The following season, however, he succeeded the long-serving Wally Luckes as the regular wicketkeeper and, despite missing half a dozen matches, he set a new county record for dismissals, with 39 catches and 44 stumpings for Somerset (plus two more catches in an end-of-season representative match). The number of stumpings remains a Somerset record. "Wisden" said that he "exceeded expectations" and added: "Some of his stumpings off the slow bowlers were remarkably clever and quick enough to suggest optical tests for umpires." He also made more than 700 runs, batting mostly down the batting order at No 7 or No 8.