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

28 at the Oval in 1922. He and JWC Turner combined in a partnership of 110 for Worcestershire against Northamptonshire at Northampton in 1921 (each batsman being not out). 1913, under EL Hill, was the most successful season of the decade. Out of ten matches, six were won. There are no proper averages in the Chronicle. JE Catherall emerged as a batsman of sorts, and together with AC Curle, fourth of the brotherhood, and BCC Tipper, held the batting together. NA Best and WA Foley also made some runs. Once again, Hill and Catherall did most of the bowling. However, there is some evidence of declining standards. Totals under a hundred were much more common: the exception was a score of 217 against Warwickshire Club and Ground, when Best made 57, Catherall 54 not out, AC Curle 37 and Tipper 31. The Club and Ground won by only one wicket, Hill taking 6 for 79. AC Curle scored 80 against King’s School Worcester, and Catherall took 8 for 6 against Bromsgrove. BCC Tipper became captain in 1914, but could only win three matches as against five losses. The Chronicle, once again honoured with full averages, shows that Catherall and Tipper (medium-fast) bowled practically all the time and took 33 and 29 wickets respectively. There were no other bowlers of note. AC Curle and V Curle, with Tipper, were the mainstays of the batting. Tipper’s bowling against Bromsgrove must be mentioned – his analysis was 16 overs, 10 maidens, 10 runs, 6 wickets. He hit 66 against King’s School Worcester. Catherall took 8 for 46 against Jesus College, Oxford. Otherwise, this was not an outstanding season. Tipper played five matches for Worcestershire in 1919; AC Curle played three matches for Warwickshire in 1920, plus one match for Rhodesia in 1922-23. PG Allday became captain in 1915. At first sight he appears to have been a surprise choice, since he had only played one innings the previous year, but the fact was that practically all of the 1914 side had left School – some of them, no doubt, leaving earlier than intended because of the outbreak of war. In fact, there were only three players left who had played at all in 1914. Allday’s young and inexperienced side nonetheless managed to win two matches out of eight played, and Allday topped the batting averages. GH Goodinson, another player who had played a few matches in 1914, took 21 wickets and bowled the most overs. VHT Boyton was a young batsman who offered some promise for the future. Boyton became captain in 1916. It is interesting to note that Walter Richards, who had been the coach in the 1890s, returned to KES at the beginning of the season to provide some coaching services. No results were provided in the Chronicle, but it was a disappointing season: only one match was won out of the seven known to have been played. CR Benson scored 250 runs and EPO Houghton took 22 wickets. Boyton himself had an extremely disappointing season, scoring only 18 runs in nine innings. Sadly, by the beginning of the next season he was dead, killed in action in France. 1917 was nothing short of disastrous. Under the captaincy of G Barrow, all eight matches were lost. Probably the war was the reason for players leaving School prematurely and the low standards. Cricket was restricted owing to the needs of local farmers, and it was difficult to obtain practice facilities. Low totals were common, and the side were a little half-