Famous Cricketers No 77 - W.L.Murdoch

373. London County v Surrey, Crystal Palace, April 30, May (1), (2) (Match drawn) c T.W.Hayward b M.T.Jackson 4 122 128 did not bat - 26-1 374. London County v MCC, Lord’s, May (18), (19), 20 (MCC won by nine wickets) c and b C.B.Llewellyn 20 72 150 b J.T.Hearne 31 87 10-1 375. London County v Leicestershire, Aylestone Road, Leicester, June 1, 2, 3 (Leicestershire won by 165 runs) b S.Coe 57 178 5 0 13 0 358 b J.H.King 31 160 - - - - 145 376. London County v Gloucestershire, Crystal Palace, June 4, 5, 6 (London County won by seven wickets) c A.S.Nott b H.J.Huggins 3 311 5 0 20 0 397 1 not out 23 150-3 - - - - 61 377. London County v Lancashire, Old Trafford, June 18, 19, 20 (Match drawn) b A.Kermode 10 139 515 b E.E.Steel 155 597 58-5 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St London County 6 11 1 352 155 35.20 1 1 1 - Career 377 656 48 16368 321 26.92 18 82 210 24 Bowling O M R W BB Ave London County (6 ball) 11.1 1 37 1 1-4 37.00 Career (4 ball) 53 11 } (5 ball) 53 15 412 10 2-11 41.20 (6 ball) 40.5 6 1904 – In England With hindsight, the idea of a London County team might have worked had it been tried thirty or forty years earlier but as it was the venture was probably always doomed commercially. The end of first-class cricket at Crystal Palace coincided with Murdoch’s final first-class appearance. He did enough during the season to indicate that he could have carried on had he wished. His last century was tinged with controversy. On the second day of the Gentlemen v Players match at the Oval, P.F.Warner and G.W.Beldam were taken ill and Murdoch and L.V.Harper were drafted in as replacements. Both Warner and Beldam had fielded on the first day; Beldam had bowled 14 overs. Coming in number six, Murdoch played superbly with, according to Wisden , “unimpaired finish of style”, batting for 240 minutes and hitting 10 fours against a high-class attack including T.Wass, S.Hargreave, W.S.Lees, A.E.Trott and J.T.Hearne. The fact that he ran 100 of his runs says much for his fitness. In partnership with J.H.S.Hunt (128), 249 runs were scored for the seventh wicket. It was the only three-figure innings of Hunt’s 44 match career. Harper failed to score and had Murdoch done something similar possibly nothing more would have been said about the legality of the substitutions. As it was there was much discussion and MCC were asked for a ruling. It was eventually decided that, although Law 37 had been infringed, as similar cases had occurred in the past without a ruling being requested “no retrospective action will be taken”. Scoring mainly in fours and singles but managing the occasional stately three, Grace and Murdoch shared two more century opening partnerships for London County before the curtain came down -: 154 in 100 minutes (Grace (73) v Leicestershire and 118 in 105 minutes (Grace 166) v MCC, both at Crystal Palace. The latter was against strong opposition including A.Fielder, A.E.Relf, W.Mead and J.T.Hearne. Murdoch had started his first-class career in 1875, Grace ten years earlier. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct St Total Total 378. London County v Surrey, Crystal Palace, April 28, 29, 30 (London County won by an innings and 51 runs) b W.S.Lees 0 466-8d 230 185 1 46