Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Eleven and play the Cambridge Graduates and Town Club on 21, 22 and 23 May, and then went straight back to Oxford where he had arranged for the Kent team to play Sixteen of Oxfordshire at the Prince of Wales Ground on 24 and 25 May, in preparation for their encounter with Yorkshire at Sheffield at the end of the month. The Kent players certainly needed the practice. They started their second innings twelve runs in front and then crashed to 36 all out with an unbeaten 16 from Fuller, the only batsman to reach double figures, and Oxfordshire won by ten wickets. After this wake-up call Kent recovered to beat Yorkshire by 66 runs three days later. The two counties would not meet again until 1862. Fuller returned to Lord’s to play in the Married v Single challenge on 11, 12 and 13 June, in which he and nephew William appeared on opposite sides and the Singles won by three wickets. One week later he was back at Lord’s to play for the England team selected by MCC against Surrey, and then, playing for Kent with William at Gravesend on 21 and 22 June, he found more than half of the same England team in an All-England team put together by Clarke which was too good for Kent and won by 43 runs. Clarke then took eleven players from Gravesend to play Fourteen of Hampshire at Southampton at the end of June. Many of the All-England team, including Clarke and Fuller, now returned to Lord’s on 9 and 10 July to play in either the England Eleven selected by MCC or the Kent team. Fuller made top score of 34 in Kent’s second innings but England lost only three wickets before reaching the 58 runs they required to win. Kent’s next match was against Sussex at Hove on 12, 13 and 14 July in which a remarkable total of 684 runs were scored, including 53 by Dean for Sussex and 92 from Alfred Mynn and 78 from Adams, as Kent went on to win by 116 runs. Fuller’s contribution was only one and 35 but, in an attempt to stem the flow of runs, he was brought on to bowl and took three wickets. MCC decided to revive the North v South match at Lord’s in mid-July, the first such challenge since 1838. John Wisden played for the North, based on his residence at Leamington Spa. According to Scores and Biographies , he ‘should not have done, as birth always counts before residence. The North, however, being considered weak in bowling, he was allowed to form one of that side.’ The switch did not quite work out in the way that MCC had envisaged. Wisden, with seven wickets, and Clarke, with nine, proceeded to bowl the South out for 48 and 67, and the North won by 243 runs. Fuller was run out for two and caught off Wisden for six: Felix went first ball in both innings, first to Wisden and then to Clarke. Two days later Fuller made 52 and Felix 49 for the All-England Eleven at Hull to beat Twenty-Two of Hull by an innings. Fuller and Felix returned to Lord’s for the Gentlemen v Players match on 23 and 24 July. This would prove to be the last appearance by Fuller in this historic fixture, which on this occasion was won by the amateurs for the first time by an innings, thanks to some brilliant fast bowling by Harvey Fellowes, who took ten wickets in the match. He might have had eleven but Lillywhite had been hurt by Fellowes on the wrist and, according to Scores 104 Three cheers for the ‘stale’ men