A History of Cricket at King Edward's School, BIrmingham

16 by the narrow margin of eight runs. Manton was the outstanding player in 1889, with 165 runs and 91 wickets, ‘even surpassing all his successes of former years’, as the Chronicle put it. He took five or more wickets in an innings no fewer than nine times. Williams batted admirably for 282 runs, exceeding Wood’s 1887 total, A Butler made 212, Ryder 191 and two other batsmen plus Manton made more than a hundred. PG Mason and J Taplin were the bowlers who provided effective support for Manton, so much so that the bowling of Williams was not really needed. (WP Snow had taken over as the regular wicket-keeper.) In 1890 KES acquired the services of Walter Richards of Warwickshire, and he proved a good professional and a sound coach. Much information about this season is available, since the scorebook for the seasons 1890 to 1892, written in a beautiful hand and excellently preserved by the scorer, was presented to the School in 1965 and placed in the Library Archives. Only six matches out of 14 were won, but this was a good season nevertheless. The quality of the batting was now high: on nine occasions the century was reached. The Old Edwardians were beaten by 32 runs, and Tettenhall were soundly defeated on a first innings basis. In this game, Manton (69) and Ryder (42) shared in a partnership of 91, and with good batting from the tail the total reached 31. Manton then took 6 for 7 and Tettenhall were all out for 31. Following on, Tettenhall reached 66 for seven by the time stumps were drawn: after Manton had taken two wickets, others were allowed to have a bowl. In the season overall, Manton was not perhaps quite so successful as in the previous year, taking only (only!) 57 wickets (which may be the reason fewer matches were won), but he still managed to head both the batting and the bowling averages, scoring 322 runs, exceeding the record set by Williams the previous year, and taking five or more wickets in an innings on seven occasions. Williams himself made 234 runs, in what proved to be his last season. He shines only a little less brightly than Manton in this period; he later played five matches for Warwickshire in 1897 and 1898, and also played for WG Grace’s London County in 1902 and the Gentlemen in 1905. Ryder, Mason, AE Sherrey and AE Measures all made over a hundred runs, and Williams, Mason and Taplin were the other main bowlers. The side also acquired a good wicket-keeper in H Walford. The season of 1891 was described by Andrews in 1895 as ‘Manton’s famous year’, and so it was. Under Manton, captain of the side in his final year, 13 matches were won out of 19 played – a record not equalled until 1984 and not exceeded until 2002. Only one match, against Dudley Docker’s XI, a very strong side, was lost. Three of the draws could well have resulted in victories. Furthermore, Rowland Williams was ill and unable to play; his presence would have greatly strengthened the side, but even without him the School had its best season ever. Olton CC were dismissed for 16, Trinity College Stratford for 23, Tettenhall for 22 and 19 (KES winning by an innings and 70) and Leamington for 16. Denstone were soundly beaten. Manton made 92 out of 153 against Olton – the highest individual score yet made for the School. The Old Edwardians were twice overwhelmed. The Masters, who had the assistance of AFA Lilley, at that time a young professional with Warwickshire, but who in the next 20 years was to keep wicket for England 35 times, could only make 53 (Lilley 24), following which the School proceeded to make 194. Finally, faced with a total of 240 for seven declared by Warwickshire Club and Ground, the School made 114 for five and were by no means outclassed.