The Minor Counties Championship 1905

4 THE MINOR COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP 1905 INTRODUCTION This book contains the match scores, a statistical survey and full averages, both by county and by player in alphabetical order, for 1905 which was the eleventh season of the Minor Counties Championship. It follows the same format as the previous ACS publications which covered the first ten years of the competition. THE LEAD UP TO THE 1905 COMPETITION The main background to the Minor Counties Cricket Association Annual Meeting in December was a clear reluctance of the first- class counties and the MCC to support the Association’s proposals – set out on page 5 of the 1904 Book – for the establishment of three divisions, the first two of which would have first-class status and the third division would contain minor counties and the second elevens of the first-class counties. The proposal set out how minor county teams playing in the third division could obtain promotion to the second division if they wanted it by winning the third division and playing a minimum number of six home and away fixtures against teams in the second division. Minor county teams winning the third division would not be obliged to seek promotion. The second eleven teams would not be eligible for promotion from the third division. The main stumbling block to the proposal was the reluctance of the existing first-class counties to contemplate a system which not only involved promotion, but also relegation. The December 1904 Annual Meeting The Annual Meeting of the Association was held on Tuesday 6 December 1904, as on previous occasions in the pavilion at Lord’s. Audley Miller presided. Those present were R W Allen and W W Marks (Bedfordshire), Sir C E M Y Nepean and Maj C Turner (Berkshire), H E Bull and P J de Paravicini (Buckinghamshire), Maj O Papworth (Cambridgeshire), Rev S W Featherstone (Devon), W Hardy Manfield (Dorset), R H Mallett and W R Wilson (Durham), J H Brain (Glamorgan), H M Harford and Dr J Earl Norman (Hertfordshire), A I J Butler (Monmouthshire), E G Buxton (Norfolk), P W Dale and A J Darnell (Northamptonshire), F G H Clayton and R G E Mortimer (Northumberland), F C Bridson (Oxfordshire), W C Hancock (Staffordshire), R Ll Hodgson (Suffolk), H D G Leveson-Gower (Surrey 2nd XI), A M Miller (Wiltshire) and R W Frank (Yorkshire 2nd XI). The five main items on the agenda were the election of officers, the position of Northamptonshire, revising the system of scoring, the amendment of the declaration or closure law, and the application of London County to join the Association and partake in the Minor Counties Championship. The Re-election of Officers and the Emergency Committee – After the minutes of the previous meeting were read and agreed, the officers were elected. Earl Norman and Harry Mallett were re-elected as Joint Hon Secretaries. The membership of the Emergency Committee was amended with R W Allen, P J de Paravicini, A J Darnell (provisionally) and Audley Miller being re-elected, H M Harford replacing H J Hill and C Turner replacing Harry Turner who was no longer the Oxfordshire Hon Secretary. In March, when the MCC Cricket Advisory Committee had been set up, the three places reserved for Minor County