Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

As Frank Sugg Ltd struggled to survive, the Philip Mead Bat Company was overwhelmed by its own financial difficulties and the company was wound up in April 1924, after only five years of trading. Even the association of as celebrated a name as Philip Mead was no guarantee of commercial success in the challenging trading conditions of the 1920s. During the period when Frank Sugg Ltd was being wound up, a strange full-page advertisement appeared in the 1926 issue of Wisden . It was headed ‘Lt & Qmr Frank Sugg’ who was described as the ‘Return Mail Order Man”, and it declared: ‘There is only one Frank Sugg in the Athletic Trade and his only address is 10 North John Street, Liverpool. No connection with any other firm.’ Frank Sugg is described as ‘Lancashire County and All England Eleven and Captain of Everton, Burnley, Sheffield, Derby County, Bolton Football Clubs.’ It carries Frank Sugg’s signature but there are number of oddities about it. The reference to Sheffield rather than Sheffield Wednesday, and the erroneous claim that Frank Sugg was captain of all the football clubs named is one of them. Then there are the military titles. The London Gazette of 13 May 1919 records that F.H.Sugg had relinquished his commission after his period of service with the military while retaining the rank of lieutenant, but the obvious question is why Frank, a well-known sportsman, should want to advertise himself in Wisden in 1926 in such a way, several years after the end of hostilities. The address, 10 North John Street, is featured as ‘his only address’. It looks as if Frank was seeking to distance himself from the failed Frank Sugg Ltd and Philip Mead Bat Company Ltd businesses – ‘no connection with any other firm’ – and to make an attempt to continue on his own account – ‘the return mail order man’. I have seen no follow-ups to the 1926 advertisement but Liverpool directories after 1927 refer to ‘Frank Sugg (himself) Athletic Outfitter’, suggesting that Frank did continue some kind of business from his own home, by this time at 65 St Johns Road. But the truth is that no effective new Frank Sugg business emerged from the wreckage of Frank Sugg Ltd. The company was finally formally dissolved on 16 June 1931. Despite the growing difficulties of his business – or perhaps because of them – Frank had a keen eye for any other business opportunities. After the war he entered into some highly speculative ventures, for example for the sale of surplus war goods. Some of these also failed. According to his granddaughter, Lorna Brown, Frank ‘went bust’ on more than one occasion. She 112 Frank’s Business Career