Chapter Fourteen Cornerstones of the Season Golden Age euphoria had masked an unpalatable truth. Amidst the style and glamour which attracted huge attendances on summer days some counties, such as Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, faced a continual battle for survival. Their cause was not helped by the power of the Big Six – Yorkshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. The Championship was their playground. During the first 42 seasons of the official competition from 1890 to 1935, Yorkshire won 18 titles, Lancashire and Surrey each won seven, Kent four, Middlesex three and Nottinghamshire two. The exception was Warwickshire in 1911. Derbyshire won in 1936 but the status quo was restored until Glamorgan upset the apple cart in 1948. Of the smaller fry, Worcestershire were bottom four times in the 1920s, Glamorgan thrice, Derbyshire twice and Northamptonshire once. Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Somerset were seldom far away. Increasingly, the poorer counties turned to amateurs, many of indifferent quality. The holiday fixtures took place when amateurs, some of them schoolmasters, were available. In 1919 Somerset and Gloucestershire each fielded six amateurs in the Whit fixture at Taunton and there were 13 in the return at Bristol, seven of them in the Somerset team. A Hampshire side at Lord’s contained seven amateurs, including three army captains, a major and a reverend. At Leyton in the Whitsuntide match Essex and Kent fielded 12 amateurs. Such combinations were far from unusual during the period, Somerset and Gloucestershire pushing the total up to 15 at Bristol in August 1921. Ernie Robson and Archie Young were the only professionals in the Somerset team. Random amateurs with fancy, coloured headgear but little ability (although Kent and Middlesex offered exceptions in quality) cut no ice with pros who had to give up places and match money to accommodate them. Conversely, for some amateurs who were genuinely first-class, it was, perhaps, no more than a single, full season, a break between public school and university and a teaching career. Others found it a pleasant diversion, not dissimilar to country house cricket as the sons of the wealthy followed their pre-ordained path as heirs to the estate, the church or the army according to seniority. The policy saved money but the lack of continuity often upset the balance of the team. As time passed, the selection of an amateur became more a question of merit than cost-cutting and it should be recognised that, between the wars, the breed produced some the finest captains in the history of the Championship. GR Jackson, JWHT Douglas, BH Lyon, Lord Tennyson, APF Chapman, FT Mann, AW Carr, J Daniell, PGH Fender, AER Gilligan, MK Foster, MFS Jewell – the initials are evocative of a long-ago era but synonymous with positive and sometimes innovative cricket. Playing hours in 1919 were longer as the counties experimented with two-day matches. The joy of a return to normality on the cricket field after the years of conflict was tempered by a feeling of dissatisfaction over the new arrangements. The day’s play went on until 7.30pm, by which time the cricketers were weary 59