Tag: Vallance Jupp

All Time XIs – Somerset/ Northamptonshire Composite XI

Picking a composite all time team for the two ‘Cinderella’ counties. Also features a photo gallery.

The new county championship season is only just over a month away, and of the 18 first class counties only two, Somerset and Northamptonshire have never won a county championship or been named Champion County (Gloucestershire have not won a championship since it was put on an organized footing in 1890, but were three times named Champion County in the 1870s). For this XI showcasing the talent that the two ‘Cinderella’ counties have produced I have deliberately avoided choosing any overseas players.

THE XI(I) IN BATTING ORDER

12 players are named here with the final choice dependent on conditions…

  1. Marcus Trescothick (Somerset, left handed opening batter, occasional right arm medium pacer). A stalwart of Somerset for many years, and a fine England career until mental health issues forced him to abandon international cricket.
  2. Colin Milburn (Northamptonshire, right handed opening batter). His career was ended early by a car accident which cost him his left eye, which for a right hand dominant player is the really important one (Mansur Ali Khan, the last Nawab of Pataudi, played on after the loss of an eye, but it was his right eye which is why he, also right hand dominant, was able to cope with the loss). He did enough before the accident to earn his place.
  3. David Steele (Northamptonshire, right handed batter, occasional left arm orthodox spinner). An adhesive number three who earned enduring fame as ‘the bank clerk who went to war’. when Tony Greig having sought opinions on which county players were hardest to dislodge had him called in to the England side in the 1975 Ashes and he responded with 365 runs in three test matches, which he followed up with another successful series against the West Indies with their first four pronged pace battery before being dropped for the tour of India due to suspicions about his ability to play spin on turning pitches.
  4. James Hildreth (Somerset, right handed batter, occasional right arm medium pacer). He never quite gained international recognition, but 18,000 first class runs at an average of 44 more than justify his inclusion here.
  5. Dennis Brookes (Northamptonshire, right handed batter). One of Northamptonshire’s finest middle order batters.
  6. Len Braund (Somerset, right handed batter, leg spinner). A genuine all rounder, one of three in this order including the captain, successful at international as well as county level.
  7. Vallance Jupp (Northamptonshire, right handed batter, off spinner). In the 1920s he achieved the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in first class matches in each of eight successive seasons, a record of unbroken consistency in both departments beaten only by George Hirst of Yorkshire (1902-12 inclusive).
  8. *Sammy Woods (Somerset, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, captain). Born in Sydney, but he settled in Somerset, and save for one series for England in South Africa which was only retrospectively granted test status he gave up test cricket having played a couple of matches for his native land. As a captain he was handicapped by Somerset’s heavy dependence on amateurs, which meant that the players at his disposal changed constantly, but still had his great moments, including leading the county to victories over Yorkshire, then the dominant force in county cricket, in each of three successive seasons.
  9. Frank Tyson (Northamptonshire, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of the quickest ever – in the 1954-5 Ashes he joined Larwood in the club of England fast bowlers to have blitzed the Aussies in their own backyard, a club expanded when John Snow did likewise in 1970-1.
  10. +Wally Luckes (Somerset, wicket keeper, right handed batter). For a quarter of a century he was a stalwart of Somerset sides, noted in particular for leg side stumpings. His lowly position in the order was forced on him by medical advice that batting was not good for his health – his doctor only allowed him to keep playing if he agreed to bat low in the order. He once scored 121* from number five, but his usual role with the bat was helping Somerset to last gasp victories, like against Gloucestershire in 1938 when hit the third and fourth balls for the last possible over for fours to give his side a one wicket win.
  11. This is the position that has two possibilities:
    a) Ted ‘Nobby’ Clark (Northamptoinshire, left arm fast bowler, left handed batter). In the 1930s he was probably as quick as anyone not named Larwood, and after the 1932-3 Ashes when England rewarded the bowling star of that series by making him persona non grata Clark did get to play for England, notably on the 1933-4 tour of India which was Jardine’s last international outing.
    b)Jack ‘Farmer’ White (Somerset, left arm orthodox spinner, right handed batter). An excellent FC record (2,355 wickets at 18.58 including an all-ten), and he was a crucial part of England’s 4-1 win in the 1928-9 Ashes, when his unremitting accuracy and stamina meant that the faster bowlers had a bit of breathing space – at Adelaide he bowled 124 overs in the match, taking 13-256. If White were to get the nod Luckes would bat at 11, and Tyson would also drop a place in the order – White was a competent lower order batter, whereas Clark was not.

