Somerset County Cricket Club in 1891

In the 1891 season, Somerset County Cricket Club returned to first-class cricket after a five-year absence. They played in the official County Championship, which had been founded the previous year, for the first time, finishing in joint fifth place.

Somerset County Cricket Club

1891 season
Captain	Herbie Hewett
County Championship	5th (joint)
Most runs	Lionel Palairet (560)[1]
Most wickets	Sammy Woods (72)[2]
Most catches	Sammy Woods (10)[1]
Most wicket-keeping dismissals	Archie Wickham (15)[1]
← 1890 1892 →

During the season, Somerset played thirteen first-class matches, twelve against other county sides, and one against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). They finished with an equal number of wins and losses (six) and drew once. The county's two matches against Surrey were notable for antithetical reasons. When the two sides met in early June, Somerset suffered a heavy defeat, recording two of their lowest ever first-class totals. Just over two months later, when they faced each other again, Somerset won in the dying moments of the game, prompting a 133-line poem to be written in celebration of the victory.

Background

Having played what is generally considered their debut first-class match against Lancashire in 1882, Somerset were stripped of their first-class status following the 1885 season, after a string of heavy losses and matches in which they could not field eleven men.[3][4] Meetings were held at Somerset, and Henry Murray-Anderdon took over as secretary of the club. Under his leadership, the club acquired a ground in Taunton, variously known as the 'Athletic Ground' and 'Rack Field'. The land was extensively worked on until Murray-Anderdon announced that "opponents will want to come here and play".[5] In addition to improving the ground, the secretary targeted the universities to add talent to the team, and added two professional bowlers, George Nichols and Ted Tyler.[6]

In 1890, Somerset played thirteen fixtures against other county sides, winning twelve and tying the remaining one, against Middlesex. Tyler and Nichols claimed over 200 wickets between them, and Somerset won the 'Second-class' County Championship. In December 1890, a meeting of the county secretaries at Lord's unanimously voted for Somerset to be admitted to the first-class County Championship.[7]

Squad

Somerset were captained in 1891 by Herbie Hewett.

Murray-Anderdon's targeting of the universities for players yielded three players who finished near the top of Somerset’s batting and bowling averages in 1891. Brothers Lionel and Richard Palairet both appeared for Oxford University during the season,[8][9] while Sammy Woods played for Cambridge University.[10] Woods and the two professionals, Nichols and Tyler, bowled the majority of overs for Somerset, and between them claimed 169 of the county’s 179 wickets.[2]

Three of Somerset's players were chosen to play representative cricket during the season. Woods played two matches for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players fixture, and also represented the South of England cricket team. Herbie Hewett and Woods also played for the Gentlemen of England and toured North America as part of Lord Hawke's XI at the end of the season.[10] Hewett and Gerald Fowler both appeared for the Marylebone Cricket Club.[11][12]

The following players made at least one appearance for Somerset in the County Championship. Age given is at the start of Somerset's first match of the season (18 May 1891).

Name	Nationality	Birth date	Batting Style	Bowling Style
Batsmen
John Challen	England	26 March 1863 (aged 28)	Right-handed	Right arm fast-medium
Albert Clapp	England	3 May 1867 (aged 24)	Right-handed	Right arm medium pace
Herbie Hewett (Captain)	England	25 May 1864 (aged 26)	Left-handed	Unknown arm medium pace
Lionel Palairet	England	27 May 1870 (aged 20)	Right-handed	Right arm medium pace / slow (underarm)
Richard Palairet	England	25 June 1871 (aged 19)	Right-handed	—
Crescens Robinson	England	21 May 1864 (aged 26)	Right-handed	—
Bill Roe	England	21 March 1861 (aged 30)	Right-handed	Right arm off break / medium pace
Lower-order Batsmen
Ernest Evans	England	21 August 1861 (aged 29)	Unknown	—
Herbert Fox	England	1 August 1858 (aged 32)	Right-handed	Left arm (unknown style)
Joseph Gibbs	England	25 November 1867 (aged 23)	Right-handed	—
Vernon Hill	England	30 January 1871 (aged 20)	Left-handed	Right arm fast-medium
Edward Lock	England	21 November 1868 (aged 22)	Unknown	—
Frederick Poynton	England	26 June 1869 (aged 21)	Right-handed	—
Hamilton Ross	England	26 August 1849 (aged 41)	Right-handed	—
Thomas Spencer	England	10 June 1850 (aged 40)	Unknown-handed	—
Wilfrid Young	England	5 October 1867 (aged 23)	Right-handed	Right arm slow
All-rounders
Gerald Fowler	England	27 July 1866 (aged 24)	Right-handed	Right arm fast-medium
Wicket-keepers
Arthur Newton	England	12 September 1862 (aged 28)	Right-handed	—
Archie Wickham	England	9 November 1855 (aged 35)	Right-handed	—
Bowlers
George Nichols	England	14 June 1862 (aged 28)	Right-handed	Right arm fast-medium
Ted Tyler	England	13 October 1864 (aged 26)	Left-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox
Sammy Woods	Australia/ England	13 April 1867 (aged 24)	Right-handed	Right arm fast-medium

County Championship

Lionel Palairet led Somerset's batting averages in the County Championship, scoring 560 runs at 31.11.

