TOURNAMENT REVIEW: 1877 COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
There was much talk before this year’s County Championship about the possible expansion of the competition next year, with the East Midlands counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire all hoping to join. There is believed to be interest from other counties as well, and the eight current members cannot ignore the demands for much longer. They were known to favour a straight knockout tournament with no byes, which led to suggestions that expansion should wait until there are eight applicant counties, giving a tournament of sixteen. However, it has also been suggested that very soon after that point there would be more interest again and counties cannot be expected to wait until there are another sixteen before being admitted. Furthermore, should every county in England eventually be admitted there would not be a perfect number and so gradual admission may be the best policy.
The counties are believed therefore to be considering a series of criteria which must be met before a county may be admitted, with the proviso that the total must be kept to an even number. It has been suggested that counties will be required to have either their own county league or a league which is shared with a second county, and that league will be required to have completed at least three seasons and have at least eight total clubs, of which at no fewer than three should be located in the applicant county. Should there be fewer than three in that league but a total of at least five across all leagues, that county would also be eligible. Should these criteria be adopted, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire would be eligible to join next year, while both Leicestershire and Northamptonshire would become eligible if the Leicester and Northampton League were to expand to eight clubs. Expansion of the Bristol and District League may also make Somerset and Gloucestershire eligible if that league is taken to be shared by those counties, depending on the location of the newly added teams.
As for this year’s competition, reigning champions Middlesex began their defence of the crown with a home game against Yorkshire in the quarter-finals and fell behind in the second inning, a three-base hit from Scarborough’s Daniel Webb bringing in Maurice Dodd of Bradford to score. The champions responded in the third, helped by an errant pitch and a fielding error which allowed pitcher Sidney Fisher of Tottenham to convert his hit into a run and level the scores. With Clapham’s Edmund Hodgson advancing himself to third, Elijah Ball of Peckham found a one-out hit to give Middlesex a 2-1 lead before Charlie Williams of The Regent’s Park drove home another run. Now trailing 3-1, Yorkshire needed a response and they got one run back in the fifth, as Luke Bunn of Leeds came to bat with one out and Lewis Thomas of Huddersfield standing at second base. Bunn’s hit brought Thomas home to reduce the gap to 3-2, putting Yorkshire back in the game. In the sixth, more poor fielding looked sure to hurt Yorkshire’s chances as another fielding error and another poor pitch from Hallamshire’s Robert Mitchell gave Middlesex an easy run, and they added another in the seventh by virtue of a home run from Hodgson. Yorkshire looked to be out of the running as they trailed 5-2, but they fought back in the eighth as with one man on base and one out, three successive hits brought in two runs to reduce the deficit to 5-4. With two out, Lewis Thomas found the vital hit to bring Dodd home from second and level the score. Middlesex were stunned, and in the ninth Hunslet’s Andrew Pengelly got himself on base for Yorkshire and Frank Houghton of Bowling Old Lane, batting next, produced a two-base hit which scored Pengelly all the way from first and gave Yorkshire a 6-5 lead. Champions Middlesex had no reply, and their title defence surprisingly ended in the opening round.
Yorkshire moved on to a semi-final against either Essex or Surrey, and in their meeting pitching was dominant early on. In the fourth inning, Angel newcomer Daniel Bazley came to bat for Surrey with runners at first and third and nobody out, and his ball hit deep into the outfield was far enough to score Croydon’s Abel Haye after the catch. In the fifth, it was Hackney’s Thomas Wakely who was up with two men on base and his hit brought in another run for Surrey, doubling their advantage and leaving Essex struggling as pitcher Reuben Marler, without a team at present, was in fine form. Essex were creating few opportunities and their hopes crumbled in the sixth, as Joe Lane of the Commercial Dock Workers stepped up with one out and two on base. His three base hit scored both runners, and when that was followed by an errant pitch from Essex starter Stephen Young, Lane came in to score and extend the lead further to 5-0. Essex manufactured one big chance in the ninth, as Westminster’s Daniel Armstrong came in to pitch for Surrey with one man already on base. Armstrong hit the first batter that he faced and then gave up a hit to Roland Lloyd of Greenwich, giving Essex three runners with two out. Lloyd’s club teammate Timothy Berry had the chance to reduce the deficit significantly and give Essex new hope, but hit a simple ground ball to end the game and give Surrey the win.
Having reached the final in each of their first two appearances in the tournament, Staffordshire began their campaign this year against Lancashire in another tight pitching battle. Lancashire had wasted three baserunners in the fourth inning but in the fifth, they got Blackburn’s Joseph Westley to second base with one out and gave William Elmar of Miles Platting a chance to produce a run. He duly did so with a hit to score Westley, putting Lancashire ahead 1-0. Poor fielding then handed that run straight back to Staffordshire, as second baseman Robert Godfrey of Bury made two errors which first put Bilston’s Martin Cheshire on base and then allowed him to score. The game remained finely poised at 1-1 heading to the ninth inning, where Howard Lewis of Belle Vue led off for Lancashire. From somewhere he found a home run, putting Lancashire ahead again. Pitcher Peter White of Burnley then needed only seven pitches to dismiss Staffordshire in their half of the ninth, and like Middlesex they too had suffered a surprisingly early exit, falling 2-1.
