First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual 2019

4 THE 60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SECOND ELEVEN CHAMPIONSHIP AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY ANDREW HIGNELL 2019 is the 60th anniversary of the formation of a Second Eleven competition which mirrored the County Championship. Further additions have taken place with the creation in 1972 of a one-day competition, under the guise initially of an Under-25 competition, before the inauguration of a Second XI Trophy in a group format (ὰ la the Benson and Hedges Cup) plus a Twenty20 competition in 2011 which like the senior competition culminated in a Finals Day. Whilst 1958 saw the Advisory County Cricket Committee approve the creation of a Second Eleven competition, it was not the first year that second strings had played in inter-county games. First-class counties had run Second Elevens in the Minor County Championship for many years and by 1958 all bar Glamorgan, Hampshire, Sussex and Worcestershire participated in a bloated 32-team Minor County Championship. Whilst there were advantages for players from the likes of Norfolk, Staffordshire and Devon to hone their skills against up-and-coming county professionals, for many of the non first-class teams, the creation of a separate Second Eleven competition was long overdue. In fact, seven of the first-class counties filled the top ten places in the Minor County competition in 1958, with Oxfordshire finishing in second place behind Yorkshire Second Eleven, who retained their title. However, the gulf between the two teams was highlighted in the three-day Challenge Match between the two teams starting on 10 September, 1958 at Bridlington with Yorkshire winning by an innings and 50 runs, as Ted Lester made 143 and Don Wilson returned an eleven-wicket match haul. Flushed by their back-to-back victories in the Minor County competition, Yorkshire decided to maintain a team in the competition in 1959, along with Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset and Warwickshire. Essex, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire indicated they would drop out in 1960, and over time, the cost of running a team in both the Minor County and Second Eleven competition saw the others follow suit. As noted by Wisden in their review of the 1959 season “the new Second Eleven competition, designed to provide the first-class counties with an opportunity of giving their younger players and those in the process of qualifying by residence chances of more cricket, was considered an outstanding success.” The teams played either 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 or a maximum of 20 two-day matches with the final position in the table, like the Minor County competition being divided by the number of games played. The playing regulations for the competition made it clear that “the object of any game should be to win outright and no points will therefore be awarded for a