Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

Introduction When the editor of this series asked me if I would write a biography of Frank Sugg I was at first reluctant to do so. All my publications to that date had been on Yorkshire cricket and Yorkshire cricketers and I thought that I should stick to that territory. However, although Frank Sugg made his cricket reputation with Lancashire, he did spend his formative and early sporting years in Sheffield and his first appearance in first-class cricket was for Yorkshire. He also played football for Sheffield Wednesday, the team I have supported since a boy. I also recalled that there was a Sugg sports business, indeed that my father had bought my first cricket bat, a Sugg bat, at the Sugg shop in Sheffield soon after the war. So there were Yorkshire and personal connections. My interest was aroused and I agreed to the request. I soon found that there was more to Frank Sugg’s life than I had realised and furthermore that the facts on certain aspects of his life were difficult to establish with any certainty. For a long time I felt that, unless I could resolve these uncertainties, there was little point in trying to write about his life. Frank Sugg’s cricket career is well enough documented after all. It is a man’s life outside cricket that adds to the interest of the books in the Lives in Cricket series. In the end, however, I concluded that, even if I had to leave some gaps, the story of Frank Sugg’s life and career is one that is interesting enough to be included in the series. I hope the reader of the book will agree. Redbourn, Hertfordshire April 2011 5