History of Bucks CCC

innings and 25 runs. With 12 for 65 Battcock had been the star performer, and with solid support from Lund and Rutter, there had been no need for Edwards to bowl. The revival in Bucks’ fortunes was maintained into 1939. A heavy defeat by Hertfordshire in the first match was the only loss and Bucks ended fourth before the curtain came down once more, suspending championship play until 1946. The final match before the war, against Norfolk at Ascott Park, brought a debut to 17-year-old John Tovey from High Wycombe. Described in the Bucks Free Press review of the season as ‘a forceful batsman with plenty of skill and confidence’, he is believed to be the sole survivor of those who played under Franklin. After the war he played for Berkshire, his family having moved to Reading, but he still recalls vividly his one appearance for Bucks and the traditional needle between the two captains, Norfolk’s Michael Falcon having played for his county even longer than Franklin, starting in 1907 and captaining from1912. Inserted by Franklin, Norfolk made only 50 in their first innings, Lund taking seven for 24, but their captain led a fight back in the second knock to set Bucks 46 for victory. At 10 for 3 young Tovey, who had made 17 in his first innings, was in again. His brief second innings included the unusual sensation of seeing his off stump rock back without a bail falling to the ground, but at 30 for 5 he was back in the pavilion nervously watching some bold blows from Macindoe as Bucks reached their target without further loss. “I remember Franklin,” John Tovey says, “very autocratic and very formidable for a 17- year-old schoolboy. I was fielding on the boundary - I had quite a good arm in those days – and, when I threw it in not quite straight, he put his hand on his hip and glared at me and the ball nearly hit him on the chin. He had one peculiarity I remember: at the end of the over he used to walk from wicket to wicket with his hands clasped behind his back.” If Franklin was a daunting captain for the raw recruit there were others who made him more welcome: “I was privileged to play with Frank Edwards, a very kindly old pro, a very nice man. And there was Leslie Baker, who had been my mentor at High Wycombe. He had his dental surgery just opposite the ground.” Before leaving the inter-war years mention might be made of some of the lesser lights who played their part in keeping the flag flying. AJS James, a civil servant from Beaconsfield, had moments of success in the 42 matches he played as a middle order batsman between 1926 and 1937. Vezey Raffety, another prominent member of the Beaconsfield club, promised much when he first played in 1924. A Cranleigh schoolboy, he made his Bucks debut fresh from having played for the Public Schools at Lord’s but, despite selection to play for the Minor Counties in 1931, 17 matches for Bucks brought only two fifties. There were also just two fifties in 35 appearances for BH Stevens-Davies, an enthusiastic cricketer and brilliant fielder whose friendship with Maurice Turnbull brought him one non-first-class game for Glamorgan. BO Byass from Gerrards Cross opened the batting in the all-conquering team of 1932, but the runs he was expected to score never materialised. Bucks, some had said in the glory years, were too good for minor counties cricket. What is more, back in1921 they had been asked to join the first-class counties, but they had declined through lack of facilities. So runs the story that has long been the received wisdom of Bucks cricket, but is it more than folklore? For such a momentous move there might at least have been debate in committee, but the minute book is silent on the matter. So, too, are the handbook and the local newspapers. Nothing has been uncovered in an extensive, though not perhaps exhaustive, scrutiny of MCC Committee minutes. Moreover, though Glamorgan joined up in 1921, before that season began the Bucks County Club was still climbing back to its feet; it had a poor pre-war playing record and assets of just £148 7s 0d. Fourth in the table in 1920, and eighth a year later, hardly suggest dominance on the field. Moreover, Franklin and many of those who played alongside him could only do so in late July and August. 55 Champions again