Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

There never was perhaps in the annals of cricketing a greater triumph than the one achieved on Tuesday evening at Lord’s, by the players of Kent in their match with eleven selected from the various counties of England, and in which they, after two days of unrivalled play, were proclaimed the victors by a majority of no less that 50 runs. The England cricketers were unquestionably the finest in the world, and the ‘Men of Kent’ having now defeated, and without much difficulty, the elite of the gentlemen and professional players of this country, they are fairly entitled to the distinction of being styled the champions of the players of this fine game. For some past this match has been the principal topic of conversation among the members of the metropolitan, suburban, and provincial cricket clubs, and consequently a speculative interest has been excited. Indeed, bets to an immense amount have been pending on the result, and some idea may be formed of the anxiety with which that was regarded by those amateurs and players unavoidably absent and living in distant parts from the fact, that pigeon and horse expresses were dispatched after each innings, communicating the state of the game. The weather being propitious on both Monday and Tuesday, the enclosure at Lord’s presented a gay and animated appearance from the immense assemblage of spectators, more than four thousand of whom paid for admission. There were above 100 of the equipages of the nobility and other distinguished persons, including a number of the carriages of ladies of rank and fashion. Of the match it was reported that the bowling of Alfred Mynn, who took eleven wickets ‘was universally admired’, and his batting, top-scoring in both innings with 21 and 33 ‘was also very fine. His brother, Mr W.Mynn, Mr Felix, Mr Whittaker, and Pilch likewise displayed some pretty batting.’ As ‘pretty’ as Fuller’s batting may have been while scoring 10 and 21, it was ended in both innings yet again by Redgate. Two days later Kent were at Brighton for an easy victory by ten wickets over Sussex, thanks to 53 from Felix, 46 from Fuller and 42 from Adams, and then Fuller was back at Lord’s for the popular Fast Bowlers v Slow Bowlers match. He was moved back where he belonged into the Slow Bowlers eleven, but avoided being dismissed by Redgate on this occasion. Fuller was back in Sussex helping Chalvington beat Brighton again on 21 and 22 July. The last important match before Kent met England at Canterbury was the Gentlemen v Players annual challenge at Lord’s towards the end of July. Unless of course, you count the one-day match between the ‘Gentlemen of Rugby’ and Kent at Lord’s, as recounted by Harry Flashman in the sixth package of memoirs edited and published by George MacDonald Fraser in Flashman’s Lady in 1977. There is no scorecard of that game in Scores and Biographies and the account of Flashman’s hat-trick – Felix and Mynn bowled, Pilch caught and bowled – may be inventions of Flashman’s creative imagination. What does ring true however, is his description of Lord’s as he walked out to bat for the first time: ‘the coaches were banked solid, wheel to wheel, crowded with ladies and gentlemen, the whole huge The birth of Canterbury Cricket Week 75