This side has a powerful top five, three genuine all rounders, a great keeper who would have batted higher in the order had his health permitted, and according to circumstances either two specialist quicks to back up Woods or Frank Tyson and a great left arm spinner. Neither possible attack – Tyson, Woods, Clark, Jupp and Braund, or Tyson, Woods, White, Jupp and Braund – would be likely to struggle to take 20 wickets.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Harold Gimblett (Somerset, right handed opening batter) is designated as reserve opener, and I would not argue with anyone who picked him in the XI. Woods’ slot might have gone to Ian Botham or Arthur Wellard, though the former would have made the side more batting dominant than I would like. I wanted Woods’ captaincy which is what settled it for him. Both counties have had decent spinners over the years, but I wanted the all round skills of Braund and Jupp, and considered White a cut above the other specialist spinners.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Cave aged cheddar, which I am looking forward to sampling. The Wookey Hole, a cave system I visited some 40 years ago has its own website – click to visit.
Two muntjac just off the path that runs from Lynnsport to South Wootton.
These last three pictures were taken today, and included because they feature the first oystercatchers I have seen in 2024.

All Time XIs – Match Ups 39

Continuing my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I picked for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I created for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another. The Js currently occupy the spotlight and they have so far scored 26.5 points out of 50 (there was a mistake near the end of yesterday’s post).

THE Js V THE Ls

The Ls are stronger in all departments, though their advantage in batting is not huge. The Js have too many X-factor players for me to forecast a whitewash, so I score this Js 1.5, Ls 3.5.

THE Js V THE Ms

This is close in batting, but the Ms are well ahead on bowling. I score this one Js 1, Ms 4.

THE Js V THE Ns

The Js are well ahead in this one: Js 4, Ns 1.

THE Js V THE Os

The Js comfortably outbat the Os, and also have the better pace/ seam attack, though O’Reilly ranks highest among the spinners on either side. Jackson outranks O’ Reilly as skipper. I score this one Js 4, Os 1.

THE Js V THE Ps

The Ps have the stronger batting and the better pace attack. The spin honours are split in my view, and I expect the Ps to win this quite easily: Js 1, Ps 4.

THE Js PROGRESS REPORT

The Js have scored 11.5 out of 25 today, moving them up to 38 out of 75, 50.67% overall.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The Royal London Cup Last North Group Games

A look atr today’s Royal London Cup matches, with predictions as to their outcomes. A feature on offspinning allrounders and lots of photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This post resumes my following of the Royal London Cup, interrupted by a week in hospital. For that reason I am jot going to do an in depth examination of my last set of predictions. For the record I got three right and three wrong, putting me on 26/42 overall. 

TODAY’S MATCHES AND PREDICTIONS

There are four matches in progress today:

  • Northamptonshire v Nottinghamshire – Northamptonshire 325-7 from 50 overs.
    Substantial contributions from Vasconcelos (74), Cobb (61), Keogh (71) and Wakely (53) seem to have put Northamptonshire in control of this one. Samit Patel with 2-51 from his 10 overs was the best of the Nottinghamshire bowlers. The fact that a spinner fared best of all Nottingshamhire’s bowlers suggests that offspinner Tom Sole will be important for Northamptonshire, who I confidently expect to defend this total.
  • Derbyshire v Worcestershire – Derbyshire 351-9 from 50 overs
    Centuries from Luis Reece and Wayne Madsen, backed up by 43 of 31 balls from Alex Hughes would seem to have given Derbyshire an unassailable total. No Worcestershire bowler deserves to have their figures quoted.
  • Leicestershire v Warwickshire – Leicestershire 340 all out from 49.3 overs.
    Useful scores from Harry Dearden (69) and Colin Ackerman (74) did not look like being enough for Leciestershire, but Tom Taylor, mainly a bowler, played an extraordinary innings, making 98 not out off 56 balls to change the complexion of the game. Warwcikshire had two teenagers who supposedly bowl offspin, Liam Banks and Robert Yates, but did not turn to either of them, even though Jeetan Patel, another offspinner, had 2-46 from his 10 overs, and Alex Thomson had 1-39 from his full 10 bowling…off spin. Instead of trying the youngsters Warwickshire allowed Hannon-Dalby (3-85, so at least he got wickets), Miles (1-74), Panayi (1-85 from 9.3) and Will Rhodes (one over for 13) to get hammered. I expect Leicestershire to defend these quite easily.
  • Yorkshire v Durham – Durham 179-2 after 33.1 overs, rain affected
    Yorkshire, already certain of qualification, quite sensibly used this match as a chance to blood some youngsters (this has caused some moaning from those based on the wrong side of The Pennines, as a Durham victory would be bad news for them), and it would appear that they will face a stiff target once the DLS adjustment has been made (when the rain came Durham had 80% of their wickets and 33% of their overs remaining, so I would expect Yorkshire’s target to be in excess of seven an over, maybe more if the match is greatly shortened. The four non-regulars getting a run out for Yorkshire today are Will Fraine, a 22 year old right hand batter, Jared Warner, a 22 year old right-arm fast medium (5 overs for 32 today), Jordan Thompson a 22 year old right arm medium pacer (5 overs for 43 today) and Ben Birkhead, a 20 year old wicketkeeper. Leg spinner Josh Poysden with six overs for 27 was the most economical of the bowlers. Sam Steel made 68 for Durham and Lees was on 50 not when the rain came. Unless the rain wins this one I expect Durham to do so.

