Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

Thus the welcome end to a season that had turned into a nightmare. Warwicks seemed in need of a break, their skipper was physically and mentally exhausted. Wisden commented that Warwicks were essentially a hard-wicket team. Only Santall, of the bowlers, preferred slow wickets and he was a veteran. Foster’s comparative failure was put down to the slow wickets, but also the heavy workload so young a player had endured during the past three years. A valid point; not common knowledge then was the fact that though on the face of it easy-going and physically robust he was physiologically and psychologically fragile. A delicate and over-tuned piece of machinery liable to snap at any time. Wisden stated that he never seemed fresh but ended on the happier note that a statement that 1912 was to be his last season was incorrect: ‘All being well he will captain the Warwickshire XI for some time to come.’ Perhaps, in hindsight, his frequent ‘retirements’ were a symptom of an underlying depression. His 115 wickets at 17.40 seemed not too bad, and in fact he finished 24th in the first-class averages among bowlers with 20 or more wickets, as against 26th in 1911. On raw figures then he seemed to have done at least as well, yet did not seem to be so doing, and certainly he overdid the leg-theory and showed less variety. His batting, 727 runs at 18.81, definitely declined. The damp, slow wickets did not suit him; only when showing untypical restraint did he score runs. Rest was his hope of cricketing salvation. Winter was spent at Wilkinson and Riddell and in the February issue of Cricket is the following announcement: ‘After all Frank Foster is not giving up big cricket, and he will lead his county’s team again this season. The importance of this fact can hardly be overestimated. There is no greater asset to a team than a skipper of the lifting type, a man who has confidence in his men and in himself – and such is Foster.’ It went on: ‘Neither Warwickshire nor England can afford to do without him for years to come yet, though whether his services will very long be available remains to be seen.’ Foster and Warwicks were also mentioned in an anonymous article titled ‘The County Championship’ in a later issue of Cricket magazine on 3 May. This complained that, by wishing to make county cricket more spectator-friendly, the authorities were in danger of pandering to the ignorant masses with no proper knowledge of the game. It commented: ‘As an instance, one may cite the Birmingham crowd. Until Warwickshire began to do well in 1911 they had comparatively poor gates, but now large crowds assemble at nearly every match. Mainly because of Frank Foster, because of the glamour of his personality, to see him ‘it ‘em ‘ard and ‘i and horften – not to watch the game at all its varying aspects.’ 49 Vicissitudes down to war 73 49 Apart from the anti-Warwicks and Birmingham stance – there was surely the same seething mass of ignorance on the popular side at The Oval, and other grounds – the writer seems to get his dialects mixed up. ‘Horften’ sounds lower-class ‘Sarf London’ or, without the ‘h’ Shropshire or the Welsh borders in general. The Brummie was likely to have used the older English ‘offen’. Still, it proved that Warwicks and Foster had made a mark. Jealousy was in the air.