Cricket 1914

162 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. M a y 23, 1914. w ith all his brilliance, did not lack soundness— it may be th a t his brilliance tended to obscure the fact of how sound he really was. Reginald Erskine Foster was born on April 16, 1878, and died (of diabetes and coma) on May 13, 1914. Only ju st over thirty-six— the p ity of i t ! He began to make runs very early, of course. W ith two such elder brothers as H. K . and W . L., it would have been a wonder if he had not. How much the younger Fosters have owed to the example and the reflected glory of their seniors no one can estimate accurately ; but the debt must be a pretty big one. Not so big in R .E .’s case, however, as in that of those who followed him, for he was less than five years H .K .'s junior, and he had a place in the Malvern e even before his brother’s name was blazoned among those of the game’s great ones. He was in the school team in 1893, when only fifteen, and his character as given in Lillywhite for th at year credits him w ith having the making of a good bat, but being rather slow in the field ! He must have been growing fast. “ Slow in the field ” does not describe the R. E . Foster we knew in later days. In 1894 hc was sixth in the school averages (19 odd per innings, top score 71), w ith C. J. Burnup, H. H. Marriott, and R. B. Porch among the five above him, and G. H. Simpson-Hayward (then Simpson) and A. R. Thompson, who afterwards played for Northants, among those below. The following season saw him the heaviest scorerinthe school team, w ith 546 runs a t an average of 39, though the captain, E . H. Simpson, with the help of three not outs, beat him on average. These two and S. H. D ay made most of the runs for their side, the rest being scarcely up to the usual Malvern standard. He played for the county (then second- class, of course) in two or three matches this season, but w ith no success. In his last summer a t school, 1896, when he captained the side, he totalled 693 w ith an average of 46, and headed the batting, though but very little above S. H. D ay. Captain W . N . White (Hants), and E . E. Apthorp (the Bedfordshire skipper) were among the men he led that year. Up at Oxford in 1897, he made his presence felt very quickly. Scores of 41, 62, and 51 in three trial matches were scarcely needed to render him certain of a place, and his first innings for the ’V arsity team was one of 53 v. Mr. A. J. W ebbe’s X I. B u t he did not achieve fame at a bound. This was his only 50 for Oxford in ’97, and against Cambridge his scores were nothing great— 27 and 6. For Worcestershire in the Minor Counties Championship he averaged 24. No success th at could be called startling attended his efforts in 1898, either. B u t his total of 272 for Oxford included three items worth noting— 56 v. Mr. Webbe’s X I, €5 v. Surrey at the Oval, and 57 v. Cambridge. A t Lord’s he showed himself good at need. Three w ickets had fallen for 42 when he joined F. H. E . (now Sir Foster) Cunliffe. They added 82 together. R. E . topped the batting averages for his county th a t season, and scored the only century made for the side. W . L. was second, H . K . third. During the n ext three years the young batsman’s fame became firmly established. Indeed, most of his big cricket was played during th at time. A fter 1901, though he went to Australia in 1903-4, and made history in a great test match, and though he captained England v. South A frica in 1907, he played fewer than 100 innings in all in big cricket. During the three seasons 1899-1901 he played as many as 120. Compared w ith the two years which followed it, 1899 m ay not seem on figures one of his great seasons. He had not then attained the consistency which afterwards attended his efforts : no brilliant batsman was ever more consistent— not even V ictor Trumper a t the height of his fame— than R . E. Foster in 1901. But there were features in his 1899 record which captured the fancy of the crowd. He played a splendid innings of 80 for the ’V arsity against the Aus­ tralians, and a big score b y a ’V arsity man against Australian bowling is apt to be remembered. Then, in July, there came the memorable days when he and his soldier brother each scored a century in each innings against Hampshire at Worcestershire— W . L., 140 and 172 n o to u t ; R. E., 134 and 101*. They added 161 together in the first innings, and 219 in the second. The record is likely to stand. Perhaps it will never happen again that two bats­ men should make two centuries each for a side in the same match ; it is a million to one against two brothers ever again doing so. Bu t yet greater things were in store for R. E . His first big match in 1900 was for Oxford against Mr. W ebbe’s X I. He made 128 in 170 minutes w ith only one chance and 100 not out in 150 minutes on a worn w icket w ithout a chance at all. The bowling against him included th at of W . M. Bradley, J. L. Ainsworth, and Tate. A Sunday intervened ; then W . G. turned up at Oxford w ith a team whose bowling capacity was somewhat limited, for he himself and Razor Smith (then scarcely known) went on first, and A . F. Somerset had a turn w ith the ball before the Oxford innings of 539 was over. Foster slammed them all. Four times in succession he hit W . G. into the shrubbery, and his 169 included six sixes and twenty fours. He was hitting that day, letting himself go as he seldom did, as the gambler does who believes in risking everything when his luck is in ; and his luck was in, for no one could hold the chances he gave. In the course of four days’ cricket the Oxford captain (as he was that year) had scored 397 runs for twice out. But bigger achievements awaited him before the season had waxed and waned. He made 171 and 42 against Cambridge. To make a century— any sort of a century— in the ’V arsity match is a thing which counts. It is a never-to-be forgotten event. But R. E .’s century was practically faultless, superb in execution, the result of many a late cut, such as the timid batsman eschews, and many a daring p u ll; and it'w as the highest ever made in ’V arsity matches, since, however, beaten b y one run, b y a man who was allowed to break record a t the expense of his side’s chance of w inning the match. R. E .’s performance lacked the one finishing touch ; he did not lead his side to victory. Scoring was too heavy, and when Cambridge went in for the last innings Moon and Stanning made a drawn game certain by their fine three-figure stand for the first wicket. Now a t his zenith ? Not q u ite ! There remained y et two bigger feats for him to accomplish— a century in each innings for Gentlemen v. Players and the record score in test matches. A t Lord’s, July 16, 17 and 18, 1900 :— “ R. E . Foster, notout, 102— c. B row nb. T rott, 136.” So reads the line in th at score-sheet. It does not tell all. It does not tell how the brilliant batsman restrained himself to such an extent th at he batted full half an hour before he made his first run in the match, and y et scored his 102 (15 fours) in less than two hours ; how in the second innings, when he gave one chance (at 40) he reached 50 in about an hour and made his 136 in 105 minutes out of 195, hitting 24 fours. No novelist w ith any regard for truthful colouring could have given his hero more dramatic deeds than these of R. E .’s in 1900. But for sheer consistent merit 1901 w-as his best year. In 1900 he had headed the Worcestershire averages, and had scored 70 and 83 v. Middlesex and 94 v. Gloucestershire at W orcester; but compared w ith his doings in other matches his county record was not specially notable— to ta l. 556, average 32-70. In 1901 he took over the captaincy. H. K . had to obey the doctors, and play only occasionally— he played, by the way, rather oftener than the doctors deemed judicious, one understands. He handed over the reins to his brother.