Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

When they wanted a match they would send for Ned Wenman and me and say ‘We want a good match; can you do it?’ Well, then we used to reckon what it would come to, and they were at our backs if there was any money wanted; but we never asked for it if we made a good thing. Now don’t you see here was the difference between those times and these; there were few railways, and matches were scarce, and some of our eleven put on different sides would draw all the country round for a two days’ match in a nobleman’s park; for instance, Mr Felix and Alfred Mynn were given one side, and Ned Wenman and me and Adams the other. Then, don’t you see we were out for a two days’ holiday, and the whole town enjoyed themselves, and the principal innkeepers used to arrange to have our company on different nights; and very often a lot of gentlemen would come too, and hear a song, for we had rare singing about in the county; and if Mr Felix had his fiddle with him – for he could make music on anything, from a church organ to a pair of tongs – it was a treat. When Gale asked how he managed to play well the next day after a long evening at a local inn in such good company, Fuller explained: ‘I used to manage that. Two glasses of gin-and-water were about my allowance; and when some of the company were asking me to drink, I told the landlord, “Let the gentlemen pay, and you leave the gin out of my glass”; and nobody knew it, but I was wetting my pipe with cold water half the evening.’ He certainly showed no ill-effects from any evening entertainment when scoring 107 for Benenden in their nine-wicket victory over Kent on 23 and 24 June, even though he was facing two great bowlers in Mynn and Hillyer. This was the first century scored against Kent since 1792. Benenden repeated their victory three days later at Leeds Park and even after Kent had joined forces with Sussex they were no match for England at Lord’s on 4 July facing Fuller for the third consecutive time. In his next match, on 7, 8, and 9 July, he repaid the faith of his Town Malling sponsors with the top score of 37 out of 122 in their first innings at home to Kent, followed by an unbeaten 56 out of 153 in their second, although it was not enough to prevent a Kent four-wicket victory. This was the year MCC decided that the time had come for a test of strength between the players of the North against those of the South. Two representative matches were arranged, the first at Lord’s on 11 and 12 July and the second to be agreed later. The promoters were Lord Frederick Beauclerk and Benjamin Aislabie acting for MCC and the South, and our old friend Captain Cheslyn, now playing cricket in Leicestershire, for the North. Although Fuller Pilch was no longer to be considered a ‘given’ man when playing for Town Malling in Kent, because of his residence there as club professional, it seems that, as he had not yet played for Kent, it was decided that Fuller should be in the North eleven because of his Norfolk qualification. It is unlikely that Fuller minded much as it meant he was on Town Malling and Mr Pickwick 51