The Minor Counties Championship 1903

10 G Nash – Buckinghamshire (b 1 April 1850; d 13 November 1903) Played 42 matches as a professional between 1895 and 1903 as a slow left-arm bowler and right-hand batsman taking 259 wickets at 13.23 and scoring 226 runs at 7.06. His best bowling was 8 for 28 in the second innings against Oxfordshire at Thame in 1897, after taking 8 for 46 in the first innings. He took more wickets than he scored runs. George Nash played 54 first- class matches for Lancashire between 1879 and 1885. His first-class career ended prematurely due to doubts being raised over the legality of his action. He was responsible for laying out the new County Ground at Aylesbury. He had struggled with ill-health for several years, which had caused him to miss a number of matches before his death, which according to Wisden , was from paralysis in November 1903. In terms of his average, he was Buckinghamshire’s most successful bowler after Frank Edwards, who played between 1914 and 1946. W Bryan – Cambridgeshire (b 22 September 1856; d 22 May 1933) Played 42 matches as a professional between 1897 and 1903. There is some uncertainty as to his method of bowling, some sources giving slow left-arm whilst others have right-arm medium. He took 136 wickets at 19.65, and as a right hand bat scoring 558 runs at 10.94. William Bryan played for Essex pre-first-class in 1887 and 1888, and first played for Cambridgeshire pre-Minor Counties Championship in 1891. His best bowling in an innings was 7-115 against Bedfordshire at Dunstable in 1903. He had the misfortune to be dropped for his benefit match in 1903. He played one first-class match in 1886 for the South against the North at Lord’s. His son, F W Bryan, played for Cambridgeshire between 1908 and 1922. G Ll Lloyd – Monmouthshire (b 1877; d 1 August 1957) Played 19 matches as an amateur between 1897 and 1903. He played for the county, it is believed, as a right-hand batsman who occasionally kept wicket. He scored 543 runs at 18.10 and held 9 catches. Llewellyn Lloyd was educated at The Leys School, Cambridge, and worked as a solicitor. He was better known as a rugby player, appearing as a half-back 12 times for Wales between 1896 and 1903. He played his rugby mainly with Newport. L T Driffield – Northamptonshire (b 10 August 1880; d 9 October 1917) Played 27 matches as an amateur between 1898 and 1903 as a left-handed all-rounder. He scored 588 runs at 24.50 and took 50 wickets with his slow bowling at 20.08. Lance Driffield was educated at St John’s, Leatherhead and St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. He played 61 first-class matches, 21 for Cambridge University, between 1900 and 1902 gaining his Blue in the last year, and 40 for Northamptonshire between 1905 and 1908. For three years from 1899- 1900 to 1901-1902, he gained his Blue at football, keeping goal. A schoolmaster by profession, he taught at his old school and died there at the young age of 37. A W Mold – Northamptonshire (b 27 May 1863: d 29 April 1921) Played 5 matches for Northamptonshire, his native county, in 1903 scoring 29 runs at 9.66 and, bowling slow right-arm, taking 6 wickets at 42.50. His Minor County record is not worth reporting, but he played 260 matches for Lancashire as a genuine fast bowler between 1889 and 1901. Arthur Mold took one hundred wickets in a season nine times. He played in three Test Matches for England against Australia in 1893. There had long been doubts about his action, but he was not no-balled by an umpire until 1900 after Robert Brooke has estimated he had bowled over 60,000 balls in first-class matches. The umpire was Jim Phillips, who was to no- ball him again in 1901 and he dropped out of county cricket. J A Bourne – Staffordshire (b October 1880; d 15 September 1903) Played 9 matches for Staffordshire between 1900 and 1903 scoring 193 runs at 19.30 and taking 43 wickets at 11.06. Jimmy Bourne was selected first as a batsman but developed his bowling and in 1902 took 41 wickets at 9.92. According to his obituary notice in the