Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

In 1876 the Rovers embarked, for the first time, on ‘an autumn campaign in the north’. Lucas had a fine match against the Gentlemen of Staffordshire, with exactly 100 and eight wickets, including four caught-and-bowled. He ‘completely crumpled up the Staffordshire bowling’ and ‘also did much execution in the bowling department and brought off some wonderful catches’. It was in this season that his bowling, which had previously been described as ‘mere treacle’, first came into its own. The Rovers delighted in giving one another nicknames, and part of the fun was making them as obscure as possible: Charles Ernest Ridley, for example, was ‘Bob’, and Francis Barry Whitfeld ‘Billy.’ When Lucas first played for them he was mysteriously called ‘the Shah’ or the ‘Persian Gun’, later modified to ‘The Little Gun’, to complement C.E.Green who was ‘The Big Gun.’ It was almost certainly they who gave Lucas the nickname ‘Bunny’, which was first recorded in The Same Old Game , perhaps the best-known of The Rhyming Rover’s efforts. It was written for the annual dinner on 6 July 1877, after five of the Rovers were in the Cambridge team unexpectedly defeated by Oxford: Our gallant Cambridge Blues, Though they didn’t win but lose, We’ve proved them and we know what they can do, For Steel’s a man of mettle And Bunny’s in fine fettle, And Patterson’s a bowler good and true … 24 Uppingham Rovers, 1874-1913 The Uppingham Rovers in 1876, with Lucas on the right of the middle row holding a bat.