1935 To 1939
These were the great years for Andrews. He played 142 matches for Somerset in these 5 seasons out of the 144 that Somerset played. He missed just 2 matches through injury in July 1939. This ended a run of 127 consecutive games for the county, a Somerset record at the time. This is in many ways impressive but from a negative point of view it does also indicate that he was never selected to play for England nor was he ever chosen for other important matches like Gentlemen v Players.
Harold Gimblett made his debut in the third game of the 1935 season against Essex at Frome. Gimblett was well on his way to his famous century when Andrews joined him batting at number 10. Andrews was a sufficiently competent batsmen by this stage to keep Gimblett company, knowing that only Horace Hazell was left to bat. On Gimblett's departure Andrews took advantage of the dispirited Essex attack to score a rapid 71 and his first half-century. Overall he took 108 wickets in 1935 the most by a Somerset bowler although his 95 Championship wickets was just pipped by Arthur Wellard's 97.
1936 was something of a setback season with Andrews being used somewhat less and taking just 82 wickets. Andrews himself felt that batsmen were working him out after his successes of 1935. He finished the season taking 6-126 against Lancashire at Taunton, a match in which Jack Meyer scored a double century on the final day with Lancashire employing joke bowling to enable him to reach him total.
If 1936 had been something of a disappointment 1937 started with great success. Wickets came in virtually every innings and with his 4 wickets against Derbyshire at Taunton he had reached 100 wickets for the season by July 15, the earliest any Somerset player has reached 100 first-class wickets. Having also scored over 700 runs at this point Andrews must surely have been in the reckoning for either the Players or even a Test place against the New Zealanders. Wellard was selected for the Players at Lord's and later played a single Test against the tourists. Wellard's 1937 figures were no better than Andrews's but he had had a much better 1936 than Andrews. Andrews performances fell away later in the season but he still finished with 137 wickets for Somerset at an average under 20 and with 1000 runs at an average over 20 he completed the double, even achieving it in Championship matches alone. The highlight of the season was the match against Surrey at The Oval. On the third morning Somerset had just avoided following-on and when Surrey batting again they were dismissed for 35 in 13.4 overs. Andrews took 8-12 including a hat-trick. Despite a rapid 91* from Wellard Somerset lost by 11 runs.
Bunty Longrigg replace Ingle as Captain in 1938. He seemed more impressed with Andrews batting and he was frequently higher in the batting order. He did the double again although he only needed 47 in the last match of the season and scored 48 in the first innings. Somerset won by an innings so it was his last innings of the season. His best bowling was against Middlesex at Bath when he had match figures of 13-141, a match Somerset won by 9 wickets. With 10 championship wins, including 8 at home, against 9 defeats this was a rare season when they had more victories than losses.
1939 proved another successful season with the ball but his batting was in decline and he slipped down the batting order. He actually took 1 more wicket for Somerset than Arthur Wellard from 100 less overs (8 ball overs than season). In these 5 seasons from 1935 to 1939 he had taken 582 wickets and scored nearly 4,000 runs for Somerset and had proved himself an invaluable member of the side.
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