Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

were all out for 53. In the second he was going well, on 26, when he was run out after poor calling by his partner, Timothy O’Brien, and the Australians went on to win by an innings and 29 runs. Three days later Lucas was again playing at Lord’s against the tourists, for England in the Second Test. After Australia made 229, he opened with W.G.Grace and was brilliantly caught by Bonnor off Palmer for 28. A superb 148 by A.G.Steel helped England win by an innings and five runs, so Lucas was not needed again. He was invited to play in the Third Test but ‘could not get away’, almost certainly because of his father’s death on 7 August. Later in August Lucas played twice more against the Australians, with little success. For Cambridge University Past and Present, he was twice dismissed by Spofforth, for nought and three. For the South, in the first innings he ‘played in excellent style’ but was out for 28, and then made only five as the South were bowled out twice in a day. It was to be almost three years before he played first-class cricket again. The Lillywhite annual and The Doings of the Uppingham Rovers both refer to the ill-health that kept Lucas out of first-class cricket for the whole of 1885 and 1886, when he was in his late twenties and would otherwise have been reaching the peak of his career. There is no indication of what was wrong with him, but having lost his brother William at 30 and his sister Fanny at 29, the 28-year-old must have been greatly relieved to recover Middlesex and a serious illness, 1883-1888 66 Hedged about. The England side in Lucas’s fifth and final Test match, at Lord’s in July 1884. Standing (l to r): C.K.Pullin (umpire), E.Peate, A.P.Lucas, Hon A.Lyttelton (wk), A.Shrewsbury, F.H.Farrands (umpire). Seated: A.G.Steel, Lord Harris, W.G.Grace (capt), W.W.Read, G.Ulyett. On the ground: S.Christopherson, R.G.Barlow.