PERCY JEEVES’S entry into county cricket could not be immediate. A player had to reside in a county for two years to be eligible to play in the championship, so the new recruit spent 1911 settling into Birmingham and working around Warwickshire’s Edgbaston ground under long-serving groundsman John Bates.
“The first year I did not get much match cricket and accomplished nothing out of the ordinary,” Jeeves later recalled. He was, though, an onlooker to a success which was quite extraordinary.
Warwickshire’s team approached the 1911 season in a dishevelled state. Since hurrying to first-class status in 1894, only 12 years after formation, and hosting their first Ashes test only eight years later, the club had lost momentum. In 1908 and 1909 they finished 12th of the 16 counties. In 1910, they dropped to 14th. Hopes for 1911 were far from high.
Under the reluctant captaincy of Charles Cowan, an officer in the navy and moderate cricketer who played for Warwickshire only occasionally, they began the season in wretched fashion with an innings defeat to Surrey at The Oval. That humiliation, in which Cowan bagged a pair, convinced the club’s committee to beg brilliant all-rounder Frank Foster to take the captaincy. In January, just before his 22nd birthday, the maverick Foster had announced his retirement to concentrate on the family clothing firm in Digbeth. But after the Surrey debacle, lobbied by his father John (a committee member), Frank reconsidered.
The effect was immediate and spectacular. In Foster’s first match in charge, Warwickshire beat a powerful Lancashire side by 137 runs at Old Trafford. An immediate sign that Foster’s captaincy was touched by inspiration came with the dismissal of the great Johnny Tyldesley. The right-hander was a linchpin of England’s top order and a habitual plunderer of the Bears, averaging over 100 against them. He advanced smoothly to 13 in Lancashire’s first innings and the home supporters sat back ready to enjoy another Tyldesley ton when, to widespread incredulity, Foster threw the ball to Jack Parsons, a young batsman who hardly ever bowled. The last ball of Parsons’s first over was an appalling leg-side offering which Tyldesley, in his confusion as to whether to hit it for four or six, contrived to edge to Ernest ‘Tiger’ Smith behind the stumps.
Under Foster, Warwickshire went on to win 13 of 19 matches, culminating in a heavy victory over Northamptonshire at Northampton in the last game to clinch the championship for the first time. Foster led the way with bat (1,383 runs), ball (116 wickets) and sheer force of personality. Always positive, he led from the front while instilling great togetherness among a disparate group. Old and young, amateur and professional, local and imported, they pulled together to bring the title to Edgbaston. It was the first time any county outside the Big Six – Surrey, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Middlesex. Nottinghamshire and Kent – had won the championship. A stunning achievement.
In this momentous year did Percy Jeeves arrive at Warwickshire but, busy on ground duties and as a net-bowler for the amateurs, he played little serious cricket. In May he turned out in a couple of games for Wednesbury, against Forest of Arden and Erdington, but as the season deepened, duties at Edgbaston kept him occupied on most Saturdays.
His first appearance as a player on the Edgbaston turf arrived on a Monday and a Tuesday, 10 and 11 July, in a pair of friendlies for Warwickshire Club & Ground. In the annual match against Sixteen of Parks Association, the visitors batted first and, opening the bowling, Jeeves quickly dismissed the openers. S. Blanks, a parks official lost in the mists of time, became his first victim for the Bears. The Parks Association totalled 254 thanks largely to B. Barrett’s unbeaten 70 from number 14 and Club & Ground replied with 183 for six, Jeeves scoring 32 batting at number three.
Next day, Fifteen of the Suburban League were the opposition and Jeeves took 4-18 and scored 86 not out. Further success came his way when Warwickshire second XI played a two-day game against Worcestershire at New Road. Jeeves took 16-8-25-5 and 14-4-33-1 in a nine-wicket win.
As the first team, watched by crowds of more than 10,000, charged towards the championship, on 22 and 23 August came a chance for Jeeves to shine in the annual Amateurs v Professionals two-day match at Edgbaston.
The amateurs were led by Foster and included talented batsman Reginald Pridmore (who had played hockey for England at the 1908 Olympics) and promising youngsters Eric Crockford and Horace Venn.
The professionals, among whom Jeeves lined up, consisted of the nucleus of the first XI – seasoned batsmen Septimus Kinneir, Billy Quaife and Crowther Charlesworth, wicketkeeper Tiger Smith, fast bowler Frank Field and medium-pacer Sydney Santall.
These were the men whom Jeeves aspired to join in the ranks of the first team and straight away he showed them his worth. He set the Professionals on the way to a five-wicket victory with 4-29, his victims including Foster and Pridmore. He also showed aptitude in the slips with three catches off Santall as the veteran took 6-45 in the second innings.
In September, Warwickshire were crowned champions for the first time and great were the celebrations at a lavish dinner in the Grosvenor Room of the Grand Hotel in Birmingham. The Earl of Warwick presided over a guest list including Lord Hawke, Lord Willoughby de Broke and the mayors of Birmingham, Aston, Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon, Nuneaton and Chichester. A telegram was read out from a company of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, stationed in India. A toast was drunk to “The Press”.
Gloucestershire and England batsman Gilbert Jessop addressed the gathering. “What Warwickshire’s bowling lacked in quantity,” he said, “it more than made up for in quality.” It was certainly true that, assisted by hard wickets in a hot, dry summer, Frank Foster and Frank Field had vanquished all before them, but there was room for another seam bowler in the attack.
Jeeves’s move south, it seemed, was a timely one.
His first season with Warwickshire had been frustratingly slight on the field but he still had plenty to write home about to Edwin and Nancy, still living in Manuel Street, and to report to Hugh Crallan at The Stone House. On 8 September, Warwickshire secretary Ryder sat at his great oak desk in his office in the pavilion and composed a letter:
“Dear Jeeves, I am instructed by my committee to offer you an engagement for 12 months from August 26th at 62 for the year, payable as follows – £1 per week for the winter (32 weeks), 30/ per week for the summer (20 weeks), the understanding being that if you can find suitable employment you are to accept it for the winter pay. We shall arrange for you to play regularly for a league team on Saturday afternoons, but there will be no extra pay for these matches. The total amount payable to you during the year being £62. In mid-week matches for which you may be engaged (other than Club & Ground matches) you will be paid the usual rate: Viz 15/6. Our object in making this offer is of course to give you the opportunity of qualifying for the county. Your early reply will oblige.”
It is safe to say that the back-dated offer received an early reply.