Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

began to play for them in 1836.’ He did not play again for nearly three weeks but had recovered in time to play in the Kent v Sussex match at Tunbridge Wells at the end of July, but managed to score only ten and one and Sussex won by 53 runs. Then it was time for Canterbury Cricket Week where Kent lost against England by an innings and 2 runs. Fuller seemed to be coming back into his old form with the next highest score to Willsher’s 30 in Kent’s first innings, 26 out of 112, but he was caught by Parr off Grundy for nought in the second innings. Now would be the time when Fuller, as in the previous years, would rejoin Clarke’s All-England team wherever their next game was scheduled, and then spend the rest of the season touring the country. He had no personal problem with Clarke and they had just played against each other at Canterbury, so they would have been able to discuss the dates and places that Clarke had arranged. Perhaps the travelling and effort involved – he was now 48 – seemed too much for him. The convenience of the railway meant that Clarke would rush the team off the ground at the end of one match, bundle them onto a train and often have them playing somewhere else two days later, and sometimes even the following day. Their arrival at their destination would often be celebrated by large crowds followed by receptions, banquets, gala fetes and firework displays, before and during the matches and Clarke expected the players to respond with enthusiasm. Not exactly Fuller’s scene perhaps. He had been playing cricket for 25 years in big matches before large crowds and had always been able to merge into the background and concentrate on the cricket while others enjoyed the limelight, letting his batting and bowling speak for him. But, for whatever reason, Fuller decided to remain in Canterbury. It proved to be a wise decision because he was able to avoid becoming involved in the start of a bitter dispute between Clarke and Wisden. Clarke had continued to organise his fixtures very carefully and was obviously still nervous of upsetting the powers at Lord’s, unaware that he should also have been more careful to avoid upsetting his contracted players. He had recruited a few outstanding younger cricketers to replace some ageing stars over the previous two years but, in common with some of the regulars, they soon had problems with his ‘gangmaster’ method of management and tight-fisted control of finances. One of the dissatisfied group was John Wisden, who had appeared 30 times for Clarke in 1851 but had not made himself available when All-England resumed their travels in 1852. He played in two matches which featured Clarke and most of his players, and in the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s on 19, 20 and 21 July he was the only member of the Players team who was not currently employed by Clarke. When the All-England Eleven reached Northampton on 12 August they found him playing against them as one of the Twenty-Two of Northamptonshire. Two days later Wisden was at Canterbury playing for England against Kent alongside Clarke, who still had no suspicions of Wisden’s impending treachery. Fuller’s final seasons 112