The Minor Counties Championship 1902

12 F H Hassall (Staffordshire 1898-1902) Played 21 matches for the county, primarily as a right-hand batsman, scoring 626 runs at 23.18 with a highest score of 77 against Northumberland at Jesmond in 1900. Fred Hassall had played four first-class matches for Leicestershire in 1894. K E M Barker (Surrey 2 nd XI 1899-1902) Played 28 matches for Surrey 2 nd XI, scoring 779 runs at an average of 21.05, with a highest score of 86 against Northamptonshire at Northampton in 1900. He captained the team in every match he played and won the toss on 17 occasions. Kenneth Barker was educated at Uppingham and Cambridge University. He played 6 first-class matches for Surrey between 1899 and 1903, as well as 3 for the MCC in 1898 and 1 for Cambridge University. He was a right-hand batsman and a right-arm medium paced bowler. THE BOOK The Match Scores The scores are presented in the same format as used in the publications covering the seven earlier years, with the methodology and layout remaining unchanged. For the 1902 season scorebooks exist for four counties – Devon, Durham, Staffordshire and Yorkshire 2 nd XI. Newspapers have remained the main source of information, and once again well over one hundred have been consulted in researching the scores for this book. Where an obvious newspaper is not listed amongst the sources at the foot of a match score, this is likely to be because it has not been possible to gain access to the volume at the British Newspaper Library at Colindale due to its fragile condition, or because it is not held either there or at the relevant county library or record office. There are a number of instances of differences between the county scorebooks and these are detailed in the notes to the match scores. Yet again, the competition continued to receive very limited attention in Cricket , the leading magazine for the sport at the time. It gave only two full scores of championship matches. Missing Details There are no instances in the match scores where runs batting or bowling add incorrectly. There is one case where the bowling analysis for a single innings has not been found. This is Match 48 Bedfordshire v Buckinghamshire at the Bedford Grammar School on 6, 7 August, where for the Buckinghamshire innings, no Bedfordshire bowling analysis has been discovered in the local newspapers of either county or in the sporting press. The bowling analysis has been derived from the averages found in Wisden and the Bedfordshire Annual Report. The Averages The averages are given in two forms – by county and by player. In both cases the players are listed in alphabetical order. 387 players took part in championship matches, compared with 406 in 1901. In the averages, the symbol * indicates a not out innings, + denotes a player making his debut for his team in 1902, of which there are 134, and a name in bold denotes a player making his final appearance for his team in a championship match in 1902, of which there are 101.