Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

Wednesday, Derby County, Burnley and Bolton.’ 42 Other publications reported in similar fashion. The obituary of Frank in Wisden included the following: ‘Frank Sugg was equally good at Association football and he gained fame with Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Burnley and Bolton Wanderers, being captain of the first three teams.’ 43 There is no doubt that Frank Sugg played for these football clubs but the statements quoted may lead one to conclude that Frank was a more important player for these clubs than was actually the case. Not surprisingly, the first club to come knocking on the Suggs’ door was Sheffield Wednesday. In 1883 Frank had played for Pyebank, a local side based in the Pitsmoor district of Sheffield, against Wednesday in the final of the Wharncliffe Charity Cup. Wednesday were impressed by Sugg’s performance and he subsequently appeared for them during the 1883/84 season. 44 It has not proved possible to establish how many games Frank Sugg played for Sheffield Wednesday and at what level. Documentary evidence on appearances before the formation of the Football League is hard to come by and is not always reliable. For example, there can be differences in how sources interpret ‘played for’ a particular football club: some might include appearances in any match for a club, others only appearances in designated major competitions. Sheffield Wednesday’s own archives list all players who have appeared for the first team in a competitive match: Frank Sugg does not appear in the list. The club suggested to the writer that Sugg might have played for the reserve or A team. Wednesday’s Trevor Braithwaite put it this way: ‘While I can confidently say that Frank didn’t play for our first team, I couldn’t tell you definitively that he was or he wasn’t on the books of Sheffield Wednesday.’ 45 Certainly there is no evidence that Frank Sugg was ever captain of Sheffield Wednesday. Frank Sugg’s move to a position with Derbyshire County Cricket Club in the summer of 1884 coincided with the establishment of Derby County Football Club as an offshoot of the cricket club. (It was hoped that football matches on the county ground would help 44 Frank Sugg the Footballer 42 Brian Bearshaw, From The Stretford End, the Official History of Lancashire CCC , Partridge Press, 1990, p 110. 43 Wisden, 1934. 44 R.A.Sparling, The Romance of the Wednesday (Facsimile Edition), Desert Island Books, 1997, p 53. 45 Email, 5 January 2009. See also Tony Matthews, The Men Who Made Sheffield Wednesday FC , Stadia Books, 2007. This lists all Sheffield Wednesday players between 1880 and 2007. Frank Sugg does not appear.