Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

opposition, Frank Sugg’s second century of the season was a timely indication of his qualities. A second match against lesser opposition was more painful for Frank. In late August Lancashire visited Derby to take on the county side in a two-day match, Derbyshire no longer being a first-class county. It was Frank’s first visit to the County Ground since he had left the club. Frank’s brother Walter scored 48 in Derbyshire’s first innings of 171 and at the close of the first day Derbyshire had reduced Lancashire to 103 for seven. Frank, who was booed as he went out to bat, scored only five. After overnight rain, the match swung Lancashire’s way when, after reaching 139 in their first innings, they dismissed Derbyshire for only 56, leaving Lancashire needing only 88 to win. The crowd took noisy exception during Derbyshire’s innings to some of the umpires’ decisions and when Frank went out to join his captain, A.N.Hornby, in the second innings at the fall of Lancashire’s first wicket, the noise reached such a pitch that Hornby left the field and threatened to abandon the match. The cricket columnist of The Derbyshire Times , while not condoning the crowd’s behaviour, commented: ‘It was ridiculous to suppose that Frank Sugg’s appearance in Derby would create anything but a scene. The circumstances under which he deserted Derbyshire, Mr Hornby’s own share in the transaction, and Sugg’s peculiar relations with certain Derby people, all these are matters of notoriety in Derbyshire, if not in Lancashire, and, rightly or wrongly a strong feeling of resentment prevails.’ 59 In his own (later) comment on the incident, Frank said he urged Hornby to continue with the game as the crowd could not understand his reasons for quitting his home county. Frank continued: ‘The first ball after this, I made a very big hit. The ball dropped on the roof of the pavilion and broke a couple of tiles. At this, the crowd, who were really good sportsmen, cheered as vigorously as they had hooted before and after this it was alright.’ 60 The crowd may well have cheered the hit, but Frank was not naïve enough to suppose that a good rapport with the crowd had been restored by one big hit. They did cheer when he was out for 15, bowled by John Hulme, Derbyshire’s left-arm fast-medium bowler, as he had been in the first innings, but Lancashire proceeded smoothly enough to a four-wicket victory. While Derbyshire might well have felt that Hornby had overreacted Early Seasons with Lancashire 56 59 The Derbyshire Times , 25 August 1888. 60 Cricket , 23 April 1896.