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

23 Chapter 5 THE BACHE ERA 1902-1909 In the first decade of the twentieth century, the ‘golden age’ of first-class cricket, batting standards rose to new heights, both in first-class cricket and at KES. At KES this is shown by the scoring of centuries for the first time. Through this period three names stand above the rest – HG Bache, a wonderful left-hand bat, who later played for Worcestershire, and whose memory is perpetuated in the annual award of the Bache Memorial Trophy to the person who has contributed most towards School sport; CL Breeden, a fine all-rounder who later played for Warwickshire; and HL Higgins, who had a distinguished career with Worcestershire. TJ Tasker was captain in 1902. GEH Johnson was still at School, but had to resign the captaincy for the same reason as Wallis before him – the imminence of examinations. This was a frequent occurrence during these years. One difficulty this season was that the rather ancient shed which had served as a pavilion for the past thirty years was being replaced by a new pavilion, made possible as a result of some hard work by Rawdon Levett, the Second Master, who himself contributed £500. This building remained in use until 1964. Other extensive alterations were being made, and the School used the Edgbaston CC ground for home matches. Six games were won and three lost in 1902. Messrs Measures and Manton still played a game or two, but in general standards were higher and the School itself could produce a good side. Manton scored 91 in the opening match against Kynoch’s Staff, and then Measures and Manton bowled out the opposing side. Batting failures were the cause of some of the losses, but the batting in general was fair, and against Warwick King Edward’s began with 77 in 35 minutes and finished with 140 for two. Denstone, always one of the strongest of the School’s opponents, only just won a very close match: after KES were all out for 84, Denstone were 61 for 9, mainly due to the bowling of TJ Tasker (6 for 38) before a last-wicket partnership brought victory. During the season as a whole, HS Tasker scored 166 runs (average 27.67), WG O’Donoghue 188 runs (average 26.85), and two others scored more than a hundred runs. GEH Johnson (described as a fast off-break bowler) bowled most overs and took 25 wickets, and WG O’Donoghue (medium-pace leg-breaks) 18. Perhaps surprisingly, in view of his performance against Warwick, TJ Tasker only took 14 wickets during the season. TJ Tasker remained as captain in 1903, and his team won eight matches. One of the most potent factors in this success was a new slow left-arm bowler, LG Browett, who took 61 wickets and bowled much more than anyone else. Sir Leonard Browett, as he later became, was a very distinguished civil servant – Permanent Secretary first at the Board of Trade and later at the Ministry of Transport. In the opening match of the season against Tettenhall, at the newly refurbished Eastern Road, Browett took 6 for 11 and was largely