Minor Counties Championship 1907

9 The Championship Just as in 1906, one of the favourites at the start of the season would have been Staffordshire, with Sydney Barnes being available for nine games. Therefore it was a surprise when, largely due to some disappointing batting, they failed to top the Northern Division and so were narrowly eliminated by Lancashire 2nd XI; both teams won five matches outright but, in addition, Lancashire 2nd XI won three matches on first innings whereas Staffordshire won merely a single match. Unfortunately, the potentially decisive match between the two that was scheduled at Blackburn was abandoned without play. Lancashire 2nd XI were already the surprise team of the 1907 Championship in that they had finished the 1906 season win-less and in second-to-last place. The other three groups all produced clear winners. The leaders in each group recorded six wins, with all the second place teams lagging behind on four: Surrey 2nd XI headed Wiltshire in the Midlands Division, Hertfordshire were clear of Norfolk in the East Division whilst Glamorgan topped Devon in the West. Glamorgan's record was particularly meritorious in that they secured first innings points in the two matches that they did not win outright and so finished with a percentage of 90.00. The newcomers did not fare particularly well. Whilst Lincolnshire won no fewer than three matches outright they lost all their other seven fixtures. They did at least finish their Division above Northumberland, who had their own satisfaction of recording their first win since 1904. There were few consoling factors for Worcestershire 2nd XI, who lost seven of their matches outright; although they took first innings points in the eighth they would probably have lost that had there been enough time to play it to a finish. Wisden commented succinctly: “they withdrew at the end of the season.” The semi-finals were contrasting affairs. Lancashire 2nd XI thrashed Hertfordshire by an innings and 77 runs as the winners of the East group were dismissed for just 85 and 101, but Glamorgan had a much harder task in seeing off Surrey 2nd XI – they conceded a first innings lead of 52 runs before securing victory by 4 wickets. The final took place in Cardiff, commencing on 9 September, and was comfortably won by the visiting Lancashire 2nd XI, who thereby became Champion County. During the season 51,175 runs were scored at an average of 17.92 compared with 59,099 in 1906 at 19.71 and 53,422 in 1905 at 20.92. Match 30, between Lancashire 2nd XI and Staffordshire was abandoned without any play and there were six matches out of 93 in which a full day's play was lost (compared to three matches in 1906). Two matches (number 41, between Durham and Lincolnshire and number 76, between Staffordshire and Durham) were completed within a single day's play. As listed above on page 5, five rather than three points were awarded for a win and three rather than two for a lead on first innings. Leading Performances The most prolific batsman of the season was Norman Riches of Glamorgan who amassed 613 runs at 51.08 and made the season's highest score of 217*. The averages were topped by Edgar “Tegger” Elliott of Durham, whose 539 runs were scored at 107.80 per dismissal. Both Riches and Elliott recorded two centuries, as did William Spring of Surrey 2nd XI (486 runs at 60.75), Alfred Hartley of Lancashire 2nd XI (566 runs at 35.37), Albert Baker of Surrey 2nd