First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual 2019

5 lead in the first innings except where 50% or more playing time is lost.” Twelve points were available for a win, and eight for those leading on first innings in rain- ravaged contests. No account was taken when calculating average points of any games which were abandoned. As it turned out, only the game between Middlesex and Hampshire at Winchmore Hill was washed out. The inaugural winners were Gloucestershire Second Eleven, with a total of 84 points from their dozen games and an overall average of 7 points. However, they were not the most successful team in the competition as the vagaries of the competition’s structure saw Northamptonshire, in second place, win nine of their 20 games and amass 108 points, but when the calculations were performed, their average was just 5.40. Despite the new competition being aimed at young and emerging players, Gloucestershire Second Eleven owed much of their success to 46 year-old George Emmett who led the side in what proved to be his final summer of first-class cricket as well as ‘Bomber’ Wells who claimed a total of 87 wickets at an average of just 9.28. He began his wicket-laden season in Second Eleven cricket with a ten-wicket haul against Glamorgan at Neath in the opening match of the summer on 4 and 5 May, with his efforts seeing Gloucestershire to a 51-run victory at The Gnoll. Later in the season at The Erinoid ground in Stroud they completed the double over the Welsh county by winning by an innings. Emmett’s team also did the double in 1959 over Leicestershire, besides defeating Surrey, Worcestershire and Kent. Whilst Second Eleven games, as today, were staged at headquarters and Test grounds in 1959, many were played at some of the lesser known venues on the county circuit, including Halesowen, Leamington Spa, Rothwell, Wanstead, Bourton-on-the-Water, Barry Island, Glossop, Flax Bourton, Mistley, Broadstairs, Chingford and Coombe Park in Bath. A decent map or AA guide was therefore an essential pre-requisite for both player and spectator alike in these early and pre- decimal years of Second Eleven cricket. Since their inception in 1959, over 200 Test and international cricketers have graced the Second Eleven competitions. Working out a precise figure is impossible though because there is not a complete scorecard of every game. Especially in its early years, the matches were quite significantly under-recorded in local or national newspapers, with the 12th men often doubling up as scorers. Spectators or watching schoolboys or girls were, on occasions, asked to help out, so it is no surprise that some scoresheets have disappeared into the mists of time. Indeed, there was no compunction by the competition organizer to keep a full record of the game because as far as compiling the all-important table and average points, only potted scores needed to be submitted rather than a completed scorecard. In the Championship alone, over 6,500 matches have been played, involving 22 teams, including a combined MCC Universities and Minor County (or Unicorns) team. What started out as a two-day competition, at a time when there was still a distinction between professional and amateur, has also evolved into matches