Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

variety of other sides, notably his local side Southport Central, later to become Southport Football Club. After leaving Everton he was still young, fit and keen enough to continue to play for various club sides in local leagues for a number of further seasons. He also assisted, off the field, in various capacities. Thus, in a history of the Southport club, we read that on 3 March 1891, when Southport visited Bootle to play an inaugural match under floodlights, the lights ‘were under the managership of Central defender Frank Sugg, a former Everton and Derby County footballer and a County Cricketer.’ 51 We can be sure that Frank would have given one hundred per cent on behalf of any club of which he was a member, whether off the field or on it. As a player, his commitment was never in doubt. His height and strength made him a formidable opponent. One contemporary match report confirms that Frank Sugg was not one to hold back when tempers flared. In a match between Notts County and Everton in November 1888, ‘one or two of the Everton team played very hard on their opponents, and hoots and groans were frequent during the match.’ When the players left the field, spectators rushed to attack the Everton players, one of whom was felled by a blow from a heavy stick. Sugg waded into the melée and grasped the assailant but he wriggled free before the attending policemen could get to the scene. 52 Frank’s involvement with several of the leading football clubs of his day added to his stature as a professional sportsman and would have been of considerable commercial value to the sports business he had founded (with his brother) in 1888, if only for publicity and advertising purposes. In its beginning, the business concentrated on cricket equipment and clothing, but, as we shall see in a later chapter, it soon branched out into the requisites of other sports, including football. The Sugg brand became widely known, and the Sugg products were endorsed by leading sportsmen of the day. Just as in the early days of the business when Frank made use of his acquaintances in the world of cricket, later he drew on his contacts in football. For example, after the First World War, when his business was in difficulties, he persuaded Mr R.Clayton, the chairman of Everton Football Club, to take on its chairmanship. Frank Sugg the Footballer 47 51 From Geoff Wilde’s History of Southport FC, at www.southportfootballclub.co.uk/home/summary.php/season 52 Sporting Chronicle , 19 November 1888.