Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

101 Radcliffe the number of their victories falling from 16 to eight, losses increasing from two to four, but draws going up from four to ten. The season was nothing like as kind to batsmen as its predecessor had been, and after scoring 65 against Whittlebrook in the second match, Buck played another twelve innings before he exceeded 50 again. Three matches later his score reached 63 against Walkden Wesleyans in the Cup, but he then missed three matches through injury and did little with the bat in the remaining fixtures. His bowling figures, 92 wickets at 10.21 apiece, were only a little more expensive than in the previous season. Local press coverage of a series of rather secretive meetings in 1929 and 1930 reported that twelve clubs – Astley Bridge, Bradshaw, Eagley, Egerton, Farnworth, Heaton, Kearsley, Little Lever, Radcliffe, Tonge, Walkden and Westhoughton – had split from the Bolton and District Association, after prolonged efforts to maintain unity. The haemorrhage resulted from a decision of the Association that their twenty club members should play each other over 22 matches a season, instead of participating in two sections, east and west. Some of the members were engaging high-class professionals and investing in improvements to their grounds, while others did very little to make the League’s cricket more attractive. Some lacked the funds to do so. Thus in 1930, Radcliffe joined the new Bolton League in which Buck must have anticipated meeting consistently strong opposition. Nevertheless, the following summer he revelled with the ball in the damp conditions which prevailed. From the third match, in which he dismissed five of the visitors from Astley Bridge for 44 runs from 18 economical overs in addition to scoring 44 runs of his own, he met with success after success with the ball, capturing more than five wickets in an innings no fewer than 15 times in 22 games. Outstanding analyses were nine wickets for 36 from 20 overs against Walkden at home, and seven for 47 at Farnworth from 23 accurate overs. When he captured the sixth and last of his victims at Eagley, he completed 100 wickets in a season in league cricket for the seventh time; the cost was 8.79 each. Against both Kearsley and Tonge he achieved the hat-trick and in the Cross Cup his six wickets for 25 from 14 overs helped to take Radcliffe to the semi-final against Bradshaw, but he went wicketless in that game, though only 23 runs came from 11 overs; the final with Eagley was washed out. Buck finished fourth overall in the league bowling averages: neither he nor Radcliffe fared worse in the new league