Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

allowed to enjoy the benefits of their success at the end of each day as extravagantly as the ‘Gentlemen of the Clubs’ who, according to the press, ‘went to dinner at the Angel Inn to partake of a turtle weighing 100 lbs, two fine haunches of venison, and five salmon contributed by one of the members of the Bury Club.’ In 1828 Bury again assumed the title of Suffolk when they went to Lord’s to play MCC on 9 and 10 June, although they were unable to repeat their success of the previous year, losing by 24 runs. Fuller top-scored in their first innings with 44 out of 96 and took some wickets but it was not enough. A few days later a letter appeared in the Suffolk Chronicle complaining that Bury had no right to call themselves Suffolk as there were no players in the side from other villages in the county. Pilch was not mentioned by name but there was objection to the presence in the team of an outsider who was ‘formerly a celebrated player at Holt in Norfolk but was hired and has been supported for four or five years by the Bury Club.’ Charles Leech, local solicitor and the man largely responsible for raising the Bury Club to ‘the marked eminence it now possesses’, dismissed the objections and insisted that Bury was the only club in the county who could afford the expense of playing MCC, and without hired players, Suffolk would be unable to compete at that level. Two weeks later Fuller Pilch was asked to play at Lord’s on 24 and 25 June in the first of two ‘special’ matches set up by MCC, starting with England against ‘The Bs’, a strong team made up from players whose surname began with that letter, including the fast round-arm specialist James Broadbridge. After this game, Fuller travelled north where he was employed to play for Leicester against Sheffield in Leicester on 30 June and 1 July, and then in the return at Sheffield on 7, 8, 9 and 10 July. Leicester won both games despite the efforts of Marsden, who scored 145 runs for Sheffield from his four innings; these, though, could not compare to a good all-round performance from Fuller who took 15 wickets as well as scoring 78 runs in his three innings. Fuller would go back to Sheffield in September but first he returned to Lord’s on 14, 15 and 16 July to play in a Right-Handed v Left-Handed match, the first since 1790. Then he was selected to play for England against Sussex at Brighton on 21, 22 and 23 July, where he faced Lillywhite for the only time that season and was bowled by him without scoring in the second innings, having only made seven in the first. The following week, in the return match at Bury against MCC, on 28, 29 and 30 July, the home side played as Bury not Suffolk, despite the earlier arguments put forward by Charles Leech, and won by 12 runs. Fuller proved his importance to the team by top-scoring in both innings, 28 out of 57 and 43 out of 108, as well as bowling down nine wickets. These were the only two matches where Fuller turned out for Bury that summer, missing both matches home and away to Norwich; and it seems as if he had outgrown the Club, and had started to explore other options. Bury St Edmunds defeat MCC 27