Minor Counties Championship 1909

9 The Championship Newcomers, Nottinghamshire 2nd XI, made a great start to their career in the Championship by finishing top of the North Division, although they won only six games whilst Staffordshire, who finished equal second with Yorkshire 2nd XI, triumphed in seven matches. Cheshire, the other debutants, were much less successful, winning just one match. In the South Division, seven wins were enough to ensure Wiltshire the top position. Surrey 2nd XI finished close runners up, with triumphs in five matches and a first innings lead in two further games. The West Division was similar to that of the South in that it featured both a clear winner and second place; with six wins, Glamorgan finished just ahead of Devon, who recorded five wins, and progressed to the semi-finals for the third year in succession. Having been transferred to the East Division, Lincolnshire promptly won it, their seven victories leaving them well clear of Hertfordshire, who won only four matches. Two teams finished winless; Berkshire suffered seven outright defeats and lost their eighth match on the first innings whilst Carmarthenshire were also bested six times; they did take first innings points in one match (although abject, their display was an improvement on the year before when they failed to secure a single point). The semi-finals (Matches 101 and 102) were both low-scoring affairs. In a match spoilt by rain, Glamorgan’s first innings total of just 136 was comfortably enough to beat Nottinghamshire 2nd XI, whose only completed innings reached a mere 92. In the other semi-final, Wiltshire beat Lincolnshire by 128 runs (a massive victory in the context of the match). In the final (Match 103) Wiltshire beat Glamorgan. Again, both first innings were low-scoring but, in the third innings, Wiltshire managed to run up a total of 297, which was enough to secure the title by a margin of 164 runs. During the season 54,791 runs were scored at an average of 17.76 compared with 60,674 in 1908 at 20.17 and 51,175 in 1907 at 19.72. There were eight days in which there was no play whatsoever, compared to three such days in 1908 and eight in 1907. The first day’s play was lost in three matches, one of which was completed on the second day alone (Match 17: Surrey 2nd XI against Buckinghamshire), and another was the semi-final between Glamorgan and Nottinghamshire 2nd XI, for which three days were allocated. The second day’s play was lost in five games; four of those matches constituted four of the five fixtures in which no decision was reached. In addition to the second-day victory of Surrey 2nd XI over Buckinghamshire referred to above, another seven matches were completed within a single day's play (Matches 21, 31, 35, 38, 65, 69 and 80) whilst the semi-final, between Wiltshire and Lincolnshire, was completed within two of the three days set aside. As in 1907 and 1908, five points continued to be awarded for a win and three for a lead on first innings. Matches in which a decision was not reached on the first innings were ignored. Leading Performances 1909 was a poor year for batsmen, both in terms of aggregates compiled for the season and of sizeable individual innings compiled. The averages of those who played a significant number of innings were topped by Stanley Nicholson of Wiltshire, whose average owed much to remaining ‘not out’ as many as five times in 13 knocks. Only three batsmen passed 500 runs for the season and their statistics were not outstanding; Norman Riches of Glamorgan topped the aggregates with 532 runs at 48.36, Harry Tresawna of Cornwall totalled 508 runs at 36.28 and Len Reid of Cambridgeshire made 502 at 38.61. Four other batsmen amassed 475 or more runs: Percy Briggs of Staffordshire (480 runs at 32.00), Edward Phillips of Monmouthshire