Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Chapter Seventeen The birth of Canterbury Cricket Week Many of the leading figures in the world of cricket had made their way to Canterbury for the third Kent match with England in 1841, including Benjamin Aislabie (the MCC secretary) and Lord Frederick Beauclerk (who had been MCC president in 1826), and all had been so impressed by the location and organisation that it was agreed to repeat the fixture the following season, plus a three-day, all-amateur version to follow. This encouraged John Baker and his brother William, who had appeared in the Kent eleven in all three matches against England, to suggest to the England captain, the Hon Frederick Ponsonby, that next year he should ask some of his undergraduate friends from his Cambridge University days, with whom he had formed a university amateur dramatic society, to come to Canterbury during the matches to provide entertainment at the theatre in Orange Street in the evenings. The gentlemen actors were delighted to be invited and in due course persuaded some professional actresses from London’s West End to join them. Details of the arrangements for a week of cricket at Canterbury in 1842 were released in May: Two grand matches on the 1st and 4th of August (Kent v England, and Gentlemen of Kent v Gentlemen of England) will probably occupy the whole week, and will be the most attractive matches in the country during the season. Amateur Performances will take place at the Theatre, Canterbury, with the assistance of Mrs Nisbett, Mrs Glover, and Miss Mordaunt. There will be a County Fancy Ball on the Wednesday, and a City Ball on the Thursday, at Barnes’s Rooms. But there was going to be a great deal more cricket played before August. Fuller’s first match of the season was at Lord’s on 20 and 21 June helping MCC beat the North by 43 runs. Redgate’s haul of five wickets in the first innings and four in the second did not include Fuller’s on this occasion. Kent opened their season against Sussex at the new Beverley Ground in Canterbury on 30 June, 1 and 2 July and won by four runs after Fuller had top-scored with 28 out of 80 in their second innings. There was still time for Fuller to take a quick trip to Brighton to help Chalvington beat the Brighton club by six wickets, thanks to his unbeaten 41 out of 93 in the second innings, and then go up to Lord’s to join Kent against England on 11 and 12 July. The result of this match confirmed, if proof was still needed, that Kent were the champion county of cricket. The Times left its readers in no doubt: 74