The Edgbaston crowd is riled
Warwickshire v Yorkshire at Edgbaston, 1896.
Yorkshire 887
Warwickshire 203 and 48 for 1.
Match drawn.
When Yorkshire closed the first day on 527 for 7, a declaration seemed like a sensible idea but their captain Lord Hawke thought otherwise. In fact he allowed the innings to fill the entire second day as well, much to the irritation of the Edgbaston audience and home captain Herbert Bainbridge who used ten bowlers (including wicket-keeper Dick Lilley) and slowed the over-rate right down to a crawl in protest. His Lordship's desire to prolong the innings might have been connected to his own knock which closed on 166 (an improvement on his previous best of 157) when his off-stump was knocked back by Knack Pallet.
A fluent 126 was contributed by Edward Wainwright (not the great-great uncle of the current Warwickshire scorer) who, two years earlier, had bowled unchanged throughout both innings of a championship match against Sussex at Dewsbury.
After George Hirst ripped out 8 for 59, Warwickshire were forced to follow on but Hawke's ungentlemanly tactics had no chance of yielding victory. The Bears had only 14 overs to survive in their second innings.
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Brian Halford - Brian Halford’s look at Edgbaston.
Have a suspicion this weekend's entertainment might end in the same result unless Bears have livened up the pitch as promised - doubt it somehow for the first game.
See we're going to have to wait until halfway through the season before we know what the prize is - relegation to Conference B or whatever for finishing bottom?
Anyway, looking forward to it despite everything and wish you a good season Brian.
Cheers Droitwich and the same you to. What a pleasant change, at least, to be able to anticipate some lovely weather for the first match.
Hello Brian,
Looking forward to more of your excellent blogs over the forthcoming season.
I have a question - are the Bears signing another overseas player? If so, who? My understanding is that counties are allowed two overseas players for T20 and seemingly everyday now I read that others are signing superstar names such as Symonds, McCallum etc etc.
I'm sure I speak for many by saying it would be great for the supporters to see a genuine star of world cricket strutting his stuff at Edgbaston this year.
Hi Caveman - hope it wasn't too cold in the cave during all that snow and ice last winter.
Yes, two overseas players are permitted in T20 but, as I understand it, Warwickshire intend, at the moment, to go in with just Imran Tahir. This is partly because they are happy with what they've got but finance is a factor. Top stars are very expensive - although if one helped his side through to the Champions League I guess he would prove pretty cost-effective.
Do we need an overseas specialist anyway? Darren Maddy is surely one of the leaders in this format.
Yes Bob...as is Neil Carter, of course.
I'm starting to thaw out after a cold winter dwelling in the cave!
I trust Gilo's judgement, but it has been quite obvious that the Bears need a big hitter in T20. Sure, Carts can smash it about, but often we have failed through having no Plan B.
However, having Imran in tandem with Anthony Botha will be a huge plus.