Lohmann proved a handful, Nottinghamshire got home by four wickets. They followed their win at The Oval with victories over Kent and Middlesex but their last four matches brought two defeats and two draws, Surrey taking the title. Surrey now began to dominate the holiday fixtures, mainly due to some high quality fast bowling from Tom Richardson, although half the Nottinghamshire side thought he threw his quicker ball in 1893. His rights to flying bails were not exclusive: in the 1896 match at Trent Bridge two Notts bowlers, Attewell and Guttridge, despatched them 20 and 30 yards respectively. In 1898 Nottinghamshire, after following on 172 behind at The Oval, made 548 for nine at their second attempt, William Gunn (236 not out) having the better of his duels against Richardson (one for 120) and Lockwood (one for 110). Digby Jephson bowled 23 overs of lobs but Gunn, all 6 feet 4 inches of him, was undisturbed. This was the first match of a week of holiday cricket at Surrey’s headquarters and there could scarcely have been a greater contrast in the second match, Yorkshire being routed by Richardson and Lockwood in two days after Surrey had made 536. A year later there was an even more remarkable game. The Nottinghamshire match was drawn and then came a truly titanic encounter between Surrey and Yorkshire. Both teams were in the running for the Championship and neither was prepared to give an inch. Yorkshire made 704, Wainwright (228) and Hirst (186) sharing a fifth wicket partnership of 340. Surrey responded with 551 for seven, Abel (193) and Hayward (273) piling up 448 for the fourth wicket. A crowd of 14,000 watched the final day’s play on Saturday, Abel and Hayward being at the crease for all but 40 minutes. In three full days’ play only one innings was completed, 1,255 runs being scored for the loss of 17 wickets. Tom Richardson emerged from the fray with figures of 53.1-15-152-5. The greatest years of crucial Championship fixtures in the Nottinghamshire-Surrey series were now in the past, although Surrey took the title in 1899 and 1914 and Nottinghamshire in 1907. Nevertheless the people still came on the Mondays: 24,970 in 1895, 28,220 in 1896, 18,702 in 1899 and 20,332 in 1901 at The Oval; 9,000 in 1904 and on a chilly day in 1907 9,000 at Trent Bridge. In Nottinghamshire’s Championship year - 15 victories in 19 undefeated matches - Albert Hallam and Tom Wass carried all before them in a wet summer. Hallam, a medium pace right-arm bowler and Wass, posing problems with his medium fast leg breaks, won match after match. They were too much for Surrey at Trent Bridge but respectability was restored at The Oval, where the home team made 283 and 313 for two declared. In this match, Surrey’s popular captain Lord Dalmeny, son of a former Prime Minister and the future Sixth Earl of Rosebery, made 87 in Surrey’s first innings, Wass taking five for 122. This contest between batsman and bowler typified the feudal amateur-professional relationship of those days. Their paths were never likely to cross socially yet in the middle there was a degree of respect. The one was a rough hewn coal miner from Sutton-in-Ashfield, albeit with a little polish applied by his skippers, first Dixon and then Arthur Jones. The other, born in Mayfair and an old Etonian, was to become a celebrated figure in the world of horse racing, a soldier, politician and administrator of distinction. He was 92 when he died at Mentmore House in Buckinghamshire, leaving £9,650,986 net. It was as a result of Dalmeny’s approach to the Prince of Wales in 1905 that the county club adopted the Prince of Wales’s feathers on their crest. He was always proud of the fact that he awarded Jack Hobbs his county cap after only two matches; no doubt Clash of Titans 31