Minor Counties Championship 1913

100 versus Surrey at The Oval in 1919. His club cricket was mainly for East Lancashire with a brief spell at Church. Victor Norbury died at Sutton in Surrey on 23 October 1972. Rev G B Raikes – Norfolk 1895-1897, 1904-1906, 1909-1913 (born 14 March, 1873; died 18 December 1966) George Raikes made his debut in Norfolk’s first ever Championship match (a fixture that he was permitted to leave after the first day in order to play for Oxford University in a successful attempt to secure a “Blue”) and, though his career lasted over a span of 18 seasons, he played in just 49 Championship matches in all. However, he was one of the most influential players in the Minor Counties game of the early 20th century, starring with both bat and ball and as captain. Having played in 14 matches between 1895 and 1897 with moderate success as an obdurate bat and a fast-medium pace bowler, he did not reappear until 1904, by which time he was an aggressive stroke- player, a skilful bowler of leg-breaks, googlies and top-spinners (a role in which he was something of an innovator), and an inspirational captain. His availability was limited by his ‘day job’ as Chaplain to the 6th Duke of Portland but he captained Norfolk in four years (1905-06 and 1910-11), during which they won two of their three outright Championships. In 1905 he led from the front, scoring 253 runs at 36.14 and taking 25 wickets at 13.80 as Norfolk narrowly pipped Monmouthshire to the title. In 1910 he had an annus mirabilis, making 679 runs at 61.72 and securing 57 wickets at 10.66 in what was probably the best all-round performance by a skipper in a Minor Counties season; Norfolk were again Champions. Raikes was educated at Shrewsbury School, where he was a schoolboy prodigy with the bat but disappointed rather at Oxford where his two “Blues” were won on his merits as a change bowler. Between 1900 and 1902 he represented Hampshire in nine first-class matches, scoring 409 runs at 27.26 and taking 25 wickets at 30.24. In all Minor Counties Championship matches he took 214 wickets at 16.21, six times taking ten or more wickets in a match, and scored 2439 runs at 33.41, scoring five centuries. At the time of his retirement his career batting average was the ninth highest in the Championship. In all matches for Norfolk (for whom he debuted in 1890 as an inept custodian) he scored 3412 runs at 30.46 and took 267 wickets at 16.09 apiece. In 1920 Raikes became the vicar of Bergh Apton in Norfolk, captaining the village cricket team with much gusto and success. Cricket was actually his second sport as he is most notable for his career in association football. He won four “Blues” as a goalkeeper, almost always receiving ‘rave reviews’, and it was no surprise when he was selected to play four times for England in 1894/95 and 1895/96. He also turned out for the Corinthians and the Casuals. His soccer career ended in 1896 when he retired at the early age of 23 in order to enter the Church. W R R Smith – Wiltshire 1899-1913 (born 23 April 1871; died 23 December 1946) William Robert Rutherford Smith played 129 Minor County Championship matches for Wiltshire taking 512 wickets at 16.32 with a best of 9-65 against Glamorgan at Cardiff in 1902. A more than useful batsman he also scored 2306 runs at an average of 14.14 with one century, 115 versus Dorset at Swindon Great Western Railway in 1903. In total he played 163 matches for the county taking 632 wickets at an average of 17 and scoring 2890 runs, average 13.96. He was a right handed bat and a medium paced bowler. Smith was born in Batley, West Yorkshire in 1871, the son of a publican John Smith who himself had been a Lancashire and Yorkshire county cricketer. William Smith first played county cricket for Worcestershire in 1889 when that county's matches were not considered first-class. He continued to play until 1893 when he took a 13