Minor Counties Championship 1908

172 GLAMORGAN 1908 Championship matches: Played 11, won 6, lost 3, drawn 2 (won on first innings 1, lost on first innings none, no decision on first innings 1) Position: Joint first out of five in West Division, losing finalist in play-offs Won: v Monmouthshire at Newport, v Carmarthenshire at Neath, v Cornwall at Truro, v Carmarthenshire at Llanelly, v Devon at Swansea and v Cornwall at Cardiff Lost: v Devon at Exeter, v Monmouthshire at Cardiff and v Staffordshire at Stoke-on-Trent Drawn – won on first innings: v Wiltshire at Chippenham Drawn – lost on first innings: None Drawn – no decision on first innings: v Monmouthshire at Cardiff Captain: A Gibson (8 matches) – J H Brain (2 matches) and N V H Riches (1 match) led the side in the matches in which A Gibson did not play Wicket-keepers: N V H Riches (5 matches), J H Brain (2 matches), Sgt A W Thomas (2 matches) – it is not known who kept wicket in the match against Carmarthenshire at Neath Debutants: 6 (J Bancroft, A E Freethy, W S Hacker, H G Symonds, Sgt A W Thomas and Hon A Windsor-Clive) Final season: 5 (J H Brain, R H Johnson, H B Letcher, W Spiller and Sgt A W Thomas) Joint Hon Secretaries: J H Brain and H B Letcher Professionals: 6 (W J Bancroft, H Creber, W S Hacker, A Nash, T Preece and E A Preedy) Home grounds 3 : The Arms Park, Westgate Street, Cardiff (4 matches); The Gnoll, Neath – new ground (1 match); and Swansea Cricket Club Ground, St Helen’s, Swansea (1 match) Notes: Glamorgan had a good season finishing equal first with Monmouthshire and Devon in the West Division. They then played Monmouthshire for a place in the play offs but rain caused the match to be abandoned with only Glamorgan having batted. It was decided that Glamorgan should participate in the play offs which resulted in a defeat in the final by nine wickets by Staffordshire. Carmarthenshire replaced Dorset in the fixture list. The leading batsmen were Thomas Whittington with 575 runs at 44.23, Norman Riches with 398 at 30.61 and Billy Bancroft with 486 at 30.37. The bowling relied upon three bowlers – Harry Creber 79 wickets at 12.79, Jack Nash 53 at 15.13 and Ernest Preedy 29 at 13.51. Between them they bowled all but 50 of the 912 overs bowled and took all but 7 of the wickets taken. Career milestones reached during the season were one thousand runs by Thomas Whittington, E W Jones and E R Sweet-Escott and seven hundred wickets and one hundred matches by Harry Creber. GLAMORGAN MINOR COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP AVERAGES 1908 In the averages below, + after name denotes the 6 players who made their Championship debut for Glamorgan during the season. Names in bold denote that 1908 was the last or only season that these 5 players appeared for Glamorgan in the Championship. Player M I NO HS Runs Ave 100 50 0 Ct St Overs Mdns Runs Wkts Ave BB-I 10M 5I J Bancroft + 1 2 1 8 8 8.00 - - - 1 - - - - - - - - - Bancroft, W J 11 17 1 157 486 30.37 1 1 - 20 - - - - - - - - - J H Brain 2 2 0 26 34 17.00 - - - 2 1 - - - - - - - - G E Cording 1 2 0 1 1 0.50 - - 1 - - - - - - - - - - Creber, H 11 14 8 20* 75 12.50 - - 1 5 - 386.4 104 1011 79 12.79 9-56 4 9 A E Freethy + 1 1 0 9 9 9.00 - - - 1 - - - - - - - - - A Gibson 9 13 1 45 182 15.16 - - 1 10 - - - - - - - - - Hacker, W S + 4 5 1 32 46 11.50 - - - 2 - 12 2 34 1 34.00 1-7 - - R H Johnson 1 1 0 9 9 9.00 - - - - - - - - - - - - - E W Jones 1 2 0 27 36 18.00 - - - - - - - - - - - - - H B Letcher 3 3 0 16 29 9.66 - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - W P Morris 4 7 0 13 26 3.71 - - 3 1 - 0.3 0 5 1 5.00 1-5 - - Nash, A 11 15 1 44 209 14.92 - - 3 9 - 344.1 130 802 53 15.13 7-79 2 4 Preece, T 6 8 1 73 140 20.00 - 1 2 1 - - - - - - - - - Preedy, E A 11 15 1 30 137 9.78 - - 2 6 - 131.3 26 392 29 13.51 6-17 - 3 G L Rattenbury 3 4 0 26 49 12.25 - - - - - 38 8 105 5 21.00 2-23 - - N V H Riches 10 15 2 114* 398 30.61 1 1 - 10 5 - - - - - - - - W Spiller 1 2 0 3 3 1.50 - - 1 - - - - - - - - - - E R Sweet-Escott 6 8 0 66 162 20.25 - 1 - 2 - - - - - - - - - H G Symonds + 9 13 1 38 176 14.66 - - 3 3 - - - - - - - - - Sgt A W Thomas + 2 3 1 19 24 12.00 - - - 2 1 - - - - - - - - H Thomas 3 4 0 25 38 9.50 - - 1 4 - - - - - - - - - T A L Whittington 9 13 0 188 575 44.23 1 3 - 4 - - - - - - - - - Hon A Windsor-Clive + 1 2 0 5 5 2.50 - - 1 - - - - - - - - - - Extras/Sub/RO - - - - 147 - - - - - - - - 164 2 - - - - Total 121 171 19 188 3004 19.76 3 7 19 87 7 912.5 270 2513 170 14.78 9-56 6 16 (24 players) (6 ball overs) FINAL SEASON FOR COUNTY – CHAMPIONSHIP CAREER AVERAGES These 5 players made their last appearance for Glamorgan 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 J H Brain 1897 94 142 11 117 3291 25.12 3 15 11 82 40 93 55 0 - - - - R H Johnson 1902 5 8 1 21* 53 7.57 - - 3 1 - 18 18 0 - - - - H B Letcher 1897 63 96 8 75 1356 15.40 - 6 17 35 - 1095 686 27 25.40 5-45 - 1 W Spiller 1905 4 6 1 24* 46 9.20 - - 1 1 - - - - - - - - Sgt A W Thomas 1908 2 3 1 19 24 12.00 - - - 2 1 - - - - - - - (5 players)