Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

the batsmen except Lord Harris, who made a duck, had outscored Lucas in their respective partnerships. Lucas then took the initiative but two more wickets fell and 14 runs were still needed when he was joined by last man Hugh Rotherham, his Uppingham Rovers team-mate who had taken six wickets in the first innings. Despite being dropped at long on, Rotherham made 11 and ‘amid great excitement, a hit from Mr Lucas brought the scores level.’ Then the Players gambled by bringing back Ted Peate, who had not taken a wicket in the entire match, and his second ball bowled Rotherham. The tie – see Appendix Two – remained the only one in the 156 years and 277 matches of the fixture’s history, and Lucas was stranded on 47 not out. He later commented: ‘I was glad I was actually batting at the finish, because when one is looking on the excitement is almost too much of a good thing.’ It was the third time he had carried his bat in first-class cricket, a remarkable tribute to his powers of concentration. In the Lord’s game the Gentlemen batted into the second day for a total of 441, of which Lucas’s contribution was ‘a careful and masterly’ 72. After following on, the Players scored ‘at a very rapid pace’ and Lucas’s catches of the Yorkshiremen George Ulyett and Willie Bates, both at long on off C.T.Studd, were important in bowling them out. The Gentlemen needed 108 in two hours, so Lucas batted rather more briskly than usual and his 51 not out saw them to a seven-wicket win. Thirty-five years later, in the Grace memorial biography, Lucas recalled an episode from this match: I remember … a new Yorkshire colt Harrison had been so destructive that he was selected for the professionals. We won the toss, and as W.G. and I were walking in to commence the innings, he said to me, ‘What about this new fellow Harrison? I have not come across him.’ ‘He is pretty fast,’ I answered. ‘Well, let me have a look at him,’ was the answer, and having found out that he was going to bowl from the Nursery end, W.G. elected to bat at the pavilion wicket. I never in all my life saw any one ever crumple up a bowler as he did poor Harrison. I never received a single ball from him so long as my great colleague was in. He simply laid in wait for him, punished and snicked him, and I have always believed that that small score of 26 (Peate made him play on) broke Harrison’s heart so far as bowling was concerned. The story sounds authentic and the concern of the kind-hearted Lucas for the 21-year-old professional does him credit, but his memory may have been somewhat at fault – as indeed was Grace’s, who had played against George Harrison for MCC only seven weeks earlier. Bowling very fast, Harrison had taken 43 wickets in his first eight first-class matches, and in the remaining twelve of 1883 took a further 57. The real blow to his career came in the following season, when he was injured throwing in from the deep so had to cut his pace to medium-fast, and was never as effective again. Middlesex and a serious illness, 1883-1888 64