Published: 2nd June, 2018
Richard Spiller looks back 80 years to a season highlighted by Len Hutton’s epic 364 against Australia at The Oval but in a summer overshadowed by the growing threat of war.
For Surrey it was a time of encouragement, finishing third in the County Championship – their most successful for 13 years and a gratifying way for Errol Holmes to conclude five seasons in charge.
It was their best position since being runners-up in 1925, a fallow period for the club despite the presence of many fine players.
Bowling out teams at The Oval was often beyond them as they lacked the firepower to overcome the batsmen-friendly pitches prepared by groundsman Bosser Martin and his massive heavy roller known as “Bosser’s Pet”.
READ: 60 Years Since Surrey’s Seventh Title
A slow start was turned around by an exciting 11-run victory over Notts in the Whitsun clash at Trent Bridge, although it was July which saw them at their best, overcoming Kent twice plus Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire.
The latter’s dominance of the decade was maintained, though, by claiming the title with Middlesex runners-up.
Surrey might have been closer to them but for their spearhead Alf Gover, who had claimed 200 wickets in 1936 and 1937, having to make do this time with just 86. A knee injury suffered on the previous winter’s tour to India, along with the debilitating effects of a long trip, were partly responsible.
Six batsmen passed 1,000 first-class runs – Laurie Fishlock, Bob Gregory, Stan Squires, Ted Whitfield, Jack Parker and Tom Barling – and Fishlock was the star with more than 2,000, of which 1,950 came in the Championship.
Gover’s fellow paceman Eddie Watts proved the leading wicket-taker, finishing with 129 scalps, and Parker’s all-round talents were underlined by his 67 victims.
A new chapter opened for Surrey when they took first-class cricket to Guildford for the first time in mid-July, celebrating with victory by an innings and 71 run victory over Hampshire.
Whitfield’s 138 led the hosts to 433 all out (Court 4-85 and Heath 3-113) before Watts (4-50) and Gregory (3-48) combined in dismissing Hampshire for 218.
Len Creese’s 54 in that first innings was to prove the highest score of the match for the visitors, who were despatched for 144 after following on. This time Gregory (3-34) took second billing to Parker’s 4-52.
Holmes – who was to make a surprise return to the captaincy after the Second World War – appeared to be handing over a promising side to his successor, Monty Garland-Wells.
Ashes Test Match
If there was disappointment that Australia had already retained the Ashes by the time the series reached it’s traditional final staging post, that soon disappeared.
High scoring draws at Trent Bridge and Lord’s were followed by the third match, at Old Trafford, being washed out without a ball bowled.
A century from Don Bradman and England collapsing for 105 against leg-spinner Bill O’Reilly in their second innings had handed the tourists victory by five wickets at Headingley.
England could still square the series, which meant the match was to be played to a finish however long that took, and made the most of another pitch which had been flattened by the “Pet”.
Hutton, only 21 and in his sixth Test, relished the company of his recalled county colleague Maurice Leyland (187) in a monumental second-wicket stand of 382, batting for 797 minutes and 847 balls as he passed Bradman’s record of 334 to set a new world best.
It was an innings ensured his name would be linked with the ground forever and a brick statue by the Edrich Gate commemorates his achievement.
Skipper Walter Hammond (59), Joe Hardstaff jnr’s 169no and 53 from Arthur Wood – given his opportunity at the last minute and forced to rush down from Yorkshire by taxi – ensured England reached 903-7 before Hammond declared. Poor Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, the slow left-arm bowler, was left nursing figures of 1-298.
Bradman had injured his leg during England’s innings and with Jack Fingleton also unable to bat, the tourists were bowled out for 201 – Bill Bowes taking 5-49 – and then 123, Ken Farnes the main destroyer this time with 4-63, to lose by an innings and 579 runs.
It was just as well England enjoyed it given it was to be their last victory over Australia until early 1951.
What else happened in 1938?
Events on the pitch became increasingly overshadowed by the world heading towards another global conflict, just two decades after the destruction of the First World War.
In Germany, the Nazi government of Adolf Hitler annexed neighbours Austria in March while in November came the Kristallnacht, when Jews and their property were systematically assaulted.
Between those two events, came the signing of the Munich Agreement, which allowed Germany to take over portions of Czechoslovakia, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hailing it as “peace for our time”. It proved to be no such thing and Chamberlain’s policies – which carried much popular support at the time – were later condemned for appeasing a war-hungry tyrant who started the second world war a year later.
Japan had already invaded China while Hitler’s Italian ally, Mussolini, was involved in a war to colonise Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). In Spain, Germany were aiding Franco’s fascist forces take control in a civil war which lasted until 1939.
In the Soviet Union, Stalin reinforced his grip on power with a series of purges, the Great Terror responsible for around 600,000 deaths of civilians, communist party members and the armed forces.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had set a bomb under the financial markets, a worldwide slump making the 1930s a decade of poverty for many.
Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘new deal’ was designed to lift the United States out of its rut but even by 1938 there was still mass unemployment. A major breakthrough came when the first Ford Prefects were produced but tragedy struck when the Los Angeles Flood destroyed 5,601 homes and killed 115 people.
The discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia was an event whose implications could barely be imagined at the time, especially for those who were far more interested in a brand new comic – The Beano.
Keep an eye out on kiaoval.com for more features from Richard Spiller on the history of Surrey County Cricket Club and The Oval.
