Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

The next game, at Gloucester, was lost disappointingly despite mighty efforts by Field, match figures of 12 for 79, and Foster missed the following game, with Hampshire. His form and flair had been noticed and he was chosen for England v The Rest at Lord’s, a match billed as a Test trial despite there being no Test matches until the next winter. 36 It was a hotchpotch of a game, attracting little spectator interest. Hobbs, ‘indisposed’, did not play; Syd Barnes refused the invitation for no reason other than his being Barnes. The Rest batted and Foster soon dismissed Wally Hardinge, caught by Frank Tarrant. 37 There were two down at the break, P.F.Warner and Somerset’s Talbot Lewis together. What Foster ate for luncheon is not known but in the afternoon he tore through the batting, dismissing Warner, J.W.Hearne, Hendren, Woolley, W.B.Burns and ‘Razor’ Smith in a superb spell of fast left-arm bowling. After lunch he took six wickets for 50, finishing with seven for 76 in 31.3 overs. The Rest were all out 173. England’s reply of 393 owed much to a very slow stand of 170 between James Iremonger and Wilfred Rhodes. Both probably had their eyes on a winter tour place (they were picked) and with his bowling now very much disregarded at top level Rhodes knew runs were required. He made 121 but scored slower and slower, his last 21 taking an hour. No wonder that, when his turn at the wicket came around, Foster got himself stumped for eight. The Rest eventually saved the match in miserable weather before an equally miserable ‘crowd’ but Foster’s first-day performance surely opened eyes at Lord’s. Meanwhile a Fosterless Warwicks, led by ex-skipper Fred Byrne, were laying waste to Hampshire, with Sep Kinneir 38 scoring an unbeaten 268 in seven hours, at the time the best by a Warwicks batsman, and the best by a left hander, an opener and at Edgbaston until 1994. Such was his dominance that Kinneir scored more runs in his one innings than Hants in both innings combined. Field recorded his only hat-trick in a stunning win by an innings and 296 runs. A delighted Foster, at the pavilion gate to welcome his victorious players would have had something to say to the team in general, Kinneir and Field in particular. Tell Kent from me she hath lost 37 36 There had been an earlier Test trial, at Sheffield at the beginning of June, but Foster was not involved, even though Warwicks were without a match. So his form had only just started to attract attention. 37 A peculiar choice for an ‘England’ side since as an Australian professional he was not thought to be qualified. At the time Tarrant was arguably the best all-rounder in the world and really should have ‘walked’ into the England eleven. 38 Kinneir, aged 40, became Foster’s staunchest supporter. His own life had been fraught by tragedy and disappointment. The seventh son in a Corsham, Wiltshire family, he qualified in 1898, played promisingly but then ‘disappeared’ until late in the 1899 season. Only years later did he confide in Frank Foster. Though already 27 he knew little of life and at Cheltenham for the Gloucestershire game he met and fell in love with what he described as ‘an exquisite young girl’. He fell ill and the club sent him to Germany for treatment. When he returned his hair had gone, his finger nails turned blue and fell out. Syphilis was the problem and fortunately it was caught before his brain was affected but his life was changed for ever, and he never again trusted a woman. In view of Foster’s subsequent health problems maybe there was more to this story, told by Foster in the 1930s, than meets the eye.