TOURNAMENT REVIEW: 1870 COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
In the fourth year of the competition's existence, Middlesex have become the third different winners of the County Championship after the highest scoring tournment to date produced three exciting games to begin the new season in English baseball.
Two-time winners Essex entered the event seeking a third successive victory, and made a good start to their semi-final meeting with Kent as they took the lead in the second inning. With Greenwich pitcher James Hicks in fine form, that single run looked as though it may be enough to win as the score remained unchanged as the game entered the eighth inning. Kent suddenly came to life there however, as with two men already out they managed to get two men on base, before a home run by the City of London Club's Roland Thornton put them ahead 3-1.
That should have won the game for Kent, as they held that advantage into the ninth and with a runner at first base, needed only one more out for the victory. Now it was the turn of Essex to turn the game though, as Clapham's George Berry recorded a hit to keep the game going before the City Club's Leonard Daly added a two-base hit to bring both runners home and tie the game at 3-3.
The game reached the eleventh inning where there seemed little chance of a Kent run with two men out and nobody on base, but the Artillery's Abel Sharp and Charles Baker of Greenwich were able to reach base and another Artillery man, Walter Halding, found the hit to bring both home and put Kent back in front 5-3. Essex got one man on in their half of the inning but could not respond, and after two years as champions their hold on the title was over.
The other semi-final saw Middlesex, beaten in the last two finals by Essex, take a one-run lead over Surrey in the first inning, only for former champions Surrey to hit back immediately with three in the second to assume control. The score remained unchanged until the sixth inning, when with two men out and a runner at first base, Middlesex found their way back into the game with three successive hits, the last of them by the Artillery's Wilfred Shaw tying the score at 3-3.
There was no more scoring until the ninth, when with Surrey batting and nobody on base with two men out, Greenwich's John Ballard found a two-base hit to keep the inning going. Jim White of The Regent's Park was the next man up, and hit his restored Surrey's lead at 4-3. They could add no more and took a one-run lead into Middlesex's half of the inning, where the first hitter, another Greenwich man - Walter Tagg - was able to find a hit of his own. Tagg advanced to second base on a sacrifice and then with one out, the Old Westminsters' Edmund Farrell recorded the hit which tied the game again at 4-4.
Just as in the game between Essex and Kent, the teams played on into the eleventh where Herbert Webb of Kensington recorded a hit to begin Middlesex's half of the inning. Farrell was involved again as this time it was his sacrifice which advanced Webb to second base, allowing his Westminsters team-mate Andrew Stockdale the chance to bring the runner home. Stockdale duly found a hit, but the ball was not deep enough in the field and Webb was forced to wait at third base with one man out. It was another Kensington player, John Goodwin, up next and when he failed to hit the ball out of the infield, Surrey must have hoped to record two outs to take the game to the twelfth inning. However, Merton College man Edward Waters, a rare university player in the tournament in Surrey's infield, was unsure whether he had time to record both outs and decided to throw to home plate. A moment's indecision meant that throw was not in time, and Webb scored the winning run to take Middlesex through by a score of 5-4.
The final was played on Kent's home field after they called the coin toss correctly, and with neither team having yet won the competition there was certain to be a new champion by the end of the afternoon. The home team made the better start, striking first in the second inning and then after Middlesex had tied the score in the fourth, responding in their half of the fourth to restore their lead at 2-1.
Kent held the advantage into the sixth, when with Middlesex batting, a runner at second base and one man out, everything changed. The City Club's Simeon Farrell (younger brother of the Westminsters' Edmund) and the Artillery's John Pinhay found consecutive two base hits, the former allowing Stockdale to score the tying run and the latter bringing Farrell back home to give Middlesex a 3-2 advantage.
From that point on, the Artillery's Henry Clarke, pitching for Middlesex, did not allow a runner to get past first base until the ninth inning, by which time his team had added another run to stretch their advantage to 4-2. With time and opportunity running out, two consecutive hits with one man out gave Kent hope of saving the game but Clarke composed himself and duly dismissed the Regents' Adam Tustain and Greenwich man Charles Baker to end the game. Middlesex took the win 4-2, giving them a first championship and allowing Clarke, who was named as Best Pitcher, to add another success to his two league championships with the Royal Artillery Barracks. Matthew Vanstone, a new man with the Old Westminsters who was playing catcher for Middlesex, took Best Player having recorded two hits in each of his team's games.
Attention now turns to the league season, with the university competitions having begun as the County Championship final was being played. Observers are expecting Christ Church, whose opening game was postponed, to fail in the defence of their championship at Oxford, with former winners Brasenose expected to battle with Merton College, who started so well a year ago before falling out of the race. At Cambridge, champions Gonville and Caius are expected to struggle with Queens' College most people's call to succeed them. That prediction was reinforced when Queens' beat Caius 1-0 in the first game of the season.
There are still two weeks to go before the Metropolitan League begins its sixth season, with one more week after that before we see the first action in the newly formed Manchester and District League.