Minor Counties Championship 1909

8 Close Of Meeting –The meeting concluded with hearty votes of thanks to Mr F E Lacey (MCC), whose aid had been sought in adjudicating on the impasse arising in the Western Division, and to Mr Buxton for presiding. Fixtures The list of fixtures for the “Second Division Championship” for the 1909 season was published in The Sportsman following its account of the Annual General Meeting. Umpires A meeting of some of the captains and officials of the counties contesting the Second Division Championship was held at Lord’s on December 9 in order to select the umpires who would officiate in the 1909 season; the MCC Secretary, F E Lacey was in the chair. The 11 counties that were represented were: Messrs H R Orr (Bedfordshire), W Frith Lowndes (Buckinghamshire), Major O Papworth (Cambridgeshire), W Hardy Manfield (Dorset), A Bulmer (Durham), W E Thompson (Lincolnshire), W C Hancock (Staffordshire), A W F Rutty (Surrey 2nd XI), R W Awdry (Wiltshire) and R W Frank (Yorkshire 2nd XI), with Dr J Earl Norman (Hertfordshire) as hon. sec. It was decided that the number of umpires should remain at twenty and the following were appointed:- S Atkinson *T Attewell +A F Bannister *R Barber A T Chamberlain *W Copeland *J Gregory +R Head *T H Holton *C Hughes *G L R Hutchings *M Myers *W Pate *G Perkins J Relf *A Rudd *G J Rye *J Stevens *H Walmsley *S Wrigley An asterisk by a name indicates that that umpire had been on the list for the previous year; a cross that that umpire had been a reserve in 1908. R Head and J Relf had not served on the main list in 1908 but had done so in earlier seasons. Four umpires were listed as reserves: +W Hearne, F Johnson, *F Newman and *H Willis. * T Cornwall and *B W Mason were promoted to officiate in first-class fixtures whilst C E Brown, who dropped out, would be reappointed in 1910. It was stated that Head and Willis would be: “becoming supernumeraries” – the meaning of this is obscure. Both umpires are known for 54 of the 103 matches played in 1909, with one official only known for Match 40. Eighteen of the twenty umpires on the main list are known to have officiated in at least one match. The exceptions are A F Bannister and S Wrigley. THE 1909 MINOR COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP The Counties Involved For the 1909 season, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire 2nd XI replaced Lancashire 2nd XI in the list of Counties who had played in 1908, (see page 4 of 1908 Book for details). This meant that there was an increase in the number of teams from twenty-one to twenty-two, which was the highest number yet seen. The Championship was, for the third year, organised into four divisions, with modifications from the previous year as listed above on page 4.