Minor Counties Championship 1909

12 [Note: The wicket-keeping dismissals given above are those where the player is known to have been the wicket-keeper. The player may have taken other catches in the outfield and there may be catches taken by him where it is not known whether he was the wicket-keeper or not] 50 catches (1) 52 Newman, A W Wiltshire Final Season A number of players making their final appearance for their county in 1909 deserve special mention. H Barrett – Berkshire 1897-1909 (born 21 September 1873; date of death unknown) Played 70 matches for Berkshire scoring 1748 runs with a highest score of 74 against Dorset at Reading in 1906. He took 125 wickets at an average of 19.72, his best performance being 9-42 against Wiltshire at Trowbridge in 1898. He also held 40 catches. Harry Barrett played for Reading Cricket Club and Berkshire Regimental Depot as a professional. He later became a First Class and MCCA umpire. He was born on 21 Sept 1873 in Wokingham but his date and place of death are unknown. W Brown – Yorkshire 2nd XI 1902-1909 (born 19 November 1876; died 27 July 1945) Played 27 Minor Counties Championship matches for Yorkshire 2nd XI. He took 125 wickets in these matches at an average of 16.64. His best performance was 8-49 against Northumberland in 1908. He took 10 wickets in a match on 3 occasions, the last time being in his final Minor County Championship match against Staffordshire in 1909. William Brown played mainly as a fast bowler and represented the full Yorkshire side in two first-class matches; these were in 1902 against Sussex and 1908 against Ireland. His best bowling came in the first of these matches when he took three for 61, opening the bowling with George Hirst. His elder brother, by two years, was John Thomas Brown and he played in 30 games for Yorkshire. He is not to be confused, however, with the Brown of Driffield who had the identical forenames and forged a famous opening partnership with John Tunnicliffe. William Brown was born at Darfield, near Barnsley, on November 19th 1876. He never moved far from his roots and died in Barnsley on July 27th 1945 at the age of 68. A Butcher – Hertfordshire 1895-1909 (born 8 November 1863; died 17 September 1955) Played 111 Minor County Championship matches for Hertfordshire scoring 3,482 runs with 3 centuries. Overall he scored 5,842 runs for the County and allowing for the variable quality of the wickets at that time, his average of 22.15 was a creditable one. Arthur Butcher was the outstanding player for Tring for many years. He typified the well-to-do amateur sportsman of the time; playing golf off a low handicap, he was an early member of Berkhamsted and West Herts Golf Clubs. His careful stodgy batting brought him many runs and earned him a place in the County team in 1884. He remained a stalwart member of the team until 1909. At Aylesbury in 1901, he scored 131 and 36 not out against Buckinghamshire and in 1907 200 not out against Cambridgeshire. Those were his best two years; in both he was second in the batting with an average of just under 40. He joined the County Committee in 1891, was briefly Secretary in 1896 and then continuously a Vice-President for nearly sixty years. He was born on 8th November 1863 in Tring and died on 17th September 1955 in Kensington. A Gibson – Glamorgan 1902-1909 (born 1874; date of death unknown) Played 52 matches for Glamorgan in the Minor Counties Championship scoring 1011 runs at an average of 14.44. He made 2 fifties, both scores of 58, against Devon in 1905 and Northumberland in 1906. Arthur Gibson was the man who had followed in Jack Brain’s footsteps as captain of Glamorgan CCC in 1908 and then played a key backroom role in the