Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

It was the year of Disraeli’s confrontation with Russia over her threatened invasion of Turkey, and The Rhyming Rover came up with his own take on the music hall hit of the day: Yes we must have it right and by Jingo when we do, We’ve got the bats, we’ve got the fields, we’ve got the bowlers too … …Of the Surrey teamwe take the cream, I mean of course young Bunny, Of all the bats in England he’s the man for my money … Against Leeds Clarence, Lucas’s dismissal was described as ‘thrown out by Scott’, which perhaps meant run out by a direct hit. Even more unusual was the case of Francis Hogg who, after the Rovers had beaten Richmond, was recorded as ‘went home for tea … 0’. The chronicler summarised the Rovers’ feelings when the tour ended: After a fortnight’s tour with such good fellows as the Rovers, it is indeed chokey work to say adieu. We took our several ways back to the lonely hearth or the dingy office, sadly and reluctantly, but with a confident hope that we shall have many more meetings as pleasant as that which has just concluded. Lucas ended the season fourth on the all-time list of Rovers batsmen with 1,339 runs, and fifth among the bowlers with 81 wickets. In 1879 the tour again began at Northampton, where the atmosphere was decidedly different from that at Essex. On a fast wicket Northamptonshire made 285, accompanied by ‘loud expressions of the great unwashed outside the boarding with which, to Charlie Green’s great disgust, the ground had been enclosed.’ Undaunted, Lucas, no longer at Cambridge, ‘was very confident and said “I can always make a hundred here” – and he did too.’ In the next game, ‘we doubt if Lucas ever played a better innings than his 50 for us, while his eight wickets in the Leicestershire second innings were the result of first-class bowling.’ His figures of eight for 38 were to remain the best of his career at any level. Against the Gentlemen of Sussex at Hove, ‘Lucas was (for him) very free’ in scoring 89 out of 197 and then ‘magnanimously bowled against the wind’, which was reported as very strong. He took eight for 28 in the match as a whole. He bowled unchanged throughout both innings of the opposition, as did the much faster Hugh Rotherham, who took full advantage of the wind with eleven for 32. It heralded heavy rain which washed out the next game, at Eastbourne against Devonshire Park, so ‘there was nothing to do but rink [skate]. … A small boy, who rejoiced in the name of “Boss”, was seized with an intense admiration for Bunny Lucas, and never left his side, which was fortunate for Bunny as he was thus saved from many a fall.’ In 1880 the newly elected Liberal government brought forward a Ground Game Bill, authorising farmers to kill game on their own farms, and so relieving them from the obligation of feeding their landlords’ animals. Ground game was defined as ‘animals that live on the ground, such as hares and rabbits’, and the issue was of some importance to the Uppingham Rovers, 1874-1913 27