Lancashire’s semi-final opponents would be Warwickshire or Kent, and it was Warwickshire who struck first in that game when Aston’s Amos James began the second inning with a two base hit. He was moved over to third and then came home when pitcher Anthony Green, a newcomer with Rochester this year, was called for an illegal motion before the pitch. Pitching for Warwickshire was Henry Farmer, who will appear in the new County League for Warwick this season, and his form in this game suggested that they might be tough to beat. Farmer pitched superbly through until the ninth inning, as Kent had until that point only once advanced a man to third base all day. In the ninth however, Greenwich man Francis Armitage led off and took advantage of a rare error from Farmer, producing a home run to leave the scores suddenly tied. Farmer looked shaken and allowed hits to each of the next two batters, giving Kent a chance to win the game. With one out, Alexander Wheeler of The Regent’s Park produced a hit to bring home lead runner Albert Wilson of Rochester. Having led for so long and seemed secure behind such strong pitching, Warwickshire were stunned by the 2-1 loss.
On the basis of alphabetical order, Kent and Surrey were allowed to call coin tosses for home advantage in the semi-finals and although Kent called correctly, Surrey did not. Kent would therefore host Lancashire while Surrey had to travel north to Yorkshire. The game between Lancashire and Kent was another battle of the pitchers, as Peter White of Burnley and Anthony Green of Rochester did battle. Lancashire left a runner at third base in the fourth inning, Belle Vue’s Mark Laidler striking out when faced with a chance to give them the lead, while on the other side Kent wasted two hits to begin the seventh in their first clear scoring chance. The game headed into the ninth scoreless, when Oldham’s Matthew Loxton led off with a hit for Lancashire. After he had been moved on to second, it was Robert Godfrey of Bury who found the hit to bring Loxton home and score the first run of the day. As it turned out, it was the only run of the day as Kent could not respond in their half of the ninth, Lancashire claiming a 1-0 win to reach the final for the second time in three years.
In the other semi-final, Yorkshire pitcher Robert Mitchell began the second inning by hitting Angel’s Daniel Bazley and Surrey managed to move him over to third by the time there were two out. Patrick Stewart of Kingston came through with a two-out hit and Surrey had an early 1-0 lead. They maintained that advantage right through to the seventh, where everything went wrong for untried pitcher Reuben Marler. He gave up three hits to start that inning and was taken out of the game, replaced again by Westminster’s Daniel Armstrong. Armstrong fared little better however, giving up another hit to Bradford’s Maurice Dodd which brought in one run to tie the game. Next up was Daniel Webb of Scarborough, and his hit allowed to more to score, giving Yorkshire a 3-1 lead. It was vital for Surrey to get out of the inning with no further damage and when Armstrong got the next two outs, they seemed set to do that, only for Thomas Sadler of Sanderson’s Weir to produce one more Yorkshire hit. That brought in two more, extending the lead to 5-1 and leaving Surrey facing elimination. They needed to respond quickly and a two-base hit from Richmond’s Matthew Copestake was a good start. He advanced to third on a ground ball and then came home following a one-out hit from Hackney’s Thomas Wakely. With two out, a two-base hit from another unattached player, Oswald Harris, brought Wakely in and the deficit was reduced to 5-3. Harris is believed to be due to sign for an unidentified Metropolitan League team before the start of that competition, and he looks set to be a strong addition to the league. In the ninth inning, Commercial Dock’s Joe Lane found a home run to reduce the gap further to 5-4, but Surrey could not tie the game. Yorkshire held on, and reached the final for the very first time.
Having won the coin toss, Lancashire were to host the final but that home advantage counted for little in a disastrous first inning. Yorkshire were in front before anybody was out, and then with one out Bowling’s Wilfred Bicknell drove in another. Scarborough man Daniel Webb, having a fine tournament, came to bat with two out and two runners on. He produced another two base hit to score both runners, and Yorkshire led 4-0 in the very first inning. Lancashire had to respond somehow and they started well with a three-base hit from William Elmar to begin their half of the first. A ground ball from Sankey’s Harry Morrant was enough to bring Elmar in and Lancashire were on the scoreboard. In the second, Blackburn’s Joseph Westley produced a crucial hit with two out to score Anfield man Peter Frost, making the score just 4-2, before everything changed completely in the third. An error from Yorkshire, who made many across the tournament, put Elmar on base again and then after a hit from Harry Morrant, Bury’s Robert Godfrey drove in Elmar to bring Lancashire within a run. Yorkshire pitcher Robert Mitchell got the next two outs, but disaster struck when Peter Frost found a two-out hit to score both Morrant and Godfrey. Remarkably, having trailed 4-0 in the first inning Lancashire led 5-4 by the end of the third. With two out in the fourth, Thomas Sadler of Sanderson’s Weir was thrown out a home attempting to tie the score and ending the inning. That proved to be a vital mistake, as scoring chances for Yorkshire came to be few and far between. Sadler advanced himself to third in the seventh inning, but pitcher Peter White followed that with two strikeouts to end the danger. With two out in the ninth, Bowling’s Frank Houghton got himself a hit to keep hope faintly alive for Yorkshire, but Hunslet’s Andrew Pengelly struck out to end the game and give Lancashire the title for the first time. Winning pitcher Peter White took the Best Pitcher award, while Yorkshire’s strong hitting line-up dominated voting for Best Player. It went to Scarborough’s Daniel Webb, who drove in seven runs across his three games only to see poor pitching and fielding deny his team the title.
