Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

side’s bowling strength and be replaced by a batsman. According to the usually well-informed Cricket , ‘had time allowed, in all probability, Sugg would, we understand, have been played but Mr T.C.O’Brien, being available and on the spot was utilised to fill Attewell’s place.’ 58 Cricket does not say how Attewell reacted to his last-minute rejection. Nor does the magazine’s writer comment further on his insight into the possible selection of Frank Sugg. It would certainly have come as a surprise to most cricket followers. The Australians had started their tour in fine style with five successive wins before being defeated by Lancashire at Old Trafford, one of the matches which Frank Sugg had to miss, when, needing only 90 to win in their second innings, the visitors were bowled out for 66 with Briggs taking five for 15 and the Rev J.R.Napier, on his debut, four for 18. Later in the season the cleric was to take four for 0 against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane and he appeared to be the answer to Lancashire’s prayer for a new fast bowler, but these were to be the only first-class matches in which he played. By the time of the First Test the Australians had played 20 matches (again quite extraordinary to a contemporary observer), won 13, drawn three and lost four. They had lost the services of S.P.Jones who had fallen seriously ill early in the tour and who played little further part in it. The Australians won a low-scoring match played on another damp and difficult wicket by 61 runs, with Turner and Ferris, as so often on the tour, the match winners, taking eighteen of the England wickets between them. This was only the second victory of an Australian side in England, the other being the victory at The Oval in 1882 which led to the famous mock obituary in The Sporting Times and thereby to the birth of The Ashes. England’s defeat in 1888 was not marked so dramatically but was a considerable shock nevertheless. Immediately before the First Test, Frank Sugg played at The Oval in the second of the season’s Gentlemen v Players matches. It was the most significant representative match in which he had appeared so far in his career, for the fixtures were the most prestigious after Test matches. The match was something of a farce however, being practically finished in a single day. Rain prevented any play on the first day. On the second day, the strong Players side scored 176, of which Sugg, batting at number six and playing ‘good cricket’, made 28, the second top-score to Johnny Briggs’ 29, and then dismissed Early Seasons with Lancashire 53 58 Cricket , 19 July 1888.