Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

younger with declining years.’ After his death, the Rovers’ secretary, C.S.Hurst, recalled in The Doings : ‘I personally saw him play only once. It was his last innings for the Rovers – in 1913. The wicket was not good, the bowling was not slow, and the batsman was approaching 60 years of age. He scored 65 very comfortably and then “retired” in order to catch his train to London.’ Chris Hurst’s recollection was part of a fine memorial tribute by a talented cricketer of a later generation, who in the early 1900s captained Uppingham and Oxford, 32 and then played for the Gentlemen and Kent: A.P.Lucas arrived on the scene when the days of infancy were past. … So many fine cricketers contributed to the Rovers’ achievements over so long a period that any attempt to apportion the credit would be invidious. But I think that every one of them would agree that no one did as much as Bunny Lucas. The soundest and greatest batsman that ever came out of Uppingham, he was also a more than useful bowler, and his record for the Rovers is astonishing. He played regularly from 1874 to 1890 (except 1885). In those tours he played 155 innings, not including any Old Boys’ matches and counting six other innings which he played in later years. His total batting figures were 161 innings, ten not outs, 6,060 runs. As a bowler he took eight wickets in an innings against Leicestershire in 1879, and on nineteen other occasions he took five wickets or more in an innings and his total bag amounted to 371, the third largest in the Rovers’ records. Bearing in mind that Lucas in his time ranked only behind W.G.Grace and A.G.Steel among all-round amateur cricketers, and that his Rovers cricket was played when his powers were at his greatest and when the demands of ‘big’ cricket were at their highest, it is difficult to imagine that any man could have given greater service to an Old Boys’ club. Uppingham Rovers, 1874-1913 36 32 Hurst played 47 first-class matches in all, scoring as a middle-order batsman, 1,787 runs at 23.51. He became a senior civil servant, involved for many years with the coal industry.