Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

seen in club cricket in 1928, and the match was played on the County Ground at Bournemouth. We were both playing for Bournemouth against MCC. It was a two-day match, and MCC had sent a very strong side for the occasion. General Poore 60 was in charge of the MCC, and here is a nice spicy bit of news. Bournemouth lost the toss, and General Poore walked into bat at the fall of the second wicket. A fast bowler was bowling, I was fielding second slip. Suddenly the General cut one hard, wide of my right hand. The ball caught the top of the nail of my middle finger. As quick as lightning I moved my right arm upwards and clenched my fingers. The catch was made, but my nail was badly damaged. At that time, General Poore had not scored. I quickly put the ball in my pocket and sucked my injured nail. Then, I looked up expecting to see the General walking towards the pavilion. Nothing of the sort, he was half-way up the wicket (I could have run him out easily) arguing the point with the umpire. The umpire gave him not out because Poore told him it was a ‘bump ball.’ After this bit of umpire bullying General Poore proceeded to make a priceless 70 runs. In the second innings of MCC the bowler I began to tell you about, Bostock-Hill, clean bowled the General for a duck. I was fielding short square leg. ‘Now what’s going to happen?’ I said to myself. General Poore walked up the wicket and pointed with his bat to the dense mass of trees behind the bowlers arm. ‘How’s that?’ someone shouted. ‘Out,’ said the umpire. It was a different umpire that innings. As the General passed me he said, ‘I never saw the damn ball.’ ‘Why don’t you go back and tell the umpire?’ I replied. The General smiled and walked sadly away to the pavilion. The Bournemouth wicket is treacherous after rain followed by bright sunshine, but that did not mean such a lot to Bostock-Hill. 61 Although he captured seven wickets for 20 runs (after six in the first innings) he did not experience the best of luck. He should have captured all ten wickets for less than ten runs if our fielding had been up to scratch. I have never seen a bowler that so closely resembles my old pal Sydney Barnes in every department since 1914. They are about the same height, they both possess long arms and long fingers and they are both able to make the ball turn either way without any noticeable change of action. Warwickshire made a big mistake in not encouraging Bostock-Hill to play regularly for the club, just in the same way that they did not encourage Sydney Barnes to stay in the County when he was a member of the groundstaff. Warwickshire let two of the finest bowlers anyone will ever see slip through their fingers. Mistakes are War and the 1920s 96 60 Robert Montague Poore had a fearsome reputation as both cricketer and man. In 1899 his 12 first-class matches, for Hants and others, brought him 1,551 runs, av. 91.23. When asked years later how he would play Larwood he is reputed to have roared ‘I would charge him, Sir!’ 61 Alfred John Bostock Hill did play once for Warwicks in 1920, with little success, but he was a career diplomat and spent much of the 1920s and 1930s in the Far East, playing cricket with great success in Malaya and Hong Kong. Two uncles, J.E. and H.B.G.Hill had played for Warwicks in the 1890s.