Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

89 Raikes’ Second Spell for Norfolk: The Minor Counties Championship Won win all their remaining six matches to take the Championship and it did not seem likely that they would. However, Norfolk commenced their push for the title by obtaining revenge against Suffolk. Despite fine bowling by James Worman (nine for 68) and Raikes (seven for 108), Norfolk were set 216 on a wicket “which was kicking at one end.” Raikes shuffled his batting order but, when he went in to join the teenage blocker Cyril Dunning with the score on 60 for three the match had reached a crucial point. As it turned out, the pair added 96, the Eastern Daily Press commenting: “It was a splendid struggle for the mastery, and several times the issue seemed to hang in the balance, the umpires being frequently called upon to decide a matter upon which depended the fate of the Norfolk captain, and possibly his side. Raikes was quite a long term settling down …” When Dunning was finally dismissed, Barratt joined his captain and they “quite mastered” the bowling, hitting the required 62 runs in just 27 minutes. Raikes finished with an unbeaten 79. Having kept in form with a ‘powerful’ century in under two hours in a friendly against the MCC, Raikes’ next Championship match was one of his tours de force as he saw off Oxfordshire almost single-handedly. First, he compiled 112, containing 16 fours, as he added 152 for the third wicket with Barratt, who himself made 92. Their stand took just two hours and ten minutes. Raikes then bowled out Oxfordshire twice as they had to follow The Minor Counties Championship table for 1905, showing that Norfolk won the title by the margin of just one point (as published in the 1905 Souvenir volume).