Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

to play the east London upstarts, but in the previous two years Essex had finished ahead of them in the Championship. They could postpone the confrontation no longer and a crowd of nearly 10,000 was eager to see the match. Ill-feeling between the two sides began on the first morning, when Grace successfully claimed to have caught Perrin though he clearly took it on the half-volley; even Grace’s team-mate Gilbert Jessop, another great cricketer of the Golden Age, was convinced that it was not out. Essex were all out for 128, and the Leytonstone Express and Independent reported: ‘The best innings on the side was decidedly the 31 of Lucas, who is batting as well as ever this year. He alone played Grace with the confidence born of experience, and his innings contained many capital strokes.’ A fine innings of 126 by Grace gave Gloucestershire a first-innings lead of 103 but Essex fought back well in their second innings. When Lucas came to the wicket, Essex were 180 for four; but the dubious umpiring continued and he saw Turner and Russell both out to contentious decisions. Then, when going well on 22, Lucas was given out caught at the wicket from a ball that brushed his shirt. He was outraged and as he returned to the pavilion cried out to the angry crowd: ‘Cheats never prosper.’ He was mild-mannered by temperament and exemplified the gentlemanly public school spirit of cricket at its best, but it was not unknown for him to show dissent. In a Rovers match in 1877, ‘Lucas led off for the defence but Stephenson [as umpire] soon blighted Bunny’s prospects by giving him out “when I was not within a yard of the ball!!”’ And in a curious incident in 1893, when he was playing a club match for Chelmsford, he had scored 118 when a fielder claimed a boundary catch which ‘was so doubtful that he appealed against it but the umpire ruled against him.’ 102 It was nevertheless very unusual, which suggests that the decision was exceptionally poor, and that tensions in the game were very high. Essex were able to set Gloucestershire only 148 to win, but Kortright was already furious at the course of events and clean bowled Board and Troup in his first over. Near the end of the day, Grace bullied umpire George Burton into reversing a decision to give him out and the whole Essex team was furious, none more so than Kortright. He demanded the ball and produced an over of short-pitched bowling that was uniquely fierce even by his standards, leaving the Doctor black and blue. One ball produced a very sharp chance which McGahey missed, and as they walked off the field the ever combative Korty expressed his displeasure. Overhearing the exchange, Grace did little to calm the atmosphere: ‘Cheats never prosper,’ he observed. On the last day they returned to the fray. Kortright was convinced that he had dismissed Grace, first lbw, then caught at the wicket, but again the great man intimidated Burton into turning down the appeals. The increasingly angry bowler’s third ball sent the middle stump flying out of Bunny, Korty and Fryerning, 1885-1923 121 102 Essex Chronicle , 26 May 1893.