Minor Counties Championship 1908

9 SUFFOLK: have improved prospects as Mr H Bassett, Captain Wilson and Mr S Hill-Wood will become qualified. Home games will take place at Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Felixstowe, the last-named ground also hosting a game against the Free Foresters THE 1907 MINOR COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP The Counties Involved For the 1908 season, Carmarthenshire replaced Worcestershire 2nd XI in the list of Counties who had played in 1907, (see pages 8-9 of 1907 Book for details). This meant that there was no increase in the number of teams from twenty-one, which remained the highest number yet seen. The Championship was, for the second year, organised into four divisions, with modifications from the previous year as listed above on page 4. The Championship As in 1907, one of the favourites at the start of the season would have been Staffordshire, and with Sydney Barnes being available for all 12 of their games, they did not disappoint. Meanwhile Lancashire 2nd XI, having improved from finishing second-to-last in 1906 to being outright winners of the Championship in 1907, reverted to type in 1908 and finished bottom of the North Division. They did at least record two victories, unlike newcomers, Carmarthenshire, who made a very disappointing debut, failing to take any points at all. None of the Divisions produced clear winners. Staffordshire topped the North Division despite winning fewer games outright than Durham (five as opposed to six) as they obtained a lead on first innings in four matches whereas Durham failed to take any points at all by this method. A similar result occurred in the East Division where most wins (four) were recorded by Bedfordshire and Suffolk but Hertfordshire finished top with just three outright wins, their three triumphs on first innings being narrowly sufficient to ensure them first place. Yet again, in the South Division, Wiltshire and Surrey 2nd XI both finished with six wins but the former progressed, having taken a first innings lead in another match whilst the latter took none. The closest Division was the West, in which Glamorgan, Monmouthshire and Devon all finished with six wins. The South Wales Daily News reported that the MCC Secretary, F E Lacey, “decided that Monmouthshire, by reason of their superior batting average, and Glamorgan, who claimed priority on the grounds of their having been semi-finalists last year, should meet to decide who should play Wiltshire in the semi-final.” This match is commonly referred to as an “eliminator”. Arrived at by most unsatisfactory means, the match itself presented further problems for the administrators as, unfortunately, rain limited play to 150 minutes on the first day, during which there was only time for Glamorgan to be dismissed for 138. In another move that was far from satisfactory, it was decided that they should progress as they had reached the final in the previous year. Glamorgan were thus extremely fortunate in finding themselves adjudged semi-finalists. Just as the “eliminator” for the West Division was significantly affected by the rain, the rest of the knock-out stages of the competition were severely disrupted by rain, which both limited the hours of play and adversely affected the state of the wickets. In the first semi-final, Staffordshire scored 231 runs in their first innings against Hertfordshire, whose notionally strong batting then failed twice. They scored just 41 and 43, the follow-on not being enforced. Having been exceedingly fortunate to reach the semi-final, Glamorgan played against Wiltshire; rain prevented any play on the first two days and it was agreed by the captains that the match should be settled on the first innings; Wiltshire were dismissed for 41 and Glamorgan duly progressed comfortably.