Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

This represented a most unsatisfactory state of affairs. A humiliating defeat with ‘old’ Jack Hearne having figures of five for 12 in 14 overs on the third morning and despite his late heroics with the bat, the skipper let himself and the side down by his arriving so late. Foster’s laissez-faire style of leadership works well when the side is successful but can be disastrous at other times, as was shown here. There was no direction from the skipper, no inspiration, no advice, since he wasn’t there. Worst of all he seemed to find humour in the situation. If the Lord’s game was a humiliation, what of the following match with Kent at Tonbridge? Cricket magazine explained away Warwicks’ all out 16 in the second innings as ‘Just one of those accidents which will happen now and again. A queer pitch, bowlers whom it exactly suits, bad batting by some men, bad luck for most and you get a score which does not reach a score. It looks worse when, as happened at Tonbridge, the other side goes in again and makes runs with seeming ease; but a bad pitch at 1 o’clock may be a quite decent one at three. And Foster had neither a Blythe nor a Woolley to call upon.’ Did Warwicks’ supporters treat the debacle with such serenity one wonders? It has remained the county’s lowest first-class score and the lowest in any game involving Kent. In fairness Warwicks played their first match in Kent in the twentieth century with a weakened side. Jack-of-all-trades Charles Baker deputised for the injured Smith. Kinneir, Field, Langley and the Stephens twins were unable to turn out. For two days they held their own. At the end of a rain interrupted second day Kent were 104 for five in reply to 262 and on the third morning excellent bowling by Foster – six for 62 in 29 overs, five of the last six wickets for 13 – and Jeeves dismissed the home side for 132. Warwicks commenced their second innings around midday with a lead of 132. Forty-five minutes and 10.2 overs later they were all out 16. The pitch was reported to be very bad: Blythe and Woolley, who both had figures of five for 8, found conditions entirely suited to their left-arm spin. But the fact was that no-one tried to block things out, as Quaife and Baker were surely qualified to do, or ‘have a go’ which one would expect from Foster, who was bowled by Blythe for a duck. Warwicks had renewed hope when Kent lost two wickets before lunch but on the resumption the pitch had eased, Woolley, 76 in 80 minutes, got after the bowling, to guide to Kent to an unlikely, but brilliant six-wicket victory. Foster, two for 44 in ten overs hardly seemed to make the most of conditions, which surely called for slower pace. Foster had occasionally tossed the ball up with success but here he employed his usual leg-theory with scant results. This result cemented Kent’s place atop the table and they won the title. Warwicks on the other hand suffered two dreadful batting collapses in successive matches. And Yorkshire, away were next. Bramall Lane on a smutty day in front of five thousand Yorkshire supporters would have been pretty daunting to any visiting side but the Tykes’ first afternoon collapse from 230 for four to 254 all out, with Foster bowling superbly as usual against his ‘second county’ to record figures of Vicissitudes down to war 76