Season standings

Note: Pld = Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, D = Draws, T = Ties, A = Abandonments, Pts = Points.

Team	Pld	W	L	D	T	A	Pts
Surrey (C)	16	12	2	2	0	0	10
Lancashire	16	8	4	3	0	1	4
Middlesex	16	8	5	3	0	0	3
Nottinghamshire	14	5	4	5	0	0	1
Kent	16	4	5	6	0	1	–1
Somerset	12	5	6	1	0	0	–1
Sussex	14	4	7	3	0	0	–3
Yorkshire	16	5	10	1	0	0	–5
Gloucestershire	16	2	10	4	0	0	–8
Source: CricketArchive[13]

Match log

No.	Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Ref
1	18–20 May	Middlesex	Lord's, London	Drawn	[14]
2	1–2 June	Surrey	The Oval, London	Lost by an innings and 375 runs	[15]
3	9–10 July	Lancashire	County Ground, Taunton	Lost by 9 wickets	[16]
4	13–14 July	Kent	Mote Park, Maidstone	Won by 5 wickets	[17]
5	20–22 July	Gloucestershire	County Ground, Taunton	Won by 10 wickets	[18]
6	23–25 July	Yorkshire	County Ground, Taunton	Lost by 262 runs	[19]
7	30–31 July	Kent	County Ground, Taunton	Lost by 4 wickets	[20]
8	6–7 August	Yorkshire	Park Avenue, Bradford	Won by 6 wickets	[21]
9	10–12 August	Lancashire	Old Trafford, Manchester	Lost by 8 wickets	[22]
10	13–15 August	Surrey	County Ground, Taunton	Won by 130 runs	[23]
11	17–18 August	Gloucestershire	College Ground, Cheltenham	Won by an innings and 130 runs	[24]
12	24–26 August	Middlesex	County Ground, Taunton	Lost by 9 wickets	[25]

Batting averages

Player	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	Highest Score	100s	50s
Lionel Palairet	10	19	560	31.11	100	1	5
John Challen	9	16	354	25.28	89	0	2
Richard Palairet	10	17	266	19.00	74	0	1
Herbie Hewett	12	22	388	18.47	65	0	2
Sammy Woods	11	19	330	18.33	50	0	1
Bill Roe	7	12	168	15.27	36	0	0
Crescens Robinson	11	17	196	14.00	55	0	1
Vernon Hill	9	15	184	12.26	31	0	0
George Nichols	12	21	216	10.28	37	0	0
Ted Tyler	12	20	168	9.88	62	0	1
Qualification: 150 runs. Source: CricketArchive[1]

Bowling averages

Player	Matches	Balls	Wickets	Average	BBI	5wi	10wi
Sammy Woods	11	2329	72	17.08	6/49	7	1
George Nichols	12	2614	49	18.16	5/33	1	0
Lionel Palairet	10	282	7	21.57	3/13	0	0
Ted Tyler	12	2182	48	22.31	5/10	4	1
Qualification: 5 wickets. Source: CricketArchive[2]

Other first-class

Match log

No.	Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Ref
1	21–22 August	Marylebone Cricket Club	County Ground, Taunton	Won by 6 wickets	[26]

References

1. "Batting and Fielding for Somerset: County Championship 1891". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
2. "Bowling for Somerset: County Championship 1891". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
3. Foot (1986), p23.
4. Roebuck (1991), pp29–32.
5. Foot (1986), p26.
6. Roebuck (1991), pp45–46.
7. Foot (1986), pp27–28.
8. "First-Class Matches played by Lionel Palairet (267)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
9. "First-Class Matches played by Richard Palairet (112)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
10. "First-Class Matches played by Sammy Woods (401)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
11. "First-Class Matches played by Herbie Hewett (106)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
12. "First-Class Matches played by Gerald Fowler (132)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
13. "County Championship 1891 Table". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
14. "Middlesex v Somerset". CricketArchive. 1891-05-18. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
15. "Surrey v Somerset". CricketArchive. 1891-06-01. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
16. "Somerset v Lancashire". CricketArchive. 1891-07-09. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
17. "Kent v Somerset". CricketArchive. 1891-07-13. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
18. "Somerset v Gloucestershire". CricketArchive. 1891-07-20. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
19. "Somerset v Yorkshire". CricketArchive. 1891-07-23. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
20. "Somerset v Kent". CricketArchive. 1891-07-30. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
21. "Yorkshire v Somerset". CricketArchive. 1891-08-06. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
22. "Lancashire v Somerset". CricketArchive. 1891-08-10. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
23. "Somerset v Surrey". CricketArchive. 1891-08-13. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
24. "Gloucestershire v Somerset". CricketArchive. 1891-08-17. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
25. "Somerset v Middlesex". CricketArchive. 1891-08-24. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
26. "Somerset v Marylebone Cricket Club". CricketArchive. 1891-08-21. Retrieved 2010-08-25.

External links