History of Bucks CCC

summer Abrahams had been given one game for the county, against MCC at Lord’s where he had made a pair; but it was the enthusiasm he brought for the county’s cause that commended him to his colleagues on the committee. Herbert Bull was looking forward to a season in which it would no longer fall to him alone to raise teams. Then, just before the season began, Dr Abrahams died at the age only 38. Amid the shock and sadness of his untimely demise the plans for the season were thrown into chaos. “I had no opportunity of finding out what he had done,” said the new captain. The struggle to find teams to fulfil the county programme was back in the lap of Bull. It entailed the use of 25 different players. For one match, he said, he had written to no fewer than 40 players. In the first four seasons of Lowndes’ leadership the county managed to win only six matches and there were 22 losses. In 1910, for the first time, not a single victory was recorded. Six of the eight matches were lost, all by a substantial margin, and the county finished bottom of the table. Threadbare teams were fielded and most of the time they were barely competing. Typifying their misfortunes was the match at Bletchley Park against Wiltshire, where the visitors made 240 for 7 on a rain-interrupted first day and then made the most of a wet pitch to skittle Bucks for 48 and 84. The Bucks cause was not helped by the captain’s car breaking down as he and his brother, PL Frith, made their way to the ground from Chesham on the second day. By the time they arrived it was too late for them to bat in the first innings. The following year, when for some reason Lowndes did not play, Herbert Bull and the young Walter Franklin being among those who deputised, the ten-match programme saw Bucks’ only successes coming at the expense of a weak Carmarthenshire team, for whom 1911 was to be their last year of competing in the Championship and whom Bucks now beat at home and away. The three-match tour to Wales was a unique experience for a Bucks team, and it brought the players more excitement than they had bargained for after their victory at Llanelli. This was a time of industrial unrest on the railways and strikers inWales were set upon imposing a blockade to prevent the free passage of trains. With militant protesters thronging the level crossings at both ends of Llanelli station, it was only with the help of an armed guard that the players managed to catch the last train out of the town that evening. Lucky to escape, they later heard that the Riot Act had been read out and troops had opened fire killing two bystanders. Amid the ensuing mayhem an ammunition train was blown up causing a further 18 deaths. The team managed to reach Cardiff, but the start of their match with Monmouthshire the next day was delayed when the players found that there were no trains running and they were obliged to find cars or taxis to complete their journey. On occasions the margin of defeat in these dark years was embarrassingly emphatic with the batting especially liable to fail. The contrast in the averages for runs scored and conceded bears witness to teams that quite simply lacked talent: Scored Conceded 1908 14.18 22.87 1909 14.83 22.63 1910 14.76 28.70 Only twice, in 1895 and 1903, had runs been so scarce, the 1903 season being memorable for Bucks’ lowest ever total of 20, against Hertfordshire at Aylesbury. This sad landmark had been sandwiched in the middle of five completed Bucks innings none of which reached three figures. Never had wickets been nearly as expensive as in 1910; yet in 1911 their cost would rise again, to 29.26. Among the more successful of the newcomers at this time was Dr E Weaver-Adams from Slough, who first played in 1903 and made 35 appearances spread over the next 34 The years of struggle