Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

Foreword By Robin Hobbs I’ve been very fortunate to have lived in the lovely area of Fryerning for over 35 years, and to have played professional cricket for my county of Essex. Ever since I was a small boy, my interest in the past history of Essex cricketers has been high, and it remains so to this day. It was by chance that in 1975, I bought a cottage that just happened to be opposite Barn Mead, where C.J.Kortright, the great fast bowler lived for a number of years. I can walk across the fields to Fryerning Church where he and A.P.Lucas are buried almost twenty-two yards apart, in accordance with their wishes when alive, as they were lifelong friends. Much has been written about Kortright, but very little in relation to Lucas. When I first located his grave many years ago, it was hardly visible, as it was completely overgrown and had not been tended for years. This I thought was a pitiful epitaph for somebody who had given so much to cricket, and who was a churchwarden for over twenty years at Fryerning. So each spring, I clean it up, and cut down the brambles around his grave, so people who visit the churchyard may stop and ponder for a while on the last resting place of one of England’s great unsung heroes. It echoes of the great men of that time who played against Lucas such as Grace, Spofforth, and Morley, just to name a few. David Pracy’s book on the life of Bunny, as he was known, will be of immense interest to lovers of the ‘Golden Age’ of cricket, thoroughly researched, and written with great thought. One can only hope a lot of younger cricketers, and followers of our great game, will take an interest in past players who did so much to form the basis of Essex cricket over a hundred years ago. I have no doubt that, had he been given the exposure by the media of cricket in our age, Bunny Lucas would have been a sporting super star. Fryerning, Essex January 2010 5