Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Before the Kent season got under way, Fuller had four engagements to fulfil, including three at Lord’s. There were very few runs scored in the first MCC game of the summer against Sussex on 2 and 3 June and it had taken nine 4-ball overs for Sussex even to open their account before collapsing all out for 49. Fuller made 12 in the MCC reply, the only batsman to reach double figures in a total of 68, and hit the winning run in the second. His next game was for Gravesend at home to Bearsted on 9 and 10 June, and then he returned to Lord’s to play against MCC for the Western Counties on 16, 17 and 18 June, this time finishing on the losing side. The other game at Lord’s five days later ended with an innings defeat for MCC against the North, a team that included the 19-year-old George Parr, who would eventually replace Fuller as the best bat in England, and who was making his debut at Lord’s. It was a poor season for Kent, who lost five of their six matches. Only Nicholas Felix, with 192 runs from eleven innings, and Fuller, with 150 from his eleven, made any significant contribution with the bat. It started off well with an innings victory over Nottinghamshire at Canterbury on 26 and 27 June, although Fuller was bowled by Redgate for only seven. A week later they went down by three wickets to Sussex at Brighton, despite Fuller’s top score of 54 in Kent’s second innings. Although no longer attached to a club in Kent, Martingell was allowed to play for the county in this match. Then Fuller and Martingell left the Kent team to join Hampshire at Lord’s against MCC on 7, 8 and 9 July where not even Fuller’s unbeaten 55 out of 141 in the first innings could save the visitors from defeat. Leaving London immediately after the end of the game, a Kent threesome were in Liverpool the next morning where Fuller was engaged to play for a Liverpool eleven and Martingell for a Manchester eleven that also had Felix as a given man. This was a unique match in which the first innings of each side was played at Liverpool and the last two at Manchester, taking three days on 10, 11 and 12 July. Martingell had Fuller caught by Felix in each innings for nought and four – so much for respect! The experiment of playing home and away in the same game, taking advantage of the new railway lines built between cities, does not appear to have found favour as it was not repeated anywhere else. Fuller, Martingell and Felix immediately returned to London to face one another again at Lord’s on 14, 15 and 16 July, where MCC had selected an England Eleven that beat Kent by 80 runs. Martingell, playing for England, caught Fuller in the first innings and bowled him in the second! Fuller, his nephew William and the Kent team were on a train as soon as the game ended to appear against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on 17 and 18 July. Relieved perhaps not to be facing his friend this time, Fuller did everything he could to save Kent from defeat, remaining unbeaten on 29 out of 86 in the second innings chasing 65 to avoid an innings defeat but Nottinghamshire went on to win for the loss of only two wickets. There were two Gentlemen v Players games in 1845, the traditional fixture at Lord’s over four days in July and a benefit for George Brown, the Sussex William Pilch joins Uncle Fuller at Canterbury 87