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

17 Throughout the season Manton bowled superbly: he took 108 wickets altogether, a record for a season which still stands and is unlikely ever to be beaten. This was a fitting climax to his School career, in which he took 365 wickets. Even though the pitches in those days were not good to bat on, and even though he played for the unusually long time of five seasons (plus one appearance in 1886), this achievement is unparalleled. The measure of his superiority over other bowlers is illustrated by the fact that 11 times during his career he took seven or more wickets in an innings, compared with five times by CL Breeden as the best by any other bowler; he took five or more wickets 39 times, compared with 17 by CL Breeden (again) as the next best. In 1891 alone, he took five or more wickets 15 times. As if this were not enough, he also opened the batting and made 451 runs, a record that was to remain unbeaten until 1910. Although rather overshadowed by Manton, J Taplin (medium pace) and AE Sherrey (leg-break) did well with both bat and ball: Taplin scored 260 runs and took 50 wickets, and Sherrey scored 205 runs and took 23 wickets. The rest of the side – LA Green, TH Knight, H Walford and others – loyally backed up these three. Appropriately, in his last year one of the School’s greatest cricketers had led the School to its first pinnacle of success. In 1892, nine matches were won by AE Sherrey’s side, but seven were lost. No averages were available for this season, ‘owing to the most culpable neglect on the part of the captain, secretary, or scorer – we cannot say which’ (School Chronicle 1892). GA Mitchell emerged as a good batsman; he scored 60 against Trinity College Stratford and apparently headed the averages (so evidently they were compiled). Knight took 70 wickets and Sherrey 60 (these are approximate figures), and both batted well. Knight’s outstanding achievement was the taking of eight B Division Police wickets for ten runs. After Bromsgrove scored 78, the School had reached 50 for one when rain made the wicket difficult; wickets fell quickly and the School lost their last wicket with the scores level. Under TH Knight, 1893 was a successful season, ten matches being won and ten lost out of 22 played. The team had lost Sherrey, Mitchell and LA Green, but was exhorted to do well by TH Knight in a long article in the Chronicle on how to play cricket. They were dismissed for 18 by Erdington CC, but Knight and JP Templeman made a stand of over a hundred for the third wicket against the Masters (the first hundred partnership) out of a total of 151 for six declared. Tettenhall were beaten by an innings. Templeman three times took seven wickets in an innings; his outstanding achievement was against Dorridge CC, scoring 72 and taking 7 for 14. Knight (425 runs and 73 wickets) and Templeman (264 runs and 82 wickets) were the outstanding players. So a great era ended on a successful note. New heights had been reached in all departments of the game. It is interesting to note that in 1893 the Old Edwardians Association formed a Cricket section. PC Adams was the captain, and AS Wood was the secretary. The first two seasons were quite successful, as reference to the Old Edwardians Gazette will testify, but unfortunately it di not last and in 1897 the section was dissolved. Happily, it was resurrected in the 1940s.