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

32 front of a large crowd, the Old Edwardians were beaten. Pascal held the School innings together with a score of 29 out of 94, WB Haworth, who had captained the School eleven as long ago as 1884, taking four wickets for 17 runs. The Old Edwardians (a strong side, including four former captains besides Haworth: JFA Ball, HL Higgins, EL Hill and BCC Tipper) were then bowled out by Brown and Mayell for 88. KES, going in again, declared at 48 for three, and the Old Edwardians were 49 for one (Haworth 31 not out) when stumps were drawn, KES thus winning on first innings. Birmingham Clergy were bowled out by Pringle- Brown and Mayell for 45, and Bedingfield top-scored with 73 out of a KES total 206 for six declared; Pringle-Brown then took five wickets for eight runs as the Clergy were dismissed a second time for 80, bringing KES victory by an innings and 81 runs. The only two matches known to have been lost were against Denstone. Pascal, Knight and Bedingfield all scored over three hundred runs, and BH Howell, LB Rawson and RA Cohen all made useful contributions with the bat. However, it was the bowlers who were primarily responsible for the success of the side. For Pringle-Brown the season was a triumph: he took 71 wickets, a record for the period after 1900, which date we may take as a suitable dividing-line between the earlier period where the wicket at Eastern Road was not so good and it was much easier to take wickets, and the modern wicket which is virtually perfect for batting unless interfered with by the weather. Mayell also did very well, taking 51 wickets, and bowling in partnership the two must have been a formidable combination. Pringle-Brown took five or more wickets in an innings on no fewer than seven occasions, including 8 for 25 (11 for 41 in the match) against Wrekin and 7 for 45 against Barnt Green CC. Mayell took five in an innings three times. Both left at the end of the year: Pringle-Brown took 131 wickets in his School career and Mayell 118. Pringle-Brown later captained the Old Edwardians for a long period. Pascal also left at the end of this year, with 1,064 runs to his name in his four seasons. He was to become a Professor of German at Birmingham University. Altogether, 1923 was a most successful season. For the first time, the Chronicle carried a team photograph of the eleven. The seasons of 1924 and 1925 stand out as an odd interval in an otherwise successful decade. No record of the results exists for 1924, but this was not a good season. As many as 16 matches may have been played, but three of the five matches recorded in the Chronicle were lost, and no matches are known to have been won. In the first match, against Barnt Green CC, KES were all out for 25. Overall, the batting during the season was better than this suggests: LB Rawson, the captain, had by far the best record with 358 runs, and he also took the most wickets (23). BH Howell was next with 190 runs, and a young batsman, WE Sandbach, showed promise. However, the batting had been weakened by the departure of Bedingfield and Pascal, and even more important, the simultaneous loss of Pringle-Brown and Mayell had left a great void in the attack. It is interesting to note that Joseph Manton played for the Old Edwardians this year, and took 4 for 18 as KES were bowled out for 154. The Old Edwardians then made 184 for three, EA Knight retiring on 100. It is worth listing the names of the tremendously strong OE side that played in this match: RG Seldon, EA Knight, CL Breeden, HL Higgins (captain), BCC Tipper, R Pascal, JFA Ball, N Bedingfield, J Manton, HG Vaughton and NA Carr.