Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

much, but were anxious for some progress. Perhaps with a touch of desperation they turned to 21-year-old Frank Foster but, to their dismay, after accepting the offer in January he changed his mind, announcing his retirement for the second time. Perhaps the club should not have been surprised; he had regularly hinted that each season would be his last. Spring 1911 was different however; he had fallen in love (again), wished to announce his engagement and wanted to concentrate on work. Frank quit so late the county was in a quandary, turning to Lt Charles Cowan to lead them in the opening game, against Surrey, 1910 runners-up with a phalanx of top professionals led by those gifts to their working class supporters, ‘ayward, ‘obbs, ‘ayes and ‘Bl’itch’. Cowan, a naval type whose most valuable work was as a future committeeman and honorary treasurer, was keen but short on ability, and his performance here also suggests a chronic lack of leadership qualities. All out for 62 and 87, Warwicks were hopelessly beaten by an innings. The only pieces of encouragement were the efforts of young professionals Harold Bates and Jack Parsons. 31 Warwicks were in trouble, not least from the London press, especially in the form of E.H.D.Sewell who airily announced they were ‘not even a good second-eleven side’. As soon as the defeat was telegraphed to R.V.Ryder, the wires began humming. Ryder to William Foster, and a plea to persuade his son to change his mind and come to the rescue of Warwicks cricket. Off went William to Wilkinson and Riddell, to persuade his talented but maverick son his county needed him: ‘They want you, my boy; you had better go.’ Fresh financial arrangements were made and the saviour of Warwicks raced to the rescue, perhaps not on a white charger, more likely in a carriage pulled by one of father’s hacks. Dressing-room reaction 32 was mixed but Foster addressed his players and stressed his belief in the team ethic – ‘all for one, one for all’ – but this message seemed to collapse in a heap when, for Foster’s debut at Old Trafford, he and Lt Cowan travelled first-class, the professionals third-class. Perhaps change needed to come by degrees; after all he had a pretty disparate group under him – a full gamut of post-Edwardian England in fact. His squad included businessmen, a Naval officer, a resentful ex-Test player, a stockbroker, a solicitor, a type two syphilid, an England-class boozer, an ex-farm labourer, a professional who once played Tell Kent from me she hath lost 32 31 Harold Bates, son of groundsman Jack Bates was a promising pace bowler killed in the war. Brother Len became a county stalwart however. Jack Parsons was a remarkable man, starting as a professional and finishing as a canon of the Church of England. His personality also metamorphosed: ‘one of the lads’, hard drinking and with an enviable range of ‘Anglo-Saxon’, became the intolerant puritan, while his style changed from stodgy defence to free hitting. He was one of few batsmen – the last was E.R.Dexter in the 1962 Test – to hit a ball clean over the old Edgbaston pavilion into the road. 32 More accurately dressing rooms , since facilities were still divided between amateurs and professionals.