I always enjoy Martin Tebay’s monographs on aspects of Lancashire cricket and cricketers. I have to accept nonetheless, as I am sure does he, that most of them are, by virtue of their subject matter, of fairly limited appeal. Indeed were it otherwise they would doubtless appear in editions larger than, as here, just thirty signed and numbered copies. On this occasion however Martin has certainly raised his game and whilst this one might not excite interest too far beyond followers of the Red Rose it should, in my view, appeal to a rather larger cross section of Lancashire supporters than for many of past monographs have.

The title of this series is Lancashire CCC Postcard Monographs, and this one is the third in that series, titled simply Lancashire XI (1903), although that title proves to be a little misleading as Martin’s first task demonstrates, that being to identify the match that gave rise to the team photograph the postcard shows. Of the twelve men pictured only two achieved enduring fame in the game. One of those, Sydney Barnes, appears in civvies in the image, and the other is the great professional batsman JT Tyldesley. The other ten are more difficult to identify but Martin explains his reasoning and why he concludes that the group are in fact the team that appeared in Lancashire’s first game of the 1902 season, when the county met the MCC at Lord’s on 8, 9 and 10 May, a date by which 120 years later some counties had already played five rounds of County Championship matches!

Not unnaturally, having identified the team and given some brief biographical details, Part 2 of the monograph turns to the match itself. Badly affected by rain it was left drawn. Lancashire bowled MCC out for 87 with Sidney Webb taking a career best 8/36. Webb left the county game the following summer aged just 28 and with a decent record in what amounted to only a couple of full seasons. He reappeared in one match in South Africa a couple of years later although he may not have been there long as he died in Essex in 1923. All in all Webb might be a good subject for a future monograph.

In any event the Lancastrians took a first innings lead of 107 to give the county hope, although these were dashed by the MCC skipper, WG Grace, and the Australian Billy Murdoch who batted much better second time round in relatively benign conditions. And the great SF Barnes? He bowled a couple of overs and then went off with a knee injury and took no further part in the match. Unusually however Lancashire were allowed to draft in their twelfth man to play a full part in the match, hence Barnes not wearing his flannels in the photograph.

Lancashire XI (1903) is available directly from the publisher for £6.99 including UK postage.