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

39 GKF Holden’s side lost eight matches in 1935 and won only one, against Bedford Modern. BN Seymour was once again the outstanding batsman with 440 runs. His highest score was 88 (made out of 209 for nine declared) against a team of Old Edwardians calling themselves the Old Edwardian Statics. He was, however, the only batsman to achieve anything like consistency – the next best was RJ Garratt with 144. The real need was for a bowler to fill the gap left by Pinder’s departure, for Pinder had taken 119 wickets in three seasons and the School would have been in a sorry position without him. The gap was filled by TG Freeman, a young medium-pace bowler. Although predominantly a bowler in 1935, he was to become one of the School’s most distinguished all-rounders, and in his five seasons he scored at least 1,077 runs and took at least 135 wickets: the full figures are uncertain because no complete figures are available for the season of 1939, when Freeman himself was captain. He took five or more wickets in an innings at least 11 times, more than anyone except Manton and Breeden, and equalled only by Pringle-Brown and two players from later eras, OS Wheatley and RCJ Page. Freeman was the outstanding player in the period under discussion in this chapter. In 1935 he took 22 wickets, and in his very first match he took a hat-trick against the Common Room, dismissing Messrs D Norwood, GWC Meikle and W Barlow with three consecutive balls. (Incidentally, this was the first time that the Common Room had taken to the field against KES since 1922.) His final analysis for the innings was 6 for 23, out of seven wickets to fall. He also took 5 for 35 against JD Grice’s XI, a match in which BN Seymour scored 50. RJ Garratt bowled more overs than anyone else and took 21 wickets, including 6 for 27 against Ratcliffe, who however took the last KES wicket when a mere two runs were required for victory. DG Ball took five wickets against Leamington. In 1936 EF Twiss’s side won three matches and lost only three, a slightly better performance, although the season was not in any way outstanding. Freeman, who had increased his pace, took 25 wickets and was the leading bowler, with occasional support from a slow bowler, RS Pike. Twiss was the leading run-scorer, but totalled only 223 runs, showing how weak the batting was. He also kept wicket. The best performance was probably the 75-run victory over Ratcliffe: J Drew made a not-out 51 and there were other useful contributions to a KES total of 182 for seven declared. Freeman then took 5 for 40 to dismiss the opposition for 107. The victory over Bedford Modern was a much closer affair: KES were dismissed for 90 but all the bowlers then played a part as Bedford Modern were outed for 74. There was another close finish in the annual Old Edwardians match: after the School had declared at 179 for eight, the Old Edwardians were all out for 163 despite 64 from BH Howell. This was Pike’s moment of glory: he took six wickets to Freeman’s four. Freeman took 5 for 20 in a drawn match against Wyggeston, and EW Farr made 50 in a losing cause against Denstone. The early thirties had been for the most part undistinguished; the second half of the decade saw cricket at a very low ebb, perhaps because the move from New Street to the temporary buildings at Edgbaston, and then the evacuation to Repton in 1939, together with the impact of the Second World War, cut down the number of matches and affected practice facilities. NH Wilkins was captain in 1937, when 12 matches were played, and only two were won as against seven lost. The feature of the season was the all-round