Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

When Alfred Mynn died in 1861, Fuller, together with Ned Wenman, Edgar Willsher, William de Chair Baker, W.South Norton and Edward Bligh, was asked to serve on a committee that was set up to establish a testimonial fund for him. A portion of the contributions was set aside for the erection of a tombstone at Thurnham churchyard, and the committee resolved that the remainder be invested and the interest used to support the maintenance of a retired Kent cricketer to be chosen each year. Fuller made at least two appearances as umpire in 1862 where the context and location are surprising. Fuller had severed all connection with the All-England Eleven nine years earlier and had not travelled further north than Lord’s in St. John’s Wood since he stopped playing, when out of the blue he was recorded as standing as umpire at Barnsley on 26 May for the match between Twenty of Yorkshire and the All-England Eleven, followed by a first-class match at Sheffield, where Yorkshire entertained Kent. This short tour had started at Sheffield one week earlier when they played Twenty-Two of the Sheffield Yorkshire Club, and although the names of the umpires were not recorded, it seems very likely that Fuller would have been travelling with the team from the start and had stood in that match as well. But why did he suddenly break his settled routine in the south and spend three weeks in Yorkshire? It couldn’t have been the money – his fee for umpiring would have barely covered his expenses – so there had to be a good reason to abandon his comfort zone and head off north. The answer, I believe, can be found in the census listing for 1861, almost twelve months earlier. Fuller’s brother William had moved with his family from the Royal Oak Inn at King’s Lynn to the King William tavern in the centre of Sheffield, and is registered as ‘publican’ and ‘bat-maker’. So Fuller, hearing of the All-England Eleven tour, had added himself to the party to take advantage of the venues and pay one of his family a visit. A reunion of brothers after ten years, both realising, perhaps, that there might not be many more opportunities. Fuller was back at Chatham a week later, umpiring the Kent match with Cambridgeshire and when it was time for Canterbury Cricket Week he stood as umpire in a match full of controversy involving the Grace family. Doctor Henry Grace and his wife Martha, parents of the brothers W.G., E.M., and G.F., had been regular visitors to Canterbury for the Cricket Week in previous years. In August 1862, Dr. Grace heard that both the England and MCC teams were short of players, so he sent a telegram to his eldest son, E.M., instructing him to drop everything and get to Canterbury as fast as possible. He arrived in time to turn out for England against Fourteen of Kent and his 56 was the second-highest score in the match. He was then asked to play for MCC, although he was not a member, in the all-amateur match between Twelve Gentlemen of Kent and the Twelve Gentlemen of MCC. When the Kent captain, W.South Norton, learnt of the selection, he protested against E.M.’s eleventh-hour inclusion, and a compromise may have been suggested that the teams be reduced to eleven a side. The MCC captain, R.A.Fitzgerald, refused to back down and an impasse was reached until William de Chair Baker, who still had sole responsibility for Umpire, coach, groundsman, bat-maker and mine host 119