‘Nash surpasses the ordinary “hat trick”’
Martin Chandler |Published: 2024
Pages: 12
Author: Tebay, Martin
Publisher: Red Rose Books
Rating: 3.5 stars
Lancashire victories over Somerset have often been matches that stick in the mind. Less than three weeks ago after a hugely disappointing summer victory at Old Trafford promised to be the catalyst that enabled a wholly unexpected escape from relegation to occur, only for the Worcester weather and another brittle batting display to thwart that hope a week later.
A much more pleasant memory is from 2011, when it was a win at Taunton that ended the 77 years of hurt. Going back further in time on no less than four occasions, at Bath in 1953 and Old Trafford in 1925, 1894 and 1892 Lancashire won matches within a single day.
A decade before the 1892 match the teams had also met at Old Trafford for Somerset’s first ever First Class match, and it is the story of that game which is the subject of this one, the second in Martin Tebay’s Notable Lancashire Victories in 19th Century Cricket series of monographs.
Somerset must have been encouraged after Lancashire won the toss, chose to bat and, thanks only to a career best 78 from England wicketkeeper Richard Pilling, made a modest 237. It was more than enough however as Somerset’s first two innings in the Championship were a hugely disappointing 29 all out followed by only a modest improvement to 51.
Only three Lancastrians were called upon to bowl. The three were John Crossland, Alec Watson and George Nash and they shared the twenty wickets, Nash’s slow left arm being the most destructive as he claimed a dozen scalps and, in the first innings, took four wickets in four balls. They are an interesting trio, all of whose actions were controversial, yet none of them were ever no-balled for throwing.
Martin Tebay has done his usual thorough job of reviewing contemporary accounts of the play and reconstructing events for a twenty first century audience. He has printed twenty copies of the monograph which can be acquired through Red Rose Books’ website and for the handful of Lancastrians in the Souther Hemisphere a few copies will be available from Roger Page.
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