Minor Counties Championship 1908

163 BERKSHIRE 1908 Championship matches: Played 8, won 1, lost 5, drawn 2 (won on first innings 1, lost on first innings 1, no decision on first innings none) Position: Fifth out of five in South Division Won: v Buckinghamshire at Wolverton OS Lost: v Surrey 2nd XI at The Oval, v Wiltshire at Trowbridge, v Surrey 2nd XI at Reading, v Buckinghamshire at Reading and v Dorset at Poole Drawn – won on first innings: v Wiltshire at Reading Drawn – lost on first innings: v Dorset at Reading Drawn – no decision on first innings: None Captain: Sir C E M Y Nepean (8 matches). Wicket-keepers: Capt E F Rowe (7 matches), E A Watts (1 match) Debutants: 10 (R J Collins, F W L Gull, A M Holdsworth, W O Hubbard, F W Metcalfe, W F E Newberry, G V Tate, H V Whichelow, H F Willcocks and G E Williams) Final season: 5 (W Barker, J H Bennett, F W L Gull, K J Seth-Smith and E A Watts) Hon Secretary: Maj C Turner Professionals: 7 (W Barker, H Barrett, W Cave, H W Shoosmith, - Spencer, E A Watts and H V Whichelow) Home ground 1: The County Ground, Kensington Road, Reading (4 matches) Notes: Berkshire had a poor season and with only one win dropped to last place in the South Division. Dorset were new opponents replacing Worcestershire 2nd XI. Ernest Garnett finished the season with 549 runs at 109.80, this total was mainly composed of scores of 282 against Wiltshire at Reading and 202 against Dorset also at Reading. The batting of Ernest Watts and Harry Shoosmith improved, they scored 473 runs at 31.53 and 329 runs at 29.90 respectively. Once again the professionals Billy Barker and Bill Cave were the mainstay of the attack, however their combined total of 45 wickets was much less than the 82 wickets they took in 1907. The cost per wicket also rose appreciably. Career milestones reached during the season were three thousand runs by Ernest Watts, one thousand runs by Hugh Morres, four hundred wickets by Billy Barker and one hundred catches by Sir Charles Nepean. BERKSHIRE MINOR COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP AVERAGES 1908 In the averages below, + after name denotes the 10 players who made their Championship debut for Berkshire during the season. Names in bold denote that 1908 was the last or only season that these 5 players appeared for Berkshire in the Championship. Player M I NO HS Runs Ave 100 50 0 Ct St Overs Mdns Runs Wkts Ave BB-I 10M 5I Barker, W 6 10 2 20 67 8.37 - - 2 1 - 154.2 19 630 20 31.50 5-103 - 2 Barrett, H 2 4 1 36* 86 28.66 - - - - - 4 2 7 1 7.00 1-7 - - J H Bennett 1 2 0 0 0 0.00 - - 2 - - - - - - - - - - H Brougham 1 2 0 6 7 3.50 - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cave, W 7 14 3 23* 101 9.18 - - 2 5 - 210 43 607 25 24.28 7-40 1 2 R J Collins + 3 6 0 44 112 18.66 - - - 3 - - - - - - - - - E Garnett 3 5 0 282 549 109.80 2 1 - 2 - 40 7 114 4 28.50 2-45 - - F W L Gull + 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 - - 1 - - 2 0 11 0 - - - - Capt A M Holdsworth + 1 2 0 5 9 4.50 - - - 1 - - - - - - - - - W O Hubbard + 1 2 0 7 7 3.50 - - 1 1 - 2 0 17 0 - - - - T M C Hunt 4 7 1 16 42 7.00 - - 1 - - 108.5 11 446 12 37.16 4-103 - - F W Metcalfe + 3 6 1 57 100 20.00 - 1 - 1 - 2 0 10 3 3.33 3-10 - - H F M Morres 3 6 0 123 214 35.66 1 1 1 3 - 35 4 197 5 39.40 3-82 - - Sir C E M Y Nepean 8 15 0 28 172 11.46 - - 2 11 - 5 0 32 0 - - - - W F E Newberry + 2 4 1 8 14 4.66 - - - - - 17 3 66 2 33.00 1-30 - - Capt E F Rowe 7 13 0 52 200 15.38 - 1 1 9 3 - - - - - - - - F E Rowe 4 8 0 39 164 20.50 - - 1 2 - 13 0 74 1 74.00 1-34 - - K J Seth-Smith 1 2 0 5 5 2.50 - - 1 - - - - - - - - - - Shoosmith, H W 6 11 0 61 329 29.90 - 2 - 7 - 122.4 31 387 10 38.70 3-40 - - Spencer, - 2 4 3 15* 16 16.00 - - 1 - - 21 3 88 2 44.00 1-20 - - A P Strange 5 9 0 57 217 24.11 - 1 - 3 - 34 1 34.00 1-24 - - G V Tate + 2 4 1 28 71 23.66 - - - - - 8 1 28 0 - - - - Watts, E A 8 15 0 88 473 31.53 - 3 2 5 - - - - - - - - - Whichelow, H V + 1 2 0 7 8 4.00 - - - - - 15 3 61 2 30.50 2-61 - - H F Willcocks + 5 9 5 24* 44 11.00 - - 2 - - 63.1 4 279 5 55.80 2-48 - - G E Williams + 1 2 0 14 20 10.00 - - - 1 - 38 1 38.00 1-38 - - Extras/Sub/RO - - - - 171 - - - - - - - - 211 2 - - - - Total 88 165 18 282 3198 21.75 3 10 20 55 3 823 131 3337 96 34.76 7-40 1 4 (26 players) (6 ball overs) Note: In Match 38 the Berkshire bowling adds three runs over in the first innings and 12 runs short in the second innings. FINAL SEASON FOR COUNTY – CHAMPIONSHIP CAREER AVERAGES These 5 players made their last appearance for Berkshire in the Championship in 1908. Player Debut M I NO HS Runs Ave 100 50 0 Ct St Balls Runs Wkts Ave BB-I 10M 5I Barker, W 1895 96 150 51 69*1222 12.34 - 3 21 45 - 17332 8248 418 19.73 7-35 4 33 J H Bennett 1906 9 17 0 63 263 15.47 - 1 4 7 - 12 17 0 - - - - F W L Gull 1908 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 - - 1 - - 12 11 0 - - - - K J Seth-Smith 1906 7 13 2 58 208 18.90 - 1 3 2 - - - - - - - - Watts, E A 1896 85 157 12 130 3450 23.79 2 16 21 98 9 - - - - - - - (5 players)