Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

would have done, but held three catches including one off Kortright who was still at his fearsome fastest. Lucas had appeared in ten of Essex’s twelve county matches but played in none of the four in August. He was still a fine batsman and is unlikely to have been dropped, so the most likely explanation is business. He may also have felt he wasn’t needed: Russell had recovered from injury, Turner had made a wonderful start to his career and another promising young batsman, 22-year-old Frederick Fane, had returned from Oxford in good form. On 7 August, before a Saturday last-day crowd of 15,000, Essex beat Lancashire at Leyton to go top of the table. The Leytonstone Express and Independent headlined its report, perhaps with some disbelief, as ‘At the Top at Last’. Had Essex beaten Surrey the following week they would have taken the championship ahead of Lancashire and Surrey, but they lost by ten wickets inside two days. Essex nevertheless came third, a position they did not surpass for over eighty years, and their oldest player doubtless took a quiet satisfaction in the success of his adopted county. Lucas, with 386 runs at 35.09, was fourth in the Essex averages behind Turner and the ‘Essex Twins’, Percy Perrin and Charles McGahey. 1898 Essex had been transformed from a club that few counties wanted to play into one of the strongest in the country, so they arranged new home and away fixtures with Gloucestershire and Kent. Lucas, at the age of 41, played in thirteen games – more county matches than ever in his career. With 281 runs in ten innings, often on difficult pitches, he made a sound start to the season. The Times commented on his 62 against Warwickshire: ‘As for Mr Lucas, nothing could have been better than his timing of the fine-length ball, and his mastery of the ball revived memories of his great cricket days at Uppingham and Cambridge.’ He also continued to be a fine fielder: Yorkshire’s first innings at Leyton ended with ‘a remarkable catch by Mr Lucas at mid-on, when he held a hard drive low down with his left hand.’ One of the most remarkable games of this or any other season was at Old Trafford. Lancashire were in control for most of the match and eventually set Essex 336 to win. At that time, no side batting last in county cricket had ever scored more than 300 and won. After Owen and Carpenter made a solid start, McGahey and Perrin put on 191 for the third wicket but then Perrin and Turner were both out on 279. Lucas came in with four wickets down and 57 still needed. Lancashire sensed a chance of victory so their bowling and fielding were tight. The score advanced very slowly but Lucas’s experience was invaluable. McGahey was batting brilliantly and while he was there made most of the runs, but when he was finally out for 145 with Essex still 23 short, Lucas took charge. His unbeaten 23 saw them home by four wickets to ‘a brilliant victory for Essex’ ( Express and Independent ) and ‘an unprecedented achievement’ ( Wisden ). 102 Essex cricketer, 1895-1907