Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

Bowls was a relaxation for many cricketers and bowling greens were often incorporated into cricket grounds. 98 There are two versions of the game, lawn (flat) green bowls and crown green bowls, the latter being played mainly in the north. In Sugg’s time, as now, crown green bowling was particularly strong in the north-west. (Blackpool hosted the two classic crown green events, the Talbot Handicap and the Waterloo Handicap.) With either code, competitions between local clubs were keenly fought. But bowls was – indeed is – a very clubbable activity. Sports clubs would invariably have a bowling green and greens were also to be found at many pubs. Frank would have participated in competitions organised among local bowls clubs. Each bowls green, particularly each crown green, has its own characteristics, as does each cricket pitch, and Frank would have enjoyed the challenge that that presented as well as the competition of the game itself. He carried off numerous trophies in the course of many years of playing bowls, though without reaching national prominence. Another clubbable activity in Frank Sugg’s time was billiards. Although the game has a long history, it was not until the nineteenth century that billiards grew in popularity among the population at large. The impetus was the development of methods of manufacturing smooth balls and smooth billiard tables with sprung cushions. (It was not until 1893 that the dimensions of a billiard table were standardised.) Interest in the game then exploded. The game was enjoyed by men of all classes of society: it was unheard of for women to play billiards. No country house would be without a billiards room to which the gentlemen could retire after a good dinner, while for the working man a game of billiards (or later snooker) and a few drinks at the local pub or social club was welcome relaxation after the rigours of the working day. In between, were gentlemen’s clubs and sports and social clubs with a more middle-class membership which invariably, in Victorian times, had a billiard table if not a designated billiard room. Many cricketers enjoyed the sport. A glance at any issue of Wisden in the 1890s will reveal a number of advertisements for billiard tables. Frank probably first became interested in billiards after his move to Liverpool and his absorption into the clubs of the town. Billiards competitions were organised by the major clubs and billiards associations. Walter Sugg was an outstanding Away From Old Trafford 100 98 W.G.Grace was elected the first president of the English Bowling Association, the body responsible for flat green bowls, in 1903.