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

50 KES had deservedly won by 178 runs. After this, Manchester Grammar School, Malvern and Solihull were all comfortably beaten. Benson took five wickets in the Malvern match. The sequence of victories was broken in the next match, against Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury were also celebrating their quatercentenary, and the two Schools met at the County Ground. KES lost by seven wickets, but made a total of 182 against some very good Shrewsbury bowling. Bedford Modern also beat KES, by three wickets, depite 5 for 47 from Revill. in the Bedford Modern side (as in the previous year) were RA Gale (who scored 40 and took four wickets) and G Millman (8 and three stumpings), while AC Smith (0 and one stumped) and OS Wheatley (47 and 2 for 42) played for KES: representatives of four different counties, three county captains, and two England wicket-keepers. RGS Worcester inflicted the third defeat in a row, but fittingly, the season ended with a three-wicket win against an Old Edwardian side that included PA Gough, JG Pardoe, BCC Tipper, TG Freeman, PT Richardson, B Lobb and RJ Pringle-Brown. One does not envy the Old Edwardian skipper the task of deciding who should open the bowling. Wheatley took seven wickets for 44 to dismiss the Old Edwardians for 84, though KES lost seven wickets in passing their total. The final tribute should go to the bowlers. Wheatley took 51 wickets, and later in the season opened the bowling for Warwickshire Second XI with B Lobb at the other end; Benson, who also took 51 wickets; and Revill, who took 43 wickets. Revill was also an inspiring captain, and left KES with a career record of 1,383 runs and 76 wickets. DH Benson, who had already been in the side for four seasons, became captain in 1953, with eight of the 1952 side still at School. Nine matches were won and five lost, despite the absence for four matches of OS Wheatley. Benson and Wheatley formed a strong opening attack, and often dismissed the opposition cheaply. Benson took 5 for 35 against Bromsgrove and 6 for 38 against Shrewsbury, and Wheatley had figures of 5 for 24 against Denstone (and 5 for 27 in the drawn match against the Common Room). Denstone, Nottingham High School, Trent College, Bromsgrove, Bolton School and the Old Edwardians were all bowled out for scores between 49 and 116, resulting in wins by the School batting second. The Old Edwardians CC were also bowled out, for 168, but Homer (63 not out) and Wilkins (59) enabled KES to secure a two-wicket win. Against Shrewsbury, the School avenged the previous season’s defeat: Shrewsbury declared at 142 for seven, but KES made the necessary runs for the loss of four wickets (Homer 55 not out and ELB Saxon 40). In some ways the most notable match of the season was the drawn match against RGS Worcester. JL Wilkins took 5 for 43, including a hat-trick, as RGS made 198, and KES finished on 141 for 6 (Saxon 52). GP Simpson made 61 in another drawn match against Warwick. JG Willcox, later to be one of England’s great rugby full-backs, made 47 not out for Ratcliffe. Despite the omission of the averages from the Chronicle, reference to Wisden shows that Benson and Wheatley did most of the bowling, supported by Homer and two young spinners, M Wilkins (brother of JL) with leg-breaks and J Mulford with off-breaks. Benson finished with 40 wickets and Wheatley with 38. The batting was not as consistent as in 1952, but improved as the season wore on. BC Homer, GP Simpson and ELB Saxon all scored over 300 runs, and six batsmen averaged over 15. AC Smith also improved behind the stumps, though it was in this season that he recorded no less than seven ducks in consecutive