Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

Almanack referred to the side being handicapped by Kinneir’s poor health and Field’s injuries, but paid tribute to Jeeves, ‘an absolute prize’ whose first season ‘was nothing short of a triumph.’ Foster declined an invitation to tour South Africa, citing business reasons. He spent another winter with Wilkinson and Riddell but when April came around was probably looking forward to a resumption of his cricket career. He had things to prove. Could he still cut it as a captain? Would the winter’s break help him refind the batting capable of destroying any attack, could he regain life and variety with the ball? He was only 25, yet had rarely been regarded as ‘young’. Ahead of him – who knew? Even the England captaincy was not simply a wild dream. Or was it? Whatever cricket fantasies may have been in Frank Foster’s mind in the run-up to the 1914 season were now utterly and cruelly shattered. On Friday, 17 April, Frank’s beloved father William complained of pain in his head and next day, after going into the city he returned home and took to his bed. Doctors diagnosed pneumonia and on the following Thursday, at 7.15 am, he died at his home. William Foster had never excelled as a player but from 1910 until his death he had been a member of the Warwicks committee. Only 61, he was in fact survived by both parents, then living in Nuneaton. He was interred at Brandwood End Cemetery, Birmingham and the grave remains in good order in 2010. The service was attended by the family, and by representatives of Moseley Road and Kings Heath Wesleyan Churches, Warwickshire County Cricket Club, the Royal Hackney Society and other equine organisations, and Foster Brothers tailoring. This talented and gregarious man with multifarious interests was given a traditional ‘good send-off’ but for his son, on the eve of what could be seen as a ‘make-or-break’ season after two years of disappointment, it was the worst possible situation. He had lost a father he worshipped and since elder brother Harry was unwell and temporarily unable to carry out his duties with Foster Brothers, he decided to retire from first-class cricket, again, and concentrate on the family business. Thankfully he soon changed his mind. Foster had the understanding and support of his family and new company chairman William Webster. This, combined with the clamour from Warwicks fans, among many of whom he had gained icon status, persuaded him to withdraw the proffered resignation as county captain. He would give it one more season; though surely he never imagined the shocking way this statement of intent would come to fruition. 50 Perhaps it was for the best that Warwicks’ season did not commence until 18 May, the opening game at Edgbaston, the opponents the far from Vicissitudes down to war 81 50 Only days after William Foster’s death another Foster, Reginald Erskine, known as ‘Tip’, succumbed from ‘Type A’ diabetes, a killer before the development of insulin. Perhaps the most gifted of the Worcestershire brotherhood (though some plumped for the stage-struck but delicate Basil) and certainly the most successful. Sadly, he and Frank never faced each other in first-class cricket.