Surrey have been very infrequent visitors to Scarborough so Nigel Pullan (text) and Paul Dyson (stats) look back at just two previous games between these two great rivals plus one very early Surrey visit to the Festival. The Photo of Richard Hutton appears by courtesy of Mick Pope.
It is surprising that Surrey did not play Yorkshire at Scarborough in a Championship match until 1969. If you lived in Tooting or Haslemere or anywhere else south of the Thames for that matter you would not see your team play at the seaside in Scarborough for 77 years. The explanation was probably that Surrey were one of the leading traditional county teams so they would meet Yorkshire at Sheffield, Leeds, or Bradford.
There has been friendly debate about the date when the Championship was formally organised. It concerns the number of matches played and how the winner was selected and it was not until 1890 that there was an agreed set of regulations for deciding it. Before that it was decided by journalists or sporting annuals and there could be disagreement. Wisden now records championship statistics from 1890 but has county results from 1864.
1892
September 5, 6, 7: CI Thornton’s XI 185 (E Smith 122, T Richardson 4-28, GA Lohmann 4-97) & 247 (WL Murdoch 83, AE Stoddart 73, GA Lohmann 5-69); Surrey 153 (E Wainwright 4-35). Match drawn.
In 1892 Surrey played Mr CI ‘Buns’ Thornton’s XI in a first-class festival match at Scarborough. Surrey were county champions in 1890-92 and brought a full strength side but a fine match was ended by rain on the final day. Under the peculiar scoring system in the Championship in 1892 Surrey were top with 11 points. Yorkshire finished sixth with 0 points – they could have been minus like Sussex. Surrey did the double over Yorkshire in the Championship. They won at The Oval by 72 runs, George Lohmann taking seven for 50, and again at Headingley this time by just 17 runs. Lohmann took six for 37 and eight for 70 whilst Bobby Peel had seven for 43.
Back to Scarborough; on 5th September 1892 Ernest Smith of Morley, playing for Thornton’s XI, made 122, out of a total of 185 all out, in two hours and was missed six times. He played for Yorkshire from 1888 until 1907 in the school holidays – he taught in Elstree and then became headmaster of a prep school in Eastbourne. He played first-class cricket at Eastbourne until he was 58 and made 160 in a club match there aged 53. “He did not leap out like most hitters but stood firm-footed. Like Jehu, he drove fast and furious.” But unlike Jehu he batted for a full hour at Leyton in 1905 without scoring to save the game and win the Championship. In 1892 Surrey responded with 153 with Bobby Abel top scorer and wickets for Ted Wainwright and William Attewell. Bill Murdoch and Andrew Stoddart made 83 and 73 respectively for ‘Buns’ so Surrey had to get a formidable 280 to win when the rain came.
Lohmann was an outstanding bowler for Surrey and England. He was born in 1865 at Campden Hill in Kensington and was one of the main reasons why Surrey were so successful around this time. He was a medium-pace bowler, a quick footed batsman and a superb slip fielder. He took over 100 wickets in a season eight times, three times over 200 with 220 in 1890 at 13.62. His record in Tests is even more remarkable: nine for 28 at Johannesburg; seven for 38 and eight for seven at Port Elizabeth; seven for 36 against Australia at The Oval; at Sydney eight for 25 in 1886/87 and eight for 58 in 1891/92. He is described by Christopher Martin-Jenkins as “A fair, blue eyed, square-shouldered, altogether handsome man, he jumped to the top early and remained there … a cricketer’s cricketer.” But poor Lohmann was a victim of that scourge of Victorian England – consumption, or tuberculosis. He emigrated to South Africa, came back to manage the South African tour of 1901 but died at Cape Province in December of that year.
1969
August 20, 21, 22: Surrey 179 (GRJ Roope 78*, RA Hutton 4-32) & 218 (Younis Ahmed 94); Yorkshire 210 (RA Hutton 66, JH Hampshire 63) & 158 (DEV Padgett 53, PI Pocock 4-55). Surrey won by 29 runs.
Surrey eventually appeared again at North Marine Road 77 years later and beat Yorkshire by 29 runs. They batted first and only reached 179 because of an undefeated 78 from Graham Roope. Richard Hutton, who had an excellent match, took four for 32. Yorkshire did not fare much better but gained a lead of 31 after Hutton made 66 and John Hampshire 63. Bob Willis and Intikhab Alam both took three wickets. In the second innings Younis Ahmed was dominant with 94 but Yorkshire got Surrey out for 218 and, needing 189, reached 114-2 with Padgett making 53. But in the end it was spin that won the day as Pat Pocock joined Intikhab. Jimmy Binks captained Yorkshire and Ron Aspinall, a former Yorkshire player, umpired with Ossie Herman.
Roope was batting at the other end to Geoffrey Boycott when he on-drove Greg Chappell for four to reach his hundredth hundred and Roope had the presence of mind to jump out of the way of the ball. Generally known as Cyril, he had a successful career with Surrey and played in 21 Test Matches between 1972 and 1978 and was on the losing side only twice. Roope was an outstanding fielder mainly in the slips and of his 603 catches 122 came off Robin Jackman. He came to live in Yorkshire, played league and club cricket, coached in schools especially Woodhouse Grove. Apparently he was a dedicated traveller, infallible navigator and inveterate cricket tourist so it was perhaps appropriate that he died in his sleep whilst on a tour in Grenada.
Hutton had a very good match making 66 and 35 and taking four for 32. Hutton is now Yorkshire’s President and it is maybe not the function of a humble scribe to assess his career but I thought he was a very good bowler at his best. I suspect he inherited his physique from the Dennis side of the family so his height and strength enabled him to gain pace and lift with a good high action. The best bowling I saw was from the old ‘cinema’ seats at Taunton behind the bowler’s arm. I thought his action had similarities with that of Brian Statham.
