Lives in Cricket No 44 - LCH Palairet

Lionel finished the season with 1,906 runs at 57.75, hitting five centuries and eleven fifties. Other players had fine seasons, both Woods and Braund scored over a thousand runs and Cranfield took over 100 wickets. In all games Braund became the first Somerset player to do the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets; soon he would become an England player. Lewis also scored over 800 runs with three centuries, and Gill and Robson also had decent seasons. Despite some fine personal achievements, Somerset actually slipped to joint twelfth in the Championship; as in 1900 they only won four games. This is a surprise considering the achievements of Lionel, Braund and Cranfield. The main problem with the team was bowling opponents out twice; generally, if Cranfield and Braund failed with the ball, the team did not win. In low scoring games if the major players failed, there did not seem to be enough depth in batting; a number of winnable games were lost as a result. Despite this there had been some memorable batting performances, with some big partnerships, with Lionel at the heart of many. Of the regular players in 1901, Lionel was third to Sussex’s Fry and Ranjitsinjhi in the national batting averages. The press were full of praises for his batting, and it also seemed a certainty that had there been a Test series he would have made his debut for England. With the Australians visiting in 1902, Lionel’s name was pencilled in by many correspondents. A new century and 1901 78