932 and 12 for Warwickshire between 1919 and 1925 and also played for his native county Staffordshire. In 1936, when the county established a nursery to develop young talent, it was under Lane’s guidance and he served on an emergency committee during the 1939-45 war. That Saturday at Leyton, he hit out from the start, striking seven fours in making 44 in 33 minutes while Root remained scoreless. Lane went on to 70 in 65 minutes, hitting 11 fours with bold drives and ferocious cuts and pulls. Worcestershire had a lead of 84 on the first innings and on Whit Monday Lane did it again. Going in at 127 for eight, he made an unbeaten 60 out of 70 in 50 minutes, leaving Essex 282 to win. Bray (73) and O’Connor (40) gave the innings substance but the batsmen struggled against Root and the 42-year-old Humphrey Gilbert. A barrister, Gilbert, who bowled medium paced off breaks, had won a blue at Oxford and appeared for the Gentlemen before the war. Bray said that as the thrilling match drew to a close, Lane urged on the bowlers with offers of considerable sums of money for each wicket. “Fred Root bowled like a hero. He kept plugging away with his in swingers and at the other end HA Gilbert, the old Oxford bowler, tall and slim, already getting on in years, bowled himself to a standstill. We needed 282 to win and it was a hot day. Gilbert sent down 41 overs to take four for 73 and as each man got out Gilbert raced to the pavilion, poured a bowl of cold water down his back and raced out on to the field again to continue his bowling. Fred Root sent down 47 overs and took five wickets.” Bray blamed himself for Essex’s defeat by 42 runs. “I was well set and then got out when I should not have done. I saw Spinney Lane just before he died and he recalled with glee his own triumph.” Worcestershire’s Maurice Nichol and his Essex near-namesake Stan Nichols made hundreds at Leyton in 1930 but were overshadowed by Jim Cutmore (180) and Peter Smith’s emerging leg breaks and googlies as the matches now became more evenly balanced. Smith bowled his team to victory at Leyton in 1933 after Nicholls had made another century and Cutmore 98 in a total of 500 but Wallflowers 98