Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

t’other fellow to try’. More big hitting enabled Lucas to declare on 437 for eight and set Leicestershire 266 to win in just under three hours. They responded in kind and had reached 155 for four when rain brought a disappointing but appropriate end to Essex’s last game in this soggiest of summers. In nine matches for Essex, Lucas scored 340 runs at 26.15 and Wisden commented: ‘Lucas batted with a skill that, considering his connection with first-class cricket began in 1874, was nothing less than astonishing.’ At the end of the season he stood down as captain for the third and final time. 1903 to 1907 In 1903 Charles Kortright took over as captain and immediately injected more youthful verve into the side, especially in its fielding. Young players such as Rev Frank Gillingham were coming through and at first Lucas wasn’t needed, but Gillingham had to fit his cricket round his duties as curate at Leyton parish church so, at the beginning of June, Lucas came in to cover him. Against Nottinghamshire he made 49, and against Sussex his resolute 47 not out in 1¾ hours was crucial, for although the pitch appeared to play well, Essex lost four wickets in knocking off 51. The Times reported that ‘the strength of his back play showed that his strong defence remains unimpaired’, but at the age of 46 his years finally began to catch up with him: in a further eleven innings he scored only 65 runs, and he finished the season with three ducks and an average of 12.42. A new direction for Lucas’s sporting interests is suggested by his appearance at Lord’s for Cricket Golfers against Golf Cricketers, a rather eccentric match that was played in the years 1903 to 1905. He was bowled for 13 by Herman de Zoete, a stockbroker and fine amateur golfer who had played two games for Essex in 1897. Bunny’s cousin Percy Montagu Lucas, father of ‘Laddie’, was twice Norfolk amateur champion and co-founder of Prince’s Golf Club in 1904, so may have introduced him to the game. In August 1904 Essex recalled Lucas to play in the Canterbury Week. Remarkably, he may well have kept wicket, for the Chelmsford Chronicle said that he replaced Tom Russell in the side, and he held three catches in the Kent first innings. He then ‘signalised his reappearance in county cricket by an admirable display of sound and stylish batting’; he made 44 and with Turner added 67 in 70 minutes when Essex were in danger of following on. Sadly, the fairy tale didn’t last: he made a duck in the second innings and another against Lancashire on the flattest of wickets at Leyton. In 1905 and 1906 Lucas turned out for MCC against Cambridge University. In the 1906 game he made 34 and 33, opening with his Essex colleague Frederick Fane. The Times commented: ‘Mr Lucas, from the point of view of the actual strokes that he makes, plays almost as well as he played 25 years ago. The bat is held as straight as ever, and the back play in particular is as sound as when he first made his name.’ Cambridge’s failure to set a field to him gives a clue to his methods: ‘Mr Lucas made a number of strokes which Essex cricketer, 1895-1907 110