In view of the fact that Warwickshire should have used one or both of Banks and Yates and that Leciestershire already have Ackerman bowling his offspin early in the Warwickshire innings I am going to give you an extra feature looking at some…

OFF SPINNING ALL ROUNDERS

In view of the difficulty of accommodating two non-batting spinners (it either means having a long tail to the team or only having two specialist pace bowlers) it is clearly advantageous to have spinners who can bat. Here are five from across cricket’s history who played that role, bowling off-spin and batting well in the middle of the order:

  1. Billy Bates, Yorkshire and England.
    For England he played 15 times, scoring 656 runs at 27.33 and taking 50 wickets at 16.42. In all first-class cricket he scored 10,249 runs at 21.57 and took 874 wickets at 17.13. Note that his averages were slightly better in test cricket than in first-class cricket. His wickets would have cost more these days, but his batting average would also have been higher. I reckon that by today’s lights he would be a good person to have batting at number eight and bowling his off-breaks. His best test match was at Melbourne in 1883-4 when he scored 55 and then took seven wickets in each innings, including the first test hat-trick by an England bowler, as England secured an iunnings victory. His son W E Bates played for Yorkshire and Glamorgan, and his grandson Ted was involved in various capacities with Southampton FC for over six decades.
  2. George Giffen, South Australia and Australia.
    He played 31 test matches, scoring 1,238 runs at 23.35 and taking 103 wickets at 27.09. In all first class cricket he scored 11,758 runs at 21.54 and took 1022 wickets at 21.31. In the 1894-5 series, the first ever five match series, he scored 475 runs and took 34 wickets, but still finished on the losing side, Andrew Stoddart’s England winning the first, second and fifth matches to take the series 3-2. For South Australia against Victoria in 1891-2 he scored 271 and took 7-70 and 9-96.
  3. Monty Noble, NSW and Australia.
    He played 42 test matches, scoring 1,997 runs at 30.25 and taking 1, she21 wickets at 25.00. In all first class cricket he managed 13,975 runs at 40.74 and took 624 wickets at 23.14.
  4. Vallance Jupp, Sussex, Northamptonshire and England.
    Only eight tests, which yielded 208 runs at 17.33 and 28 wickets at 22.00, but in all first class cricket he scored 23,296 runs at 29.41 and took 1,658 wickets at 23.58. This included doing the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets for the season 10 times, eight of them in successive seasons (a level of consistency beaten only by George Hirst, 10 of whose 14 doubles happened in successive seasons and rivalled only by Wilfred Rhodes who twice achieved seven successive doubles).
  5. Deepti Sharma, India Women.
    A current player (indeed she is only a little older than the two youngsters who inspired this section of the post), she has not hat the opportunity to play test cricket but her records in other forms of the game (48 ODIs, 1,380 runs at 41.81 and 56 wickets at 27.39, 30 T20Is, 197 runs at 15.15 and 28 wickets at 22.92) suggest that she would fare well in the longer form, especially looking at that highly impressive ODI batting average (and her HS of 188). 

I hope that Warwickshire will give Banks and Yates opportunities to bowl sooner rather than later (and ditto Somerset with George Bartlett, another young middle order batter who supposedly bowls offspin but has been given little chance to demonstrate it), because if they become genuine bowlers as well as good batters there will be much more scope for variety in the England attack. 

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

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My new outside furniture.

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