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

51 innings. At the end of the season three distinguished cricketers left. DH Benson had been in the eleven for five seasons, taking 159 wickets besides making several hundred runs; OS Wheatley had capped Benson’s tally of wickets with 163 (in one fewer season). Nobody, with the exception of Manton back in the nineteenth century when conditions were vastly different, had ever taken more – and only one bowler has exceeded these totals since. BC Homer made 1,196 runs and took a considerable number of catches. When JL Wilkins took the helm in 1954, he had a young side to develop. Besides himself, Simpson and Saxon were there to bat, Smith to keep wicket, and Mulford and M Wilkins to bowl. Among the newcomers were ANB Davies, another off-spinner, A Manders and J Manttan, opening bowlers, and PF Williams, a batsman. Five matches in all, including the opening three, were won and four lost. The most notable victory was against Denstone. Denstone declared at 206 for eight (Manders 5 for 42), but KES topped their score with 208, also for the loss of eight wickets. JL Wilkins and GP Simpson both made 80 and shared in a partnership of 141 for the second wicket. JL Wilkins also played a key part in the victories over Trent and Wyggeston, making 50 and 58; Davies took 5 for 18 in the former match. Saxon led the way in bringing victory against the Old Edwardians CC with 53; and against Warwick School at the County Ground, he scored 58 not out and M Wilkins 54, resulting in a win by eight wickets. GP Simpson also made a fifty, 55 not out in the drawn match against St Edmund Hall, Oxford. However, the end of the season was somewhat disappointing, in that KES were all out for 43 against Manchester Grammar School. JL Wilkins was the best batsman with 394 runs, followed closely by Simpson with 353. Saxon was next with 253 runs, and all had respectable averages. Mulford and Smith also made runs. JL Wilkins also took the most wickets (30), and he and Simpson were outstanding in the field. Wilkins was thus the leading player in all departments of the game, and was also a very good captain; he left at the end of the season, with 1,341 runs to his credit and an unknown number of wickets (his bowling figures for most of the seasons in which he played being unavailable). In 1955 AC Smith became captain, and three matches were won and 14 drawn, one being lost. In these results it is possible to see that the great period was drawing to a close, as evidenced by the dwindling power of the side to force victories. Yet the season was memorable for the performance of one of the School’s greatest players, AC Smith. In 16 innings he made 805 runs at an average of 57.50 – the aggregate and the average were both new records. His consistency is shown by the fact that he made 12 scores over 20: 45, 40, 107 (against Warwickshire Nursery XI), 21, 46, 102 not out (against the Common Room), 90 (against RGS Worcester), 134 not out (against Warwick), 21, 31, 41 and 90 (against the Old Edwardians). Up to this point, no one had scored as many centuries for KES, let alone three in a season; and those two nineties might easily have been two more centuries. This batting, added to his wicket-keeping (better than ever this year), and his occasional bowling – he sometimes opened the bowling before taking his normal place as wicket-keeper, or put himself on to break a stubborn partnership – together with his captaincy, made him the outstanding cricketer of the season by a very wide margin. Shrewsbury were all out for 50, Mulford taking five wickets for six runs, and Saxon (6-42) secured victory over Solihull by eight runs after KES were all out for 130 (Smith stumped for 2, one of his rare failures).