Many people asked me during the last two days when we were at Castle Park if Essex had ever used ten bowlers in an innings. Philip Bailey of ACS/Cricket archive has discovered that it's happened four times. This is the first instance of it occurring in the first innings, the others were all in dead games. The list for anyone to have a look is:
v Derbyshire ay Leyton 1933
v Worcestershire at Worcester in 1951
v Hampshire at Westcliff in 1956
v Worcestershire at Leyton in 1959
When I wrote that John Stephenson has scored two hundreds in a match and carried his bat. Both Browne and Stephenson carried their bats in the first innings and scored a hundred. Both scored hundreds in tha second innings and both innings were declared. Hope this clears up any misunderstandings I may have caused.
If any other milestones occur at Colchester I hope to let you know.
Just to let you all know in advance. The first day of the Kent Championship coincides with my operation for cataracts in both eyes. I should hope to be back in action a few days later. Don't send any grapes, as I don't like them as fruit, just in liquid form, a good claret will suffice.
