Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

cricketers, particularly among the bowlers, but Emmett was unable to weld his players into an effective cricketing force. There was a lack of organisation, focus and discipline. In present-day jargon, the total was less than the sum of the parts. As a consequence, Yorkshire’s results in county cricket had disappointed. Lord Hawke was to change all that, and in due course his leadership was to make Yorkshire the dominant force in county cricket for two decades. Although only a step along this road, 1883 was an excellent season for Yorkshire. They lost only two of 16 games in the Championship and, according to a number of authorities, including Wisden, were the champion county. Other authorities, however, and Yorkshire’s official statistician, awarded the title to Nottinghamshire with Yorkshire in second place. 30 This demonstrates the confusion that reigned until an agreed scoring system was adopted for the 1890 season. But whichever ranking in 1883 was the more justified, Frank Sugg was not to share in the team’s success. By all accounts, Frank had the big-match temperament, but he must have been nervous as he began his first-class career for Yorkshire against MCC at Lord’s on 21 May 1883 before a large crowd that would have included many of cricket’s notables. The match was scheduled for two days only in order not to clash with the Epsom Derby. The MCC team was a powerful one and included such giants of the game as W.G.Grace, C.T.Studd, A.N. (Monkey) Hornby, who was to become so important a figure in Frank’s career, and Lord Harris. Frank’s keenness to do well can be imagined. MCC batted first and were dismissed for only 125. Sugg had the satisfaction of taking a couple of catches. In their first innings Yorkshire did no better than their hosts and were all out for 121. Tom Emmett, Yorkshire’s captain in this match, had entrusted Frank Sugg with opening the Yorkshire innings with George Ulyett, his hero from his schoolboy days. Frank was out for 11, bowled by Arnold Rylott, a left-arm quick bowler who played for Leicestershire before they became a first-class county. After MCC had been put out a second time for 113, Frank had no chance to do better in Yorkshire’s second innings as Emmett chose to Playing for Yorkshire and Derbyshire 31 30 Robert Brooke reviews the various authorities’ decision on which county had won the Championship between the years 1864 and 1889 in his A History of the County Cricket Championship , Guinness Publishing, 1991, at p 10. See also Peter Wynne-Thomas, The Early County Championship, in The Cricket Statistician , 32, 1980, pp 2-7, and Roy D. Wilkinson, Yorkshire County Cricket Club First-Class Records, 1863-1996, Limlow Books, 1997, p 11.