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

2 Thus it was that until the 1870s cricket at King Edward’s was a game in which probably only a small minority was interested. Moreover, before the appearance of the School Chronicle, written records were limited and the story is shrouded in considerable obscurity – though not as much as when these words were first written, thanks to the development of the Cricket Archive website and the match scores that have been added to it. According to Hutton, the first document we have is an old copy-book found among the Hastings papers (a collection of old papers given to the school by a Worcestershire parson who had been a boarder in the time of Prince Lee). It is entitled ‘King Edward VI School Cricket Matches (1839-1842)’. Hutton says each match is carefully entered, with the time taken by every innings, and comments on the play, for example: ‘Match No V Sept 18th 1841. Boarders v Masters. Masters 18 and 47, Boarders 79 in first innings. The day was very fine. Mrs Lee and daughters were on the ground and other ladies, altogether a capital day. Sep 11th 1841. The Boarders drew with Adelaide Club. School 36 and 48. Adelaide 42 and 42. (By the way, two Senior Classics and Admiral Moorsom were in the School team.)’ Of another match it is recorded that ‘Gibson was sulky and did not try, which perhaps was the reason our fielding was bad’; of another, ‘No byes run by general agreement’. It is clear, says Hutton, that both Jeune and Prince Lee took an active personal interest in the games. Hutton suggests that the games in the main seem to have been internal, mostly between the Chief Master’s Boarders and those of the Second Master, though ‘out’ matches were played against clubs like Birmingham and Adelaide. He says that the first recorded match against another school was that against Shrewsbury in 1854, ending in a draw, with Shrewsbury making 75 and 131, KES 94 and 16 for no wicket. All this requires some qualification in the light of the new evidence now available. By 2018, Cricket Archive had accumulated the scores of 21 games played between 1846 and 1861, all of them matches played by the School eleven against other teams. Of these 21 games, the School won 7 and lost 14. Some of the games were against local clubs, but the majority were against other schools. Appropriately, perhaps, the first recorded school match was against Bromsgrove in 1848; Wolverhampton were first played in 1850, Shrewsbury in 1854 (the match referred to by Hutton), and Repton in 1856. The School first played an Old Edwardian eleven in 1851. The first game recorded on Cricket Archive was against the Birmingham Club on 11 June 1846. KES, batting first, were all out for 57, and Birmingham secured the upper hand by making 121 in its first innings. KES improved second time around, making 78, and Birmingham lost 6 wickets in making the 15 runs needed to win. The KES side included John Conolly, later to win the VC on the battlefields of the Crimea, but the heroes in this match were RM Moorsom, who took five wickets in the first innings and two in the second, and Thompson (initials unknown), who with 39 in the KES second innings was chiefly responsible for making Birmingham bat a second time. Two years later came the first recorded victory, against the Hawthorn Club. The Hawthorn Club made 50 and 41, KES 54 and 38 for 3. Thompson was again the chief architect of victory, making 24 and 20 not out and taking 8