Lives in Cricket No 13 - AP Lucas

1892 Lillywhite commented that Essex ‘can put a strong eleven in the field, and with its full strength is a formidable combination’. They must therefore have approached the 1892 season optimistically, but for them it was one of the gloomiest in an often gloomy tale. On 10 May, Cyril Buxton committed suicide while severely depressed, and the tragedy cast a pall over the whole season. Mr and Mrs Lucas were among the many who sent wreaths to the funeral. Buxton had seemed in good health and spirits at the club’s AGM only a few days earlier, and was eagerly looking forward to the first two games of the season, against Surrey and Yorkshire. Essex began the Surrey game only six days after his death and the Leytonstone Express and Independent commented: ‘ … there can be little doubt that in taking the field for the first time his absence from their ranks will be forcibly brought home to the players.’ Business kept Lucas out of both games, and not surprisingly Essex lost heavily. The committee nevertheless asked Lucas to resume the captaincy and he managed to get to Leyton in early June for Essex’s next game, against Derbyshire. He contributed little with the bat but his calming influence would have been helpful to a young and inexperienced side, and they won by five wickets. The feature of the match was the first major performance by the promising 21-year-old fast bowler Charles Kortright, already a friend and admirer of Lucas, who in the first innings bowled 31 overs unchanged and took eight for 58. Wicket-keeper Littlewood was horribly out of form with the bat and perhaps with the gloves too, so Lucas became the unlucky Essex man who subjected his hands to a battering from the young man’s thunderbolts. Against Warwickshire, he made a second stumping for Essex and took a catch off the promising young off-spinner Walter Mead. Combining the captaincy with keeping wicket did not affect Lucas’s batting and he shared several good partnerships with the hard-hitting amateur A.S.Johnston, but both men were absent for home defeats against Surrey and Yorkshire. ‘Cover Point’ suggested in the Leytonstone Express and Independent that Essex should … content herself playing good second-class counties and by doing give the players a little encouragement. Undoubtedly the frequent losses have a depressing effect on the players and a few more wins would … make each and all strive for the position in the first-class batch of counties. … Essex could put much better teams in the field than she does when first-class fixtures are on … Messrs A.P.Lucas and A.S.Johnston have only played in seven fixtures to the present and these are two really good men. The criticisms have echoes of the ‘Surrey Veteran’ remark ten years earlier, but there is a great difference: Lucas was not appearing for other teams, but deliberately choosing to play only in those Essex matches he considered most important. ‘Cover Point’ overlooked the fact that Lucas Essex captain, 1889-1894 93