Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

yelled ‘that’s easy Syd’ and hit it high to Fanny Walden on the leg boundary. That made me feel thoroughly fed up. (I made a duck.) At the close I sent father another telegraph: ‘We are on our way there.’ We felt light of heart that night, but next day, Sunday, it rained incessantly. The bad weather made us nervous. Middlesex had well overcome Hampshire at Lord’s (no surprise there) but how could Yorkshire have allowed Kent to beat them in a game of less than two full days play? ‘Shouldn’t rely on Yorkshire, they’re no good,’ averred our Red Rose pair Charlie Baker and Crow Charlesworth. ‘I was nearly a Yorkshireman,’ I reminded them. 14 ‘Anyway skipper, we are going to win, so who cares?’ Frank Field talking of course, ‘Though we could have done with some runs from our No.5. Who was he?’ I chased him and threw my pipe at him. We played poker, bridge, any old game. We laughed, talked, told every tale which came out of the ark. We enjoyed simply being alive – laughing in the face of fate. On Monday the ground was too wet for the resumption. Lunch came and by then we were all of a very sober turn of mind. We commenced about 3 o’clock. Charlesworth soon fell for 130 – he was in for 210 minutes and hit 17 fours; what a great innings. Syd Smith got him, and the other three wickets. He loved the rain-affected pitch, but so too, we hoped would our bowlers. Warwickshire’s innings closed at 281. When Northamptonshire went in I was again lucky enough to get William Denton in the first over. His partner was skipper Tubby Vials, promoting himself from No.5. ‘That’s all right skipper, he can’t see,’ reckoned Frank Field, ‘I’ll give him a straight ‘un.’ Sure enough he did get Vials with a ‘straight ‘un’ that uprooted his middle peg but only after Vials had stayed for two hours, and 30 runs. Vials added 52 with Seymour and was there over after over (not bad for someone who couldn’t see) and as the close loomed, and with the uncertain weather, we were becoming all ‘hot and bothered’. We were encouraged when Field dismissed Vials but when play finished for the day there were still three Northamptonshire wickets to fall. Our one and only danger was further rain. We actually spent the night in ordinary clothes, playing cards, singing songs, everything. It was the longest night of my life, but I could never have slept. Then daylight dawned, and we saw the perfect cricket morning; a beautiful clear sky, not a sign of rain. I took the bowling with Frank Field and immediately bowled Walden (140 for eight). John Denton was then joined by James Ryan, a new boy looking fresh out of school. He and Denton became an annoyance; they added 34 before I got one on Denton’s pads, with the batsman getting into a real tangle. ‘Out,’ said the umpire; Denton was terribly disappointed, but had no need to feel guilty, he had played Warwick, thou art worthy 14 14 This is probably true since his elder brother Harry was Yorkshire-born. One wonders how cricket history may have been changed had the Fosters stayed in Pontefract another two or three years. For one thing Yorkshire may well have had an amateur skipper who was worth his place.