Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

made by everyone but I think the above errors were the biggest ever made by a County Cricket Club. 62 Foster reported that he had not played cricket since 1928, but ‘for two solid months’ in that year he says he had some ‘wonderful experiences’. He continued: After a fewmatches with Bournemouth I was invited to play for Sir John Power’s XI. 63 He had a beautiful house with his own cricket ground attached, not very far from Bournemouth. The first game I played there was for Bournemouth. I got Sir John out twice lbw. The following morning he button-holed me about 11 o’clock and said: ‘Will you give me a demonstration after today’s play of how a left-arm bowler round the wicket can get a batsman out lbw? We tried it out on the billiards table last night with matches for stumps and tape for lines. There is only an inch or two to spare for a bowler of your description to get an lbw decision. I looked at Sir John and this was my reply, ‘I think you have forgotten one thing.’ ‘What’s that?’ he rapped out. ‘Well, Sir John, if a left-arm bowler bowling round the wicket pitches the ball practically on the front foot of the batsman, with the seam upwards, and that ball straightens itself the batsman must be out if the ball hits his pad instead of the wicket.’ There was no demonstration that evening! Foster also left his feelings about other matters respecting cricket in Hampshire in his unpublished notes: The secretary of Bournemouth Cricket Club was C. Garnet Fynn, one of the best googly bowlers I have ever seen. I watched him closely for two solid months and in January 1929 I sent a letter to Plum Warner giving full details of his bowling. Fynn was Middlesex-qualified by birth, Hampshire by residence, but unfortunately decided to play for Hampshire, in my opinion a sad error. Hampshire have always been noted for their absolute snobbishness and had my friend played for Middlesex he would have had far better treatment. I have a decided axe to grind so I will grind it. If it had not been for me, Fynn would never have played for any county club and I think I am in a position to express my opinion on the whole matter. The first county match my friend played in for Hampshire he obtained two wickets in his very first over. Lord Tennyson is a very funny man and, after the treatment he meted out to Fynn, I am downright ashamed of him. I War and the 1920s 97 62 I have obtained the scorecard of the MCC match described and although Foster’s memory is a little faulty he is basically correct. The score summarised is MCC 260 (R.M.Poore 81, A.J.Bostock-Hill six wkts) and 54 (A.J.Bostock-Hill 7 wkts; R.M.Poore lbw Bostock Hill 1); Bournemouth 189 (G.W.Parker 93, F.R.Foster 1) and 110 (F.R.Foster 7). C.G.Fynn did not take a wicket. Two weeks later Foster played for Bournemouth against The Frogs. Frogs won but in what was probably his last organised match, Foster, after being caught and bowled for a duck, took five of the seven wickets to fall in The Frogs’ only innings. 63 Power lived at Yeatton House, Hordle, near Lymington in Hampshire in this period, and at the time he was Conservative MP for Wimbledon.