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

41 Freeman in the Chronicle, ‘For every ten weeds removed this year, there will be, say, a lot less next year.’ In 1940 absolute rock bottom was reached. The departure of TG Freeman for Cambridge (for whom he played against Oxford at Lord’s in 1941, gaining a wartime Blue) had left a large hole, which was not filled. PDA Alabaster had also left: he was due to become captain in 1940 but missed his final year at School when the School was evacuated to Repton, instead staying in Birmingham to help his father in the family business before enlisting in the RAF. The side, captained instead by RE Kirby, lost all the eight matches played. The evacuation to Repton (where home matches were played) no doubt affected the side’s performance. No averages were given in the Chronicle, but the brief report suggests that the batting and fielding were poor, and that the bowlers toiled hard without much success. Only twice did KES reach totals of over a hundred, and SJ Sumner’s 47 against Cotton College was the highest individual innings. CF Figures played in one match, against Repton Village, and took 6 for 10, and one wonders why he did not play in the other games. TA Podesta claimed 20 victims behind the stumps, the best record by a wicket-keeper up to this point (so far as is known): of these 20, 16 were stumped. He claimed five victims against Cotton College, and four in an innings on two other occasions. The July 1940 edition of the Chronicle contains an article by Podesta entitled ‘Thoughts on Keeping Wicket’. JB Guy, who had played for Oxford University and Kent, joined the staff and made 50 and took 6 for 25 for the Common Room, giving them a comfortable win. The most notable feature of the season was the bowling of GIA Taylor, who took 28 wickets with his leg-breaks in the five matches in which he bowled; no fewer than 11 of these were stumped by Podesta. Taylor took 8 for 34 against Wyggeston, 6 for 35 against Cotton College, 6 for 60 against Trent College, and 5 for 44 against Ratcliffe. Intriguingly, there is a letter in the Chronicle for 1948 from GA Stark, who played from 1939 to 1941, saying that GIA Taylor had done the hat-trick in a match against Repton in July 1940, in the course of taking five wickets in seven balls. He said that he had a cutting from the Repton School magazine recording this feat. However, there is no mention in the Chronicle of any match against Repton in 1940, and it is not to be found on Cricket Archive. Curiously, Stark described himself as cricket captain for 1942, but he did not play any matches in that season. It seems that he was appointed captain for 1942 but left School before the season began. RE Kirby was captain again in 1941, by which time the School was back in Birmingham. His side managed to draw one match, but lost all the others. The batting was lamentably weak. The total never reached three figures, and the 15 scored against Denstone is easily the lowest total of modern times: extras, with 5, was the highest scorer. Denstone having declared at 234 for three, the match was lost by no fewer than 219 runs. The highest individual score of the season was 18 by MG Fitzgerald against Birmingham University Second XI. CF Figures and GA Stark bowled steadily: Figures took 7 for 32 against PDA Alabaster’s XI, and Stark 6 for 41 against Ratcliffe. GA Pell, introduced into the team as a very young player, showed promise. EJ (Tiger) Smith, the Warwickshire wicket-keeper, who had played in eleven Test Matches for England before World War I, began coaching during