Hung Parliament and Warwickshire win

Whether the outcome of today's general election will be good news for the country will be very much a matter of opinion. Some people will greet tonight's developments with euphoria. Others with dismay. Others will simply shrug their shoulders whatever happens and cite that great truism of the 20th century: "It's better to think you're half dry than to know you're all wet." At the first election for more than three decades that is not entirely straightforward to call, we can only wait and see.

"What does it matter?" some might say. "The dire assembly of cynics, egotists, users, losers, forked-tongues and frauds that is the House of Commons will just be shaken up and down will come a different collection of cynics, egotists, users, losers, forked-tongues and frauds."

Who knows? But history does at least give us one big pointer for today; that it will be an excellent one for Warwickshire's cricketers.

At 11am, the Bears will commence the third day of their county championship match against Kent at Canterbury. Their players and back-room staff, having arranged for their votes to be registered by post or proxy, will get busy at the St Lawrence Ground, determined to keep their minds on the match and free from distractions by what might be happening to the nation.

Warwickshire's players will, to use one of the great sportisms of the 21st century, "focus". And if they do so half as did effectively as their predecessors of 1929, then they are in for a happy day. For back then the Bears and Kent were in the throes of a championship struggle when the nation went to the polls. And Warwickshire were dominant.

In May 1929 it was Kent's players who had to arrange their voting patterns around their absence from home. They were at Edgbaston on the day of the big vote, May 30. Some no doubt left a proxy vote in the hands of their wives. Another precedent there; just a year earlier the Suffrage Bill had at last given women the vote.

The match began on Wednesday, the eve of the election, and Warwickshire enjoyed a profitable day at the crease. The crowd was on the small side, as it often was that summer. Gate receipts for the season were to come in £1,408 down on the previous year as the rivals attractions of greyhound racing and speedway competed hard to attract what little money people had to spare. The General Strike was still a raw and recent memory.

But those who did attend in the Edgbaston sunshine enjoyed attractive work by Warwickshire's batsmen. By the close the Bears were 421 for seven. After Noman Kilner (71) and 43-year-old Tiger Smith (89) added 146 for the first wicket, Jack Parsons hit a fluent 70 and Bob Wyatt compiled an attractive century. While party leaders Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Lloyd George burned the midnight oil and pondered whether they would be Prime Minister the day after next, Wyatt slept soundly, unbeaten on 106 overnight.

Next morning, voters headed for polling booths up and down the country and Wyatt headed back to the crease. He advanced to 146 while George Paine biffed about to good effect for 35. Warwickshire were all out for 485. The pitch was true and the weather fine but Kent's batsmen were soon in trouble. They batted as if their minds were elsewhere. Were they wondering whether the outgoing Conservative government's "Safety First" campaign had done enough to spike anger at the recession? Were they speculating whether the Liberals, who sank without trace in 1924, would fight back? Were they worrying whether their wives had remembered to cast their votes?

Any road up, Danny Mayer took out Bill Ashdown for a duck and when the great Frank Woolley edged Derek Foster to wicket-keeper Jack Smart (Smith having relinquished
wicket-keeping duties due to deteriorating eyesight) for just three, the visitors were five for two. Kent meandered to 118 for five and, though Les Ames defied, he found just one durable partner, as Lionel Recordon dug in to help add 59 for the sixth wcket. But the spin of Arthur Croom did for both in quick succession and Croom ended with three for 22, Mayer three for 50, Paine two for 54 and Foster two for 60.

By the time the follow-on was enforced, early indications were that Labour had fought back hard from the Conservatives' landslide of 1924. At Edgbaston, the landslide in Warwickshire's favour continued as openers Harold Hardinges and Ashdown were soon back in the hutch. Kent were 14 for two and victory inside two days beckoned for the supremely-focused Bears. Woolley and Ames rebuilt and were within a few minutes of stumps when Foster, a 22-year-old amateur quickie making a big impression, struck a huge blow, rattling Woolley's off-stump to send him on his way for 40. Kent closed on 105 for three, still 158 short of avoiding an innings defeat.

Next morning the teams awoke to historic news. For the first time, Britain would be governed by a hung parliament. Labour had won 287 seats and the Conservative 260 while the Liberals, with 59, held the balance of power. A total of 21,685,779 votes had been cast by the British people including one, it is believed, by George Alfred Edward Paine who promptly polished off Kent with four for 40 to round off an innings-and-50 run win.