Lives in Cricket No 44 - LCH Palairet

as he held the side together with a brilliant 165 in four hours, with 24 boundaries; he gave only one difficult chance when 56. Set 295 to win, Yorkshire were going well reaching 173 for two when Tyler then performed the hat-trick; this changed the match and Somerset won by 29 runs, Tyler finishing with match figures of 14 for 247. Somerset continued with a 57-run win over Gloucestershire, Lionel making 68 in the second innings; this meant the county had won its last five matches. This run lifted the team to a respectable equal eighth in the table, the main two contributors being Lionel and Ted Tyler. Although Lionel scored 1,313 runs at 46.89 which put him fifth in the national averages, he started to miss matches due to work commitments; this trend would continue and work would increasingly start to gain the upper hand over time. In reviewing the season in Wisden the editor had this to say about Lionel‘s batting: ‘Most of Mr Palairet’s triumphs were gained at Taunton, but though the ground is unquestionably one of the easiest in the country, the Old Oxonian on more than one occasion playing with conspicuous skill and success under disadvantageous conditions when the wicket had been badly affected by rain.’ In August he actually scored 648 runs, and as can be seen was not just a good player on good tracks; over the years in many instances he played on difficult surfaces with great care and skill, still with the ability to score runs at a healthy rate. It was really 1895 that he came to the front as one of the country’s leading batsman. In November Lionel attended the annual Somerset meeting and was elected to the Somerset committee; the purchase of the ground was also confirmed. His father as ever was also present. Lionel started the 1896 season playing for Taunton; on May 2 he made 13 against Bridgwater, dismissed by a young fast bowler called George Gill, who would make his Somerset debut the following year but at the end of 1902 suddenly left to play for his county of birth Leicestershire. With Woods and Nichols less effective as bowlers, the county had bolstered the bowling by Marriage, family, work and Somerset 49