Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

seemed to have little chance of being selected for representative matches. In his three seasons with Derbyshire, Frank Sugg had appeared in every first-class match played by the county. He would have been aware that comparisons with the leading players of the day were unfavourable but envious of the amount of first-class cricket they were able to play in the course of a season compared with Derbyshire’s players. Twelve players scored 1,000 runs or more in the 1886 season; W.G.Grace, not surprisingly, was top of the list with 1,846 runs in 33 matches. And if his cricket was stagnating, then so was Frank Sugg’s earning potential. Frank had become a professional cricketer not just out of love for the game but also to make some money. After the close of the 1886 season things came to a head between Frank Sugg and Derbyshire. Frank was engaged for another season in 1887 as Burnley’s cricket professional and during the preceding winter he chose to play football for Burnley rather than Derby County, a choice which naturally rankled with the county 40 Playing for Yorkshire and Derbyshire The Derbyshire side of 1886. Standing (l to r): F.H.Sugg, W.Cropper, E.Coupe, W.Chatterton. Seated: G.G.Walker, A.H.J.Cochrane, E.A.J.Maynard (capt), L.C.Docker, W.S.Eadie. On the ground: J.J.Disney (wk), G.A.Davidson. The county won one of its eleven first-class matches in this season and lost nine.