Lives in Cricket No 44 - LCH Palairet

Jessop (Gloucestershire) and George Hirst. The press generally reported that Lionel deserved to keep his place in the team. Australia won the toss and thanks to some consistent batting, kept in England in the field all day making 324. Overnight it again rained heavily which would make the uncovered pitch difficult. In poor light MacLaren and Lionel opened the innings. After six overs MacLaren appealed to the umpires and the players came in. However with the sun creeping through, the break of 40 minutes affected the wicket further. On resumption the wicket started playing tricks immediately with both openers finding it difficult. MacLaren fell first but Lionel soon followed bowled by Trumble for 20; this was to be his highest Test score. The innings fell away badly closing on 183, a deficit of 141 runs. With the wicket now difficult Australia cut an even poorer effort as they could only make 121, Lockwood with five for 45 being England’s best bowler, yet again. This meant England had nearly a full day to make an improbable 263. The overnight rain meant the wicket was soft and difficult. The innings started disastrously, Lionel, third out at ten, made only six, bowled by a vicious turning ball from the leg by Trumble. Half the side were gone for 48, and the 263 required looked a long way off. Amazingly England were to win one of the best and closest Test matches in history. Jackson made 49, but it was a hundred in 75 minutes by Gilbert Jessop that set the game up. Hirst made an unbeaten fifty and it was left to him and Rhodes to add 15 runs for the last wicket to pinch a dramatic victory; this match would be talked about for years by those fortunate enough to have witnessed Jessop’s fine innings. This brought Lionel’s Test career to a close. His 49 runs at 12.25 per innings is not much to show; however he played in two great Test matches. All of his innings were on difficult wickets and no one else coped any better; it was not until the wicket played easier that his teammates scored runs. Lionel then returned for Somerset’s next match at Taunton against Kent. In a start delayed by rain, Kent foolishly elected to bat on a soft wicket; the Somerset bowlers shot out the visitors for only 66. By the close Somerset had progressed to 45 for two with Lionel unbeaten on 15. The second day saw an 1902 and one more good season 85