Lives in Cricket No 44 - LCH Palairet

The team repeated the match with Gloucestershire, in the next game against Middlesex at Taunton. Somerset won the toss yet elected to bat on a wicket that was drying out under the hot sun. With play commencing at 3.15pm, the team were shot out for 89. Middlesex then posted 139 and gained a decisive advantage. Going in for the second innings Lionel and Bernard at last made a telling opening contribution. The pair knocked off the arrears in less than 40 minutes. The pair added 126 in an hour and 35 minutes, before Bernard was well caught for 72. Lionel then added 80 with Robson at a run a minute, with Robson making 50, batting brilliantly. Lionel fell at 243, having made 92 without a blemish, his chief hits being a six (off Jack Hearne) and 13 fours. After his dismissal the innings subsided to 327 all out. Middlesex were set a challenging total of 278. With the last pair requiring eight, Somerset still had a chance, but Trott made two lusty blows and the game was lost. In the next game against Sussex at Taunton, which due to the weather was drawn, Lionel was denied another century, this time falling for 96, made in nearly two and half hours. Having lost the whole of the first day, his innings with 58 from Woods saved the team from probable defeat. Against Kent at Taunton, Lionel scored at least fifty in an innings for the fifth successive match. In the second innings facing arrears of over 200, Lionel decided all-out attack was the best policy. After losing Robson at nine he was joined by Albert Lewis, a professional who was engaged to replace Nichols. Known as ‘Talbot’ he was a very useful batsman who over the next few seasons would develop his bowling, becoming a very useful member of the team. Lionel reached his fifty in 55 minutes, and the pair added 100 for the second wicket in 75 minutes before Lewis fell. Lionel fell at 130, having batted one and three quarter hours, giving only one chance off Bradley. Despite Gill and Tyler adding 135 for the ninth wicket, Somerset still went down by an innings. After an innings defeat by Yorkshire, who were to replace Surrey as county champions and went through a 28-game season unbeaten, Somerset then started their last game of the season at Taunton against Surrey. Having lost the Championship, Surrey A new century and 1901 66