Eighteen of Newport v All England XI

Martin Chandler | 7:39am GMT 18 March 2018

Published: 2017
Pages: 8
Author: Battersby, David
Publisher: Battersby, David
Rating: 2.5 stars

There are cricket books and booklets of limited appeal, and then there is material aimed fairly and squarely at the dyed in the wool cricket tragic, and this very slim booklet is certainly an example of the latter. It is the scorecard of a long forgotten match played in 1887 between a scratch eleven of English professionals and seventeen of the best amateur cricketers from around Newport, South Wales, plus the Gloucestershire professional Billy Woof.

The booklet has been written by David Battersby, who came across the match when researching a biography of Woof, which at least answers the question as to why he is producing it. Hopefully that biography might explain why Woof, a Gloucestershire man through and through, was playing for the South Walian amateurs in circumstances where on the face of matters he might have been expected to play for the scratch eleven.

What Battersby has done is consulted all the local newspapers that covered the match, and come up with a detailed account of the play in a match which, unsurprisingly, was won comfortably enough by the professionals.

The match was part of Newport’s cricket week, so presumably a fund raising venture, but we don’t know how successful it was in that aim or whether it was an experiment that had been tried before or indeed was again. There is, so Padwick tells me, a history of the Newport club that covers the relevant period, and I wonder whether that may shed any more light on the subject.

As for the England XI that was not particularly strong. There was one Test player, the Sussex batsman and useful medium pace bowler George Bean, who played three Tests in Australia in 1891/92. Bean scored 170, by far the highest of the match, and the second highest was 67 from Derbyshire opener Levi Wright. There were no Test caps for Wright in a 17 year career, but he was certainly a better batsman than many who have been capped.

Also in the England XI was W.Quaife. Battersby describes him, and he may well have got this from his research, as ‘Willie’, who earned seven England caps and had a long career with Warwickshire. It might have been Willie, but he would only have been 15. I rather fancy the man who played at Newport was actually elder brother Walter and that point really should have been clarified.

Those reservations aside, and its limited appeal conceded, this is the sort of publication of which we at CW thoroughly approve. The booklet appears in a limited edition of 60 copies and as ever we are happy to effect an introduction if anyone is interested in paying a modest £3, including postage, to Mr Battersby.