Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

from what was obviously a serious illness. After he and Bessie Luckraft married in September 1885, they had their honeymoon in Australia, a destination which would doubtless have benefited his health. They travelled on the Liguria , a steamship of the Orient Line which was owned by C.E.Green, who probably arranged and paid for the trip. Even though he had been out of first-class cricket for over two years, Lucas in February 1887 received a letter from Lord Hawke, asking whether he could tour Australia with G.F.Vernon’s team the following winter. 60 ‘It will be great fun if we can get a good lot of fellows together,’ Hawke commented, so evidently Lucas was wanted for his social as well as his cricketing skills. His health can only have benefited but he did not go, so presumably he was well on the way to recovery and the demands of business took precedence. Lucas returned to first-class cricket for Middlesex against Nottinghamshire at Lords on 9 June 1887. Cricket noted that he had been ‘an absentee from cricket for the last two years’, and added that ‘he batted with all his own care and judgment.’ He top-scored in both innings and played well for 47 in Middlesex and a serious illness, 1883-1888 67 The Cambridge University Past and Present side which played the Australians at Hove in 1884. Standing (l to r): J.E.K.Studd, F.E.Lacey, H.Whitfeld, H.B.Steel. Seated: W.E.Roller, A.P.Lucas, Hon A.Lyttelton (capt and wk), A.G.Steel, A.F.J.Ford. On the ground: C.H.Allcock, P.H.Morton. 60 Martin-Jenkins, Christopher, Cricket: A Way of Life , Century, 1984, p 35.