qualifying by residence to play for Middlesex. He started to play for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1896, and with the help of the Australian cricketer and Test umpire Jim Phillips, he started to play for Middlesex in 1898. Despite missing a month due to an injured hand, he took 102 wickets in his first season, forming a formidable bowling partnership with J. T. Hearne. Between December 1898 and April 1899, Trott took part in a tour of South Africa organised by Lord Hawke. He played in two matches against the South Africa national cricket team which were retrospectively awarded Test status and thus became one of only sixteen players to have played test cricket for two countries and the last cricketer to have played for both England and Australia. He was at the peak of his powers as an all-rounder in 1899 and 1900. In 1899 he scored 1,175 first-class runs and took 239 wickets, and in 1900 he scored at 1,337 runs and took 211 wickets. Trott's penchant for the spectacular did not fail him: having already landed the ball on the pavilion balcony at Lord's in the match, he became the only batsman to hit a ball over the current Lord's pavilion, bludgeoning Monty Noble out of the ground on 31 July 1899. The ball hit a chimney and fell into the garden outside the house of Philip Need, the Lord's dressing room attendant. At the time, Trott had been playing for the MCC and Ground against the Australians; the MCC team also included WG Grace and KS Ranjitsinhji. Noble soon had his revenge when Trott was dismissed shortly afterwards, caught off a top edge at third man. Only two months earlier, playing for Middlesex against Sussex, Trott had hit a lofted drive from Fred Tate into the ironwork at the top of one of the pavilion towers. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1899. He took all ten wickets in an innings (10 for 42) bowling for Middlesex against Somerset at Taunton in 1900. Trott was widely acknowledged as the finest all-round cricketer of his day. A true student of the game, Trott's bowling relied less on pace than it did on guile and spin; his variations ensured that a batsman rarely faced the same ball twice in an over. Trott was a dynamo in the field, with the ball seldom escaping