innings, he hit 60 runs to widen Somerset's lead to almost 150 runs, a total Gloucestershire failed to chase down. His success against Gloucestershire continued in the return fixture later that season, in which he scored 89 of Somerset's total of 169 in the first innings, and 42 runs in the second innings, though their opponents won by an innings after amassing 521 runs in their only innings. In all, Poyntz played five matches in his debut season, totalling 307 runs. His season's batting average of 34.11 was the highest of his career. In David Foot's history of Somerset cricket, after the 1903 season he wrote that "it's time discreetly to leap over undistinguished seasons." Between 1903 and the cessation of county cricket due to the First World War, Somerset never finished higher than tenth in the County Championship. Poyntz himself struggled for runs between 1906 and 1909: in thirty matches for the county, he failed to score a half-century. Statistically, his worst season came in 1907, when he averaged just 4.66 runs per innings. His most notable incident that season occurred during the match against Middlesex at Lord's. In his own benefit match, Albert Trott claimed two hat-tricks; Poyntz was one of the victims, falling for a second innings duck. County captain In 1910, Poyntz captained Somerset for the first time, standing-in during the absence of the regular captain, John Daniell. In that season, he struck his first half-century since 1905, scoring 50 runs in the second innings of a match against Middlesex at Bath. He followed that with another in his next innings, finishing on 52 not out against Lancashire, though Somerset lost both matches by an innings. He finished the 1910 season with 363 runs at an average of 16.50, and appeared in a representative match for the West of England against the East. In their summary of the 1911 season, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack claimed that "the outlook for Somerset is cheerless." The county finished bottom of the championship with only one victory, against Hampshire at Bath. Despite this, Poyntz had one of his most successful seasons: he scored 597 runs at an average of 22.96, and his five half-centuries were the most in any year of his career. He began the season with half-centuries in both innings of a drawn match with Hampshire in Southampton, and two matches later, he bowled for the first time in