however, pointed to his moderate performances in 13 Tests. John Gunn said that life was never commonplace when Carr and Fender got together and a story from Gover illustrates this. Carr was batting in the Whitsuntide match at Trent Bridge and Fender decided to bait him with a tempting leg side ball. Gover was at forward short leg and Fender warned him to fling himself flat when he tugged at his shirt collar before bowling. “After an over or two Percy George tugged at his collar, I ducked as Carr swung wildly at the full toss which came along. It was still high in the air as Fender called out ‘Carr caught Gregory bowled Fender’, and so it was. Harold Larwood also recalled that Carr always tried to hit Fender out of the ground with almost every stroke. Fender and Carr were colleagues on several occasions for Gentlemen v Players and during the MCC tour of South Africa in 1922-23 captained by Frank Mann. They spent a lot of time together, Fender trying to help his friend overcome the problems he was experiencing on the matting pitches. “Arthur could drive like a team of runaway horses but he couldn’t cut and I was always on to him to improve his cutting. He never did learn to cut properly, to my mind.” It was typical of Fender that he offered to stand down as captain early in the 1931 season when it became apparent that Douglas Jardine was likely to lead England in Australia in 1932-33 and needed experience. The change was eventually made in March 1932. Jardine’s reign as a county captain was brief, although not without success. His fame – and notoriety – was destined for other arenas. There was early evidence of the Carr-Fender rivalry. At Trent Bridge in 1920, Surrey won easily, Fender taking eight for 66 in the second innings, Carr alone of the batsmen remaining long with 56. In August Surrey badly needed a win to resurrect their title ambitions following defeat by Kent at Blackheath. They led by 64 on the first innings and set Nottinghamshire 272. The visitors obtained the runs for the loss of seven wickets, Carr being undefeated with 105. The two counties, incidentally, were among the last to embrace Saturday starts, the 1920 and 1921 matches beginning on Mondays, 24,197 attending on the August Monday of the latter year. By and large, the era belonged to Hobbs: 151 not out at Trent Bridge in 1922, 105 in The Oval game a year later, 203 not out at Whitsun and 105 at The Oval in 1924, 189 at Trent Bridge in 1925, a hundred before lunch in the 1927 August match and so on. Hobbs and Sandham enjoyed their share of three-figure openings against Nottinghamshire but a new threat was on the horizon. Hobbs had predicted that the 21-year-old Harold Larwood would have a bright future and the fast bowler proved the point by twice dismissing The Master cheaply in the 1926 Whitsun match. Larwood was to find Surrey’s batsmen to his liking, with 87 wickets in 21 matches at 15.68, including that of Sandham on 13 occasions and Hobbs nine. His best performance was seven for 35 at Trent Bridge in 1927, match figures of 11-106 helping his side to a nine wicket victory. Throughout the summer Nottinghamshire ran neck and neck with Lancashire before they met problems at The Oval. There was no Larwood and Hobbs and Sandham took full advantage with an opening partnership of 203. Surrey declared at 522 for seven and Nottinghamshire then spent 114 overs in making 259. Nevertheless they made the journey to Swansea in the knowledge that only defeat by lowly Glamorgan would cost them the title. They went down by an innings – Glamorgan’s only Championship victory that season – and a planned civic reception in Nottingham had to be cancelled. Hatching Bodyline 76