Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Kent where the Kent and England teams re-assembled at Thomas Hodges’ ground in Hemsted Park for a match played on 17 and 18 August for the benefit of Ned Wenman, with the expenses of the England eleven paid by MCC. Large crowds attended thanks to the South-Eastern Railway making an extra stop at Staplehurst where coaches were available to transport spectators to and from the ground. Three days later Fuller arrived in Leicester for the return Midland Counties and MCC match. He did not play again until the benefit match for Thomas Box at Brighton between Sussex and England on 11, 12 and 13 September. The 1844 season at Canterbury began with a very unusual event. This was a three-a-side single-wicket challenge on 24 May between Fuller and Martingell, each supported by two Beverley club members, with William de Chair Baker as one of the umpires. There were probably wagers on the result between club members as it was contested very seriously indeed. Fuller’s team, ‘The Lions’, received 311 balls; they scored 16 runs, half of them by Fuller who received 151 balls, but added only two more runs off 39 balls in their second innings. Martingell’s team, ‘The Crowns’, struggled to make a game of it with only three runs from 138 balls in their first innings and eight runs from 84 balls in the second. Fuller’s first double-wicket match of the season was at Lord’s on 10 and 11 June, when he was engaged by Surrey and joined Martingell to help them to a three-wicket victory over MCC. Soon after his return from Lord’s, Fuller was playing at Canterbury and demonstrating how the relationship between the Beverley Club and their neighbours at the Barracks was a benefit enjoyed by both parties. The officers of the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards, subscribers to Kent Cricket Club, had according to the Kentish Gazette ‘a field day under the superintendence of Captain Scott, seconded by the veterans Pilch and Martingell. The two elevens were completed by the permission of Colonel Hankey, and some excellent playing was exhibited.’ Martingell appeared in Captain Cleaver’s team while Fuller opened for the team under the joint leadership of Captain Scott and Captain Newland, scoring 45 out of 125, giving the cavalrymen a lesson in batting. Fuller’s next appearance was at Lord’s when he joined Mynn, Wenman and Martingell to play for a West of England eleven against MCC on 24, 25 and 26 June. Then it was time for the usual short group of Kent matches, losing again to Sussex at Canterbury by one wicket despite Fuller’s top scores in both innings, 38 out of 90 and 45 out of 107. Kent returned to winning ways beating England at Lord’s on 1, 2 and 3 July. Fuller fitted in another appearance at Lord’s on 8, 9 and 10 July, this time for Hampshire against MCC, where another unbeaten top score of 35 out of 90 could not save his team from defeat. Then he joined Kent at Brighton on 11, 12 and 13 July where they beat Sussex by nine runs. There was still time to fit in another five games before Canterbury Cricket Week. Astonishingly they were for five different teams: for MCC against The North at Lord’s on 15 and 16 July; for Norfolk, in their first appearance William Martingell joins Fuller at Canterbury 83