Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

In the 1885 season Derbyshire again had ten fixtures in the County Championship, but with Hampshire taking the place of Sussex. Frank Sugg played in all ten matches, his only first-class appearances in the season. Derbyshire had more success than in the previous season defeating Lancashire in the match at Old Trafford early in the season and later beating Hampshire twice. Five matches were lost and two were drawn. Against Lancashire, Sugg scored 81 not out in Derbyshire’s second innings, then the highest score of his first-class career. (Lancashire avenged this defeat in the return fixture with a ten-wicket victory, notable for Johnny Briggs’ nine for 29 in Derbyshire’s second innings.) At Southampton, Derbyshire beat Hampshire by an innings and 343 runs. The pleasure from so impressive a victory, albeit against another of the weaker first-class counties, was increased for Frank by his own contribution. Batting at five, he scored 187, including a six, a five and 17 fours, out of 427 in Derbyshire’s innings, his first first-class century. In Nottinghamshire’s comprehensive victory over Derbyshire at Derby by an innings and 250 runs, Arthur Shrewsbury and W.Flowers both scoring centuries for the visitors in their total of 451, Frank Sugg was called upon to deliver six overs of his ‘insidious lobs’. He did not take a wicket but conceded only 14 runs, a not unreasonable outcome for so occasional a bowler. Frank Sugg could feel more pleased with his performances in 1885 than with those of his disappointing first season for Derbyshire. In his 19 innings he scored 462 runs at an average of 27.17 with a top score of 187. The problem was the frequency with which he was dismissed for a very low score. In seven of his 17 completed innings, he was out for five runs or less. This was to be a feature of his career that he tried to dismiss as an inevitable consequence of his aggressive approach to batting. But he would undoubtedly have been more successful had he been more prepared to knuckle down and build an innings before launching into an attacking mode. It was during the 1885 season that Frank took steps that were to undermine his relationship with the Derbyshire county club. The cause was Burnley, the centre of the Lancashire cotton-weaving industry, and at the time a thriving industrial town. As in other industrial towns in the late nineteenth century, interest in sport in Burnley, particularly cricket and football, was exploding. The Burnley Cricket Club had been formed in 1834 and was a major Playing for Yorkshire and Derbyshire 37