A great bowling feat

I have been asked to draw attention to a feat by Frank Field, the Warwickshire fast bowler, which owing to the stoppage of the game by the War, has not been given the prominence among cricket records to which it is entitled. Anyway it escaped notice in the cricket records published in Wisden for 1916, so it is only right to make up for the omission. In the match between Worcestershire and Warwickshire, played at Dudley on June 1, 2, and 3, 1914, Field, in the second innings of Worcestershire, went on to bowl with the score of 85 for four wickets, and took the six outstanding wickets in eight overs and four balls, seven maidens, at a cost of only two runs. The score of the match published at the time credited Field with only six maiden overs, but the detailed analysis which has been sent to me shows that he bowled seven. In fact, the only scoring stroke made off him was a lucky two from the second ball in the second over before he had taken a wicket. While finishing off the Worcestershire innings in this startling fashion, Field delivered five no-balls, with one of which he clean bowled M. K. Foster. In taking his six wickets for two runs he received no assistance, three batsmen being bowled, two caught and bowled, and one leg-before-wicket. The feat certainly deserves to be placed in future on the same footing as Pougher's famous five wickets for no runs for M. C. C. and Ground against the Australians at Lord's in 1896, and Peate's eight wickets for five runs for Yorkshire against Surrey at Holbeck, in 1883.--S.H.P.