Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Chapter Nine Champion of England, Part One Arrangements for a single-wicket challenge were eventually agreed by Thomas Marsden and Fuller Pilch by the start of the 1833 season. The first of the two encounters would be held at Norwich on 18 July, so it seems that, for the time being, a future in Kent had been rejected by Fuller. In fact, on 25 June, the day before he was supposed to be playing for Town Malling at Tunbridge Wells, he was in Norfolk playing for Norwich against Brinton. Two weeks earlier he had started his season at Lord’s on 10 June, playing in an A-K v L-Z match, where he took seven wickets in his opponents’ first innings, his best return in first-class cricket. (At this stage of his career he was almost an all-rounder.) A week later he joined William Lillywhite as a pair of given men in an MCC team at Lord’s against the Gentlemen of Kent, where he was bowled by Mynn in both innings. After the match at Norwich he was back at Lord’s on 1 and 2 July in the England eleven against Sussex. Fuller had only managed 56 runs from eight innings in those four matches so he joined his brothers Nathaniel and William in a Norwich eleven against the Rest of Norfolk on 4 July and took the opportunity for some extra batting practice while scoring an unbeaten 115. So now Fuller was ready for his big test. His challenger, Thomas Marsden, was at the peak of his career and carried the hopes and ambitions of Sheffield and all Yorkshire on his shoulders: O, Marsden at cricket is nature’s perfection For hitting the ball in any direction; He ne’er fears his wicket, so safely he strikes, And he does with the bat and ball as he likes. A Cricket Song, Scores and Biographies, Volume 1 Only one year younger than Fuller, Marsden was a left-handed, ‘tremendous hard slashing’ batsman and a left-handed, fast under-hand bowler, occasionally changing to medium-pace round-arm. He is first recorded playing for Sheffield in 1824 where he remained for the whole of his career. Marsden first met Fuller in 1827 when they were selected to play for the England team that faced Sussex in the three round-arm ‘trial’ matches. They also played together on six other occasions between 1828 and 1832, four times in the Gentlemen v Players matches at Lord’s, and twice more for an England team against Sussex at Brighton. The first time they were on opposite sides was in 1828 when Fuller went north to play twice for Leicester against Sheffield, and later that year they met again at Lord’s in the Right-Handed v Left-Handed match. Pilch and Marsden were famously pitted against each other in both the Bury St Edmunds v MCC 36