Minor Counties Championship 1914

“Staffordshire won the championship, and Hertfordshire, runners-up, waived the right of challenge. The many cancelled matches gave the table a somewhat ill-balanced appearance; but (except that Devon were going strongly) the counties chiefly affected could scarcely be held as likely candidates for places in the first flight.” ( World of Cricket: November 1914 ) “Last week consideration of the statistics relating to the Second Division Championship had to be postponed by reason of the promulgation of the MCC’s decision as to the destination of the title in the leading section. In that competition it will be remembered only three matches were cancelled, some considered unnecessarily, but among the minor counties the ranks were at once depleted of their crack players, many of whom already belonged to the Yeomanry or other branches, and though some were able to place a team “of a kind” in the field others had to shut down at once. August is the month in which the majority of the second Division fixtures are brought off. No fewer than twenty-five out of the ninety-two games arranged had to be cancelled. However, the order, in some respect naturally fallacious, has been drawn up on the contests actually played … Staffordshire, after the lapse of two years, during one of which the distinction was not awarded, regains the premier place, whilst Herts once more occupied a prominent position.” ( The Sportsman: 21 November 1914 ) “Interfering to a much greater extent with the progress of the competition than it had done among the first-class elevens, the War completely upset the doings of many of the second-class counties. No fewer than twenty-five matches were abandoned, nearly all those who had not fulfilled their programmes giving up the rest of their fixtures after the first two weeks in August. Buckinghamshire and Dorset, for instance, each played only two matches. Staffordshire and Hertfordshire finished at the head of affairs, and in the ordinary course of events would have played a challenge match to decide the championship. Hertfordshire, however, waived their right to challenge and so Staffordshire became champions, a position they quite deserved by reason of their consistently good form. With their programmes incomplete the places of most of the others were, in a sense, somewhat false …” ( Wisden: 1915 ) Staffordshire were thus awarded the title, with Hertfordshire placed in second and the positions of the rest adjudged to be of little significance. It should be noted, however, that, if all the cancelled matches had been played and enough results had gone against Staffordshire, one or more of no fewer than six other counties could have finished ahead of them in the final table. Those counties were: Hertfordshire (who would have topped the table if Staffordshire had lost both their two ‘unplayed’ matches), Devon, Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Dorset (who were actually placed last). But the chance that any of the potentially table-topping counties apart from Hertfordshire might have won enough of their cancelled matches to have overtaken Staffordshire is highly unlikely. Not impossible – but unlikely, given that Staffordshire won six matches by an innings, another by ten wickets, and an eighth by nine wickets. During the season 38,611 runs were scored at an average of 18.34, compared with 55,489 in 1913 at 20.01 and 41,610 in 1912 at 17.63. Unlike the dry summer preceding it, the season of 1914 saw a whole day’s play being lost in no fewer than five matches. There was no play on the first day of Match 15, in which no decision was reached between Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. There was no play on the second day of the following fixtures: Match 7 (in which no decision was reached between Kent 2nd XI and Monmouthshire), Match 52 (in which Cornwall secured a first-innings lead against Monmouthshire), Match 57 (in which Cornwell took a first-innings lead against Berkshire), and Match 58 (in which Hertfordshire took the first-innings points against Cambridgeshire). In Match 42, between Monmouthshire and Glamorgan, play was so severely curtailed by rain on 8