Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

After Frank’s death, his widow went to stay with her daughter Margot, who lived in Pontefract. It appears that the Lancashire County Cricket Club were made aware of the straightened circumstances in which Amy found herself. The minutes of a committee meeting on 8 June 1933, just one week after the funeral, reads as follows: ‘A letter was read from Mr A.J.Barley re the affairs of the late Frank Sugg. The matter was left to Mr Stoddart, Mr Kinnear and the Secretary with power to award not exceeding £20 if necessary.’ But Amy died from cardiac failure, only two months after Frank’s death, while still in Pontefract. (Ill-health may have been the reason she did not attend Frank’s funeral.) On news of her death, the committee, at a meeting on 10 August 1933, resolved to rescind the offered grant. 118 There were also reports that a benefit match to raise money for Frank’s widow was to be arranged, probably at New Brighton, but if there were any such thoughts they were also abandoned after Amy’s own death. 119 However sad the end of Frank Sugg’s life, and however puzzling the fact that he lies in an unmarked public grave, the story of his life is the story of a man who lived life to the full and brought pleasure to untold thousands with the vigour and enjoyment he brought to cricket and to the other sports at which he excelled. Nothing can detract from that. 124 A Sad End It is thought that Frank Sugg was buried in a public grave at the foot of this section of the wall on the south-east side of St Luke’s graveyard in Crosby. 118 I am grateful to Malcolm Lorimer for searching the committee minutes for this information. 119 The Cricketer , 6 September 1933.