A little bit of Luckes: Remembering Somerset games in history which went down to the wire

The Somerset side of the 1930s rarely looked like champions. In fact, they rarely even looked like winners. Since the turn of the century they had finished in the top half of the County Championship just three times: seventh in 1902, fifth in 1919, and eighth in 1924.

For the next eight seasons, they were in the bottom five. But after that, they occasionally – just occasionally – triumphed against the odds. Between 1932 and 1938, they won five games by one wicket, an extraordinary statistic. The common thread was their wicketkeeper.            

Wally Luckes had suffered ill health at the turn of the decade, and hardly played for three seasons, but he was a plucky competitor who stood up to most bowling – both as a keeper and a tailender. His courage was certainly needed in 1932, his comeback year.