The opening fixture at Lord’s was an anti-climax. Whit Monday and the final day were washed out, although more than 4,000 people attended on the second day. Soon it became an established holiday arrangement, with the Lord’s fixture at Whit and the Taunton return in August. Beneficiaries prayed for fine weather. Sherwin was happy with a Whit Monday attendance of 11,914 in 1894 but Mycroft did even better a year later when 18,000 turned up on the Monday – they were rewarded by hundreds from the Palairet brothers, Lionel and Richard, who shared a second wicket partnership of 177 – and 7,961 on the second day. Others were less fortunate. George Hearne’s match in 1898 saw the last two days rained off and then in 1899 MCC arranged with Middlesex for the match to be given to Flowers as an acknowledgement of his long and excellent service to the club. Not a ball was bowled on Whit Monday and on a drying pitch the next day, the game was over in three hours: Somerset 35 and 44, JT Hearne taking eight wickets and Albert Trott eleven. Middlesex’s total of 86 was enough for victory by an innings. Five years later Nottinghamshire took pity on Flowers and granted him the proceeds of a match at Trent Bridge. John Thomas Hearne was one of the great bowlers during the Golden Age. He stood 5ft 11 in and brought the ball down with a perfectly straight arm, his right-hand medium pace delivered accurately and with an appreciable off-break. Varying his pace cleverly, he used at times to send down a ball which swung with his arm and he was unplayable on a crumbling pitch. His benefit in 1900 attracted 16,000 on Monday and 10,000 on Tuesday. Middlesex were 69 behind on the first innings but Andrew Stoddart, in his final innings for the county, made the highest score of his first-class career: 221 with 36 fours in nearly five hours. Stoddart was accustomed to large scores and big occasions: 485 for Hampstead against Stoics two days after the 1886 August Bank Holiday, four visits to Australia, twice as captain, notably 1894/95 when he returned with the Ashes, and earlier holiday games, 150 and 121 at Lord’s in 1895 and 1896 and 109 at Taunton in 1897. His massive effort at Lord’s (he was stumped, as much through exhaustion as anything else) set up a Middlesex victory, Trott doing the rest with five for 102. It was a fitting swansong for Stoddart. He had declined the captaincy and virtually dropped out of first-class cricket, only turning out against Somerset as a favour to Hearne. The ever-popular Australian Albert Trott joked that he had “bowled himself into the bloody workhouse” as a result of his exploits during his benefit match in 1907. ‘Albatrott’ made a sensational entrance to Test cricket against the English tourists in 1894/95 but he was inexplicably omitted from the 1896 Australian side captained by his brother Harry. Instead, he took the advice of the famous umpire Jim Phillips to settle in England and secure a residential qualification with Middlesex. He became a highly-successful all-rounder, hard-hitting batsman, brilliant field and a bowler with a rare skill for varying his pace, who formed a devastating combination with Hearne. As a batsman, Trott’s most memorable feat was to hit a ball from Monty Noble over the pavilion at Lord’s when playing for MCC against the 1899 Australians. The following year he took all ten Somerset wickets for 42 in an innings at Taunton on an August Bank Holiday Monday pitch drying under a hot sun. Play did not start until 3.15pm and nine of Trott’s victims were unassisted. He bowled unchanged with JT Hearne, Trott delivering 14.2 overs, Hearne 15 without taking a wicket. Somerset, 50 behind on the first innings, set Middlesex 278 for victory and after PelhamWarner made 84, Trott, 34 not out, steered them home with one wicket and seven minutes remaining. Lord’s and the West Country 44