Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

formidable Leicestershire. Crockford was the only amateur available – apart from Foster ‘a host in himself’ according to World of Cricket . The campaign could hardly have started better; at lunch Warwicks were 177 without loss, Parsons 97 not out. He fell soon after the break but Kinneir went on to his century, a welcome return to form after his ill-health of 1913. Foster made a carefree 39 but the total of 325 was perhaps a slight let-down. Next day Foster bowled with life and effect, taking five for 69 and when he took the last wicket – Skelding stumped, making a myopic flail – his side had a lead of 129. An aggressive 62 by Smith enabled Foster to declare with a lead of 374 and most of day three remaining and by mid-afternoon Leicestershire had feebly subsided to a 258-run defeat. Foster again finished them off, the ball eluding Skelding’s waft on its way to the stumps and his three for 44 was decisive. Warwicks may have caught the train to Temple Meads with optimism; a substantial win to start and now to Ashley Down to play Gloucestershire, a shadow of ‘the irresistible, the Shire of The Graces long ago’. The Champion now lived, in failing health, in Kent; his brothers, ‘the long-whiskered doctor that laugheth rules to scorn’ and the much loved G.F., were dead. Charlie Townsend – the Adonis and the greatest spin bowler in the world in his teens – was dispensing law in the north-east and turning out in league cricket for Norton-on-Tees at an age when inferior journeymen are reaching their spinning peak. They now lacked not only G.L.Jessop but local interest. In 1914 they were to win only once; had war not intervened they may not even have survived another season. Excellent Vicissitudes down to war 82 The Warwickshire side which beat Leicestershire at Edgbaston in 1914, Foster’s last season of big cricket. Standing (l to r): C.S.Baker, C.Charlesworth, S.Santall, J.H.Parsons, E.F.Field, P.Jeeves. Seated: S.Kinneir, W.G.Quaife, F.R.Foster (capt), E.B.Crockford, E.J.Smith (wk).