Charlie Bray and his team were already psychologically down when they reached Leyton for the match against Yorkshire. In the previous match at The Oval that had ended the previous day, Surrey had chased down 252 against them for the loss of one wicket. They had got Tom Barling out with the score on 20, but Jack Hobbs and Robert Gregory had put on an unbeaten 232-run partnership to pull off a victory on Day Three.
After the leather-chasing on the previous day, all Bray wanted was to win the toss and bat: he could not. Brian Sellers did, and had absolutely no hesitation in deciding to bat first on an absolutely placid pitch against a tired lot. As Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe walked out to bat, the Essex fielders had no idea whatsoever about what was about to follow.
Day One
Sutcliffe was never under any trouble whatsoever against the Essex attack, which, to be fair could hardly be classified as exceptional. One of the greatest openers of all time (and statistically the greatest ever), he was never bothered about the fact that he had never received the kind of accolades some of the lesser cricketers of his time had. There was a reason that Don Bradman had used the words “Herbert Sutcliffe had the best temperament of any cricketer I ever played with or against” to describe the great man, while Holmes himself had used the words “if only I had Herbert’s [Sutcliffe’s] patience!”
Holmes, on the other hand, was not at his confident best since his bout of lumbago some time back. The man whom Neville Cardus had once called “versatile and impulsive, always alive by instinct” and someone who “seemed to brush an innings, comb it, making the appropriate whistling noises” was not at his nimble best. He edged one off Arthur Daer, but Roy Sheffield grassed the chance. Essex would rue the opportunity missed by the gloveman for the next day and a half.
Thus reprieved, Holmes grew in confidence, and supported Sutcliffe in the run-accumulation. Yorkshire reached 113 without loss at lunch. Sutcliffe, on the other hand, started in the businesslike manner that was so characteristic of him, and set about scoring runs.
Once his seamers failed to break through, Bray had to fall back on his young leg-spinner Peter Smith. Smith toiled on, but could not stop the flow of runs. The Essex attack, consisting of Stan Nichols, Daer, Smith, Jack O’Connor, and Laurie Eastman seemed completely ineffective against Sutcliffe’s dominance and Holmes’ resilience. At tea Yorkshire were 237 for no loss.
The real fun began after tea. Sutcliffe began to open up, and Holmes, after passing his hundred, joined him in the furious onslaught that followed. Sutcliffe passed his 150, and then raced to his double-hundred. Holmes, too, brought up his 150, and at stumps, Yorkshire were 423 without the loss of a single wicket with Sutcliffe on 231 and Holmes on 150.
Day Two
By now Essex had conceded 655 runs without taking a wicket, that too over a period of two days. England’s most famous opening pair — Hobbs and Sutcliffe — had contributed to their misery, albeit in separate partnerships. When they took field on Day Two they were almost defeated psychologically.
To make things worse, a huge crowd had gathered at Essex’s home ground — to cheer for Sutcliffe and Holmes as they took on the challenge to go past the existing world record for the first wicket — the 554 set by Jack Brown and John Tunnicliffe against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1898.
The duo continued from where they had finished the previous afternoon. When he reached 245, Sutcliffe reached a thousand runs for the season, and at 256, he went past his previous First-Class best. Holmes, meanwhile, went past his double-hundred, and the pair looked on track.
Before play had started that day, Sellers had announced that he would declare at 1.00 pm. Holmes was at home with the statement, acknowledging that Sellers “had come to get the 15 points so that [the announcement] was fair enough. Sutcliffe, however, was not happy: “Percy [Holmes], do you or do you not want to go for this record?”
Sutcliffe soon went past his first triple-hundred. Then, as the leg-spinner Eastman bowled a long-hop, and the Harrogate legend pulled him for a four to bring up the magic figure of 555. He was bowled the very next ball for 313 with 33 fours and a six, and Sellers declared immediately; Holmes remained unbeaten on 224 with 19 fours. The partnership had lasted 465 minutes.
The crowd was jubilant, and the dressing-room celebrated in unison with them. Sellers recalled: “Stacks of 555 State Express [sic] cigarettes arrived in the dressing-room for Herbert [Sutcliffe] and Percy [Holmes]. Later Herbert bought an AC car with 555 on it.”
