1919 Taunton Tie Decided by Rare Two-Minute Ruling

In 1919 at Taunton, a Somerset v Sussex County Championship match ended level because of one of cricket’s rarest decisions: Sussex batter Harold Heygate failed to appear within the two-minute limit and was recorded absent, ending the innings.

Harold Heygate and the Two-Minute Rule

The finish was unusually direct. Sussex, chasing Somerset’s total, reached the final stages with the match still live. Then umpire Alfred Street ruled that Heygate had failed to appear within the required two minutes. Under the Laws then, he was marked absent and the innings ended. With the innings closed in those circumstances, the match finished as a tie.

That is what makes the game stand out. Ties in first-class cricket have always been uncommon. Rulings of this kind have been even rarer. Here, the two came together in the same finish, and the umpire’s call became the decisive moment.

Why the Taunton Tie Matters

The ruling was not about how a batter played a ball. It came down to whether the incoming player had arrived in time. In modern cricket, fans are used to run-outs, lbws, and catches deciding close games. A timed-out-style decision feels different because it happens before the contest between bowler and batter properly begins. That gives the Taunton match its odd, specific place in cricket history.

There is no need to dress it up beyond that. Somerset and Sussex played a County Championship match at Taunton in 1919, and the scoreboard ended with neither side ahead. The rare mechanism was the point: Alfred Street’s decision against Harold Heygate directly produced a tie, making it a first-class match long remembered for a two-minute ruling.

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