Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

Barnes : Give young Frank a chance skipper, and put him in early. Foster : What for? He can’t bat. Barnes : I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You’ve got Phil Mead down at No.3, so I’ll go and lock him up somewhere. Foster : What are you going to do with him? Barnes : You leave it to me. There’s a nice little room round the corner. Foster : Hurry up then, because old Sep Kinneir won’t last long. He’s a Warwickshire boy. Barnes : You’re a Warwickshire nut! I wish you had been captain when I was tried for Warwickshire. Foster : Shut up you silly old man. You can’t bowl. Barnes then got hold of Mead and locked him in a cloakroom. When Kinneir was dismissed for 26, Woolley grabbed his bat and hared out to the middle. Barnes had already told Foster of course, and the easy going skipper had good-humouredly concurred with the ruse but, no-one having told Woolley (or Mead), Woolley still assumed it was a secret between him and Barnes. This was a rarely seen example of Barnes’ lighter side. Following Rhodes’ dismissal Woolley and Hearne added a further 264 in 100 minutes and Foster finally declared at 574 for four made in 270 minutes at more than a run a ball, with Woolley’s 305 not out the highest-ever in Tasmania. The home side did much better second time around but still lost by an innings. Figures of three for 74 suggested Foster still did not take Tasmania seriously but he was a winning captain … again. Foster sat out the next game, with Victoria at Melbourne, and three days after this match the Fourth Test commenced on the same ground and England recovered The Ashes in brilliant style despite an enforced change – Vine for the injured Hitch – giving fewer bowling options. For once Douglas received the rub of the green, right from when he won the toss and inserted Australia on a grassy pitch. The home batters again let themselves down. Bardsley, all at sea against Foster, struggled for 20 minutes without scoring before he went out to drive, then decided to play to leg, finally did neither and had his stumps spread-eagled by Foster. Trumper struggled before being bowled by Foster and, after Barnes took wickets, Foster came back to get Ransford and Minnett caught by Rhodes; the latter’s 56 was by far the best knock of the innings. Barnes wrapped things up; a total of 191 was far from adequate, as Hobbs and Rhodes demonstrated. They added 323 for the first wicket, at the time a Test first-wicket record and still the best stand for England in Australia. Most of England’s men scored runs, Foster going merrily to 50 in 86 balls before a most unlucky dismissal. Fancying his chance against Armstrong, he let fly at a tempting half volley, the ball flattened Hordern at silly mid-on and Foster, in his own words ‘thought I had killed him’. In fact the ball lodged in Hordern’s sweater and with Hordern still on the ground, Hill screamed ‘Howzat!’ and to general amusement a perplexed Foster departed after an innings described as ‘the most attractive batting in the Under the Southern Cross 61