Famous Cricketers No 68 - Fred Tate

Lane crowd had given the same treatment to Sydney Barnes, in his case apparently merely for not being Schofield Haigh. Afterwards Tate was said to have been in tears. Whether he was and whether he truly said “I’ve a little boy at home there who’ll make it up for me” we can never be sure. Bearing in mind Maurice was only seven it seems unlikely but the source appears to have been Len Braund who was with him on the journey back to the South so possibly it is. It deserves to be. Early Life Born in Brighton Workhouse on July 24 1867, Fred Tate cannot be said to have got off to an easy start in life. He was brought up by his mother Sarah Tate, locally born and 31 at the time of the birth, and maternal grandmother Priscilla Tate (64) who originated from Canterbury. By 1871 they were established, together with Sarah’s younger brother, a decorator, at 9 Chichester Street (shortly afterwards renamed Kingsbury Street), Brighton. Priscilla worked as an upholstress, Sarah as a milliner and Fred lived with them until 1890 by which time Sarah had joined her mother in the upholstery business. The small terraced house, typical of the period, is still there. All the indications are that the two ladies brought the boy up well. His offspring testify to a “marvellous” presence, fine speaking voice, considerable charm and a cheerful, outgoing personality. At a time when such things mattered a great deal, he was clearly not lacking in social graces. In 1894 he married Gertrude, daughter of William Beach, Local Government Surveyor in Haywards Heath and a distinguished architect whose houses were highly regarded. As far as one can tell, they lived happily ever after. At least, there were ten children, three boys and seven girls, plus fourteen grandchildren and the two families - Tates and Beachs - seem to have remained close. Tate was a chorister at St Peter’s, Brighton and his entry into first-class cricket came via the St Peter’s cricket club. Alfred Shaw, England’s leading bowler in the 1870s, high priest of line and length famous for bowling more overs than he conceded runs, was employed by the Third Earl of Sheffield charged, among other things, with finding players for the county. Working with the former Derbyshire bowler William Mycroft, trial matches and coaching sessions were organised for promising club cricketers at Sheffield Park, Hove, Hastings, Eastbourne and elsewhere in the county over a period of ten years, all at his Lordship’s expense. Although Tate was one of more than a dozen who reached the Sussex team by this route including long serving wicket-keeper Harry Butt and all-rounder Ernest Killick, in his Alfred Shaw Cricketer. As Recorded by A.W.Pullin published in 1902, Shaw considered the results of the project “not satisfactory”. A curiously curmudgeonly judgement. While striving to establish himself in the Sussex side Tate continued to play local club cricket for St Peter’s, one of the stronger clubs in the Brighton area. It also seems to have been around this time that he appeared for the Little Lever Club, Bolton. In 1890 when, for unspecified business reasons, he gave up county cricket for a whole year, he played for Early Risers, Preston Stragglers and Cuckfield. He also did some coaching. In the late 1880s he was employed by the Leveson-Gower family on the Titsey Estate, Limpsfield to coach their sons in the holidays. Although at this stage of his career Tate was a relatively inexperienced cricketer, one of his pupils, Sir Henry Leveson-Gower, considered him an admirable coach as well as expressing, with a hint of political incorrectness, the sentiment that “there have been very few nicer professionals”. Despite being a keen swimmer, even quite late in life he was in the habit of swimming round Brighton pier, Fred Tate was inclined to put on weight - hence the widely used nicknames ‘Chub’ or ‘Chubby’. Red Lillywhite for 1888 gives his height as 5ft 10ins, weight 10st 6lbs. Next year he was ten pounds heavier and by the end of his career he was more than living up to his nickname He also enjoyed shooting at which he displayed rather less accuracy than he did with a cricket ball. The 5