by Abhishek Mukherjee

Yorkshire were hosting Derbyshire at the Dewsbury and Saville Ground.

They managed 343, then bowled out Derbyshire for 203 and 171. They thus needed only 32 to win, but time had run out on Day 2.

Before I proceed, let me explain the concept of dressing-rooms of the era, of which there were four on every ground: separate for hosts and visitors, and for amateurs and professionals.

Now, they forgot to close a tap in the room above the visiting professionals' room. It went unnoticed, as the main plumbing was switched off. Now, when they switched on the main plumbing at six in the morning, water began to flow from the open tap.

By the time the players arrived, the floor resembled a swimming pool. The kits and whites were unusable.

Meanwhile, the two Derbyshire amateurs – captain Thomas Higson and Levi Wright – were safe, as were the Yorkshire cricketers. They walked out in immaculate whites.

The captains discussed for a while. Then, leaving flannels and sweaters to dry across lines and racks and pavilion rails, and boots and playing equipment on the grass, the nine Derbyshire professionals took field in plain clothes.

One wonders what they would have done had Yorkshire had a substantial target.

But who would bowl? On one hand, an amateurs would not stoop to such menial activities. Higson bowled off-spin, but Wright did not (he would finish his 325-match career with a solitary wicket). On the other hand, the professionals were in suits...

Eventually the amateurs bowled, Yorkshire got the runs inside 20 minutes – though not before Higson got a wicket!

All this happened on 10 June 1899.

The image is of poor Harry Bagshaw, whose pullover "shrank so much that it wouldn’t have fitted a small boy."

*

There is a conversation narrated by Andrew Ward, which is worth reproducing – though Ward himself that it was perhaps apocryphal.

Stranger: Who's playing?
Spectator: Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
Stranger: Which is which?
Spectator: Yorkshire are in white.