Minor Counties Championship 1914

STAFFORDSHIRE 1914 Championship matches: Played 10, won 8, lost 1, drawn 1 (won on first innings 1, lost on first innings none, no decision on first innings none) Position: First out of twenty one Won: v Cheshire at Dukinfield, v Durham at Consett, v Northumberland at Jesmond, v Northumberland at Stoke-on-Trent, v Durham at Stoke-on-Trent, v Surrey 2nd XI at The Oval, v Cheshire at Stoke-on-Trent and v Kent 2nd XI at Stoke-on-Trent Lost: v Kent 2nd XI at Gravesend Drawn - won on first innings: v Norfolk at Stoke-on-Trent Drawn - lost on first innings: None Drawn - no decision on first innings: None Abandoned due to war: v Norfolk at Norwich and v Surrey 2nd XI at Walsall Captain: B Meakin (7 matches). H Dearing (3 matches) led the side in the matches in which B Meakin did not play. Wicket-keepers: H Dearing (7 matches) and J B Russell (3 matches) Debutants: 5 (J Ankers, J J Awty, F B Clark, W T Newton, G T Skellam) Final Season: 10 (W Brown, A Bucknall, H Dearing, G Deyes, E J Johnson, W T Newton, J E Nichols, G T Skellam, L F Taylor and G A Wilson) Hon Secretaries: P Briggs and W Preston Professionals: 8 (S F Barnes, W Brown, A Bucknell, G Deyes, J E Nichols, B F Morgan, H A Sedgwick and G A Wilson) Home Grounds 1: The County Ground, Victoria Road, Stoke-on-Trent (5 matches) Notes: Staffordshire had a very good season winning 8 of the 10 matches they played. Their fixture list was increased to 12 matches by the addition of Cheshire. Staffordshire finished at the head of the Table and, as explained in the Introduction, were acclaimed Champion County by contemporary sources. The captain Bernard Meakin was the leading run scorer with 268 at 33.50. Sydney Barnes scored 230 runs at 28.75 and took 48 wickets at 6.18, down from 60 at 6.10 in 1913. John Heath scored 237 runs at 23.70 and obtained 20 wickets at 12.75. Herbert Sedgwick took 32 wickets at 9.59. The other batsman to pass 200 runs for the season was Joseph Awty with 210 runs at 26.25. During the season career milestones reached were 3000 runs and 800 wickets by Sydney Barnes, 200 wickets by George Wilson and 100 matches by William Brown. STAFFORDSHIRE MINOR COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP AVERAGES 1914 In the averages below, + after name denotes the 5 players who made their Championship debut for Staffordshire during the season. Names in bold denotes that 1914 was the last or only season that these 10 players appeared for Staffordshire in the Championship. Player M I NO HS Runs Ave 100 50 0 Ct St Overs Mdns Runs Wkts Ave BB-I 10M 5I J Ankers + 8 9 0 40 95 10.55 - - - 3 - - - - - - - - - J J Awty + 7 9 1 58 210 26.25 - 1 1 10 - 9 2 23 2 11.50 2-17 - - Barnes, S F 7 8 0 67 230 28.75 - 2 1 1 - 160.3 57 297 48 6.18 8-33 2 5 H E Bourne 5 7 0 39 112 16.00 - - - 2 - - - - - - - - - Brown, W 2 2 0 33 51 25.50 - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bucknell, A 2 2 1 3* 4 4.00 - - - 2 - 10 2 33 1 33.00 1-20 - - C H Campbell 4 5 1 41* 98 24.50 - - - 1 - - - - - - - - - F B Clark + 3 4 0 10 21 5.25 - - - - - 6 1 26 1 26.00 1-24 - - H Dearing 9 12 6 21* 94 15.66 - - 2 5 1 - - - - - - - - Deyes, G 1 1 0 2 2 2.00 - - - - - 10 2 27 1 27.00 1-27 - - J S Heath 9 11 1 58 237 23.70 - 1 1 14 - 79.1 13 255 20 12.75 4-6 - - E J Johnson 2 2 1 9* 11 11.00 - - - - - 31.4 14 47 9 5.22 7-7 - 1 B Meakin 7 9 1 116 268 33.50 1 1 - - - 0.2 0 - 1 0.00 1-0 - - Morgan, B F 4 5 2 31* 63 21.00 - - 1 5 - 57.1 16 161 20 8.05 6-24 1 3 W T Newton + 3 4 0 13 28 7.00 - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nichols, J E 10 13 1 43 159 13.25 - - 1 5 - 31 3 134 5 26.80 2-88 - - J B Russell 4 5 0 26 37 7.40 - - 1 8 2 - - - - - - - - Sedgwick, H A 5 6 2 9* 20 5.00 - - 1 2 - 94.4 18 307 32 9.59 7-53 1 3 G T Skellam + 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 - - 1 2 - - - - - - - - - A Smith 1 2 0 15 18 9.00 - - - - - - - - - - - - - L F Taylor 5 6 0 102 153 25.50 1 - - 1 - - - - - - - - - W H Twigg 4 5 0 16 39 7.80 - - 1 - - - - - - - - - - Wilson, G A 7 7 0 10 29 4.14 - - 1 4 - 144.1 41 230 43 5.34 6-22 1 4 Extras/Sub/RO - - - - 157 - - - - - - - - 187 6 - - - - Total 110 135 17 116 2136 18.10 2 5 12 65 3 633.4 169 1727 189 9.13 8-33 5 16 (23 players) (6 ball overs) 167