MInor Counties Championship 1912

The five other bowlers who took five or more five-wicket hauls were E H D Sewell of Buckinghamshire (with six), Billy Light of Devon, Charles Webb of Dorset, Harry Creber of Glamorgan, and Harry Mitchell of Wiltshire (all with five) . George Hawksworth of Berkshire was the only bowler to take all ten wickets in an innings, against Buckinghamshire, at a cost of 97 runs, whilst there were seven occasions in which a bowler took eight wickets in an innings; three of those hauls were taken by Whiting . Creber returned the best match figures of the season against Monmouthshire, taking 8-37 and 7-36, which gave him an overall return of 15-73. In all, Barnes and Whiting each took four match hauls of ten or more wickets, Falconer took three and Sewell , Walter Brearley of Cheshire, and Bill Coleman of Hertfordshire took two each. Herbert Orr of Bedfordshire set a new record for the most runs conceded in an innings when he took 5-189 against Buckinghamshire (despite Buckinghamshire scoring 505 runs, skipper Orr used only four bowlers); the previous record had been 7-179 by George Dunn of Hertfordshire against Buckinghamshire in 1897, and this total was matched in 1912 by Frederick Pestell also of Bedfordshire, who took 6-179 against Hertfordshire. Quantifying the achievements of all-rounders in the established manner – by awarding one point for each run scored and six points for each wicket taken – the most successful all- rounders in the 1912 season were E H D Sewell of Buckinghamshire with 601 points, followed closely by Sydney Barnes with 588, Billy Light of Devon with 584 and Michael Falcon with 578 points. Sewell was a worthy winner as he played in just six matches, whilst Barnes and Light played in eight and Falcon in seven. The performances of Sewell and of Light were genuinely all-round in nature but Barnes ’ second place was due almost entirely to his performance with the ball as his batting was mediocre (168 runs at just 21.00) whilst Falcon ’s fourth place owed much to his total of 410 runs as he took only 28 wickets. Barnes , Light and Falcon had also performed well as all-rounders in the previous season; Barnes had finished second, Light sixth and Falcon would have been placed no lower than fourth if he had picked up a further three wickets. In a damp summer, totals were much lower than in the previous season but six other all-rounders achieved totals of over 400 points ( Arthur Newman of Wiltshire, George Wilson of Staffordshire, Herbert Orr of Bedfordshire, John Day of Lincolnshire, George Milne of Northumberland and Bill Coleman of Hertfordshire.) The ‘match double’ of scoring a century and taking ten wickets in the same match was not performed by any player in 1912. Of the wicket-keepers, Ralph Thurgar of Norfolk was most successful with 22 victims (15 caught and 7 stumped). Walter Franklin of Buckinghamshire finished second with 20 victims (taking 9 catches and making 11 stumpings, the latter being the most made in the season). Other successful keepers were Ronald Vibart of Cornwall with 19 victims (including 16 catches, which was the most in the season), Tom Davies of Devon with 14 victims (11 caught and 3 stumped), and Edmund Apthorp of Bedfordshire, whose final total of 12 victims included seven catches in a match against Wiltshire, only one short of the record held by Arthur Watts of Berkshire. In terms of catches held, five fielders held 11 or more. Eric Fulcher of Norfolk took the most, finishing with 15. Hargrave Carroll of Devon and Wally Shelford of Hertfordshire finished in joint second place with 12 apiece whilst the two fielders who took 11 catches were William Bickford-Smith of Cornwall and George Milne of Northumberland. Sydney Barnes took 5 catches in an innings and 6 in the match against Kent 2 nd XI, only one short of the records of 6 in an innings and 7 in a match, held by John Armstrong of Nottinghamshire 2 nd XI. 9