Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

In 1884 Lucas played no cricket until 26 June, which may well have been due to the death on 11 June of his sister Fanny, closest of his siblings to him in age. It is perhaps an indication of the respect in which he was held that he went straight into the deep end with four representative appearances – three for the Gentlemen and then a Test match against Australia. His highest score was only 37, against the Players at The Oval, when ‘he played in his usually excellent style’ for over two and a half hours; he added 86 with W.G.Grace and was seventh out at 153, but the Players won by nine wickets. Lucas’s best performance was perhaps in the Test at Old Trafford. 59 After the first day was lost to rain, England won the toss but soon collapsed to 45 for four, when Lucas joined Arthur Shrewsbury. The bowling and fielding were tight, so batting was not easy, but their partnership was the highest of the innings. Contrary to the usual image of the carefree amateur and the dour professional, it was Shrewsbury who played the strokes and Lucas who defended doggedly, scoring four singles in 24 overs. When Lucas drove Spofforth to the on-boundary for his only four, there was ‘plenty of cheering’ which was perhaps ironical. He ‘never seemed puzzled by the bowling, but he could not force the game.’ Shrewsbury was out just before lunch, when the sun came out and made the pitch even more difficult. The slow scoring ‘did not tend to increase the excitement’, and Lucas made one in nine overs. England lost their last six wickets for 12 and were all out for 95, leaving Lucas 15 not out. Australia were bowled out for 182 at 1.10 on the third day, leaving England to bat out the rest of the day to save the game. It was a situation tailor-made for Lucas’s defensive skills, and he was promoted to open with W.G.Grace. Bell’s Life commented: ‘I don’t think I have seen anything finer in cricket for a long time than the defence shown against the superb bowling of Giffen and Spofforth.’ With the score at six, Lucas gave a difficult chance at the wicket off Spofforth, but Blackham dropped it. After Grace and George Ulyett were out, ‘Lucas recovered the drooping spirits by hitting Palmer well to the leg boundary, the half-century being completed at a quarter to 4.’ With the score on 70, Lucas fell to a fine ball from Giffen that broke back a long way on to the leg stump, and just removed the bails. ‘His two-hour 24 was obtained by patience and good play, and included 2 fours, 3 threes and 4 twos. Apart from one chance his innings was absolutely free from fault, and he seemed thoroughly to enjoy playing the good bowling.’ The game was still far from safe but England managed to bat out time to close on 180 for nine. Lucas then made his only two appearances of the season for Middlesex. After two failures against his former county, Surrey, he again came up against the Australians. In the first innings his old adversary Spofforth bowled him with a superb ball that just clipped the bails, and Middlesex Middlesex and a serious illness, 1883-1888 65 59 Match summary from CricketArchive: 1884 1st Test Eng v Aus: What the Papers Said of the England 2nd innings , by John Kobylecky.