Worcestershire took partial revenge in August. Eastman (100) top scored in an Essex total of 477 and Farnes took five for 74 as the home side were made to follow-on 250 behind. Worcestershire then treated the New Road crowd to an exhibition of sheer quality. Walters and Gibbons opened with a stand of 100 before Gibbons left for 41 and on the last day Walters and Pataudi made the game safe with a partnership of 182, clearing off the arrears for the loss of only one wicket. Walters, batting stylishly, made 134 and Pataudi, combining superb defence with brilliant stroke play, hit a six and 27 fours in an unbeaten 231 as the game ended with Worcestershire 472 for two. Sadly, however, the Essex-Worcestershire matches of the 1930s were overshadowed by events which put cricket in perspective. In 1934, on Whit Saturday, Essex were 367 for six at Chelmsford, with Pearce and Nichols making hundreds. The Worcestershire players relaxed on Sunday by playing golf. In the evening they took part in some light-hearted wrestling before going to bed around midnight. Among them was Maurice Nichol, one of their most consistent batsmen and a player who looked likely to play for England at one stage of his career. In 1933 the stylish Nichol finished the season with three consecutive hundreds, bringing his total to eight that season, when he made 2,085 runs. It was an encouraging return to form because he had been seriously ill with pneumonia in 1931-32 and during the 1933 Whitsuntide fixture at Leyton he was taken ill at Stratford Station and had to retire from the game. On Whit Sunday evening in 1934 he seemed quite well, smoking a pipe in the hotel and reading before retiring. On the Monday a large holiday crowd learned that Nichol had died in his sleep from what turned out to be an enlarged heart. He was 29. A few minutes before 11.30am, Walters led out the Worcestershire side, followed by the not out batsmen, Eastman and Bray. All were wearing black arm bands and the spectators and the rest of the Essex team stood for two minutes’ silence before play resumed. The circumstances masked some entertaining cricket, Essex making 469 and Worcestershire, 444 for three by Monday’s close, responding with 515. Walters (178) and Gibbons (104) opened with 279, Pataudi made 97 and Martin 72. In August at New Road, Dudley Pope scored 129 for Essex, the match ending in a draw. A month later he was dead at the age of 27, his car being involved in a collision with a lorry at Writtle, near Chelmsford. Another car driven by Peter Smith, with whom Pope was going toWalton-on-the-Naze for the weekend, had passed a little way ahead. Smith heard the crash and when he came back found that Pope had been killed instantly. Five years later, the hoodoo struck again. Worcestershire had made a good start to the 1939 season and a win over Hampshire at New Road sent them off to Chelmsford for the Whitsuntide match in high spirits. Essex made 271 on Saturday but on Sunday evening Charles Bull, the opener, and Syd Buller, the wicket-keeper, were involved in a road accident at Margaretting between Billericay and Chelmsford. Bull was killed and Buller, who would become one of the finest umpires in the game’s history, was seriously injured. Deprived of two players – although the twelfth man Hugo Yarnold was allowed to keep wicket – Worcestershire were beaten by 295 runs. Amidst all this, Essex performed a double over their rivals in 1935 and then the clock was turned back in a change of fixtures. Old rivals were faced in 1936 and 1937 as Essex met Derbyshire and Worcestershire faced Warwickshire. In 1938 Essex entertained the Australians at Southend over Whitsuntide. The tourists, without Bradman, won a low-scoring match inside two days but the match Wallflowers 99