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

52 However, perhaps the most interesting victory came in the match against Bromsgrove. Put in after losing the toss, KES made 102, M Wilkins top-scoring with 32 and only two others making double figures. Bromsgrove were dismissed for 93, with RG Dauncey taking 6 for 33 and AC Smith wrapping up the tail with 3 for 36. Wilkins, Williams and Saxon all scored fifties in drawn matches. PD Watts, later to play for Northamptonshire, played for Bedford Modern in another drawn match and scored 39 and took 4 for 41. The last match, against the Old Edwardians, was a fitting climax to the season. After the Old Edwardians had made 204 for two declared (BC Homer 101 not out), the School finished just short with 200 for eight, Smith making 90 in his last match. In the batting, Smith was in a class of his own, but PF Williams made 308 runs and M Wilkins 299, and Mulford and Davies also batted usefully. ELB Saxon’s batting, in his last year, proved disappointing, but he bowled his leg-breaks to advantage. Mulford took the most wickets, 31, but RG Dauncey, a fast bowler, made an encouraging start with 20 wickets. ANB Davies did not live up to expectations. Smith and Saxon both departed at the end of the season; Smith, who had scored 1,086 runs for the School, played for Warwickshire Second XI later in the season. J Mulford became captain in 1956, and marked the end of this great period in School cricket with eight matches won, as against only four lost. Mulford had some useful players remaining from the 1955 side, and a few good newcomers. Dauncey remained to open the bowling, and he was joined by JS Pendry. Mulford’s off-breaks were supported by a new leg- spinner, AEH Hornig. The major batsmen were Mulford, Williams, Wilkins (who had also taken over as wicket-keeper following the departure of AC Smith), Davies, and a new batsman, GE Phillips. Victory in the matches won was generally achieved by good contributions from several players, rather than outstanding individual performances, but Pendry took 5 for 46 against Trent College and Hornig 5 for 43 against Malvern; Davies made 59 not out against Solihull and Williams 66 not out against Bromsgrove. Some of the best performances came in matches in which the School were unable to force victory, such as Hornig’s 6 for 14 against KEGS Five Ways: 59 from MJ Disney and 43 from Phillips enabled KES to declare at 199 for six, but in spite of Hornig’s efforts Five Ways escaped defeat, ending on 85 for eight. There were some good batting displays in other drawn matches: against Warwickshire Nursery XI, Phillips (69) and Mulford (50 not out) enabled the School to declare on 207 for four, but the KES bowlers could not take more than four wickets; Williams (78) and Wilkins (49 not out) starred in another good batting display against Denstone. A heroic effort by Dauncey, who took 6 for 46, just failed to bring about victory against Wyggeston: KES were all out for 145, and Wyggeston scraped home with one wicket to spare. The quality of the batting is shown by the fact that seven players averaged over 20, four of them scoring over three hundred runs: Mulford 396, Wilkins 363, Williams 341 and Phillips 309. The spinners did most of the bowling, Mulford taking 38 wickets and Hornig 37; apart from his effort against Wyggeston, Dauncey had a disappointing season. So ended an era which I judge to be the greatest decade in the history of School cricket. There were many great players, as a ‘best eleven’ from this period reveals: AC Smith, AJ Homer, BC Homer, PA Gough, FB Revill, GP Simpson, JL Wilkins, J Mulford, DH Benson, OS Wheatley, B Lobb. The era was marked by fine bowling, very good batting, and in particular by brilliant fielding.