By now Northamptonshire were under the captaincy of a 26-year-old Cambridge Blue, Robert Nelson, a stylish left-handed batsman who had spent the winter gaining experience on the Stock Exchange but saw teaching as his future profession. Nelson led the team in their opening game of the 1939 season which brought victory over Cambridge University at Fenner’s – ending a winless run, including non-Championship matches, of 101 games. Reality soon kicked in as the first four Championship games produced a draw followed by three defeats before the Whitsuntide fixture at Northampton. Years later, Dennis Brookes recalled Frank Prentice greeting him by saying that Jack Walsh would bowl Leicestershire to victory inside two days. When Dempster won the toss for Leicestershire and chose to bat, condemning the home side to a probable fourth innings against Walsh, the prophecy seemed to have substance. Within 35 minutes, Leicestershire had lost half their side to the seamers Reg Partridge and Jack Buswell for eight runs. Two young batsmen, Maurice Tompkin and Gerry Lester, staged something of a recovery but they were all out for 134, Buswell and Partridge each taking three wickets and Nelson nipping out the last two. By the close the home side were 210 for two. Percy Davis made 84 before he was stumped off Walsh, sharing a second wicket partnership of 176 with Brookes, who was still there with 120 despite suffering from a sore throat and a boil on the neck which eased as the day went on. On a beautiful Whit Monday, 5,000 people turned up (attendance figures are always relative to a ground’s capacity and 5,000 at the County Ground was equivalent to quadruple that number at one of the Test arenas) and they saw Brookes go on to 187, with 24 fours in just over four hours. At that point it was the highest score of what was to become an illustrious career and with Nelson making 44 and Ken James, the New Zealander wicket-keeper, 42 not out, the declaration came at 510 for eight. Walsh delivered 33 overs and took two for 157. By tea Leicestershire were 53 without loss but Bill Merritt’s leg spin then took over. Merritt had been a colleague of James on New Zealand’s tours of England in 1927 and 1931 and qualified for Northamptonshire that season. After tea he bowled Leicestershire out for 183, taking six for 56, the match ending at 6.40pm, ten minutes into the extra half-hour and with a day to spare. Northamptonshire had won their first Championship match since a victory at Taunton in 1935, by an innings and 193 runs. The crowd swarmed towards the pavilion, where Nelson gave a speech from the balcony: “I want to pay tribute to the team who have struggled through a trying period without losing heart, and who have kept cheerful in all circumstances. I feel we have welded ourselves into a good side and I do not think this should be our last victory.” The 12th man, Vince Broderick, recalled manning the payphone next to the secretary’s office and taking calls from people asking for the score. After the last wicket fell he saw a lady run on and make off with a stump. It was their solitary Championship win of 1939 but it was sufficient to lift them away from the bottom, one place above Leicestershire, who also won only one game. The August Bank Holiday match ended in stalemate. There was no play on the Saturday and on Monday Northamptonshire made 300. More rain restricted play to 70 minutes on Tuesday, Leicestershire getting as far as 83 for three before the weather brought an end to the inter-war period. Just over a year later, 2nd Lieutenant RP Nelson died when a bomb hit the Royal Marines barracks at Deal. Statistically the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire series from 1919 to 1939 was one-sided, with Northamptonshire winning only four – in 1920, 1927, 1933 and 1939 - of the 42 matches and being defeated on 17 occasions. But in several years Woolly Backs and Cobblers 105