History of Bucks CCC

station on the London and North-Western Railway, it was well placed for travellers from the capital, and the ground had been drained and the turf re-laid at great expense ahead of the first match in 1864. The news that Bucks were playing MCC attracted many carriages to the ground, but in later years it was the presence of the railway works in the town that guaranteed a good crowd of paying spectators for matches played at Wolverton. The start of the 1865 match was delayed until one o’clock, but there was still time for MCC to be dismissed ahead of the 2.30 lunch bell for just 55, with Rev ET Drake claiming six of the wickets. Bucks now had to face the formidable attack of Alfred Shaw and James Grundy, two of the leading professional bowlers in the land, but with 22 from Drake they reached 96. Although a sprained knee kept Tom Hearne out of the attack, MCC were soon in trouble in their second innings. However, when they resumed next day at 52 for 4, RD Walker, one of the famous Southgate brothers, with 51, and HN Tennant of the theatrical family, with 26, combined to set Bucks 86 for victory. The county got home for the loss of six wickets, but not without alarms after ED Sutton had had to run for both Drake and Hearne before leaving it to Tom Plumb and RA Fitzgerald to finish the business. Scores from 24 more matches involving Bucks were recorded by Haygarth, the last of them a single-wicket triumph at Bedford in 1871. This was an astonishing match in which Bucks recovered from being dismissed for 23 in their first innings to reach a target of 143 in their second attempt. Victory allowed one of the winning team to feel he could vent his wrath in the columns of the Bucks Herald without being regarded as ‘one who cannot lose without grumbling’. The target of his attack was Walter Anstead, a Weybridge schoolmaster who had previously appeared with success for Surrey, and whose style of bowling had led to the first innings debacle. His disquieted opponent wrote: ‘There is every reason to believe that with a little practice the new bowling will be overcome as easily as genuine bowling often is, but still in the interests of true cricket and personal safety I would ask is deliberate throwing to be admitted as a substitute for fair bowling?’ During the seven years from 1864 the team often styled itself ‘The Gentlemen of Buckinghamshire’, but with no notable change in personnel, especially when the side was strengthened by the inclusion of a professional. This usually enabled Plumb to play, though on one occasion the county hired James Southerton, one of the leading bowlers of the period, who was to appear in England’s first Test match at the age of 49 in 1877. A few of the matches were against odds. A Buckinghamshire team took on Sixteen of Brackley and Seventeen of Great Marlow, and in the Brackley match Bucks deemed it necessary for some reason to include in their eleven no fewer than four well-known professionals – Humphrey, Jupp, Mortlock and James Lillywhite. However, proper eleven a side matches against Hampshire, Kent, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and the Undergraduates of Oxford all featured on the fixture list. In 1868 MCC were trounced by an innings at Lord’s, and later that year, on Mr AJ Robarts’ ground at Lillingstone, Bucks beat a team styled by Haygarth as ‘The World (so-called)’ by 91 runs, with 88 coming from RAH Mitchell, an assistant master at Eton, who was regarded as one of the finest batsmen of his day. Others to make centuries were Robert Fitzgerald with 111 not out against Hampshire at Southampton in 1866 and FH Hill, an Oxford blue, who hit 105 against Bedfordshire at 16 A first County Club is formed RAH Mitchell