Minor Counties Championship 1914

consisted of two parts; he played in almost every Championship match up to the end of 1898 but did not reappear until 1902. In 1899 he toured Australia with the British Lions Rugby Union Team, playing at halfback. He featured in all four internationals and was judged to be the outstanding player of the tour. He remained in Australia afterwards and played cricket for the Valley District CC. In 1899, he featured in one first-class match for Queensland: in an innings defeat against New South Wales he scored 0 and 10. He served in the Boer War with the 4th Queensland Mounted Infantry before returning to Britain. In World War One he was a captain in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and was killed in action during the fourth Battle of Doiran in Macedonia. His father, John, had played for Durham and his sons, Charles Lodge and John Alfred also represented the County. E E Apthorp – Bedfordshire 1900-1914 (born 24 September 1877; died 31 March 1942) Born at Pott Shrigley in Cheshire, Edmund East Apthorp was the regular wicket-keeper for Bedfordshire before the First World War. He made 74 appearances for the county and was captain in 1913 and 1914, succeeding Herbie Orr. He took 140 catches and 33 stumpings for the county. As a hard hitting lower order batsman he scored 1,670 runs at 16.37 with a top score of 120 not out against Cambridgeshire at Cambridge in 1910. Educated at Malvern and Queens College, Cambridge, he played in University trial matches but did not play any first- class matches. However he was a Golf Blue in 1898, 1899, and 1900, being captain in his final year. After leaving Cambridge he joined Dunstable Grammar School where he became Assistant Master and was joint cricket coach with William Brown, another Bedfordshire county player. In 1929 he left the school to assist his cousin in the management of his estate at Langton in East Riding, Yorkshire. It was here that he died in 1942 aged 64. W J Bancroft – Glamorgan 1896-1914 (born 2 March 1871; died 3 March 1959) William James (Billy) Bancroft played 162 Minor County championship matches scoring 5,851 runs at an average of 24.68 and taking 145 catches (these figures include Glamorgan's match against Worcestershire in 1896 that is excluded from the records in this series). Bancroft was both Glamorgan’s first professional player, and one of the leading sportsmen in Wales during the late Victorian and Edwardian era. A cobbler by trade, Bancroft played rugby and cricket for his native Swansea, often alongside his father William, who had been a leading player with the early Glamorganshire club. Billy Bancroft won a total of 33 Welsh rugby caps, in consecutive internationals from 1890 until 1901, besides leading Wales on eleven occasions. He played chiefly at fullback, and his amazing kicking, in the era of heavy leather balls, was legendary, with Bancroft being able to drop or place kick a ball with unerring accuracy. He made his debut as an eighteen year old in Glamorgan’s first ever match in 1889 against Warwickshire at Cardiff Arms Park, and he regularly won selection in the Glamorgan side for their subsequent friendlies. By the mid-1890s, the Welsh county were looking to appoint their first ever professional cricketer, and it was fitting that the committee opted for the multi-talented Bancroft. He did not let the Glamorgan officials down as he developed into one of the finest all-rounders in Minor County cricket, batting and bowling right-handed, and also keeping wicket if Glamorgan were short of a specialist keeper. During his overall career for the Welsh county, Bancroft scored 8,250 runs, including seven centuries, and in 1903 he scored a career best 207 against Berkshire on his home ground at Swansea. He also acted as groundsman at St. Helen’s for many years, living in a cottage at the Swansea ground, and his younger brother John also played for Glamorgan from 1908 until 1922. After retiring from county cricket in 1914, Billy Bancroft helped to coach many young players, including Gilbert Parkhouse, who went on to play Test cricket for England. 12