History of Bucks CCC

In an age of more formalised relationships Mat Wright fitted easily into a team where he would have been denied the appellation ‘Mister’ that all his amateur colleagues would have expected, but reports make clear the high regard in which he was held. It was an occasion for gracious speeches when, in his final match for the county, Mat Wright’s benefit was marked by a presentation of a silver salver and a framed illuminated address. The Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev ED Shaw, who had played for the county when he was vicar of HighWycombe, was able to eulogise about Mat Wright the man as much as the cricketer, and Mat himself was able to echo the most appropriate sentiments about a game he had served so long and well. In 1932, towards the end of a long professional engagement at Eton that stretched from 1885 till 1936, Wright became a councillor for the Royal Borough of Windsor. He died at Windsor on 13 May 1949 at the age of 90. The supporting cast These pillars of the early teams received spasmodic assistance from others. Charles Allcock, a master at Eton who had won a blue at Cambridge in 1878, was the first amateur bowler to make a mark, his round-arm slows gaining him 57 wickets at 14.30 in the seasons up to 1898. JW Stratton, who had been educated at Cheltenham, was a younger man who was permitted a few overs when he joined the team after coming down from Oxford, for whom he made a solitary appearance in 1896, but his fast bowling earned him only 45 wickets from 27 matches. There were always places to be filled by those who seemed to make lightweight contributions with the bat. Many of these gentlemen were engaged with the running of the game in the county, none more so than Francis Higgins-Bernard. He had good playing credentials, having had the highest public school batting average of 1882 when he had captained Westminster. He later became the squire of Winchendon and, as Lt Col Higgins-Bernard, he stood for parliament as the Unionist candidate for St Austell. A blue for soccer at Oxford provided evidence of his all-round sporting talent. At a later date he won the Officers Sabre Competition and, for good measure, shortly after the turn of the century, he twice won the Bar point to point. He was still in action when he died on the tennis court in 1935. But despite the breadth of his athletic prowess his 23 matches for Bucks yielded a batting average of only 10.86. CC Edmunds, a Haileyburian whose career stretched from1899 to1905, was another who was given his chance 24 times but could average no more than 10.21 with the bat. ENN Bartlett, another with an impeccable family background, served his stint on the committee and, like Higgins-Bernard, took a turn as treasurer, but his opportunities for Bucks appear to have owed more to his connections than to any conspicuous talent. He hit one breezy fifty in a career of 14 intermittent matches that brought him an average of 10.87. Some occasional players performed rather better. One of undoubted ability was Captain SDMaul - his rank in newspaper reports sometimes rose erratically to colonel only to drop back to captain. The son of JC Maul, who had been secretary when the 26 The supporting cast CH Allcock