Rewind: Hampshire v Warwickshire, 1895

Scoring rates in County Championship cricket these days are, for the most part, pretty brisk but for many years that was far from the case. Until things started to change with the advent of one-day cr

matc

2022-07-09T14:50:20.000Z

Scoring rates in County Championship cricket these days are, for the most part, pretty brisk but for many years that was far from the case.

Until things started to change with the advent of one-day cricket in the 1960s, two an over was the norm. Survival was often the sole priority.

Warwickshire batter Billy Quaife, playing against Surrey at The Oval, once "reached 50 in four hours and then became introspective." Quaife's fellow Bears legend Eric Hollies delivered 6,791 maidens in first class cricket.

Championship cricket was usually a low-tempo affair and the Bears certainly took the slow route to victory in their first visit to Hampshire, in 1895. They won by six wickets and the match, at the old Northlands Road ground at which Hampshire played until 2000, yielded 623 runs from 321.5 overs.

1895 Warwickshire Squad

Bears medium-pacer Syd Santall set the tone with 34.4-15-52-6 in Hampshire's first innings of 197 from 93.4 overs. Walter Quaife (pictured above), brother of arch-stonewaller Billy, then opened Warwickshire's reply with Walter Richards.

Balsall Heath-born Richards, making one of only seven appearances for the Bears, soon perished but Quaife set down roots. He did not have the infinite patience of Billy (who scored 36,012 first class runs, most of them singles...it is said that he ran more runs than anyone else in the history of first class cricket) but he could bat a bit too. As the sea breezes tickled the faces of the big crowd at Northlands Road, Walter Q scored a diligent 105 (eight fours) as the Bears ground their way to 214 from 134 overs. Off spinner Harry Baldwin proved a little difficult to get away...54-33-56-3!

Trailing by 17, the home side struggled to 114 second time round as Santall took another three wickets and Alf Glover (also a distinguished centre forward for Leamington FC) took four for 32. That left the Bears a target of 98 which they knocked off in 37 overs after Walter Q and skipper Herbert Bainbridge put on 81 for the first wicket. A spectacular wobble from 81 without loss to 84 for four was ended by the redoubtable Billy Q and the flamboyant Teddy Diver (who also kept goal for Aston Villa) and the Bears had begun their history against Hampshire with a nice, gentle win.