Minor Counties Championship 1913

strongest teams in the competition. Norfolk won the title in 1905 and 1910 and would have played in the Challenge Match of 1912 if it had been possible to arrange it, whilst Glamorgan were runners up in 1907, 1908, and 1909 and were arguably denied a place in the Challenge Match of 1910 by an unsatisfactory points system. Durham and Northumberland, who each won five of their ten matches, and Lincolnshire, who won four out of ten, also finished with percentages of 60 or above. Bedfordshire (who had finished eighteenth in 1912), Surrey 2nd XI, Berkshire, and Dorset ended the season with percentages of at least 50. Buckinghamshire fell from fourth in 1912 to sixteenth place, being defeated five times, whilst Kent 2nd XI dropped from eleventh to nineteenth, winning just one of their eight matches. Cheshire won their first matches since 1911 but Suffolk were again winless and finished last. The Challenge Match was scheduled for 1, 2, 3 September and took place at the Norfolk County Ground in Lakenham. Norfolk were without their captain, Michael Falcon, who was touring the USA with the Incogniti. Geoffrey Stevens skippered in his absence. Given that Falcon both scored more runs and took more wickets than any of his team mates in the regular season, his holiday would probably have meant that Glamorgan would have been deemed the favourites to carry off the Championship. As it happened the match was severely hampered by rain on the first two days, there being only 132 minutes of play on the first day and 112 minutes on the second. Norfolk won the toss and reached 173 for the loss of three wickets before the close of play on day one, Reginald Popham making an “excellent” 74. However, their last seven wickets added just 61 runs, leaving them with a total of 244. William Hacker and Harry Creber each took four wickets. Glamorgan had time to reach 54 without loss by the end of day two. On the final day, Norman Riches and John Tait took their first wicket partnership to 95 but Glamorgan then collapsed and were dismissed for just 168. Roderick Falconer took five wickets but Norfolk’s success owed much to Eric Fulcher. During the regular season he had been asked to bowl just 32 overs and taken just three wickets. Now he was given more to do and returned career-best figures of 22-9-26-5, with most of his wickets being top-order batsmen. There was insufficient time left for the match to be played to an outright solution so Norfolk therefore secured the Championship by virtue of leading on the first innings. Going in again, the winners may have taken their eye off the ball and they were tumbled out for just 61 in 75 minutes, Creber taking eight wickets for 33 runs. There was no time left for Glamorgan to start the fourth innings. During the season 55,489 runs were scored at an average of 20.01 compared with 41,610 in 1912 at 17.63 and 69,464 in 1911 at 21.92. Unlike the damp summer that preceded it, 1913 was an extremely dry one. Only one match saw a whole day’s play being lost. That was in match 29, between Norfolk and Hertfordshire when no play at all was possible on the second day. Despite the start of play on the first day being delayed until 2.20pm, Norfolk secured the first innings points by bowling Hertfordshire out for 47 in just 24.2 overs. Another match, number 9, in which no decision was reached between Staffordshire and Northumberland, saw just five minutes play on the second day. Ironically, the Challenge Match was severely affected by rain with barely four hours play being possible during the first two days. One match was completed before the scheduled close of play on the first day – number 19, in which Monmouthshire beat Cornwall by an innings. There was no change to the system for determining points for the 1913 season. Five points continued to be awarded for an outright win and three for a lead on first innings; teams who were beaten on first innings but who secured a draw were still awarded one point. Matches in which a decision was not reached on the first innings were still ignored. 7