The Minor Counties Championship 1902

7 Annual Meeting in December 1902 refer to the subsequent but unsuccessful effort made by Cambridgeshire to secure the necessary home and away fixtures to compete in the 1902 Championship. Norfolk – On the other hand, the decision of Norfolk to withdraw from the competition for a couple of seasons is known. It was taken on the grounds that having finished equal last in the table in both 1900 and 1901, they wanted to strengthen their team by recruiting new professionals who were not eligible for the county and who needed two years to qualify. Dorset – The county had played two matches against Wiltshire in 1897, which counted as championship matches for their opponents, but 1902 was the first season that Dorset qualified for the Championship table. The county has not missed a season since. The Championship The 1902 Championship was won outright by Wiltshire, who were the beneficiaries of the new points system. The outcome was a surprise to many as the best position Wiltshire had occupied in the past was fourth equal in 1897. Previews in the newspapers had favoured the chances of Durham, Glamorgan, Northamptonshire and Surrey 2 nd XI with Wiltshire not being named as a possible front-runner. Surrey 2 nd XI came second, Northamptonshire third, and Glamorgan fourth. Under the old points system, Surrey 2 nd XI would have won the competition, with Northamptonshire second. The 1902 season saw the introduction of two measures both primarily designed to reduce the number of drawn matches in the competition. The Experimental Revised LBW Law – As a result of the Association volunteering to carry out experiments that the MCC wanted tested, it was agreed that a new revised lbw law would be tried out in championship matches in 1902. The experimental rule provided for a batsman being given out ‘If with any part of his person, except the hand, which is between wicket and wicket he intercept a ball which would hit his wicket’. As Wisden put it ‘The change from the existing rule is the removal of the restriction as to the ball having to pitch in a straight line between wicket and wicket’. The rule change was directed at changing the balance in favour of bowlers and as a consequence reducing the number of drawn matches. The experiment was not considered a success and the 1903 Championship was to revert back to the old rule. Unlike later experiments, such as the lbw law introduced in 1937, the match scores do not record which lbw decisions were the result of the new rule compared with the old one. Indeed, from reading the match accounts in newspapers, very few references have been found to the experiment being tried. What Did The New Lbw Rule Achieve? Year Number of Number Percentage Number of Percentage of Matches drawn lbw decisions all dismissals 1895 40 13 32.5 55 4.4 1896 35 16 45.7 36 3.4 1897 54 17 31.5 71 4.2 1898 50 23 46.0 82 5.5 1899 56 27 48.2 82 4.9 1900 65 34 52.3 98 5.4 1901 78 32 41.0 125 5.4 1902 72 28 38.9 116 5.7 Note –Abandoned or scratched matches where no play took place are ignored