Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

the committee. The county had won only one game and finished in their then worst ever position of fifteenth of sixteen in the Championship, but that was not the reason he gave to the press in an open letter: I am bitterly disappointed at the lack of interest and support of the club … even among the players, and I am heartily sick of the whole thing. As an old cricketer, I am entirely out of sympathy with the way county cricket is now played, and it has become so entirely a money-making business concern that the true interest of cricket as a sport and a game is fast disappearing. The committee was thrown into turmoil and, at a special meeting on 12 November, where Lucas was present for the first time in over a year, they decided to call a Special General Meeting for 3 December. The room at the meeting was crowded and a Mr A.Draper seemed to speak for many when he accused the committee of being un-businesslike and added: ‘They tried to do their best but there will have to be changes.’ Changes there certainly were. Lucas resigned on 19 December 1912, as did Kortright, Arthur Edwards, C.E.Ridley, Guy Gilbey and four others – more than half of the committee, and the biggest clearout the club ever experienced. Lucas’s resignation letter is not recorded in the minutes but he would perhaps have agreed with Gilbey who ‘had no time to attend and did not approve of the way in which county cricket was being played’. Lucas was never as vocal as Green, but probably shared his views and was not sorry to stand down. The committee minutes recorded the usual expressions of regret and ‘hearty vote of thanks to these gentlemen for their invaluable services’, and ‘hoped that whenever they were at Leyton they would make use of the committee room and balcony’. In March 1914 the committee asked Lucas and four other longstanding committee members to accept nomination to the AGM as vice-presidents. The five men wrote to say they would have pleasure in being nominated, and were duly elected. Only Lucas had played first-class cricket, so clearly it was his contribution as a committee member that was being recognised, but in 1924 the annual report recorded with regret the death of ‘one of the greatest Essex cricketers’. Essex committee man, 1890-1912 119