Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Pilch played his first game at Lord’s and Kent were unlucky to lose by one wicket when England’s last man, Thomas Sewell, going to the middle with his team needing two runs to win, hit the first ball he received from Hillyer away to leg for the runs required. Fuller must have been disappointed that his top score of 27 out of Kent’s second innings of 66 had not been a few runs more. Fuller was absent from the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s on 20, 21 and 22 July for the first time since 1829, for reasons unknown, but was able to join the Kent team when they met Surrey again at Preston Hall, not far from West Malling, on 23, 24 and 25 July. The ground was situated in the deer park where the local Aylesford Club had played from time to time. The owner, Charles Milner, now intended to establish a county club, to be called ‘The New Kent Club‘, and play all future Kent matches against Surrey. In the park ‘a well selected and spacious spot was fenced off for the accommodation of visitors’ and a ‘number of marquees’ were erected for the first match. Fuller always enjoyed matches played in the grounds of private estates, telling Fred Gale: ‘Ay, and haven’t I seen some good company in many a butler’s private room when we were playing a great match? Ay, and drink rare good stuff! The gamekeeper used to drop in by accident, and the ladies’ maids and the housekeeper; and I have known some of the young gentlemen staying in the big house come down and smoke their cigars and talk cricket.’ Kent were lucky not to lose this game that ended as ‘unfinished’ after they had reached 29 for the loss of seven wickets, still needing another 43 runs to win. Their last two batsmen, the amateur brothers William and Edward Banks, had left the ground after rain had stopped play at 3 pm on the final afternoon as they believed that there would be no more play. Bad news for the brothers when it stopped raining and the match was resumed, but it was a remarkable piece of luck for the remaining nine of the Kent eleven who looked to be well beaten. Kent supporters of Messrs Banks and Banks may have argued that, as both were capable batsmen, Kent would have won if they had remained. Two days later Fuller joined the Norfolk team at Lord’s for their annual fixture against MCC on 27 and 28 July. He had arranged for Redgate to play for the county as a given man and the fast bowler rewarded the invitation by taking ten wickets in the match, although Norfolk went down by 88 runs. Two days after that Fuller was back with the Kent team that included Martingell once more as he had returned to his engagement with the Beverley Club, and they helped Kent beat Sussex at Tunbridge Wells. Then it was time for the Canterbury Cricket Week where, thanks to the completion of the South-Eastern Railway between London and Canterbury, even larger crowds attended. In another low-scoring match, with only 145 runs recorded over the two days, 3 and 4 August, England beat Kent by an innings and three runs. Only four Kent batsmen reached double figures in the match including Fuller with 15 before being bowled by John Wisden. William Clarke creates the All-England Eleven 93