Minor Counties Championship 1907

10 XI (366 runs at 52.28), Wilbraham Arundell of Dorset (405 runs at 27.00) and, despite playing in just three games, the young Norfolk debutant, Michael Falcon . Apart from Riches, two other batsmen made double centuries; Arthur Butcher of Hertfordshire (541 runs at 38.64) and Andy Ducat of Surrey 2nd XI. Other batsmen to top four hundred runs were Lionel Collins of Berkshire (490 runs at 37.69), Fred Gillespie of Northumberland (457 runs at 28.56) and Charles Hooman of Devon (415 runs at 34.58). Two record partnerships for the Championship were broken during the 1907 season. Bill Davies and Bill Spring added 235 for Surrey 2nd XI's seventh wicket against Wiltshire at The Oval, passing the previous best of 212, whilst Norman Riches and Edward Sweet-Escott twice beat the previous record of 166 for the fifth wicket, adding an unbeaten 244 for Glamorgan against Dorset at Blandford and 182 against Devon at Exeter. The leading wicket-taker was, unsurprisingly, Sydney Barnes of Staffordshire, who took 79 wickets at an average of 6.39. He took 10 wickets in a match in five of the nine games in which he played, with a best of 10-26. Outstanding figures were also returned by slow left-armer James Heap of Lancashire 2nd XI, whose 69 wickets cost just 8.46 each; he too took a ten- wicket haul during the season. A most creditable debut was made by the veteran Fred Geeson from Lincolnshire; despite celebrating his 45th birthday during the season, he dismissed 70 batsmen at an average of 9.25. No other bowler took fifty or more wickets at an average of less than double figures, but the following all dismissed at least fifty victims: Jack Nash of Glamorgan (70 wickets at 11.27), Alf Morris of Durham (63 wickets at 11.49), John Broughton of Lincolnshire (51 wickets at 12.27), Thomas Smart of Wiltshire (51 wickets at 12.98), Harry White of Hertfordshre (62 wickets at 13.45), Harry Creber of Glamorgan (73 wickets at 13.54), George Wharmby of Bedfordshire (68 wickets at 13.88), Ted Leyland of Yorkshire 2nd XI (50 wickets at 13.92), George Wilson of Buckinghamshire (55 wickets at 13.96) and Billy Smith of Norfolk (60 wickets at 14.36). 1907 was not a season in which all-rounders prospered; bowlers who could bat dominated proceedings. Easily the outstanding performer was Lancashire's James Heap who scored 321 runs at 32.10 to go alongside his 69 wickets at 8.46. Other performers of note were George Wharmby of Bedfordshire who scored 313 runs at 26.08 in addition to securing 68 wickets at 13.88, Sydney Barnes of Staffordshire who totalled 226 runs at 17.38 as well as taking 79 wickets and Harry White of Hertfordshire who scored 286 runs at an average of 22.00 to add to his 62 wickets at 13.45. Of the wicket-keepers, Joseph Brain of Glamorgan again topped the list with 36 dismissals (one more than the previous year); he took 16 catches and made 20 stumpings. Tom Davies of Devon finished a distant second with 24 victims; 14 were caught and 10 stumped. Other keepers to make fifteen or more dismissals were Ben Blomley of Lancashire 2nd XI with 19, Edmund Apthorp of Bedfordshire and Tom Ullathorne of Northumberland with 17, Ernest Rowe of Berkshire with 16 and two with 15, Thomas Straw of Worcestershire 2nd XI and George Watts of Cambridgeshire. In terms of catches held, seven fielders held ten or more. Henry Shoosmith of Berkshire took twelve catches; John Bickford-Smith of Cornwall, Hubert Brunskill of Devon and George Wilson of Buckinghamshire took eleven each while the three who took ten were Harold Browne of Dorset, F red Geeson of Lincolnshire and Charles Nepean of Berkshire.