Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

1894 Essex had felt for some years that the club could only pay its way if it obtained first-class status, so the achievement was the cause of great rejoicing and 403 new members were elected during the season, but it proved a bitter disappointment. It was fortunate for Essex that they did not enter the Championship, because they did not win a single county match and would have finished bottom. Lillywhite ’s comment was a masterpiece of understatement: ‘Unfortunately for Essex the ill luck which has followed them with such singular pertinacity for the last three or four years did not desert themwhen good fortune would have been particularly useful. … The want of another reliable bowler was sorely felt at times and the out-cricket was susceptible of improvement without a doubt.’ For Lucas the season was equally disastrous. He played in only six of the eleven matches, and only one of the last five. He scored a mere 88 runs, with an average below ten – ridiculously low for such a fine player. There is no obvious explanation for his failure, particularly by contrast with the previous year. Perhaps he suffered the loss of form that comes to all players and had little opportunity to put it right, or there was a crisis in his business affairs that affected his usually intense concentration and kept him out of the team at the end of the season. Lucas must have felt some responsibility for the team’s failures, but it was only on 16 May 1895 that the committee discussed his letter ‘resigning the captaincy owing to business engagements.’ They accepted his resignation with regret and offered the captaincy to Hugh Owen, who had often led the side in his absence and was the obvious choice to take over. Since Essex had already played two matches, their first ever in the Championship, the committee were probably only ratifying a decision that had already been made. 98 Essex captain, 1889-1894 Lucas eventually played sixty first-class matches at ‘dear old’ Leyton, more than at any other ground. This picture was taken in 1900.