how his arm used to go over twice before he delivered the ball and that there was no food on the ground except for a wooden hut near the bowling green and an old man selling ‘George Hirst’ toffee. When Leicestershire played, there would be a special atmosphere of leg-pulling and banter, with the home crowd calling the visitors ‘woolly backs’ because they made vests in Leicester. If Northamptonshire’s admission to the Championship solved Leicestershire’s holiday problems, the arrival of Worcestershire in 1899 filled a West Midlands’ gap and provided another derby fixture. Warwickshire enjoyed a rich holiday list with matches against Kent, the 1896 and 1899 Australians and Yorkshire before meeting their neighbours. Rain restricted play to two hours before lunch on Whit Tuesday in 1899 but a series began in 1900 which was only ended by the war, with results more or less evenly balanced. There was an early controversy. In the August match at Edgbaston in 1901, the visiting wicket-keeper Tom Straw was given out for obstructing the field – two years after a similar dismissal at Worcester. On the first occasion – not a holiday game – Straw hit the ball into the air and started to run, bumping into Glover as he tried to catch the ball. The 1901 incident involved Dick Lilley, Warwickshire’s wicket-keeper, who was at the crease. Such contests between two unprepossessing sides which generally finished in mid-table did not set the blood racing. Indeed, the 1907 August fixture produced some dull cricket in showery weather. But there was much to commend: hundreds from the artisans such as Sep Kinneir, Willie Quaife, Dick Pearson and Fred Bowley (seven in all against Warwickshire) and glimpses of high quality from Lilley, RE Foster and Ted Arnold. At his best Arnold was one of the best allrounders in the country. In addition to making three hundreds against Warwickshire he virtually won the 1903 August game at Edgbaston single-handedly with a match analysis of 13-79. Six years later he followed an innings of 200 not out with seven for 44 to bowl his side to an innings victory at Edgbaston. Warwickshire were dismissed for 141 and Arnold and William Burns added 393 for the fifth wicket in four and a quarter hours of phenomenal scoring. The Fosters were somewhat overshadowed, RE making a hundred at Edgbaston in 1901 and HK 215 inWorcestershire’s total of 556 at New Road in August 1908 being notable exceptions. In the latter game Willie Quaife saved the day for Warwickshire with an undefeated 189 in the second innings, the three days producing 1,351 runs for the loss of 28 wickets. Reginald Erskine ‘Tip’ Foster, tall, slim and lithe, was one of the great stylists of the age of gold, alongside Palairet and Spooner. His triumphs graced stages far beyond New Road: 171 for Oxford in the 1900 Varsity match, two separate hundreds for the Gentlemen at Lord’s ten days later and 287 for England against Australia at Sydney in December 1903. Business restricted his appearances after 1901, except when he captained England in the 1907 series against South Africa, and he could not afford the time away to lead the team in the 1907/08 Ashes games. Thus the appearances of this greatest of the Foster clan came to be cherished, such as 1906 when he could spare only the second week in August for cricket, the matches against Warwickshire at Worcester and Somerset at Taunton. He scored 35 in the first match and 198 and 10 in the second but his first appearance of the season inspired his colleagues. Worcestershire made 633 against their rivals, WB Burns 125, Harry Foster 124, and the wicket-keeper GF Wheldon 89 not out, the match being drawn. Best of Enemies 52