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

64 Lee with 13. J Walker-Roberts played six matches and had a moment of glory against JB Guy’s XI. The batting was strong, despite the loss of WR Sykes and JD Rees, the 1964 opening pair. The captain was the leading batsman with 575 runs at an average of 47.91; PA Bowes and MW Davis (the new opening pair), AM Paul, JS Lee (a brother of TP Lee, the 1959 captain) and SA Shaw all made over two hundred runs, and GK Rand would have done so also but for an unfortunate accident just as he was coming into form. Bowes, who was vice- captain, revealed some fine attacking shots for the first time, and his wicket-keeping reached a very high standard with 26 dismissals – so far as is known, no wicket-keeper had previously made as many. Davis had a good first season in the side, and also made a reputation as a close fielder. JS Lee suddenly found his batting form halfway through the season. AM Paul never quite realised his full batting potential, and was out lbw rather often (nine times in all), but his fielding was brilliant. Shaw proved a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, and J Pickering and CW Bryan were two young players who held considerable promise for the future. All in all, while the batting (apart from Barnfield, who was in a class of his own) was merely useful, the side could win matches without making high totals because of the dominance of its opening attack. In the first game of the season, Nuttall took eight for 43 (all clean bowled) to dismiss the Old Edwardians CC for 108; Bowes and Barnfield each made forties to ensure an easy victory by seven wickets. Then, to celebrate JB Guy’s twenty years in charge of cricket, and the fine new pavilion which had been built to replace that erected in 1902, KES played a match against the following eleven: AC Smith, P Vernon, PA Gough, BC Homer, JL Wilkins, CM Edwards, M Wilkins, JB Guy, OS Wheatley, RCJ Page, B Lobb. Smith was bowled by Nuttall for a duck, and JB Guy’s XI were bowled out for 126, J Walker-Roberts registering his best innings return with 6 for 39. KES made 90 for seven and the match finished in a draw. Councillor RI Scorer officially opened the new pavilion during the tea interval. KES proceeded to win games against Bromsgrove and Solihull; then three in a row against Trent College, King’s Grantham, and KEGS Five Ways, and then against the Common Room in the final match before Cricket Week. The most one-sided victory was against King’s Grantham: KES declared at 176 for six (Bowes, with 55, and Paul, with 71, putting on 112 for the third wicket) and then Taylor skittled Grantham for 29. Taylor and Nuttall bowled unchanged, Taylor taking 8 for 11 in 7.4 overs. Nuttall played a large part in three of the other wins, with 5 for 14 against Bromsgrove, 4 for 29 against Solihull, and 5 for 30 against Five Ways. Nuttall and Taylor were responsible for a narrow victory over the Common Room after KES were out for only 73: they each took four wickets, the last man, DB Ganderton, being run out by Rand with the Common Room three runs behind. Nuttall also took 5 for 24 against Tudor Grange, his fifth bag of five or more wickets this season, and his tenth in all: only Manton, in the very different conditions of the nineteenth century, Breeden, Pringle-Brown, Page and Wheatley have taken five or more wickets in an innings on more occasions. There were some close finishes. In the game against Repton Second XI the scores finished level: Taylor (6 for 24) dismissed Repton for 103 and KES finished on the same score with five wickets down thanks to 61 from SA Shaw; J Pickering was run out trying to get one more run off the final ball of the match. Against RGS Worcester, KES scored 188 for six declared (Barnfield 63) and RGS were 185 for five with one ball left. Two runs were scored off the last ball, but Rand