Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

behind W.G.’s 38. There was no criticism of Sugg’s batting this time: He ‘showed really good cricket’ in the words of one report. Turner bowled throughout the innings and finished with five for 86 off 59 four-ball overs, another example of his remarkable stamina and at the end of a very long season. In increasingly difficult conditions for batting, Australia were dismissed for 81 and 70, leaving England successful by an innings and 21 runs by lunch time on the second day – when thousands were apparently still streaming to the ground in anticipation of some good cricket. (15,549 spectators paid to watch the one and a bit days’ play.) In Australia’s first innings Bobby Peel had figures of seven for 31 and he followed this up with another four wickets in the second innings when no fewer than six Australian batsmen failed to score. England therefore took the series and, hypothetically, the Ashes, by two matches to one. The Australians’ tour was not over after this final Test match. They had a further six fixtures to fulfil, beginning with a match at Harrogate against ‘An England XI’, followed by one match at each of the Scarborough and Hastings cricket festivals, two matches against teams representing Arthur Shrewsbury’s side that had toured Australia the previous winter, and then a final and third fixture against Surrey at Kennington Oval. One can imagine how hard it must have been for the tourists to raise enthusiasm for these matches. Frank Sugg was involved only in the match at Harrogate. The England side included several leading players but also two local cricketers. Heavy rain once again delayed the start of the match and the Australians found batting difficult against Briggs and Attewell and were all out for 70. Sugg, opening the innings with his Lancashire teammate Barlow, was clean bowled by Charles Turner for a duck and the England XI could only muster 111. After the Australians had struggled to 168 in their second innings, Turner and Ferris shared nine wickets between them in bowling the Englishmen out for a mere 71, giving the tourists a well-earned victory by 56 runs. Sugg top scored with 18 in this innings ‘by good hitting’. Frank Sugg’s season finally came to a close at Hastings in the North v South match. Two evenly matched sides made good use of an excellent wicket, the South winning by 47 runs with only four minutes play remaining. 881 runs were scored in the three days, a high-scoring match compared to most in the 1888 season. Frank Sugg scored eight and 28 in his two innings. His performance was a 60 Early Seasons with Lancashire