quickly filled in that age of gold. Ranjitsinhji made 154 at Bristol in 1899 and the following season there was a match packed with drama at Hove. Sussex made 366 for seven before a large Whitsun attendance, Ranjitsinhji falling three short of his hundred. On the second day the innings closed for 391 and soon after the start of Gloucestershire’s reply, Charles Fry was no balled by umpire Bill West for throwing. Wisden said that Fry – called on three previous occasions in 1898, once by West – bowled with a perfectly fair action when going on a second time. Gilbert Jessop then took centre stage with 179 made out of 257 in 105 minutes, including 34 fours. Gloucestershire amassed 496 and with Sussex 26 without loss at the close, 547 runs were scored during the day. Ranjitsinhji made a hundred on the Wednesday and he and Fry made centuries in a rain-affected return at Bristol. By now the counties’ fortunes were poles apart. Sussex were runners-up in 1902 and 1903 and Gloucestershire lingered in the bottom three. Whitsuntide at Hove in 1903 found a large crowd gathered in glorious weather, appetites whetted for more home success. They soon had plenty of cause for celebration as Gloucestershire, 94 for three when their captain Jessop came in, went into lunch at 129 for five. The mighty Jessop and the wicket-keeper Jack Board then turned the day on its head. Jessop made 286 in 175 minutes, hitting 42 fours before falling to a one-handed catch in the deep by Ranjitsinhji. His runs were made out of 355 and he reached 50 in half an hour, 100 in 75 minutes and 200 in two hours. He made only one mistake, surviving a sharp chance to mid-on when he had made 98. Gilbert Laird Jessop, at 29, was at the height of his powers, his sensational 104 against Australia in The Oval Test of 1902 still fresh in the mind. Although only 5ft 7in, he bent low as he shaped to play, a method which earned him the sobriquet of The Croucher. Extraordinarily quick on his feet, he possessed a wide range of shots played with immense power and timing. He was also a fine fast bowler and a superb fieldsman at cover and later at deep mid-off. Board, 71, helped his captain add 320 for the sixth wicket in 150 minutes, the Sussex attack including Albert Relf, Fred Tate, Cyril Bland, George Cox and Joe Vine. By the close Gloucestershire were 480 for nine and if the partisan home support left the ground in disappointment no better Whit Monday entertainment can be envisaged. In an assessment of Jessop, Charles Fry, who fielded throughout the hurricane, said that Jessop’s manner of batsmanship was altogether unique. “He crouched low over his bat as he grounded it, he dipped his head almost to his sloped bat handle as he sighted the flight, then he catapulted himself into a sort of rapid chasse towards the pitch of the ball and flung his bat at it with a long elastic sweep, arms at full length but with abruptly locked-back wrists which he unloosed into the stroke at the finish.” He went on to say that he hit the ball “all round the clock from over cover-point’s head to the ropes behind square-leg” as well as square cutting any short-pitched ball. Throughout his career, 1894-1914, Jessop’s runs were scored at an average of 80 per hour. Until 1910 six runs were awarded for a hit only if the ball went out of the ground and not just over the boundary line so many of his fours would have counted six if the regulations had been in force earlier. At Hove Sussex had to follow on but an unbeaten 162 from Ranjitsinhji saved the match. The Gloucestershire-Sussex holiday fixtures had not long to run. From 1906 to 1908 Gloucestershire met Essex, a fixture which, win or lose, brought rich pickings for George Dennett, including all ten Essex wickets in an innings at Bristol in 1906. The last six seasons before the 1914-18 war saw the WG in Holiday Mood 41