Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

struck. On 22 June, under the headline ‘Grass for the Lads’, he urged his readers to support campaigns to provide cricket facilities for elementary schools. Speaking from his own experience , he said many youngsters with an aptitude for cricket were lost to the game simply because they had nowhere to play but the back streets. The articles attracted quite a postbag and Frank was assiduous in responding to his readers’ comments and queries in subsequent articles. He seems to have been particularly keen to engage in discussion about the Laws of the game. For example, in one article, on 15 June, he debated at length a reader’s suggestion that it should be irrelevant where a ball pitched in making leg-before-wicket decisions. Frank accepted that such a change would simplify the umpire’s task but he concluded it would be a retrograde step because it would considerably shorten games and be financially harmful. A favourite of spectators for his bravado performances at the crease, Frank Sugg’s journalism reveals how deeply he thought about the game and how it needed to be changed, in his view, to make it even better and more enjoyable. Umpire and Journalist 119