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

67 Chapter Twelve FINAL THOUGHTS Having come to the end of this long narrative, in this chapter I am going to try and draw a few conclusions about the comparative greatness of individual players. It is perhaps possible to name one season in each of the great periods when the summit of achievement was reached, yet in each case all the best players were not at their peak together – this is hardly to be expected. Therefore, is it possible to select a side representative of each era, containing all the great players of those eras? I decided that the fairest method of division was to take the ninety years since 1876 (information about the early years being too limited) and divide them into nine decades, selecting an eleven for each decade. This method in fact produces very convenient divisions in every case except one, where using the year 1906 as a dividing line cuts the Bache era in two. The following are the sides I have selected: 1876-1885 1886-1895 1896-1905 HE Mason (capt) AE Measures AT Cond WB Haworth GA Mitchell TJ Tasker (capt) AR Badger J Manton (capt) E Goodwin MA Wood (wk) R Ryder RG Bisseker E Wheeler R Williams EWC Bradfield PC Adams AE Sherrey HS Tasker J Webster JP Templeman RVN Hopkins (wk) AT Wallis GA Taplin GEH Johnson DP Malins TH Knight L Browett F Bond H Walford (wk) IW Smith T Astbury PG Mason SP Eaden 1906-1915 1916-1925 1926-1935 HL Higgins RG Seldon (capt) WE Sandbach (capt) JWC Turner LB Rawson FL Bland HG Bache (capt) R Pascal EW Elwood JFA Ball EA Knight WK Wyatt WK Brown (wk) N Bedingfield DB Thornton BCC Tipper EW Rigby BN Seymour GL Curle IK Donovan (wk) FN Bryan CL Breeden RA Cohen NAM Plowright EL Hill NA Carr DC Hills JE Catherall JE Mayell A Smith (wk) SA Eglington RJ Pringle-Brown PAT Pinder