Wallace Bower, a miner from Eastwood, was on the Nottinghamshire staff in 1914 and played just one First-Class match. He appeared against the MCC at Lord’s in May that year, scoring a duck in his only innings and claiming the wicket of JWHT Douglas in MCC’s second innings. He also appeared for Notts Second XI in July 1914, making another duck but taking two wickets and one catch.
The First World War interrupted his cricket, as it did for so many, and when cricket resumed, Bower could not agree terms with Notts and so went into League cricket in North Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, playing variously for Firbeck, Rawmarsh, Ollerton and Manton.
A fast right-arm bowler and right-hand bat, Bower took a hat-trick for Rawmarsh v Kilnhurst in 1924 and two years later scored 100no for the same team. He joined the Welbeck Colliery club around 1930 and saw out his playing days with that team.
His was a cricketing family and his brothers John and Joseph Bower were also professional players. Wallace Bower died in Welbeck Colliery Village on 10 February 1971; he was born in Eastwood on 2 January 1895.
June 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 315