Minor Counties Championship 1914

more ten-wicket match hauls. His figures of 11-73 against Dorset in Wiltshire’s last Group match were vital in securing his county’s place in the semi-final at the expense of Surrey 2nd XI, whilst he (10-54) and Newman (10-72) made short work of defeating Lincolnshire in the semi-final In the final Mitchell took 6-48 in Glamorgan’s first innings. He was not quite as successful in subsequent seasons but did continue to take a significant number of wickets cheaply, with the exception of the summer of 1911 when he had little to celebrate. His career finished, as it started, with a bang. Due to the build-up to World War One, Wiltshire played only four matches in 1914 and Mitchell, who played in all four, took 37 wickets at just 10.32 each. In his final two matches he took 12-98 against Buckinghamshire and 10-126 against Surrey 2nd XI. In all he took 10 or more wickets in a match 9 times (with a best of 14-172 against Buckinghamshire in 1910) and 5 or more wickets in an innings 29 times. He took 36 catches but was no great shakes with the bat, it not being known whether he was left- or right- handed: he scored just 443 runs at an average of just 8.51, with a career-best of 41 not out against Buckinghamshire in 1910. As a professional, Mitchell played for Swindon (1906- 1908), was engaged at Marlborough College (1909), and then turned out for East Lancashire in the Lancashire League (1910-1911), taking 132 wickets at 14.00. Dr A F Morcom – Bedfordshire 1904-1914 (born 16 February 1885; died 12 February 1952) Dr Alfred Farr Morcom was an all-rounder who played 61 matches for Bedfordshire scoring 1,583 runs at 24.35 with 1 century, 134 not out against Cambridgeshire at Cambridge in 1911, and 7 fifties. As a right-arm medium fast bowler he took 272 wickets at 18.68 with best figures of 9 for 37 against Buckinghamshire at Aylesbury in 1906. He achieved 5 wickets in an innings 24 times and 10 wickets in a match on 7 occasions. In 1908 against Suffolk at Wardown Park in Luton, when bowling out David Mustard, the ball hit the leg stump and carried the bail over the boundary to be caught by a spectator 70½ yards away, further than the current first-class record distance for such an event. Morcom was educated at Repton School (where he later became a governor from 1936-52) and went on to Clare College at Cambridge University where he won Cricket Blues in 1905, 1906, and 1907. In the first of these matches against Oxford, he bowled Cambridge to victory by taking 6 for 41 in the Oxford second innings. In these 3 University matches he took 21 wickets at a cost of only 14 runs each. His bowling was described in Wisden as “Nearly always accurate in length, he brought the ball down from a good height, making it come quickly off the turf and introducing an occasional break-back or yorker.” After graduating from Cambridge, Morcom undertook his medical training at St Thomas’s Hospital. He became a member of the Royal College of Physicians after completing his licentiate in 1911. He returned to his home town in 1910, where he worked as a general practitioner until 1916. From 1916, he served in the First World War with the Royal Army Medical Corps, holding the rank of lieutenant in April 1917. He was made a temporary captain in April 1918, before relinquishing his commission but retaining the rank of captain following the conclusion of the war. He returned to London in 1920, later holding the position of senior anaesthetist at the Belgrave Hospital for Children. Morcom was born in Dunstable in 1885 and died in Westminster, Middlesex on 12 February 1952 aged 66. A Morris – Durham 1905-1914 (born 11 September 1876; died 29 March 1961) Alf Morris played in 89 Championship matches for Durham as a hugely successful right-armed medium pacer who could swing the ball appreciably: writing in 1983, county historian Brian Hunt describes him as “certainly the finest bowler ever to play for Durham County.” In a ten- year career he took no fewer than 630 wickets, averaging just 12.63. His best seasons were 1911, when his haul of 91 victims contained six match hauls of ten or more wickets and saw him head the list of wicket-takers, and 1908, when his total of 84 wickets included three hauls of ten or more. Morris took 24 such hauls in his career, with his best figures being 14-54 against Lancashire 2nd XI in 1907 and 14-64 against Norfolk in 1911. He took five wickets in an innings on 58 occasions with a career-best of 10-130 against Yorkshire 2nd XI in 1910. This 18