Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

Earlier, W.G.Grace had run out Sammy Jones who, thinking the ball was dead, wandered out of his ground to pat the wicket. The Australians were furious at this typical piece of Grace gamesmanship, although Lucas later claimed that one of them ‘admitted he would have done the same thing if he had been where Grace was.’ 57 F.R.Spofforth, regarded by Lucas along with G.E.Palmer as one of the two best Australian bowlers he ever faced, told his team-mates ‘this thing can be done’. The Times obituary summarised: Possibly he could recall nothing in his career more vividly than the last innings of the disastrous match at the Oval in 1882 when England, after seeming certain of victory, lost by seven runs. He stopped any number of Mr Spofforth’s terrible break-backs, but at last played one of them on to his wicket. The misfortune was that, while showing such superb defence, he could not relieve the tension by a hit to the boundary. In Chats on the Cricket Field Lucas described it as ‘the most wildly exciting finish I ever remember … I was in at the critical time with Alfred Lyttelton, and for nearly ten overs he played Boyle without getting a run, while I played Spofforth with the same result.’ In 55 balls Lucas scored only a single and a four. The Sportsman blamed the England batsmen for playing Spofforth and Boyle like ‘so many tailors’ dummies’, and Lucas was an obvious target for this comment, although it was perhaps rather harsh: ‘Country Vicar’, writing half a century later, describes Lucas as ‘defending with utmost skill.’ England lost by just seven runs, and the Sporting Life published the famous mock obituary stating that ‘the body of English cricket would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.’ And the Australians were not quite finished with Lucas. He was playing against them at Scarborough for I Zingari and the giant George Bonnor took revenge for the catch, hitting him for a record 6, 4, 4, 6 off a four-ball over. Edward Lyttelton, who was playing in the game, claimed that the assault began ‘with a whack landing the ball sixty yards over the sea wall.’ 58 Whether or not as a direct result of that experience, Lucas reverted to the status of occasional bowler and took only another ten first-class wickets. In its report on Surrey’s 1882 season, Wisden noted that ‘Mr Lucas as usual took part in only a few games, and his average showed a drop of 9 points.’ The Red Lillywhite annual, edited by the Surrey secretary Charles Alcock, considered him ‘one of the best cricketers of the day’, but suggested that he ‘might be keener about county cricket’ and recorded that ‘the absence of any invitation from the committee of the Surrey County Cricket Club, with which he has previously been associated, left Mr A.P.Lucas free to assist the county of his birth, his presence in the Middlesex eleven adding considerably to their already great batting strength.’ Kingsmill Key, Monty Surrey and England, 1879-1882 61 57 Lucas’s piece in Memorial Biography of W.G.Grace , p 149 . 58 Lyttelton, Edward, Memories and Hopes , John Murray, 1925, p 80. Lucas’s 20-run four-ball over was surpassed in 1886. Sixes were awarded at the time only for hits right out of the ground.