MInor Counties Championship 1912

50 catches (5) 57 R G Cruwys Devon 53 G A Stevens Norfolk 52 H Tresawna Cornwall 51 P Briggs Staffordshire 50 G G M Bennett Berkshire 100 matches (1) 100 Davies, T Devon Final Season A number of players making their final appearance for their county in 1912 deserve special mention. G W Birkbeck – Norfolk 1906-1908, 1910-1912 (born 20 April 1886; died 19 April 1917) Gervase William Birkbeck played 38 Championship matches for Norfolk. He was a middle order batsman who, after a modest start to his career, ‘trained on’ and finished with 1567 runs, made at an average of 29.56. He scored three centuries, with a highest of 118 against Bedfordshire in his final season. 1911 was easily his best year as he made 658 runs at an average of 36.55; during this year he scored 317 runs between dismissals, with consecutive innings of 45*,89*,75* and 108. The following year he had a less impressive run of form in recording three consecutive ‘ducks’ but still finished with a batting average over 30. Birkbeck bowled only occasionally at Minor Counties level, taking nine wickets at 34.22 apiece. Contemporary reports state that he was an ‘understudy of Mr [George] Raikes’, which suggests that he bowled leg-breaks but he was never successful to the point of taking more than two wickets in an innings. In 1911 Birkbeck captained Norfolk in the four games for which Rev George Raikes was unavailable. Their form that season was poor enough even when Raikes was available and Norfolk took just two points from the matches that they played under Birkbeck. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he did not play first-class cricket, he joined the family banking business and, when the Great War broke out, he signed up with the 1/5th Norfolks. He attained the rank of captain but met his end in Palestine, where he was taken prisoner by the Turks and was thought to have been shot. He was very distantly related to both ‘Butch Cassidy’ and George Orwell. G Elsey – Northumberland 1896-1912 (born 24 October 1867; died 14 January 1941) George Elsey played 110 Championship matches for Northumberland scoring 1443 runs at an average of 13.87 and taking 419 wickets at an average of 18.26. A right arm medium-fast bowler, in all matches for the county he took 437 wickets, a total that places him fourth in the all- time list of Northumberland wicket-takers. He took 10 wickets in a match on 8 occasions and his best analysis was 13 for 65 against Staffordshire at Jesmond in 1911. It was Staffordshire’s only defeat in their Championship winning season, with Elsey’s figures slightly better than SF Barnes who also took 13 wickets in the match. His best figures in a single innings were 8 for 25 against Cheshire at Chester in 1910. Born in Reigate in Surrey in 1867, Elsey showed great promise as a schoolboy cricketer and when only fifteen took 6 for 38 against Croydon, a team that included several county cricketers. This brought him to the attention of Surrey and he was added to their groundstaff. However despite many excellent performances with the bat and ball, he could not force himself into Surrey’s strong county XI. So in 1893 he travelled north to become a professional with the Elswick Work’s Club in Newcastle. He spent three seasons with the club, taking an amazing 285 wickets at an average of 7 in his final year. At this time he started his long association with the Northumberland county team. His clubs included 11