Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

names. Clarke then took everyone down to Chichester to play Sixteen of Sussex in another benefit match for the Sussex veteran George Brown, but play was only possible on June 8, the first and third days being rained off. Fuller did not play in the next All-England game at Ipswich as he had taken his own All-England Eleven to Oxford on the same dates to play Sixteen of Oxfordshire on 11, 12 and 13 June at the Christ Church ground. This was well received in the Oxford Journal : The All-England side was infinitely superior to any previous eleven that had visited Oxford, and embraced an unusually large number of the most distinguished batters and bowlers in the kingdom. Great credit is due to Pilch and Martin, not only for the judicious selection of the side, but for their spirit and enterprise in getting up the match, by which they will be losers, in consequence of the wet weather keeping so many away who otherwise would have been present, and contributed by the payment for admission to the ground to liquidate the expenses. The next day Fuller was back at King’s Lynn, but this time as a member of Clarke’s All-England Eleven who played on 14, 15 and 16 June another Twenty-Two of Lynn which included several members of the Lynn Club, including his brother William Pilch. The day after the game at Lynn finished the All-England team played Twenty-Two of Sleaford and District in Lincolnshire, another match unfinished because of rain with Fuller making top score of 24 out of 96 in All-England’s only innings. But it seems that Fuller had no wish to continue being employed so frequently by Clarke, and after the match at Sleaford he dropped out of the All-England side and returned to Canterbury to play in five matches for Kent. Kent’s first match of the season was at Lord’s on 5, 6 and 7 July against an England team selected as usual by MCC, although it included Clarke who took ten wickets in the match and helped England to a seven-wicket victory. The next day Kent were at The Oval to play Surrey on 8, 9 and 10 July and won by six runs. The result could have been very different. According to Scores and Biographies , ‘it was arranged by the proprietor of the ground (W.Houghton) that Martingell and Felix, though Surrey born, should form part of the Kent Eleven, to make the match more equal. They had before many times played for Kent against England and Sussex; but at cricket birth counts before residence.’ Felix top-scored in the match with 70 in Kent’s second innings and Martingell took eleven wickets, bowling 286 balls while the other 325 balls in the two Surrey innings were shared by three other bowlers, with Hillyer 81 balls, Willsher 92 and Mynn 152. Fuller’s batting contribution was one and nought and he had to be substituted on the last day of the match near the end of Surrey’s second innings due to illness. Kent’s next fixture was at Hove against Sussex on 22, 23 and 24 July. Scores and Biographies reported that ‘F.Pilch (owing to illness) was unable to appear in this match, being the first time he has not assisted Kent since he Fuller’s final seasons 111