There is an urban legend that the famous cigarette brand State Express 555 (mentioned by Sellers in the quote above) was named so after this partnership between Sutcliffe and Holmes. The brand name, however, was coined in 1896, 36 years before the partnership.
Essex, on the other hand, had ended up conceding 787 runs between partnerships in approximately two days of playing time!
The confusion
It took half an hour for Essex’s innings to commence, though — for a reason that has not really happened very frequently in Championship matches. In Bray’s words, “the scoreboard often went wrong at Leyton because the scorers sat underneath and could not check visually.”
The scorers — Billy Ringrose of Yorkshire and Charlie McGahey of Essex (who had also played two Tests) — had mutually agreed that the score was actually 554, though the scoreboard showed 555. McGahey had also appeared late on Day One, which complicated matters even more.
The media, meanwhile, was completely confused and tried desperately to find out the proceedings, but Ringrose was adamant. It was then that umpire Tiger Smith intervened: he claimed that he had missed a no-ball from Daer before McGahey had turned up. As Ringrose reluctantly agreed, McGahey rushed to the Essex dressing-room.
McGahey reported to a completely exhausted Bray, who had no idea regarding what was going on outside: “Sorry to disturb you, skip [Bray], but all hell is going on out there. They want us to find an extra run to beat the record and I won’t do it without your permission.” Bray, somewhat graciously, responded: “Find a run for them, Charles [McGahey]. They’ve batted magnificently and more than deserve the record.”
Everyone had agreed on the 555-run partnership now, and poor Daer ended up with an extra run against his name.
Brief scores:
Yorkshire 555 for 1 decl. (Herbert Sutcliffe 313, Percy Holmes 224*) beat Essex 78 (Hedley Verity 5 for 8, Bill Bowes 4 for 38) and 164 (Stan Nichols 59*; Hedley Verity 5 for 45, Bill Bowes 5 for 47) by an innings and 313 runs.
Leyton Cricket Ground (formerly known as the County Ground or the Lyttelton Ground) is a cricket ground in Leyton, London.
The ground has been used for cricket since the early 19th century. Essex County Cricket Club played their first game there on 15 and 16 June 1885 against Surrey; the game was lost by one innings. The captain of Essex, Charles Ernest Green, became convinced that the club's headquarters ground at Brentwood was too small and he drove the campaign to acquire the Leyton ground. In 1886, the club purchased the ground from its owner, the cricket-loving Lord Lyttelton, at a "favourable" price of £12,000. An appeal was launched for £3,500 for the construction of a pavilion, other necessary buildings and "general alterations. Lord Lyttleton was the first donor, contributing £200. Initially known as the "Lyttleton Ground", a local newspaper report claimed that the development of the site "gave unwonted loveliness to a district which but a short while since presented an appearance of the abomination of desolation", since the surrounding area had been sold off for the construction of new housing and a railway line. Although £2,900 had been raised by the appeal, the purchase of the Leyton Cricket Ground left the club in financial difficulty for decades.
In 1921, the ground was sold to the Army Sports Central Board, relieving the club of a £10,000 mortgage. Leyton Cricket Ground remained the headquarters of Essex County Cricket Club until 1933, when the lease expired and the club moved to the County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford for the 1934 season. Essex returned to play matches at Leyton in 1957, by then owned by the local council, and continued to play there until 1977. Essex are considering the possibility of playing some Twenty20 Cup games back at the ground. The ground is now used as a sports ground by local schools and community groups. A local cricket club, Leyton County Cricket Club, uses the ground for first team games during the summer. The wooden pavilion building still stands and has been a Grade II listed building since 1999.
The ground has also been used for football. Millwall Rovers played London Caledonians at the ground in the East London FA Cup Final in 1886. The game finished 2-2 and both teams shared the cup for six months each. In 1895 Woolwich Arsenal played a Football League Second Division game against Leicester Fosse as their own Manor Ground was closed by the Football League following crowd trouble. Leyton Orient also occasionally played pre-season friendlies at the ground, in the 1900s.