For the 1920 August Bank Holiday return at Bristol, Somerset fielded another veteran all rounder Ernest Robson as their solitary professional but it was an amateur, John Cornish White, who stole the headlines. Jack ‘Farmer’ White, son of a cricket-loving farmer, first appeared in 1909 when he was 17 but it was four years before he gained a regular place. He was, like Parker, one of the best slow left-arm bowlers in the country but there the comparison ends. White, also a useful lower-order right-hand batsman, relied on flight, accuracy and changes of pace more than spin and he was a tireless bowler who could keep going for long spells. Unlike Parker, who appeared in only a single Test, White played in 15, touring Australia with great success in 1928-29. He captained Somerset from 1927 to 1931 and led England in four Tests. Taciturn, as befits a lover of a game of poker, White’s reserved manner meant that he was not the most popular of men but nobody doubted his talent. Parker and Dennett each took four wickets in the dismissal of Somerset for 169 but Gloucestershire (who fielded six amateurs to make 16 in the match) collapsed in astonishing fashion for a total of 22. White took seven for 10 in nine overs, Robson claiming the other three for 12. Daniell’s declaration left Gloucestershire a target of 274, albeit with plenty of time, and some fine batting by Charles Townsend and Alf Dipper changed the course of the game. Dipper, a solid, opening right-hand batsman who gave his county 24 years of service, made 48 and Townsend a brilliant 84 out of 119 in 75 minutes. Others chipped in and Gloucestershire got home with four wickets to spare. White, Dennett and Parker all had a field day when Gloucestershire won the 1921 match at Taunton and then there was another remarkable finish in the August Bank Holiday game at Bristol. On Saturday Somerset were dismissed for 212, Parker taking all ten to return figures of 40.3-13-79-10. Percy Mills, for so many years an effective medium pacer and off spinner, conceded 116 runs in 38 wicketless overs. He fared better in the second innings with five for 92, leaving Gloucestershire to make 205. Five men were out for 65 before the captain Foster Robinson and the wicket-keeper, the little left-handed Harry Smith, added 74. Smith was still there at the end, with 62 in two hours as his side scraped home by one wicket. Already Somerset must have been getting fed up with Parker and he was at it again at Taunton in 1922, with 11-139 in the match and 77 in Gloucestershire’s first innings. The counties were there or thereabouts in mid-table but Somerset delighted their followers in 1923 with two resounding holiday victories; by 343 runs at Taunton (Rippon and Dar Lyon made hundreds and White and Jim Bridges, an in swing bowler who started as a professional but finished as an amateur, took the wickets) and at Bristol by an innings after centuries from Lyon and Guy Earle (a maiden one which took only 70 minutes) and some excellent bowling by Robertson-Glasgow. Gloucestershire’s supporters had to live with the humiliation for the whole winter but the dark days were to be illuminated in the most brilliant fashion. They had fought well at Bristol in 1923, not least through a last wicket partnership of 131 between William Gouldsworthy and John Bessant, but of far greater significance was an innings of 47 by the young opening batman Walter Hammond. Hammond was born at Dover, the son of an Army NCO. During his father’s absence in the war Walter’s mother decided to send him to Cirencester Grammar School, where he arrived in April 1918. Within three weeks his father was killed in action. Hammond’s schoolboy exploits attracted Gloucestershire’s attention and he played his first games as an amateur shortly after his 17th birthday. He became a professional in 1921 but Lord Harris discovered that he had no birth qualification for Gloucestershire and he was In the West 92