History of Bucks CCC

Franklin was in no mood to respect the spirit of the game, instructing his batsmen that they must not pass the Herts’ total. Arthur Grimsdell, Herts’ long-standing wicket-keeper and captain for the match, had other ideas. Telling his bowlers to aim wide of the stumps, he proceeded to let the ball pass through to the boundary. A saturated outfield did not help the Herts’ plan but, to Franklin’s consternation, Grimsdell claimed the extra half hour, only relenting and coming off when Bucks, with the aid of four wides and 18 byes, had reached 80 for 3. Matches with Hertfordshire always had an extra edge of competitiveness in the years to come and Franklin’s attitude at Canford, coming after he had left Dorset two hours to chase 363 at HighWycombe and then made little attempt to take wickets, meant that matches with that county were discontinued. But the Bucks captain succeeded in his objective: with two wins his side were top of the table, while Suffolk, with five wins and three first-innings leads from their eight matches, came second. In the end justice was served as Suffolk swept to victory by 70 runs in the Challenge Match at High Wycombe, skittling Bucks twice for scores of 70 and 94 in another contentious match where the captains were in constant dispute about the fitness of the ground for play. For Walter Franklin it had been his 200th match for the county. In his final season he had been well served by two stalwarts of the pre-war era. At the age of 44, Vic Lund, with 24 wickets at 6.92, was the leading bowler in the Championship, and Oliver Battcock was close on his heels with 32 at 8.16. The batting was more uncertain with the best of the pre-war players, Leslie Baker and Sam Peters, both having lean seasons, though Baker hit one of the summer’s five hundreds when he equalled his previous best for the county with 131 against Bedfordshire on his home ground at High Wycombe. Peter Isherwood from Slough, who had played five times in 1939 as an 18 year-old and who was destined to become the last link with the pre-war era, hit the first of his four centuries. Another hundred came from Bill Yates, a former professional footballer with Bolton Wanderers and Watford, who was soon to become better known locally as the sports manager at the Slough Community Centre. The newly engaged professional Jack O’Connor, the former Essex all-rounder who had played four times for England, made 112 against Berkshire. Appropriately this was at Eton College, where he was now head coach. Bucks’ fifth hundred came in the same match from Tony Prince, another newcomer, later to become secretary of the County Club for 15 years. Life after Franklin Heading the averages in this first post-war season, with a top score of 99, was Claude Taylor. A master at Eton, he had won a blue at Oxford and played for Leicestershire in the 1920s. It was he who was to become Bucks’ first new captain for a quarter of a century. In a summer that will always be remembered for the runs that flowed from the bats of Compton and Edrich, Bucks’ batsmen enjoyed the hard August pitches of 1947, indulging themselves as never before and posting a record team average of 31.59 per wicket that was not surpassed until 1983. Taylor himself led the way with three centuries and an Eton colleague Donald Bousfield, who had played a few 58 Life after Franklin Jack O’Connor