A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



Disasters came again in 1896, and except for 

 the superb batting of Dr. W. G. Grace, the 

 cricket was weak, Mr. Townsend's 101 wickets 

 costing 2 1 runs apiece. The Grand Old Man 

 of the cricket field in his fifty-first year scored 

 1,565, with an average of 53. His great con- 

 tributions were against Sussex, for off the 

 southern bowling at Brighton he compiled 243, 

 and at Bristol 301. Mr. Hemingway showed 

 himself a lively bat, and the South African, 

 Mr. C. O. H. Sewell, played most stylish cricket 

 when available. 



Matters improved in 1897, Mr. C. L. Towns- 

 end at times showing much command over the 

 ball, and the hitting of Mr. G. L. Jessop being 

 recognized as phenomenal 126 in an hour 

 and a half v. Warwickshire, 49 out of 59 in 

 twenty minutes v. Lancashire, 90 v. Somerset- 

 shire in less than an hour, and 101 in ninety 

 minutes against the Philadelphians are samples of 

 his rate of progression. Mr. R. W. Rice and 

 Board each obtained his first three-figure scores, 

 and there was no falling off in the abilities of 

 the renowned veteran so far as batting was 

 concerned. 



Aged twenty-two in 1898, Mr. Townsend 

 reached the highest point he has attained as a 

 cricketer. Like Mr. F. S. Jackson and Cuttell he 

 scored a thousand runs and took a hundred wickets, 

 his record being 1,270 runs and 145 wickets. He 

 five times exceeded a century : v. Essex he took 

 fifteen wickets for 141 runs ; in the month ot 

 August fifty-eight batsmen were his victims. 

 Dr. W. G. Grace thrice achieved three figures, 

 and made 1,141 in aggregate. Mr. Troup 

 batted with splendid precision, as did Mr. Sewell, 

 so it was not surprising that Gloucestershire took 

 third place, only having Yorkshire and Middlesex 

 as superiors. 



The secession of Dr. W. G. Grace from the 

 county much affected the rest of the side in 

 1899, and only ninth place was attained. 

 Mr. C. L. Townsend alone seemed to succeed, 

 and no left-handed batsman had ever before 

 scored 1,694 runs for a county in one season. 

 His average was 56, and no less than seven 

 hundreds stood to his credit, his best work being 

 against Essex, 181 not out at Leyton, and 224 

 not out at Clifton. Mr. Troup took up the 

 captaincy, but could not do so well as Mr. Jessop, 

 whose great feat, one of amazing brilliance, was 

 to score 100 within the hour at Trent Bridge. 

 Paish showed remarkable figures as a slow left- 

 handed bowler : seven for 47 v. Middlesex at 

 Lords, and fourteen for 196 v. Surrey, were two 

 performances in an aggregate of 125 wickets for 

 2,367 runs. Until August Gloucestershire could 

 not get a representative side in 1900, but then 

 they beat Somersetshire, Kent, Essex, Surrey, and 

 Worcestershire. It was Mr. G. L. Jessop's year 

 both as captain and cricketer. Against York- 

 shire he scored double hundreds, 164 and 139, 

 seven times driving Rhodes out of the Bradford 



ground for 6. At Old Traffbrd he made 66 and 

 44, and took eight wickets ; v. Surrey at Clifton 

 he contributed 54 and 54, claiming nine wickets, 

 and v. Essex captured eight wickets for 29 runs. 

 Only twice before had his feat of scoring 2,000 

 runs and taking a hundred wickets been achieved, 

 each time by a Gloucestershire representative, 

 Dr. W. G. Grace and Mr. C. L. Townsend. 

 The latter again batted well, so did Wrathall 

 and Mr. W. S. A. Brown. Mr. R. W. Rice 

 was the hero of the one-wicket victory over 

 Somersetshire, as he carried his bat for 82, and 

 Mr. A. H. C. Fargus did a fine bowling per- 

 formance twelve for 87 on his first appearance 

 at Lord's, but was otherwise disappointing, and 

 Roberts had to pound away with very little 

 assistance. 



Proxime accessit to the wooden spoon in 1 90 1 , 

 the one happy feature for the Westerners was the 

 batting of Mr. G. L. Jessop, who hit 125 not 

 out v. Surrey, 124 v. Middlesex, 1 06 v. War- 

 wickshire, and often took the sting out of oppos- 

 ing bowling in a few overs. Hale, engaged on 

 the railway and only able to play in May, made 

 a capital impression as a bat on the Southern 

 Tour. It was sad to see that each of Mr. C. L. 

 Townsend's wickets cost 56 runs, and the attack 

 was altogether the weakest in England. Nor 

 could any improvement be perceived in 1902, 

 when the bowling was lamentable, though 

 Huggins presented two fine performances in 

 seven for 17 at Brighton and seven for 37 at 

 Worcester, but this standard he could not main- 

 tain. Mr. Jessop scored with unremitting energy, 

 but the only valuable support he received was 

 from the strong defence of Mr. W. Troup. 

 Again in 1 903 matters were no better ; it was 

 out Jessopus aut nihil. He scored 1,307 runs 

 with an average of 39, and no one else accumu- 

 lated 650. At Brighton he made the largest 

 score of his life, 286 out of 355 in less than 

 three hours, and against Lancashire knocked up 

 1 68 in the same time. Nothing else was of 

 consequence except the bowling of Dennett, 

 who took five wickets for 6 runs v. Worcester- 

 shire, and twenty-four wickets for 230 in the 

 three successive victories which wound up the 

 season. 



1904 saw a bracing revival, although only one 

 century was to be noted, namely, 206 by 

 Mr. Jessop in two and a half hours at Trent 

 Bridge. The real source of the improvement 

 was the admirable steadiness of Dennett with the 

 ball, his 123 wickets for 19 runs apiece being a 

 highly meritorious performance, his best work 

 being seven for 28 and eight for 68 in the return 

 with Middlesex. This he improved upon in 

 1905, just beating any Gloucestershire aggregate 

 by capturing 131 wickets. Huggins was at 

 times of service. Except for 234 v. Somerset- 

 shire, Mr. G. L. Jessop did little, and yielded 

 pride of place to Mr. Sewell in 1905. 



In conclusion, the following averages, specially 



310 



