Minor Counties Championship 1913

mainstay of the Bucks batting, regularly coming in at number four in his early days. Though his performances tailed off towards the end of his career, he still amassed 4,763 runs at an average of 22.25 with four centuries, the best of them 148 against Hertfordshire at Aylesbury in 1900, at the time the highest score recorded for the county. In his final season Wright, with 34, helped W.B. Franklin add 141 for the ninth wicket against Hertfordshire at High Wycombe, still a county record. Wright’s final match for the county was marked by a presentation of a silver salver and a framed illuminated address. The Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev E D Shaw, who had played for the county when he was vicar of High Wycombe, was able to eulogise about Mat Wright the man as much as the cricketer. Wright continued to help with coaching at Eton until 1936, by which time he had for several years served as a councillor for the Royal Borough of Windsor. He died at Windsor on 13 May 1949 at the age of 90. THE BOOK The Match Scores The scores are presented in the same format as in previous books. Scorebooks exist for Devon, Durham and Staffordshire. Yearbooks for Kent, Staffordshire and Surrey were also referenced. As in previous years, newspapers remain the main source of information, with over ninety being consulted in researching the scores. Missing Details There was one match in which the bowling analyses were largely incomplete: Match 57 between Monmouthshire and Cornwall at Abergavenny. The Cornwall bowling figures in the Monmouthshire innings were not reported and have been calculated from the published end of season averages. Unfortunately, it has proven impossible to reconstruct Monmouthshire’s bowling figures. There are also two instances where bowling analyses did not add correctly. The matches concerned were:- Match 13 – Bedfordshire v Suffolk at : Bedfordshire innings – Suffolk runs conceded 1 run short Match 82 – Dorset v Wiltshire at Poole: Wiltshire second innings – Dorset runs conceded 4 runs short The Averages As in previous years the averages are provided in two forms – by county and by player. In both cases they are listed in alphabetical order. 472 players took part in the season, compared with 454 in 1912 and 522 in 1911. In the averages the symbol * indicates a not out innings, + denotes a player making his debut for his team in 1913, of which there were 137, and a name in bold denotes a player making his final appearance for his team in 1913, of which there were 182. An addendum and corrigendum for previous seasons, which list details found since the previous issue, is included after the statistical survey of the season. 15