Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Despite his decision to stay committed to Kent it appears that when the county or Town Malling did not need him, Fuller had reserved the right to play where he wished. As he had previously agreed to play for Chalvington at Brighton immediately after the match at Town Malling, that would be his next appearance and he helped the village to achieve another victory. An injury, unidentifiable at this distance in time, forced Fuller to miss the last two matches for Town Malling against Mitcham in September, but his friend Alfred Mynn was ready and willing to act as his replacement and Fuller had recovered sufficiently to be able to umpire in the second game at Town Malling. But he was not fit enough to travel and Alfred helped him out again three days later at Brighton against an England eleven. Scores and Biographies reported that ‘F.Pilch was to have been the given man for Sussex, but was unable to come owing to injury, and Mr A.Mynn played instead.’ This is perhaps the right point in the story to review Fuller’s position as a batsman in the ten seasons 1830 to 1839. Though first-class cricket is only part of his cricketing tale, that particular form of the game provides us with the most orderly array of statistics. He had been the leading run-scorer in six of those ten seasons, 1830, 1832, 1834, and 1837 to 1839. In the ten seasons he had scored 2,564 runs at an average of 23.96. Wickets in first-class matches in those ten seasons were worth on average 9.92 runs apiece, so he scored runs at 2.41 times the average cost. In modern times we have become accustomed in England to wickets in first-class cricket having a value of around 34 runs each; Fuller’s batting achievements were thus the modern-day equivalent of a batting average, over the ten seasons, of a few decimal points short of 82! Attracted by the seaside charms of Sussex 66