Knight. There was a similar margin of victory in 1900 at Leyton, when it was McGahey’s turn to make hay with 184. After Essex moved on to matches against Kent, Leicestershire filled vacant dates with fixtures against the touring Philadelphians, the Australians (in 1902 at Aylestone Road the pace of Ernest Jones reduced them to 51 all out before lunch on Whit Monday), the South Africans and some games against London County. Leicestershire had moved from Grace Road to a new home at Aylestone Road in 1901. Grace Road, which was served only by horse trams, was too far from the centre of Leicester and the three mainline railway stations, Midland, Central and Belgrave Road. Aylestone Road was only half-a-mile from the centre and there was a healthy increase in attendances. In 1905 Leicestershire found a soul mate in the newly promoted Northamptonshire and the gaps in their fixture list were now more or less filled permanently. These may have lacked the glamour of the Roses encounters or Nottinghamshire-Surrey but they provided some fine cricket. Aylestone Road on August Bank Holiday 1905 was an early example with three innings completed on the Monday, Leicestershire winning on the second day. The South African bowlers Schwarz and Vogler proved too much for the home batsmen in a Whitsun break from the Northamptonshire fixture during the googly summer of 1907 but there was a particularly good match at Aylestone Road in August. The home side needed 163 to win in the final innings and half the side were out for 112, George Thompson’s sharp fast-medium bowling proving a handful. Two were needed when the ninth wicket fell and it took a leg bye to settle the issue. Leicestershire won by an innings at Northampton in 1908 after Jack King and the left-handed Sammy Coe had shared a fourth wicket partnership of 249, the Whit Monday score rising from 43 for three to 381-6. Northamptonshire won by a similar margin in 1909 and honours were generally even. An exception was 1912 when Northamptonshire surprised the cricket world by finishing runners-up. They gained a comfortable win by nine wickets over Leicestershire at Whitsuntide, the first time they had beaten them at home, and were poised for victory in the return at Leicester. Sydney Smith performed a hat trick and took seven for 47 with his slow left-arm bowling, Leicestershire being dismissed for 96. Northamptonshire closed their innings 115 ahead and the home side had lost six wickets for 96 when the game ended. The wet August was crucial. Rain also deprived Lancashire of a win in the Roses match at Old Trafford: had both games finished as expected then Northamptonshire would have been champions and not Yorkshire. But the moment passed and the abiding memory of 1914 was Coe’s unbeaten 252 in the Whitsuntide match at Aylestone Road. He batted only 240 minutes with a six, a five and 39 fours, Leicestershire reaching 453. George Geary took six for 75 in the first innings and the fast bowler Alec Skelding, of later thick-lensed umpiring fame, six for 85 in a 214-run victory. This was followed by a narrow Northamptonshire win in the August match. In this they were helped by Leicestershire batting a man short in the second innings, one of their amateurs, the solicitor-soldier Captain Aubrey Sharp, having been summoned to his regiment on the outbreak of war. The crowd seated on forms around the County Ground shouted: “You’ll be back in a fortnight.” He wasn’t, although he survived the war. Sharp recalled: “We only wanted 84 to win so I left them it to them. Actually we lost by four runs. The point is I left my boots and bat behind. They were handed to me when we went back to Northampton in 1919.” WilliamWilson, of Billing Road, Northampton, also left memories of this match. He recalled George Thompson’s windmilling action, Best of Enemies 51