Alfred Edward Bailey (14 March 1871 – 1 August 1950) was a professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for

Somerset County Cricket Club Somerset County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, historic county of Somer ...

from 1900 to 1911 as slow left-arm spin bowler.

Cricket career

Bailey played for

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in second eleven matches in the early to mid-1890s, but made no first-class appearances for the side. In 1900, he played in two matches in the north of England for Somerset in the space of a week; he took only one wicket in these games, both of which were lost heavily. He reappeared in the Somerset side halfway through the 1905 season and then for the next two years was a fairly regular member of what was a very weak side. In his second match of the season, against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

he took seven first innings wickets for 113 runs in a high-scoring game. Two games later, in his first home match for Somerset, he took eight

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

wickets for 67 runs and followed that with three of the four Middlesex wickets to fall in the second innings to finish with match figures of 11 for 78. And in his final game of the season, against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

he took six for 67 in 38 overs, bowling throughout the Warwickshire innings. His 29 wickets in five matches at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 15.31 put him at the head of Somerset's bowling figures for the season. The first match of the 1906 season saw the same opponents at the same venue as the last game of 1905, and Bailey did even better against Warwickshire than before: he took five for 59 in the first innings and then six wickets for six runs (in 8.4 overs) in the second to finish with match figures of 11 for 65, the best match figures of his career. There were nine wickets in the next game against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, including a first innings return of six for 118. But though Bailey remained in the side for the rest of the season, there were no further successes and he did not take five wickets in an innings again in the season. He finished with a total of 65 wickets at the relatively high average for the time of 26.29. The 1907 season followed a similar pattern, in that Bailey's first appearance of the season was sensational and the rest was disappointment. In Somerset's first match, against Yorkshire at Taunton, he took eight wickets for 46 runs in the first innings, plus the only wicket that fell in Yorkshire's second innings: the innings return was the best of his career. The fall-off in performance, though, was even more marked than in 1906 and he lost his place in the side well before the end of the season. In 1908, 1909 and 1910, Bailey was playing cricket in Scotland and he made appearances in first-class matches for the

Scottish national cricket team The Scotland national men's cricket team represents the country of Scotland. They play most of their home matches at The Grange, Edinburgh, as well as at other venues around Scotland. Scotland's history in cricket dates back to the 18th centur ...

against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

in 1908 and against the

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizenship, citizens, nationality, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Aust ...

in 1909. There were only minor matches in 1910, but in 1911, he reappeared again for Somerset in two late-season games, without success. Those were his final first-class appearances.

Cricket career

References

Further reading