Chapter Twenty-Five Middlesex v Sussex Poor weather turned the first post-war Whitsuntide at Lord’s into something of an anti-climax. Middlesex had started well and were third in the table on the eve of the holiday. Sussex were locked at the bottom, a fate they shared with three other counties. Things were not going well for Denis Compton. He missed the Victory Tests because he was serving in India but had made a lot of runs on the sub-continent. After a good start to the 1946 season his form slumped to such an extent that one Test and eight Championship innings produced 27 runs, with average of 3.37. What is sometimes forgotten is that in the midst of this run and in the match immediately preceding Whit he made 202 at Fenner’s. Guy Willatt, later to captain Derbyshire, got a hundred for Cambridge University and both Wisden and Willatt are in agreement that the contrast could scarcely have been greater. “I had to be patient and take the runs when and where I could but Denis made it all look ridiculously easy,” said Willatt. In spite of Compton’s bad trot he was still averaging 65, with more than 900 runs in credit, by the time the Whitsun game began. It was Jim Sims’s benefit match but the weather was miserable and cold. On Whit Monday, when Field Marshal Alexander attended, Robertson and Edrich added 192 for the second wicket but Compton was bowled by James Langridge before he had scored. George Cox batted well for Sussex against the spin of Sims and Ian Peebles but thundery showers had the last laugh. The weather relented for the Hove return, with Middlesex still chasing the leaders Yorkshire and Lancashire and Sussex trying to avoid the wooden spoon. The Sussex batting was strong; the two Langridges, the Oakes brothers, Harry Parks, Bartlett and Cox but Billy Griffith, the captain was handicapped by a poor bowling attack with only Jim Langridge returning anything like reasonable figures. Compton, now back to his best, took full advantage with 121 and Middlesex were left with a comfortable task. Sussex occupied last place in 1946, Griffith handing the captaincy over to Bartlett and Middlesex finished runners-up for the fifth consecutive season. They went one better in the scorching summer of 1947. Britain was then an austere, grey world of queues, restrictions and rationing. The winter had been the worst in living memory. Heavy snow which fell in January left huge drifts, causing road and rail chaos. Fuel was scarce, with electricity off for long spells and gas at quarter pressure. Heavy rain then accompanied the thaw which led to floods in some areas. The cricket-loving public yearned for a vintage season and Middlesex – and Compton and Edrich aided and abetted by Robertson and Syd Brown - provided it. Runs came at such a rate that Robins had plenty of time to deploy his attack, the pace of Gray and Edrich, slow left-arm of Jack Young, leg spin from Sims and Robins himself and unorthodox left-handed googlies and chinamen from Denis Compton. 133